Haiku Winner

Year 3 Boys’ School student, Cameron Roxburgh punched above his weight when, as a 7 year old, he won the U10 category of a national poetry competition!

During Sea Week 2017, run by the New Zealand Association for Environmental Education, students were called on to write a three line haiku inspired by the theme ‘Toiora te Moana – Toiora te Tangata, Healthy Seas – Healthy People’ and illustrate it with an image.

Our Year 3 students had watched a video of of an octopus camouflaging himself on the sea bed and following that, reflected on the video and wrote some haiku poems.

Originally penned by Japanese poets, haiku are short poems (three lines long) that use sensory language to capture a feeling or image. They are often inspired by an element of nature, a moment of beauty or a poignant experience. Cameron’s haiku was simple and appealing:

Magic octopus
Invisible changing
Awesomely camouflaging

The competition judge was widely published Pacifica poet, Doug Poole who said Cameron’s entry was ‘Inventive and fun with clever use of adjectives – an enjoyable Haiku to read aloud and captures the wonderfully ugly, yet amazingly clever octopus. Well Done Cameron – good work here.’

Congratulations Cameron! His prize included a Young Ocean Explorers branded mask and snorkel set along with a Blunt umbrella and a Young Ocean Explorers ‘Love Our Ocean’ book.