English teacher Arlie Parker kicked off March by entering his students in the Virgilio haiku competition. His students have been working on haikus since February, trying to make their haikus to become perfect masterpieces.

Sophomore Alex Oliver thought that the process of constructing the best haiku was “very fun yet difficult.”

She said she had trouble trying explain an important moment in her life with the least words as possible. “It was all my own experiences that I had to put down into only a few words,” explained Oliver.

Her haiku was “The school slut/Gives me/Dating advice.” Oliver enjoyed writing haiku and feels that it helps you realize that it is the small beautiful moments that we take for granted.

“She dies in front of me/purple and swollen like a plum/a stranger,”sophomore Chloe Hoch wrote. The whole process of writing the haiku and trying to find the right wording was fun, but also challenging for Hoch.

Hoch said, “There are different variations that you could write the haiku but the real challenge is which variation has the best ring to it.” Hoch finds it hard to try use the least words as possible but still paints the picture for the judges.

“It takes a long time to formulate the words perfectly and still have them make sense,”said Hoch. She also wrote another haiku about the her dog that she loved. “Ashes into soil/he starts a new life/beneath the knotted tree,” writes Hoch.

Sophomore Maya Byrd entered this haiku to the competition, “Ripping/the wrapping paper /Another pair of socks.” Byrd found the process easy and very enjoyable.

“Ideas would pop in my mind randomly and I would usually write them down on random scraps of paper and stuff them in my backpack,” Byrd said.

She feels that the haiku are personal and is a key for the reader to open that holds her memories. One of Byrd’s favorite haiku is, “Fighting beasts/Casting spells/A book in hand.”

Parker loves to encourage students to put themselves out there and open up their heart. “The kids do such a great job that we end up being pretty successful in the contest a lot of the time but the most important thing is that people write haiku they will remember when they are my age,” Parker said.

He wants to leave an impact on his students so that when they are 50 years old they can still remember a piece of writing they wrote in high school.

Sage had 36 award winners with 2 being finalists in the top six haiku selections of the entire competition.