Kegger Chronicle · The Experience
Poetry of the Kegger
The annual Haiku Contest — five-seven-five has never been so mountain-adjacent
The Kegger Backpack Haiku Contest has been running since at least 1986. Entries are submitted in the weeks before the Kegger and the results are announced — or at least discussed — at camp. The standard of judging has always been generous. The standard of subject matter has always been consistent: beer, the keg, the river, the fire, and the general condition of the participants.
What is a Haiku?
haiku (HY-koo) noun — A form of Japanese verse having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively, involving allusions and references to nature or seasons.
From Japanese haikai no ku (comic verse). As Takiguchi observed: "Poetry is bottled wine; Haiku is bottled poetry."
1986 entries
Ancient summer gathering
Timeless inebriation
Flows through our minds eye
Sian Lamott · 1 June 1986
Laughing we share all…
Keggites compare estranged lives
Under giant green pines
Mitch Lorens · 11 May 1986
2001 — Contest Winner
The keg, it was full.
We drank and drank and drank
The keg, it was empty
Phil Webster · 2001 Kegger Backpack Haiku Contest Winner
2002 entries
The island magic
Gathers and settles us like puppies
Happy, howling young pups
Luke Mather · 21 April 2002
2003 entries
I went for the keg
Met some girls, drank some beer
I am so sorry!
Ryan Proctor · 21 April 2003
Ryan was missing late — very late — Saturday night and thought to be lost. He was to come down with the 11:22 pm keg run. His pack was heavy. Concerned friends assembled a search team, but Ryan found camp just as they were about to leave. He had been writing his haiku and took his time.
Down by the sandy beach
The children frolic and play
Parents drink the beer
Perg Weby · 23 May 2003
Granite cliffs, blue skies
Drinking Kegger Backpack beer
We sleep under bracken ferns
Aron Weby · 20 May 2003
2004 entries
Young nymph-like, our women
Dart from fire to keg and back
Lyrical their laughter is
John Baird · 12 May 2004
The man drinks like pig
And passes out in clean tent
Boots, dirt, sand and vomit cling
Elaine McGee · 16 April 2004
Loud roar, running streams
With background thunderstorms
Pack on back, keg in hand
Karri Kennedy · 2 April 2004
John Baird — additional entries (year unknown)
Where lies my lady?
Crumpled by the keg she lies,
Six miles the keg she carried
John Baird
Submit your entry for the 2026 Kegger Backpack Haiku Contest.
Three lines. Five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables. Subject matter: the keg, the river, the fire, the forest, the people, the condition you were in when you wrote this.
Send entries to: Philnowsays@gmail.com