The Haiku Contest is hosted by The Village Project to promote International Car Free Day 2011. International Car Free Day is an “annual celebration of cities and public life, free from the noise, stress and pollution of cars.” International Car Free Day is September 22nd.
The Village Project is inviting guests to submit a Haiku on our blog. Prizes will be awarded for the best Haikus! To get your poetic juices flowing, compose a haiku about what it is like living in a place where there are multiple choices for getting from place to place. For example:
- Biking as a primary mode of transportation
- The joy of walking
- Why you don’t like driving
- Your other favorite non-car way of getting around (scooting, rollerblading, whatever!)
Why Car Free Day?
Without a doubt the automobile has had a huge role in the last 100+ years of human history. At the same time, however, there’s no question of the enormous impact our cars have had and continue to have on the planet, on water, air, and soil quality, on public health and safety, and on the fabric of the built environment. While most of us own cars and appreciate the convenience, many cannot afford a car or cannot use one because of age or disability. More and more of us have been working for the past decade or more to address the problems associated with cars and to reduce the need to have one. Car Free Day is an international event intended to raise public awareness of the issues and solutions.
How to enter
- 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 the post on the main blog page with your haiku (s)
What is 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
Prizes
Prizes will be awarded to the authors of the winning haikus. There are multiple categories for the Haiku Contest and there are many great prizes to win! The following prizes are provided by local businesses:
- Grand Prize is a bike from the Recyclery
- A $25 Gift Certificate from the Chapel Hill
Restaur
ant Group good at any of their restaurants - A bike helmet
- A gift card to Weaver Street Market
Prize Categories
The judges will be selecting winning Haikus for each of the following categories:
- Grand Prize/Best Haiku
- Most humorous
- Most persuasive
- Best rant
- Most inspirational
- Best use of the senses (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, taste)
Judges
The Village Project is pleased to have influential members of the community participate as judges in this competition. The judges for the Haiku Contest 2011 are:
- Jay Bryan – Carrboro Poet Laureate; former Town of Carrboro Alderman
- Ruby Sinreich – Creator and moderator of Orange Politics, transportation advocate
- Kirk Ross – Writer & musician; longtime newspaper reporter, columnist and editor
- Jean Earnhardt – Longtime community activist & conservationist; former Board Member of The Village Project
Rules and Procedures
- The competition will last from Sept 6, 2011 until Car Free Day on Sept 22, 2011.
- There is no limit to the number of haikus that one person can submit.
- A haiku cannot win in multiple categories, but an author can.
- The judges will select winners for each prize category.
- Winners will be announced on Monday September 26th on The Village Project Blog, “The Village Commons.”
- All submissions are property of The Village Project and are available for republication.
- While we appreciate the multi-lingual nature of the Triangle, the judge’s native language is English. Submissions must be received in English.
- Judges and Village Project board members are exempt from winning prizes or a prize category but may participate for fun!
Meter maids circle
Like bloodsucking mosquitoes
I sneer from the bus.
He can be so smug–
”I haven’t drove in a week!”
”Driven,” I tell him.