Beautiful Words

A compilation of the best poems from the

2018 English Haiku Contest

Impress Magazine

Isesaki Board of Education

Haiku Contest. As before, we want to thank all

the teachers, students, and schools that

participated. We also want to thank the Board of

Education of Isesaki for providing prizes.

which haiku to pick. We are disappointed that we

could not provide more prizes to more people.

Your poems were thoughtful, creative, and funny.

We enjoyed them very much.

A Few Words of Appreciation

This is the second year we held the English

Haiku Contest. As before, we want to thank all

the teachers, students, and schools that

participated. We also want to thank the Board of

Education of Isesaki for providing prizes.

As with last year, it was difficult to decide

which haiku to pick. We are disappointed that we

could not provide more prizes to more people.

Your poems were thoughtful, creative, and funny.

We enjoyed them very much.

Thank you for everything.

- the Impress Team

P. 2

Elementary School Group

A snow-white winter

A fluffy floating present

From the winter sky

Koto Fujii

1st Place

P. 6

Summer night

In the quiet sky

Flowers bloom

Haruna Yoshida

2nd Place

P. 8

Sunflowers

Under the blue sky

Beautiful

Nene Aoki

3rd Place

P. 10

Heaven's river

In the dark night sky

A bright road

Mai Konisho

4th Place

My summer

It's my own ocean

I'm alone

Ryoma Motoki

5th Place

Nighttime fireworks

BBQ at my friend's house

A fun festival

Zen Mitsumori

6th Place

On the way to school

Beautiful gingko

We saw them

Rino Takayanagi

7th Place

P. 12

Junior High School Group

In the autumn wind

Colorful trees are around

Fall down while dancing

Riri Nakazato

1st Place

P. 16

Mothers have two faces

They are sweet and kind outside

But scary at home

Ayumi Sekiguchi

2nd Place

P. 18

My name is Toru

But my teachers call me Tom

I can’t write my name

Toru Hagiwara

3rd Place

But my teachers call me Tom

P. 20

I often drink milk

All morning with all my heart

But I am not tall

Yayoi Osagawa

4th Place

Guitar’s voice and tone

I say my dreams and feelings

With only six strings

Nozomi Koizumi

5th Place

Going up the mountain

Invites our smiles

Colored maple leaves in the winter

Kokomi Chiba

6th Place

Ice cream is

Very delicious

I like it

Masutoshi Watanabe

7th Place

P. 22

Teacher Group

My favorite things

Chocolate, pink, English

Especially you

Yoshiko Araki

1st Place

P. 26

The End

Statistics and Information

Number of Participants

Elementary School Students: 104

Junior High School Students: 21

Teachers: 1

Total: 127 Participants

Statistics and Information

Submissions by School

Miyago Elementary School 104

Sakai Higashi ES 1

Dai 2 Junior High School 2

Sakai Nishi JHS 12

Uehasu JHS 7

Total: 5 Schools

P. 30

Statistics and Information

Voting Process

Round 1:

Pre-Selection by Impress Staff

Round 2:

General Voting

Judges

Wakana Nakajima, Toni Kobayashi, George Liu

Max Castillo, Ryan Ballantine, David Friedberg

Statistics and Information

Prize Winners

Elementary School Students: 7

Junior High School Students: 7

Teachers: 1

This year, only the prize-winning haiku are

featured in this book.

P. 32

Image Credits

All images used in this book are licensed as Creative Commons 0,

Public Domain: free to use without attribution for any purpose.

Cover Poem, Nathan Anderson [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/Ih2kgjkekQk

P. 3 Map, JESHOOTS.COM [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/LKREcvZeoJQ

P. 5 Falling Snow, Tony Ross [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/LgZxmhKEmmo

P. 7 Fireworks, Spenser Sembrat [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/qBfKWYDewMw

P. 9 Sunflower, Debby Hudson [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/QwXPI_Vts8g

P. 11 Stars, Jeremy Bishop [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/DLICfSD33as

P. 13 Books, Jason Leung [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/MisSelG2Xj4

P. 15 Fall Leaf, Gabby Orcutt [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/7E29j_4GBNI

Credits

Images have been altered through cropping, lighting changes, and

addition of one or more painting effects.

P. 17 Mother, Xavier Mouton Photographie [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/2D5sGnLDfYk

P. 19 Writing, Neven Krcmarek [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/HWbxSLvmSww

P. 19 Idea, Qimono [CC0], https://pixabay.com/en/idea-

world-pen-eraser-paper-1880978/

P. 21 Milk, Jagoda Kondratiuk [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/sDeGlMAwcH4

P. 21 School, Aaron Burden [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/6jYoil2GhVk

P. 23 Man, Victor Rodvang [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/a5T4TjDG6SM

P. 25 Chocolate, Maddi Bazzocco [CC0],

https://unsplash.com/photos/uthyJYMUkSA

We hope you enjoyed reading this book!

Thank you for all your hard work!

P.34