We are having a Shraiku contest as part of Wake Audubon’s Year of the Loggerhead Shrike. Shraikus, like Haikus, are highly structured poems composed in 3 lines with a total of 17 syllables. Shraikus must have 5 syllables in lines 1 and 3 and 7 syllables in line 2. The theme of a shraiku must be the Loggerhead Shrike – evoking images or feelings associated with this amazing bird.
You may enter as many times as you wish. There will be prizes for the top three Shraiku writers.
Submit your Shraiku as a comment using the following form:
Title (all caps)
Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables
*** PLEASE NOTE: All comment must go through moderation, so it may be a few hours before your poem posts. ***
Comments
Kane Byers
October 6, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Death on a barbed wire
Viciously stabbing small bugs
What a painful death.
Comments
Kane Byers
October 6, 2010 at 6:25 pmDeath on a barbed wire
Viciously stabbing small bugs
What a painful death.
Keith Brooks
October 6, 2010 at 6:25 pmDon’t mock me shrike-bird;
Though you look like a raccoon;
You don’t even have talons.
Jo Himes
October 6, 2010 at 6:26 pmWatching an old tree
Shredded mouse bleeds with blank eyes
Stained leaves; shrikes were here.
Ali Iyoob and Matt Daw
October 6, 2010 at 6:26 pmDeath on a barbed wire
Head juices drip to the ground
Butcher strikes again.
Max Altenkirch and Kaitlyn Lospinoso
October 6, 2010 at 6:26 pmThe sparrow that hunts
It does not have sharp talons,
But beware the beak!
Elinor Laczko
October 8, 2010 at 10:47 pmMasked hooked avenger
Blockhead perched, ready and waiting
Hawk eyes hunting swoops
Annie Runyon
October 19, 2010 at 11:35 amLoggerhead Shrike
Bold eyes in dark mask
One blade trembling in the grass
Grasshopper impaled
Anne Runyon
October 21, 2010 at 8:59 amLOGGERHEAD SHRIKE
Bold eyes in dark mask
One blade trembling in the grass
Grasshopper impaled
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 8:59 amSHRAICOLOR
Black, white, shades of gray:
The colors of deception.
Inside I am red.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:00 amBANDED
Plastic or metal
Human-inflicted shackles–
All shall I destroy.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:01 amGRASSHOPPER PINNED
Birdwing suffering:
Schistocerca, thorn-impaled.
Death became a friend.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:01 amPERCEIVED
Mask meant villainy;
Bandit, brigand, road agent:
The French Mockingbird.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:02 amSHRAIKALARM
Lizards will scatter
Where a butcherbird’s landed.
And kinglets chatter.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:02 amLARDER
To the barbed-wire fence
Rollercoaster flight leads to
His impaled trophies.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:03 amPIERCED
Shrike awoke one morn
And wished she’d never been born.
Her pain was a thorn.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:04 amBUT HOW’D HE FIND THEM?
Cold day. Watched a shrike
Swallow three June beetle grubs
In fifteen minutes.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:04 amSIGMODON ASSESSMENT
A shrike, though ignored,
Sized up a blind cotton rat
Many times his weight.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:04 amLONG-AGO LIFER
On the grassy lawn
Of Stedman Corporation:
Lifer Lanius.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:06 amNAMES OF PLANTS CAN BE BAD
Nathaniel Hawthorn
Was the name I gave the shrub
Where the shrike hung prey.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:06 amTEABERRY RIDGE
On the deer fence, once:
An ox beetle, barb-impaled.
The shrike was away.
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:06 amUNLEARNING IN A LOWCOUNTRY CLASSROOM
Shrike out the window!
Has pinned a scarlet kingsnake!
Principal’s office!
Jeff Beane
October 21, 2010 at 9:06 amEVERY TIME
Bird on power line–
If ever he saw a mask
Would his pulse quicken.