2014 Kilbride Award Winners

The Jerry Kilbride Memorial English Language Haibun Contest is held in honor of one of the founding members of the Central Valley Haiku Club. Jerry not only was a founding member but he was also a mentor to many of us who were just discovering our haiku voices. Jerry's haiku were memorable but his strength was in his haibun. He had quite the flair for story telling and it showed in how he wove his words, texturing the prose of his haibun and juxtaposing the accompanying haiku. Since 2004, this contest has commemorated his memory and his enthusiasm for haibun. It is this spirit that we hold the contest in his honor.

- Yvonne Cabalona, President, Central Valley Haiku Club

FIRST PLACE

Renée Owen

Manna

Arriving in the midst of a torrential downpour, replete with lightning & the boom of distant thunder. At the flip of a switch inside the front door, a flash and the lights go on, then off. Drenched, in the dark, dragging a too-heavy suitcase, I grope for matches or a flashlight. After flight delays and the press of too many bodies in a small space, I collapse on the sagging hotel bed, ignore the three-inch cockroaches, the carpets drenched in chemical fragrance. Ahh, but what tomorrow may bring. A long drive in traffic. An attempt to talk over mother's silence. Over the oxygen machine and her gasping. Over aides and hospice nurses and meows from the cats she's allergic to. Yet, on her table, the tiniest of flowers bud in a vase. White petals opening like a sun. Like clouds. Like something sent from heaven, its scent divine.

every year
my dreams
smaller

SECOND PLACE

Terri L French

Out of the Hat

"First you make an x then you make the first bunny ear and take it under the x." I watch as she mimics what I am doing, the tip of her tongue poking out from the corner of her mouth. The girl next door is eight-years-old and I am only five, but she still hasn't learned to tie her shoes. The other kids call her a retard. "Pull the two bunny ears real tight," I say. She does and claps her hands together when she finishes. "I'm gonna go show mama," she says and runs off. I look down at my own dirty red sneakers. On my right shoe one of the ears is longer than the other.

super moon
all my inadequacies
brought to light

Note: The judges were w.f. owen and Leslie Rose. Information on next year's contest.