Haiku contest highlights global connections at VIU

Lily Banerjee is enrolled in post-graduate business studies at Vancouver Island University but she also shines as a poet.

Banerjee, an MBA student from India, took top honours in a haiku contest held in conjunction with International Development week at VIU.

Banerjee won the overall prize as well as top spot among entrants whose first language is not English for this entry:

After the tsunami
A girl wiping the sky
From the floor

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. It’s three lines and while there are strict formats about the number of syllables per line, the restrictions were eased for the VIU competition.

“Writing is my passion,” says Banerjee, who had no trouble finding inspiration for her entry.

Banerjee was living in Malaysia in 2004 when a tsunami hit and caused devastating loss of lives and damaged her grandmother’s birthplace in South India. She cannot forget the pain she saw in her grandmother’s eyes and Banerjee’s entry was written in memory of her.

“It was the first thing that came to mind,” she says.

Banerjee is set to graduate this year but is already in the process of opening Kerneel Corporation, a firm focused on creative digital communications. She intends to use her education to provide a variety of services in the fields of digital media, business process outsourcing and advertising.

Meg Savory, International Grants and Projects Coordinator at VIU, says the haiku competition attracted strong interest on campus.

“We had 50 entries from 35 participants,” she says, noting that entries came from students, faculty and staff in a variety of programs.

“The theme was global connection—haikus that bring us together,” says Savory.

Chancellor Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, took second place in the open competition for his entry:

Drum beats echo still

Ancient wisdom respects all

One planet we share

With participants’ names blanked out, the competition was judged by Harvey Jenkins, a retired VIU employee and published haiku poet.

Other entries include:

Second Place (Entrant Whose First Language is Not English)

Conscience guides

Deep into the temple of life;

Listen carefully.

— Vlad Belkov

Earth is a garden,

Bee depends on a flower;

Unity of Life.

— Vlad Belkov

Honourable Mentions (Entrants Whose First Language is Not English)

We are here and now,

One earth, one life, and one love,

Please open your heart.

— Vlad Belkov

The cold wind blows

You smile next to me

A warm day

—Noriko Aoki

world without friends

family like garden without

flowers and trees

—Maram Baytan

Hold your hand

Let’s be close we can

Run the world chain

—Christina Lin

First (Post Secondary Student)

shared and wired Earth

with many problems to solve

together we can

—Nigel Hanrahan

Second (Post Secondary Student)

There was excitement

The soldiers were coming home

Families gathered

—Julie Black

Honourable Mention (Post Secondary Student)

Dancing in the wind

What a pretty sight to see

national pride

—Sam Maider

First (Open)

a whole world apart

we stand under the same stars

universal dreams

—Deirdre Godwin

Second (Open) (tie)

Pretty brown-skinned girls

trading innocence

for food Globalization

—Roneen Marcoux

Second (Open) (tie)

Tiny skillful hands

sewing hundred dollar jeans

The Gap ever widening

—Roneen Marcoux

Second (Open) (tie)

Drum beats echo still

Ancient wisdom respects all

One planet we share

—Chancellor Shawn Atleo