After carefully reviewing 152 entries to the Haiku Contest for International Car Free Day, the judges have spoken!
Below are the winners and their haikus in each of the six categories. In the Best Overall category Rob Kark is the winner and will receive a bicycle provided by the Recyclery. Category winners are, for Most Humorous: Rachel Hirsh; Most Persuasive: jjhaiku; Best Rant: Emily Buehler; Most Inspirational: Sherry Corbett; and Most Sensory: Kit FitzSimmons. They will receive $25 gift cards provided by Weaver Street Market and the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group.
Our sincere thanks to all of the participants for providing enjoyment to readers by submitting poems and to the judges for in this year’s Car Free Day Haiku contest: Jay Bryan, Ruby Sinreich, Kirk Ross, and Jean Earnhardt. We hope you had as much fun as we did!
Best Overall
By Basho’s old pond,
four lanes of asphalt now run.
A frog jumps out. Splat!
- By Rob Kark
Most Humorous
“You god dang hippies”
Old man scoffs at gas station
Shells out eighty bucks.
- By Rachel Hirsh
Most Persuasive
Fading winter light –
Slush is all the drivers see;
Walking, I see snow.
- By jjhaiku
Best Rant
Stop your vile honking!
I am making a left turn
From the left turn lane.
- By Emily Buehler
Most Inspirational
Off to school on foot
Hand in hand in love we walk
Step by step my child
- By Sherry Corbett
Best use of the senses
Cherry blossoms fall,
gluing themselves to windshields.
They want you to walk.
- By Kit FitzSimons
We also have some Honorable Mentions that received votes in multiple categories, but did not win outright in any specific category:
Our suburbia:
Where my car has seen your car
But I’ve not seen you.
- By Sandeep Bala
Cycling to a stop
my feet touch the earth briefly
but leave no carbon
- By Heidi Perov
Drunk with the earth’s tilt
red maples flush, flag you down:
Get out of the car.
- By Rebecca Bailey
Seen at the trailhead
Sweating runners left behind
Fourteen minivans
- By Lori Carswell
We would also like to thank our sponsors for providing the prizes for the contest:
The Haiku Contest was hosted by The Village Project to promote International Car Free Day on September 22nd. Since 2004, The Village Project has sponsored an event each year in support of International Car Free Day, which is an “annual celebration of cities and public life, free from the noise, stress and pollution of cars.”
