NC State University Insect Museum

The following five haiku, in no particular order, earned honorable mention in this year’s Hexapod Haiku Challenge. We thank the poets for sharing their artistry and congratulate them on their works:

We had two honorable mention entries from the poets under 13 this year, which I present below (a bit late – sorry!) in no particular order. Congratulations!

(the above poem is about the Lord Howe Island stick insect, Dryococelus australis, which was recently rediscovered on Ball’s Pyramid; the judges appreciated the relevance of this poem and the contrast between large and small)

(the judges liked the freedom expressed in this poem; as a child you’re always told what to do, but insects have the freedom to do whatever they want!)

Judges’ Comments: We delighted in reading this whimsical plea, which captures the spirit of youthful conversation: insistent and awkwardly constructed, yet humorous. The request in line two (we can almost hear the *crunch* of that poor insect in some unsuspecting hand) is almost negated by the non sequitur in line three. Don’t squash that bug! In fact, don’t even catch it in the first place. The protagonist longs to share her knowledge of these offensive insects, and we are captivated by her enthusiasm and the promise of relevant advice.

Judges’ Comments: This short poem describes a scene – states a fact, really – with unfiltered honesty and precision, almost in defiance of the allegory typically demanded by adult literature. Its legitimacy, both of the protagonist’s thought process and of the crickets’ fate, was refreshing. Though the setting is ambiguous – did he buy crickets at the pet store to feed to his brother’s lizard? Is he listening to crickets in his yard and projecting on their fate? – we are comforted by his assurance that, indeed, these crickets will be silenced soon … The poet wades through multiple literary themes, in just three short lines: omniscient narrator, tragedy of life and death, the fate of the weak in the face of a predator. Despite the maturity of his words, though, we were reminded of our childhoods, when the world is filled, at once, with surety and imagination.

We congratulate the poet on penning this extraordinary piece and thank him for sharing it.