Judge's Remarks:

The image of a nail without a painting generates a melancholy feeling. We may wonder if someone is moving to a new home, having just taken down a painting. But the first word tells us that the person is wintering, hunkering down for the cold season. So perhaps they are spending time on indoor tasks, such as replacing artwork on a wall. But we don't really know, and not knowing gives us space to engage with this poem, to speculate on possible feelings and meanings. Another possibility is that the nail has just been added to the wall, awaiting its first painting, and for the moment we are experiencing an in-between pause. What do you feel when you receive this poem?

Judge's Remarks:

The joy of a first kiss finds an echo in the delight of fireflies. We all know the feeling of having butterflies in your stomach, but how about fireflies? This kiss is at night, and even the fireflies seem to celebrate young love. This poem may seem deceptively simple, but it carries much pleasure, tied to a vivid seasonal reference.

Judge's Remarks:

This enigmatic one-line haiku mirrors the one-line vertical presentation of haiku in Japanese. Daytime moons are typically faint and do indeed ask for nothing, but this poem is about its accompanying silence. Nature silently asks us for nothing, but we can still choose to admire and respect all the beauty around us, even when it's faint.

Judge's Remarks:

Many different trees blossom in the spring. In this poem, the poet is aware of mixing up cherry and apple trees. Perhaps they are so enamored by any kind of blossoms that they don't realize that they are seeing apples rather than cherries. And yet now they know, and the joy of blossoms is tempered with a bit of learning and self-consciousness.

Judge's Remarks:

At the moment of someone receiving last rites, the wind blows through the trees. It seems fortuitous or perhaps foreboding. The rush of that wind matches a rush of feeling that accompanies the ritual of last rites. 

Judge's Remarks:

As nightfall darkens the shore, perhaps fishermen are returning to the harbor, their voices preceding them as their boats get closer. But are these fishermen in boats? Perhaps they're by a lake, fishing from shore, and maybe it's easier to hear them as the day's light wanes. Either way, it seems that they've had a fulfilling day.

Judge's Remarks:

​This is indeed a moving day. Youthfulness seems to be left behind with that tree house, where many childhood memories were formed. Will a new child discover the tree house and take over the command of that toy soldier?

Judge's Remarks:

Perhaps autumn rains threaten to wash away these hopscotch lines. The girl wants to continue playing, so she thickens the lines in the hope of delaying the inevitable passing of the season, perhaps also hoping to stave off growing older.

Judge's Remarks:

Spring is a good time for a haircut. Just as cut hair gathers on the barbershop floor, the seasonal change of cherry blossoms happens outside. Surely the blossoms are gathering on the grass around the trees, and perhaps the person receiving the haircut is entering a new season too.