It is difficult to imagine that much can be said within the confines of such a petite poetic structure. However, year 3 student, Jai Walker from St Columba Anglican School, was able to capture the feeling of a day in the park in his Haiku titled “Dandelions”.

For his poem, Jai has been honoured with the prize of runner-up in the lower primary division of the nationwide Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition. The award was presented to him by The Hon. Luke Hartsuyker, Member for Cowper.

The competition encourages student poets to take inspiration from wherever they may find it. For Jai, his inspiration was an interesting observation he made of a garden in a park.

“In the park there were heaps of dandelions in one of the gardens that was supposed to have other plants as well, but they had all died and the dandelions were the only plants alive,” Jai said.

This encounter sparked Jai’s creative energy and he wrote what the competition judges commended as “an original Haiku with lovely language”.

Member for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker commended both Jai and the school as a whole for encouraging an interest and a love of poetry.

“It is great that St Columba has cultivated an interest in poetry. Look what Jai could do with three lines, he captured the magic of the moment,” Mr Hartsuyker said.

The panel of judges selected winning poems on the basis of their distinctiveness and demonstration that the poet is attuned to their surroundings. 

Jai says he will continue to write poetry, in particular Haikus.

“There is one poem about the sunset I keep remembering at home but I can’t remember it at school for my writing book,” he said.