In Contention

CONTEST: Win a beautiful ‘Benjamin Button’ coffee table book with your best haiku poem!

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Alright, here’s the first in a string of contests this week, kicking things off with an opportunity to win a copy of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: The Making of the Motion Picture,” a beautiful coffee table book with lovely images throughout in the vein of Taschen collectibles.  Have a look at the Amazon page here.  We’ve got two to give away.

I wracked my brain over the best way to go here.  I didn’t want another boring caption contest, so I figured I’d get abstract.  HAIKU CONTEST!  Give us your best haiku poem on the perils of aging backwards in the comments section below.  The two best haikus take the prizes.  (And yes, multiple entries are acceptable.)  Make sure you’re singed in with a valid email address so we can notify the winners swiftly, and stay tuned later this week for more contests and giveaways.

(FYI, haiku contest idea stolen outright from Sasha Stone and Awards Daily.)

Cover of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: The Making of the Motion Picture

Comments

87 responses to “CONTEST: Win a beautiful ‘Benjamin Button’ coffee table book with your best haiku poem!”

  1. noveltyhat Avatar

    backwards it’s glaring
    forwards we only glance the
    choreography

  2. noveltyhat Avatar

    whoops. slight change!

    backwards it’s glaring
    forwards we only glance it
    choreography

  3. noveltyhat Avatar

    here i am, eighty
    here i am, twenty seven
    i know my limit

  4. Xavier Avatar
    Xavier

    Counter-clockwise hands
    Fret not: memories transcend
    Chariot welcomed

  5. Richard Avatar
    Richard

    Growing younger, woe
    Shunned by friends and foes, the pain!
    No one understands

    ——-

    Wond’ring ’bout the day
    When judgement fades and time heals
    Will it never come?

    ——-

    Younger and younger
    Time unrelenting, cripples
    Savor these moments…

    ——-

    For why am I cursed?
    ‘Tis so dreadful, aging back
    What is wrong with me?

    ——-

    Time always forward
    As I travel in reverse
    Stuck here, alone, cold

    ——-

    Am I different?
    Aging backwards or forwards,
    We all must die, no?

    ——-

    Am I so unique?
    Time flees, memories remain
    Such is life, no?

    ——-

    Clock moves in reverse
    Still, life weighed not in minutes
    But in memories

    ——-

    Time is not my friend
    Leaves me out of sync, alone
    Love passes me by

  6. Victor Avatar
    Victor

    Wrinkles disappear
    Your eyesight becomes clearer
    Still, you pee in pants

  7. Richard Avatar
    Richard

    edit:

    Am I so unique?
    Time flees, memories remain
    And such is life, no?

  8. Zach Baum Avatar
    Zach Baum

    Life is Linear,
    It comes and goes with all change
    All we have is hope.

  9. Jon Avatar
    Jon

    Welcome to the world
    You can never get it back
    So goodnight, poem

    ——————–

    What is the meaning
    of a lonely life, whose love
    can’t ever be shared?

  10. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    Doomed by uniqueness
    To live life backwards; while love
    Beckons me cruelly.

  11. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    People come and go
    Parents, lovers, friends and me
    Left to watch them die

    My age decreases
    Youth enhances, I reflect
    When will this make sense?

    A burden is me
    Imposed upon all I love
    Try to wander, lost

    Sweet mortality
    Acquired pallet not had
    Taste always different

    Circumstances trap
    Nothing is seen through my eyes
    Like a caged monkey

  12. Cameron Avatar
    Cameron

    Life ticking backwards,
    When twelve is the beginning-
    What comes after one?

  13. EVE Avatar
    EVE

    Here are 17 Haiku’s written backwards, with forwards translations. It took a while, but 17 seperate Haiku’s makes sense since each one is 17 syllables.

