First Place

laid to rest
her body sinking
into stone

Quendryth Young

This is an evocative haiku that struck me on the very first reading. The art of linking to an image works best if it is subtle and full of interconnections that are not immediately obvious. The mention of stone is there, but then the imagination is let loose and we wonder who, or what, the body is and how it can be sinking into stone. So many of the finest haiku take us to places we would not normally go and leave us to explore the depth of their impact. The effect is a very pleasing haiga where we can journey between the image and words and find little treasures of insight.