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EUI Haiku 2021: the poems

So many beautiful Haiku. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who sent us a poem (or more than one). We felt privileged to read them. Thank you.

All of the Haiku we received deserve to be shared, read, and enjoyed.

Below are Haiku written by the EUI community.

If you did not give us express permission to publish your name, wishing to remain out of the limelight, we have respected your wishes. If you wish to see your name included, contact [email protected].

Enjoy!!!

The competition is now over, but if you are inspired, and wish to send us a Haiku you have written, please do so, and we will include it below. We encourage you to write in any language you like, but if it is not English, please include a translation (which may or may not follow the rules of Haiku). 
 

The Year 2020

Oh festive phoenix

Pray thee bring joy this yuletide

As from ash you rise

Brian O'Connor

Hope this pandemic

Will make each academic

A better human

Jan Teresinski

Covid struck us all

but when it is gone will we

fight for real change?

Sven Mörsdorf

Mermaids and dolphins

Are now back to the Arno

Nature is healing

Sofia Borushkina

softness of cypress

rich colour of the mountains

returned, finally

Annika Lehmus-Sun

Smiles have been covered

With the fear of each other.

Yet hope hides in eyes.

Dominika Kulpinska

Color of laughter

Ages in silence—alone

Heartbeats fade like dust

Alvaro Pereira

by Duomo at dawn

three soldiers, heavily armed

all checking their phones

Paul McDonough

Lockdown - time to work!

Stand in line to buy some bread

Wind and rain sap strength

Philip Hanspach

Crystal of silence

once broke by the caress

now ending...in breeze

Cristina Blanco Sio-Lopez

Last year wasn’t dapper

i mean covid, but haikus

are about weather weather weather

Lennart Schulze

Daily Enthusiasms

in year twenty were few but

wine with friends was top

Jette Pedersen

my warm hand

I am scared

perfume and softness of your skin

Andrea Sacchettini

So long spent inside.

Like bulbs, the world will soon bloom;

Flowering as one.

Andrew Fallone

In COVID silence

whispering trees shush us still.

Finally, we listen.

Jackie Gordon

Laugh with your eyes

Gnashers and chops are extinct

Soul mirrors open

Alex Howarth

what if tomorrow

is, again, the same

as yesterday?

Victoria Garin

L'unico fiore

che ancora rimane,

il mio destino.

 

[The only flower

still remaining now,

is my destiny]

Annarita Zacchi

first day shops open

empty city not a queue

except McDonalds

Paul McDonough

has your beard gone white

new line across every face

corona suntan

Paul McDonough

My heart in lock down

Our kisses breathless, his love

Asymptomatic

Katarzyna Doniec

I feel lonelier

Than the Star of Bethlehem

Beyond and within

Katarzyna Doniec

Walls are my friends now,

they look at me for a while,

and seem to concur.

Roberto Larrañaga

Un anno nuovo,

Adriano esce in strada,

Mattia guarda.

 

[A new year,

Adriano goes out [to the street],

Mattia stares [at him].]

Roberto Larrañaga

Toutes les pages m'ennuient,

elles ne font que répéter-

la fenêtre m'appelle.

 

[All the pages bore me,

they only repeat themselves-

the window calls me.]

Roberto Larrañaga

La vida nueva,

los cantos de sirena,

terrible engaño.

 

[The new life,

the chants of the Sirens,

[a] dreadful trickery.]

Roberto Larrañaga

You wake up one night

Maybe you are going mad

Facing the unknown

Pauli Aro

An ambulance wails.

Our ears listen for silence

Quiet falls—again.

Jackie Gordon

We watch the window,

fogging glass with bated breath.

No one on the street.

Jackie Gordon

Cadaverating.

Not a word, but a pigeon

trapped like us. We saw.

Anonymous

A lonely bird's song,
Immersed into earth's vast lungs,
Reminding yūgen.


(Yūgen "幽玄" is said to mean "a profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe... and the sad beauty of human suffering")

Anonymous

 

Dripping from wet trees

A quiet harmony playing,

Once the storm passes.

Anonymous

From the distance, I

hear kids throw rocks at the lake.

The sound of laughter.

Anonymous

Brushed aside blessings:

Hearing birds sing peaceful tunes;

Sight of a warm smile.

Anonymous

Locked down here at home

One day runs into the next

For one year? Or more?

