Haiku Death Match at Heritage Square on April 13, as part of the Northern Arizona Book Festival

The Sedona Poetry Slam and Northern Arizona Book Festival are co-hosting a head-to-head Haiku Death Match at Heritage Square on April 13, as part of the 2024 Northern Arizona Book Festival. The event features $600 in prizes: $300 for first, $200 for second, $100 for third place.

Haiku (俳句) is a form of Japanese poetry consisting of 17 syllables in three metrical phrases of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables.

Japanese haiku typically contain a kigo, or seasonal reference, and a kireji or verbal caesura. 

In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line, while haiku in English usually appear in three lines (5-7-5 syllables), to parallel the three metrical phrases of Japanese haiku.

A Haiku Death Match is a competitive poetry duel that is a subgenre of poetry slam. The Haiku Death Match is a prominent feature at the annual National Poetry Slam, replete with full costume for the host.

Slam haiku used in a Haiku Death Match is far simpler than traditional Japanese style haiku: The kigo and kireji can be omitted.

Slam haiku are simply three or fewer lines of exactly 17 syllables, no more, no less. Slam haiku can be anything from a single 17-syllable sing line or simply 17 words.

"Old Pond’’ by Matsuo Bashō [1644-1694] — a haiga in his own handwriting

Matsuo Bashō [1644-1694], born Matsuo Kinsaku, later known as Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. Bashō's most famous haiku:

古池や 

蛙飛び込む 

水の音

koike ya

kaeru tobikomu

mizu no on

Translated by Robert Hass as

Old pond…

a frog jumps in

water’s sound

やがて死ぬ

けしきは見え

ず蝉の声

yagate shinu 

keshiki wa miezu 

semi no koe

Translated by David G. Lanoue as:

The cry of the cicada

Gives us no sign

That presently it will die.

A standard Haiku Death Match is conducted thus:

⏹The host randomly draws the names of two poets, known as haikusters, from the pool of competitors.

⏹The haikusters adorn headbands of two colors: Red and Not-Red (white).

⏹Red Haikuster and Not-Red Haikuster bow to each other to demostrate they are friendly and that a Haiku Death Match is ultimately a silly thing.

⏹Red Haikuster goes first.

⏹The Red Haikuster reads his or her haiku twice. The audience does not clap or make noise (usually, though, they laugh or vocalize, but, of course, we must pretend that this is completely unacceptable).

⏹The Not-Red Haikuster reads his or her haiku twice. Again, the audience does not clap or make noise.

⏹The host waits for the three judges to make their choice for winner, then signals them to hold aloft their Red or Not-Red flag.

⏹Simple majority (3-0 or 2-1) determines the winner.

⏹The host asks the audience to demonstrate “the sound of one hand clapping,” i.e., silence, then “the sound of two hands clapping,” at which point they can finally applaud. The mock ceremony involving the audience is half the fun.

⏹The winning haikuster of that round then goes first.

Depending on the round, the winner will be best 3 of 5, 4 of 7, best 5 of 9, etc., of a number determined beforehand for each round.

After the duel, Red Haikuster and Not-Red Haikuster bow to each other and shake hands. The next duel begins.

Haiku by Matsuo Bashō:
"Quietly, quietly,
yellow mountain roses fall –
sound of the rapids"

Rules for the Haiku Death Match:

⏹Register: E-mail at foxthepoet@yahoo.com

⏹Participation: Anyone can compete.

⏹No Titles: Haikusters shall not read the title of the haiku. Just the 17-syllable haiku itself.

⏹While some haiku are merely three lines, Death Match Haiku must be 17 syllables exactly.

⏹Haikusters shall read the haiku twice, first for initial recitation, the second time for proper digestion. 

⏹Originality: Poets must be the sole authors of the haiku they use in competition. Plagiarized or others' haiku are grounds for disqualification. We all love Matsuo Bashō, but he’s 300 years too dead to compete.

⏹Preparation: Poets can have haiku written beforehand or write them in their head while at the mic. As long as the haiku are 17 syllables, we don’t care how, when or from where the haiku originates. 