    ,I sdrawkcab nevE
    ,efil sdrawkcab ym nialpxe t’naC
    .tnereffid ma I
    ______________________________
    Even backwards I,
    Can’t explain my backwards life,
    I am different.
    ______________________________
    ,ereh drawrof seog emiT
    ,llits sdrawkcab snur efil ym tuB
    .efil ym si nwonknU
    ______________________________
    Time goes forward here,
    But my life runs backwards still,
    Unknown is my life.
    ______________________________
    ,nekatsim ega yM
    ,ma I sa dlo sa ma I
    .kool I sa ton tuB
    ______________________________
    My age mistaken,
    I am as old as I am,
    But not as I look.
    ______________________________
    ,tnereffid eb oT
    ,gniga ma I yaw eht sI
    .efil ym si ti tuB
    ______________________________
    To be different,
    Is the way I am aging,
    But it is my life.
    ______________________________
    ,uoy sa eb t’nac I
    ,dlihc a tsuj eb ot dlo ooT
    .tulda na ton tuB
    ______________________________
    I can’t be as you,
    Too old to be a child,
    But not an adult.
    ______________________________
    ,dik a nehw nur t’naC
    ,elbuort ym drawkcab gingA
    .tluda deppart ,dik A
    ______________________________
    Can’t run when a kid,
    Aging backward my trouble,
    A kid, trapped adult.
    ______________________________
    ,esac suoiruc A
    ,sdrawkcab gniga ereh eb oT
    .ega ym erus reveN
    ______________________________
    A curious case,
    To be here aging backwards,
    Never sure my age.
    ______________________________
    ,dlrow eht gniees m’I
    ,yaw eno ni em dnuora nuR
    .tsol ma I ,ylnO
    ______________________________
    I’m seeing the world,
    Run around me in one way,
    Only, I am lost.
    ______________________________
    ,evol rof gnikool nehW
    ,rebmemer syawla tsum I
    .regnuoy gnitteg m’I
    ______________________________
    When looking for love,
    I must always remember,
    I’m getting younger.
    ______________________________
    ,tluda – ma I ereH
    ,kcolc eht hctaw I seye s’dlihc hguorhT
    .esrever ni gnihctaW
    ______________________________
    Here I am – adult,
    Through child’s eyes I watch the clock,
    Watching in reverse.
    ______________________________
    ,regnuoy gnitteg
    ,redlo gnitteg efil gniviL
    .dlihc esiw a eb oT
    ______________________________
    I’m getting younger,
    Living life getting older,
    To be a wise child.
    ______________________________
    ,sediced ees ew tahW
    ,efil ruo sa dlo sa era eW
    .rettam t’nseod egA
    ______________________________
    What we see decides,
    We are as old as our life,
    Age doesn’t matter
    ______________________________
    ,weiv efil ekildlihc A
    ,tluda yllacisyhp hguohT
    .ma I ,dlihc a sA
    ______________________________
    A childlike life view,
    Though physically adult,
    As a child, I am.
    ______________________________
    ,dlihc a won ton m’I
    ,tluda em ekam ereh sraey yM
    .sdrawkcab ega I ,teY
    ______________________________
    I’m not now a child,
    My years here make me adult,
    Yet, I age backwards.
    ______________________________
    ,esrever ni efil htiW
    ,nac uoy taht lla od t’nac I
    .leef I noisufnoC
    ______________________________
    With life in reverse,
    I can’t do all that you can,
    Confusion I feel.
    ______________________________
    ,nottuB nimajneB
    ,ecno ta sdrawrof dna sdrawkcaB
    .drawrof snur llits emiT
    ______________________________
    Benjamin Button,
    Backwards and forwards at once,
    Time still runs forward.
    ______________________________
    ,drawrof snur emit ehT
    ,si efil sdrawkcab ym sdrawroF
    .sdrawkcab ega I roF
    ______________________________
    The time runs forward,
    Forwards my backwards life is,
    For I age backwards.
    ______________________________

  14. David Avatar
    David

    to grow young again
    and grasp the magic moment
    of the first movie

  15. Zachary Avatar
    Zachary

    Benjamin Button
    came down the roadway of life
    the wrong direction.

    The pathway of life
    is one way only, but Ben
    traveled the wrong way

    Benjamin loves her
    Daisy loves him, but they can’t
    live together ever.

    If I was born old
    and died young, I would live life
    to the max anyways.

    Aging backwards can
    be a curse, but sometimes it
    can be a blessing.

    Benjamin Button
    is much much better than Gump
    Eric Roth redeemed

    To be born old aged
    and get younger throughout life
    can be good and bad.

