Can you sci-ku?

The 2012 Sci-ku competition is now closed. View the winners below.

RiAus was delighted to present its third annual sci-ku poetry competition.

This year we were looking for sci-kus with a farming or agricultural theme in recognition of 2012 being  the Australian Year of the Farmer. Read a sciku by Glenn McGrath.

There were great prizes up for grabs and winning entries will be displayed on the LED ribbon artwork on the outside of the Science Exchange.

This competition was part of Great Big Science Read 2012 and National Science Week 2012.

You can read the winning poems below:

Open Category

First prize – Rob Walker

Clover, the farmer’s friend.

White nodule bacteria microfactories,

nature’s fertiliser mined from thin air.

Second prize – Stephen Boonstoppel

Droughts and pestilence

Yet bolls thrive with genes expressed

CSIRO cotton on

Third prize – Fiona Johnston

wind gatherers, like energetic sky clocks

turn minutes into light, hours into power

at Starfish Hill wind farm

High Commendation – Greg Buchanan

Plant grows from the seed.

Science helps the farmer’s crop

Thanks to Mendel’s peas

Primary Category

First prize – Henry Rogers (Age 12 years)

golden ears of nature

listening for the rain, reaching for the sky

yielding food for the future

Second prize – Sea-Yun Joung (Age 12 years)

Our most basic foods

From Scientific Farming.

It’s for Surviving.

Third prize – Natalia Burgess (Age 10 years)

Crops growing thirsty,

Animals coming to their rest,

But wait finally the heavens have opened.

High Commendation – Maggie Carter (Age 12 years)

Great wall of orange

Engulfing my precious crops

Evacuating

Secondary Category

First prize – Charlotte Head (Age 13 years)

Dark, moist clumps of earth

Nutrients and sustenance

Humbly giving all to regeneration

Second prize -  Michelle Wange (Age 16 years)

Practice of farming

Applies new technologies

To old traditions

Third prize – Matthew Podgorski  (Age 16 years)

Red sweet peas and white peas… and pink… co-dominance?

A perplexing problem thought Mendel

The first agricultural scientist

High Commendation – Morgan Christensen (Age 15 years)

yellow bent and clustered

sitting on the tree

a hand ready to be taken

What is Sci-ku?

Inspired by the Japanese haiku, sci-ku is a short three-line poem about sciences. Sci-ku is a small, modest and humble poem that depicts the everyday world around us, aiming to give a flash of insight into that world — like a scientific ‘Eureka!’ moment expressed briefly in words.

Sci-ku Criteria

Each poem must have had a thematic link to farming or agriculture and not exceed the three-line maximum. Syllable counts are not relevant. Each entrant was invited to submit a maximum of three sci-kus.

Categories

You could have entered in one of three categories:

Primary (12 years and under), secondary (13-18 inclusive) or open (no age limit).

The Rules

All poems must be original, unpublished works (in print or online) by the poet entering the competition.

All entries must have been received by Sunday 19 August 2012 or be date stamped Thursday 16 August 2012 at the latest.

No poems will be returned.

The judges’ decision is final; no correspondence will be entered into.

The Prizes

1st prize winners in each category received a Kindle e-Reader.

2nd & 3rd prizes were awarded in each category, with prizes of $50 and $20 worth of book vouchers, respectively.

1st, 2nd & 3rd prize winners in each category can see their sci-ku and name in lights on the RiAus ribbon artwork on the exterior of The Science Exchange in Adelaide.

1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes (and other selected entries) are now published on the RiAus website.

Need some inspiration?

Browse the winning sci-kus from 2011!

Science poetry has been around for a while. In 1984 New South Wales physicist J. W. V. Storey published his academic paper as a poem in The Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Read his poem on Brain Pickings.

Talking about sci-ku

Art4Agriculture Blog

BushBelles Blog

View the media release about Sci-ku