The contest is now closed. You can see results HERE. Thanks to all who participated!
Have you ever been in a town where walking, biking, or public transit is a viable way to get around on a regular basis? Do you miss that freedom?
Have you ever gone a day, week, month, or year without driving a car, but were still able to get around?
Does it strike you as silly that the Triangle doesn’t yet have a commuter rail system?
The Village Project promotes and celebrates transportation options because we believe that a society where the use of the personal car is optional is a more equitable and a more sustainable society.
To celebrate Car Free Day, we want to hear about your experiences with cars and their ills or your thoughts on ways to go car-lite. But, we want it in a haiku! (A haiku is a poem with 3 lines, where the first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7, and the third line has 5 again.)
Entering is easy! Here’s what to do:
- Write as many haikus as you like!
- If you haven’t already, register on the blog (so we can find you if you win!)
- “Leave a Comment” to this post with your haiku(s) BY SEPTEMBER 22nd. Please submit only one haiku per comment.
We will have several categories for the competition and really, any haiku goes! But to get your poetic juices flowing, you could compose a haiku about traffic frustrations, the fun of biking, the freedom and peacefulness of walking, or your other favorite non-car way of getting around (scooting, rollerblading, whatever!). The categories for the Haiku Contest are:
- Best overall
- Most humorous
- Most persuasive
- Best rant
- Most inspirational
- Best use of the senses
There are many great prizes (e.g., a bike helmet, a restaurant gift certificate, and a bike from the Recyclery!). The grand prize will go to the author of the winning submission, which will be included in press releases about the event. The judges for this contest are influential members of the community: Jay Bryan, Carrboro Poet Laureate; Ruby Sinreich, Creator and moderator of Orange Politics; Kirk Ross, longtime newspaper reporter, columnist and editor; and Jean Earnhardt, Longtime community activist & conservationist.
This Haiku Contest is hosted by The Village Project to promote International Car Free Day. International Car Free Day is an “annual celebration of cities and public life, free from the noise, stress and pollution of cars” that is observed on September 22nd.
To learn more about the competition, check out the Haiku Contest Rules.
To submit your haiku, leave a comment to this post.
Prizes courtesy of The Recyclery, Chapel Hill Restaurant Group, The Village Project, and Weaver Street Market. THANKS!
Strange sound under hood
checking or ignoring it
disaster lurking
Driving not freedom
it makes more obligations
more places to go
Check engine light on
oh now the thing is stopping
cancelled triple A
just when I’ve learned to
read maps online I have to
buy a GPS
no gas, no repairs
meets me at my driveway
how I love the bus
Mad football traffic
go straight to mall park lot
and use the shuttle
While riding on bus
take out pencil and paper
and create haiku
Riders pay no fare
drivers don’t collect any
Ok, taxes pay
If you miss the bus
just wait and take the next one
there are plenty more
Traffic jam again.
Sitting here in glass and steel.
Oh, to be on foot!
Why is the bus blue,
out-of-town children asking?
cerulean sky
Fading winter light –
Slush is all the drivers see;
Walking, I see snow.
Beware bus passing,
hold on tighter to that hat.
Swoop–wind lifts chapeau
No roar. No mad chase.
No foul fumes. No blinding glare.
No rude horns. No cars!
Live in Chapel Hill;
bragging about free busses;
saves so much trouble
Riders who aren’t old
please observe the seating signs
respect your elders
Buses are like the
ketchup bottle, none will come
and then a lott’ll
—apologies to Ogden Nash
My bike was stolen
Probably by teenagers
I still miss it lots
feel the autumn rush
leave the car in the driveway
and commute by bike
One season for each individual. Each season begins and ends here. Be in sync with the Earth. Tread softly as did this land’s first born.
NATIVE:
BORN INDIGENOUS
ROOT ORIGINS FORGOTTEN
NATIVE DUST TO DUST
This Haiku was developed and inlaid into the base of a sculpture of the NATIVE out of concrete and local cedar – pics available
Yeah I used to ride
Less than one mile freed me
From car slavery
Now I fear riding
Narrow curvy Millhouse Road
Two miles from work
I may ride again
I hear its good therapy
For knee replacements
A hill slanted down
Wind blows, happiness is found,
Me, my bike, this town.
A four-doored prison.
Traffic, smog, gas costs killing,
Cars are but villains.
Wheels spin; spokes tattle,
“Clickity-clickity-clack:”
Kings ride on saddles.
Off to school on foot
Hand in hand in love we walk
Step by step my child
Ant hill in our path
Thousands of tiny feet marching
They journey with us
Crisp air in our face
Fall leaves cascade from above
We skip in delight
Quickly the car stops.
My rims are wet, I can’t stop.
Faceplant – trunk, awkward.
Stand up and go fast,
But to look cool when you pass,
Sit down right before.
Dodge Ram driving fast
Eighty-Five dollars in gas
I need a new bike
traffic ten miles long
would have been faster to bike
now I’m late to work
walking takes too long
driving is killing the earth
biking is just right
Charlotte has light rail
To take them to work each day.
If there, why not here?
Two wheels on the road,
Not four or eighteen. Bikes have
Two wheels on the road.
Two wheels on the road.
No horn to honk at you, just
Two wheels on the road.
feet walk to first grade
rest quietly at my desk
left right left right home
Two wheels on the road
Mustang speeds around the curve
Two wheels on the road
(apologies to bbouma)
By Basho’s old pond,
four lanes of asphalt now run.
A frog jumps out. Splat!
For “ckbutler”
Lamplight on silver
beckons me hither to drive
forte or to walk.
For “ckbutler”
Hands clasped tight, walking
dad, child, momentum building
first day school fever.
G. Giles:
Which direction leads?
What brings one to harmony?
Hear, look, touch, taste- think
Don’t fill the gas tank
Avoid the rush hour cars
Steer with handlebars
put a padlock on
the door of the car to keep
myself from driving
biking past the school
early morning: marching band
trumpets through kudzu
if you’re in a car
it can be hard to recall
how fast bikes can go
dear car,
this lane is my lane
it is also your lane but
not if I’m here first
love,
bike
bike bike bike bike bike!
I’m a superstar and it’s
only 8 a.m.
bikes are nice, but trains
are faster. walking’s okay,
but cars? disaster.