Kuebiko

Judge Comment:

Hellon never ceases to amaze me with her talent for short and descriptive poetry.

I truly love the picture in my mind of a scarecrow, the details are so wonderful and yet it leaves me feeling as if its a larger picture within, maybe metaphoric as to the feelings of another.. Perhaps someone is so depressed they have become a scarecrow in a field. Either way I'm impressed and truly admire this poem.

The ending has a tasteful, abrupt and fun twist to it...

"Upon his hat, a mockingbird"

It leaves me wondering and having many thoughts... very fun and explosive!!

Judging Comments weekly contest June 10, 2013

Short but with a really great imagery. The title grabbed my attention as I never heard Kuebiko before then when I read the poem and searched what it meant, I found out that Hellon showed us a scarecrow within her poem. What I like the most was that, whether intentional or not, she added some humor to this piece with the last line " upon his hat a mockingbird.." I took the mockingbird as a bird that was mocking the kuebiko lol. I am not sure if I should consider the mockingbird as a predator but regardless it was a nice touch.

Judges comment:

I had never heard of the term Kuebiko used for a scarecrow before..so I was instantly in by the title. I love that it wasn't just typical "Scarecrow". Anyway, moving past that lol. Simply put I really just love this poem. It felt like an excerpt from a longer poem, it left me wanting more. The images are gorgeous... I could picture it clearly in my mind. To go further into detail it also felt like perhaps an old man, maybe a hunter. Maybe sitting on his front porch waiting for someone, something to attack (apocalypse style maybe?) and just patiently watching.. waiting... knowing his time will come soon. Really gave me so many different ideas and inspired a little something of my own. This is wonderful

I had to read this a few times to get this image in me. Even though it talks about scarecrow, there is more to it if you apply it to reality/to a real person. All in all within this short piece it gives a chance for the reader to delve right into it. Congrats on the win.

I wish I was smart enough to find the meaning through your words ha, but I would have never guessed that this was about a Japanese god or deity. I had no idea, so that's actually quite a refreshing thought. Anyways you portrayed this all too well, definitely the perfect description of a scarecrow, I now see it perfectly. Interesting how you included the part of the mockingbird, it was very fitting, especially since mockingbirds symbolize innocence and since scarecrows don't move and are stable, they are quite innocent themselves. The thought brought me to how they say it's a sin to kill a mockingbird, and the book of course. You just have such perfect pieces such as this one that are short and to the point yet withhold so much meaning. Well done!