Heartland Haiku: I Home

This year, our Heartland Haiku competition is all about what you love most about where you live and play. It’s all about what makes Singapore tick deep down inside, at its very heart.And it will show you just how simple and enjoyable poetry can be.

It’s also an opportunity to win wonderful prizes: for the student with the best entry, for the class with the most number of entries, and for the teacher whose students have submitted the most number of entries!

In all, S$3,000 worth of prizes including Kinokuniya vouchers and Caran d’Ache writing instruments and fine arts products are up for grabs!

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Haiku (a type of traditional Japanese poetry) use simple, everyday words and descriptions to juxtapose two images or ideas to convey a wider and deeper meaning. The traditional haiku form consists of a three-line poem with 17 syllables. The first line has 5 syllables, the second 7, and the third line has 5.

What to do.

Write an original haiku in 3 lines, 5 syllables for the first line, 7 syllables for the second line, 5 syllables for the third line (please refer to the examples).

Submit your haikus here between 3 January and 10 February 2012.

Come back between 17 February and 24 February 2012 to see which of the entries have been shortlisted by our judges, then vote for your favourites. Each voter is allowed to vote only once for each haiku.

Drop by on 3 March 2012 to find out who the winners are!

Example1

This vast concrete block (5 syllables)
Keeps us out of the rain but (7 syllables)
Leaves clothes out to dry. (5 syllables)

Example2

The Dragon Playground:
The children who once loved him
Are all old men now.