2022 Sejong International Sijo Competition

Winners | Judges | Winning Entries

Winning Entries

Katie Yen

Winner

Grandmother's Hair

Your grandmother’s hair held secrets
        plaited into her crown,
Passed on to you as she braided
        stories upon your scalp,
Echoes of ages in her fingertips,
        weaving laughter from faraway lands.

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Sasha A. Palmer

Runner-up

Untitled

“I see one—low to the grass!” ”I see one, too—up in the tree!”
Each firefly—a miracle, children’s faces glow with pure joy…
In the dark, I stand surrounded with memories of past summers.

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Erica Fransisca

honorable mention

Father’s Chair

Rain patters down the patio. Drip- dripping on Father’s chair.
Puddle collects round plastic legs, a little lake to soak his feet.
Still I watch as days turn to months, for Father to come and sit back down.

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Seunghui Lily Ha

honorable mention

A socially distanced date

what are your hobbies she asks, sitting across from her blind date
i cannot, hear you i fear, the gentleman replies to her
i’m not deaf, but there are six feet, of a distance, between us

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Brittany Mishra

honorable mention

Baby Changing Station

We entered the women’s restroom, greeted with clucking fury,
you can’t be a man in here, holding a sick baby girl.
We washed her, through gender & health, loved and cherished, as a team.

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Deborah J. Shore

honorable mention

Somebody

No flitting birds fill the tree, too many days of dry heat.
Only a bug, upside down, climbs tall grass in front of me.
Stem’s arced wide, bent by his slight life—six-legged gospeler of green.

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