Poets can read from the page, book, journal, notepad, smartphone, etc. 

⏹Rounds: Will be determined by the number of haikusters who sign up to compete.

⏹Quantity of haiku needed: Depends on the number of rounds. 30 haiku will likely be enough for poets who push rounds to the last haiku needed and go all the rounds, but 20 haiku might be enough. 50 to 100 gives haikusters enough material to be flexible in competition. Most veteran haikusters have several hundred to compete with.

If you run out of pre-written haiku, you can make them up on the mic and count on your fingers; that's perfectly fine.

⏹Adult themes and language. Remember that this is a live event and content of haiku will not be known ahead of time, but the event takes place at Heritage Square at a family friendly event. Please respect the audience, There may be children present so you may have to deal with their parents afterward. 

⏹Judges: Three random people at the event will be selected as the judges. Using the "fluid rule," the judges cannot share bodily fluids with any of the haikusters (i.e., no parents, siblings, blood relatives, children, spouses or lovers) and hope that the judges are not related and the event is fair. We will ask the haikusters before the Death Match if that rule applies to any judges before the event begins.

⏹Draw: We will pull two names from a hat containing the names of the competitors before each duel. If your name is drawn, you must haiku in that duel.

⏹Third Place: When we get to the final four haikusters, the top two will advance. The two defeated haikusters will then compete for third place, and the $100 prize, before the top two haikusters compete for first place ($300) and second place ($200).

This sheet of kaishi writing paper is inscribed with verse by Japan’s most famous haiku poet, Matsuo Bashō, and one of his pupils in the teacher’s own handwriting. When this work was first publically displayed at Seattle Asian Art Museum in 2015, it created a small sensation among literary specialists in Japan because not only were the Bashō poems recorded here previously unknown, the work must date to relatively early in his career as a poet, before he turned 40. In the West, it would be the equivalent of discovering a manuscript with previously unpublished poems by (Bashō’s contemporary) John Milton in his own hand. At the time of the discovery, the Bashō expert professor Tamaki Tsukasa stated that the handwriting, seal, and signature could also be authenticated as genuine.
Credit: Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2018, The Met

What’s the Best Strategy to Win a Haiku Death Match?

⏹A winning haikuster is flexible.

⏹If your opponent reads a serious or deep haiku, read one that is more serious or more profound, or go on the opposite tack and read something funny.

⏹If your opponent reads a funny haiku, read one that is funnier, or go on the opposite tack and read something serious or deep.

⏹If your opponent makes fun of you, make fun of yourself even bigger or make fun of them. A good head-to-head haiku can work wonders and often wins a Haiku duel. 

⏹If you’re on stage and you get an idea for a haiku, feel free to write it down immediately. That might be the next round’s haiku that wins you the duel.

⏹Have a good time. Even if don't get past the first round, it's still a great time for all.

⏹You get to read the haiku twice, so let that play into how you read it. You may want to read it verbatim with the same inflection or intonation, or you may want to emphasize a different portion of the haiku the second time. You may also use the repetition to your advantage and write a haiku about repeating yourself.

Poet Matsuo Bashō meets two farmers celebrating the mid-autumn moon festival in an 1891 print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi from "Hundred Aspects of the Moon." The haiku reads:
“Since the crescent moon,
I have been waiting
for tonight.”

The Robert Spiess Memorial 2012 Haiku Awards

nautical chart

I touch the depth

of my mother’s ashes

— Scott Mason, First Prize

slave quarters ...

the shapes of their shadows

in this dust

— Duro Jaiye, Second Prize

shades of blue ...

the deer’s remaining eye

cradled by bone

— Susan Constable, Third Prize

winter dusk

my grief released

from the crow’s throat

— Margaret Chula, Honorable Mention

formation of geese —

a log opens

to the woodsman’s maul

— Michele L. Harvey, Honorable Mention

I seem to be

an intermittent shadow . . .

summer clouds

— Kirsty Karkow, Honorable Mention