2010

2010 Brady Contest judged by
Linda Jeanette Ward & Marsh Muirhead

As judges who've never met, live more than a thousand miles from one another, and are of dissimilar gender and background, we were very pleased to have arrived at close to the same top twenty senryu in our initial separate surveys of the hundreds of entries. This year's contest received 525 senryu from writers in seven countries. After exchanging thoughts on our favorites, putting them aside for several days, then considering them again, we found our top ten to twelve were, again, very similar. Agreeing on our top three and four honorable mentions took a few more days of re-reading and thoughtful consideration. The results are as follows:

First Place ($100) Garry Gay, California

my skeleton
going for a walk
in the cemetery

The first-place senryu offers a very fresh image, funny, ani- mated, containing both the cartoon image of a literal skeleton, jauntily walking through the cemetery, and on a more serious note, the poet's contained skeleton on his or her own walk— that skeleton, the one which will possibly inhabit this place in the future, reminds us of our final end.

Second Place ($75) Roberta Beary, District of Columbia

mother's day
she puts me
on hold

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