These poems can be found in print in the Geist 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition and in Geist 60.

During the NHL-playoff-free days of 2005, we invited readers to write through the pain by creating examples of the hockey haiku. a Canada literary form that Geist has nurtured since 1997.

Like the NHL labour dispute, the Geist 2005 Haiku Night in Canada Contest went on for 301 days, but no deadline was ever set and no one knew how long it would last.

Here are the contest winners:

1ST PRIZE

cross-check lifts a tooth

clear of its casing. Pollock

spits red from the bench.

—Rob “Left” Winger, Ottawa

2ND PRIZE

puck. the one dark thing

that tears across the gaze, its

edge; our watchful eye.

—Matt Robinson, Fredericton

3RD PRIZE

Gorgeous butterfly

Breaks away from his cocoon

Gracing the whole world

—Michael Cross, Tancook Island NS