Winning entries from the 2000 Jack Stamm competition

The Jack Stamm 2000 Haiku competition has been an outstanding success. We received 112 haiku from 33 entrants, and the judges - Jan Bostok, Jacqui Murray, Ross Clark and John Knight had a challenging and often contested task in sorting out the winners. (S'Okay, we're still friends, but it was very difficult to sort out between the finalists. I still think... but never mind!)

Our congratulations to:

John Bird
Vanessa Lara Proctor
Kilmeny Niland &
Fiona Johnston

- First Prize of $A100
- Second Prize of $A50
- Equal Third Prize of $A25

Commended: Jesse Glass, an'ya, Fiona Johnston, Mark Power and Rowan Donovan for their well-merited success.

First Prize

boat harbour
an old fisherman moored
by his handline
John Bird

Second Prize
bushfire season
from dry leaves
the crackle of lizards
Vanessa Lara Proctor

Equal Third Prize
half caught in a dish of stars
rising moon
Kilmeny Niland

Equal Third Prize

rowing me upstream -
the steady breathing
of wood through water
Fiona Johnston

Commended

winter rain
the blind boy
on the train
calls out the stations
Jesse Glass

day moon --
the odour of walnuts
on our breath
an'ya

overtaken, I ride
in the slip-stream
of your after-shave
Fiona Johnston

child chasing
nothings with butterfly net
catching them
Mark Power

sleeping cat
belly full of purrs
Rowan Donovan