Honorable Mention: WHC Spring Kukai

stars at dusk
a spray of willow buds
by the gate
Carol Raisfeld, USA

Comments by Christopher Herold:

Coming to the gate at dusk the poet simultaneously notices the pale buds on the willow and the first pale stars above. Fences divide one place from another; a gate in a fence opens the way between those places. Without the fence and gate we may not notice a change from here to there but when we do encounter them we notice. In this poem, both dusk and the willow buds act as gates. To accentuate this sense, I'd be tempted to switch the first and third lines. Viewed as a gate, dusk is the time when we can observe the transition between day and night, when we notice the first few stars. Viewed as a gate, the buds on the willow can be seen as a transition from one season to the next, from dormancy to vitality--a time of opening. This poem has a Buson-like beauty about it.