    Even when living
    life backwards, one can still get
    life’s lessons all along.

    When life hands you a
    lemon, make lemonade, not
    poison for your mind.

    Heading backwards through
    life can be confusing, but
    life’s hard anyway.

  16. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    The life I must live,
    While backwards, is the same as
    Seeing through your eyes.

  17. katiehall Avatar
    katiehall

    redundancy after redundancy
    is Benjamin button
    until the end

  18. Glenn Avatar

    Sadness Envelops
    Life Disappearing Like Dusk
    Who Will Love Me Now?

  19. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    How sad life would be
    To die without the chance to
    Reminisce of Youth

  20. Jonathan Spuij Avatar

    A movie like this
    I’m dying to see so soon
    is not yet released

  21. Eunice Avatar

    Wow, haiku explosion. Here are mine.

    1. After all the cups,
    The stories, and our great love
    Will you remember?

    2. Happy is the man
    Whose days are spent, with an odd
    And beautiful end.

    3. What would it be like?
    To die in a lover’s arms
    Young, but old as well?

    4. When the world looks far,
    Displeased, it won’t understand
    What you were here for.

    5. Is it truly well,
    To love and then to have, a
    Disconcerting death?

    6. She looks away, and
    In her eyes, I see, there is
    Nothing else for me.

    7. Pills, bills, our shared rings
    Some of my favorite things
    …Are they really mine?

    8. Face like an angel’s
    Own, but mind like a whisper,
    Where does this life go?

    9. Lost is this old soul
    Who comes and goes, and finds that
    All is one is all.

    10. What if winter comes,
    In the spring of discontent?
    What then, happens next?

    11. Wanderer, you are
    A mark of our desires, and
    And its ironies.

    12. Will you want to look
    Like Achilles, but forget
    The name you’ve been given?

    13. To give much to youth
    When it has its own follies
    Is folly itself.

    14. Age, just a number
    Time, just a reminder, of
    Death on your old door.

    15. Why does man like, to
    Hate today and press rewind
    When life has been kind?

  22. Eunice Avatar

    Last one, I promise:

    16. When does life begin,
    At sixteen or at sixty?
    Confused, please help me.

  23. Jamie Avatar
    Jamie

    Forced sacrifice, yet
    Moving still toward Daisy’s arms
    Curious indeed

  24. Kristopher Tapley Avatar

    FYI, this contest will close tomorrow, Wednesday, at 12:00am. Midnight tonight, basically. So get those entries in!

  25. Bryan Avatar
    Bryan

    Some things too early
    And others too late. This line
    is in the wrong film.

  26. Bryan Avatar
    Bryan

    Birth as cold as death.
    You never know what’s coming.
    Love renewed as spring.

  27. George Avatar

    When you see the end
    Death becomes the beginning
    Threading life with love

  28. George Avatar

    Life starts at the end
    Be brave to see how it starts
    Live until your born

  29. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    Living life backwards
    Oscars before Golden Globes
    P.S: bet on Milk!

    Went through puberty
    With squat to look forward to
    Really sucked big time

  30. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    Born old, growing young
    When’s it legal to bang Cate?
    I am so confused

  31. David Avatar
    David

    what a true blessing
    going back to re-read all
    in contention posts

  32. Mugilan Avatar
    Mugilan

    1.
    As time goes, I wilt
    Skewed time dimension it is
    My kid calls me son!

    2.
    Meet you yesterday!
    said I, still in a mild shock
    confusion reigns on.

    3.
    Strange feeling, it is
    Time in x, and I grow y,
    not above, below!

    (Just in case, it wasn’t obvious, x and y refer to the x-y axes in a graphical figure)

  33. Jonathan Spuij Avatar

    When looks do not mind
    And life reverses its time
    It could still be kind

  34. Silencio Avatar
    Silencio

    At least Daisy got
    to hold him, close the cycle,
    like two hummingbirds.

    I feel like I’m old,
    but I’m barely four feet tall.
    And Ma never comes.

    The clock spun backwards,
    but I didn’t feel a thing.
    Just darker…darker…

  35. Kristopher Tapley Avatar

    Contest closed. Thanks everyone!

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