Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner in the first-ever Ruined Music contest, haiku-style.

There were hundreds of witty, angry, tragic, emotionally-fraught haiku for us to choose from, and boy oh boy, was it a tough choice. We laughed! We cried! We cringed! We learned backstage gossip about a certain popular folk singer (you know who you are)! But in the end, there was one haiku that won us over with its simplicity, honesty, and sadness. Here it is.

I wrote the love songs
so I could hear you sing them
now I just write songs

The author of the winning haiku is named Sharon. She’s a student in Illinois, and you can listen to some of her afore-mentioned songs right here. When not writing songs or poems, Sharon can be found obsessing over college essays (which, as she rightly points out, demand way more than seventeen syllables).

On winning our contest, Sharon has this to say: “Winning always feels good, like cashing in on luck. Being rather self-deprecating, I’m not sure if I can account for this success from actual talent. I was trying to write a song at the time, and I ended up writing a haiku instead. I wrote this about an experience that happened a while ago, so thankfully I’m over it. Mostly.”

Sharon has a Ruined Music prize box headed her way, including custom mix CDs, Ruined Music pins, and a gift from our store. Unfortunately, we can’t help with those college essays.

Thanks and congratulations to everyone who entered the first-ever Ruined Music haiku contest. Excellent work all around. Hey, we had so much fun, maybe we’ll come up with another contest sometime. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, keep those essays coming.