Anonymous

 

Are you infected?

Are you asymptomatic?

Keep your distance please

Anonymous

 

I heard ghost grasses

rustling in the COVID night.

Echoes from the plains

Jackie Gordon

 

hords of me’s and you’s

migrating to the wrong land

all the last year long

Anonymous

Light Blue Orange scent -

Memoir of a past sunset.

Whisper of the Sea.

Anonymous

Memoir of a year:

Wondering about the Sea:

Is it still Blue? Still?

Anonymous

 

 

Life in Italy

Silenzio e tempo, io.

Io ieri, oggi, ancora ieri,

Oggi. Ieri. Oggi Ancora ieri.

Domani, io sempre ancora io.

 

[Silence and time, I.

Me yesterday, today, still yesterday.

Today. Yesterday. Today Still yesterday.

Tomorrow, still I].

Leslie Hernandez Nova

I ponti,

metafore di vita:

sospesi, funzionali

 

[Bridges,

metaphors of life:

hanging, functioning]

Jashwanni Grewal

Dreaming light beyond

the suspended labyrinths

where windows are mirrors...

Cristina Blanco Sio-Lopez

Stroke of the master

brings the sunlight to its knees

I almost saw you

Katarzyna Doniec

La ciudad fuma

Me miras a los ojos

Y fumas tú

 

[The city smokes

You look me in the eyes

And smoke]

Victoria Garin

New Year’s Eve curfew

It’s ten and only the dog

Is happy to leave

Pauli Aro

Like leaves of a tree

Refusing their destiny

Beauty breathes all

Alvaro Pereira

 

With no cloud in the sky

My spirit soars with Leonardo's

At the top of Monte Ceceri

Anonymous

 

Love is connection

Mindfully and heartfully

Blissful! So, it is

Anonymous

The world beneath you

Imagine flying sky high

How is the feeling?

Anonymous

The space between us

Two places so far away

Yet our hearts are one

Anonymous

Smell of gingerbread

The warm embrace of the fire

Tree full of needles

Anonymous

Time stops for no one

It goes on yet we get spent

So, live in the now

Anonymous

Midnight with star light

The gaze of beautiful eyes

The warm bright campfire

Anonymous

la giardiniera

tortelli di patate

e osso buco

 

[The gardener

potato tortelli

and osso buco]

Anonymous

Bella l'Italia

è rossa, verde, bianca

cosa le manca?

 

[Pretty Italy

she is red green and white

what is left behind?]

Anonymous

 

Living by the Church -

How many Sundays in a year?

No rules for the bells.

Anonymous

Orange Christmas -

The color of Firenze.

Dreaming of Yellow.

Anonymous

When children ask me:

What is your favorite color?

For Florence: Yellow.

Anonymous

 

 

Pomodoro dreams

Trapped by viciously thin air

Painful fiasco cage

Alvaro Pereira

 

Your EUI experience

I put on my face,

Pajamas off and shirts on,

Zoom in and zoom out.

Enyuan He

The best of myself

You think you saw it all, right?

But it’s yet to come

Katarzyna Doniec

Anachronic life

Fainted clouds in a blue sky

Fiesole, bright light

Alvaro Pereira

The sun lingers now

Just enough for the birds to

Beckon through the dusk

Anonymous

 

 

 

Your research

Procrastination

Avoiding all my duties

Is what I am best at

Alejandro Salamanca Rodríguez

Keep calm, silly cow

Carry on, don’t jump the gun

Egg, larva, pupa...

Katarzyna Doniec

Inspiration lacks,

my pen does not seem to move,

time for a mild walk.

Roberto Larrañaga

Silent trickling stream

Relentless its lasting flow

Follow and you find

Maarja Saluste

 

Wohin treibt es sie

in ihrem Frühlingskleide?

Bleibe zuhause

 

[Where are you going?

She wears a beautiful spring kimono

Stay at home]

Anonymous

 

World affairs

 

Trump has been impeached.

I have just missed the deadline.

World versus work - sigh

Anonymous

Climate change is here.

We all know what we should do

But we don’t do it.

Anonymous

What? Where? When? Why? How?

Widespread uncertainty now

Thanks to a virus!

Anonymous

Like winds shifting paths,

Like the leaves changing colors,

We can be reborn.

Anonymous

 

 

Page last updated on 18 February 2021