Haiku Society of America

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HSA Haiku Awards 2024

Judged by
P.H. Fischer & Annette Makino
Judges Commentary

~ First Place ~

blue skies—
finding the nowhere
I'd rather be

Matthew Markworth, OH, USA

 

~ Second Place ~

first fireflies
the little boy
in my voice

Frank Hooven, PA, USA

 

~ Third Place ~

spring equinox
a canoe flipped
upside up

Matthew Markworth, OH, USA

 

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HSA Senryu Awards 2024

Judged by
Bill Cooper & Helen Ogden
Judges Commentary

First Place

garden clean-up
one invasive species
roots out another

Brad Bennett, MA, USA

 

Second Place

water park grand opening
a toddler finds
the puddle

Matthew Markworth, OH, USA

 

Third Place

“on your left”
the Progressive Bike Club
out for a ride

David Green, IL, US

 

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HSA Haibun Awards 2024

Judged by
Peter Newton & Barbara Sabol
Judges Commentary

 

First Place:

by Dylan Stover, OH, USA

heartwood

for David "Woody" Stover

It began with a young beech tree on a windy day, mid-spring. Acting upon an impulse I cannot now explain, I pressed my ear to the smooth, gray bark and started listening. To my surprise, there was sound: a secret inner creaking, like a stifled moan, as the crown twisted in the breeze. It was voice—tree voice. Each limb, as it swayed high in the canopy, was sending reverberations down through the acoustic body of the tree and into my ear as I crouched patiently at its side.

hand at my chest
the doctor suspects
a murmur

That’s when I became a listener of trees: I quickly discovered that smooth bark was best; the thicker the cork layer, the fainter the sound. Lithe ones were more melodious, aged ones more laconic, terse. But all speaking.
 
Then one day I noticed a pileated woodpecker hammering away in the upper branches of an ash tree. Sneaking up to the bole, I put my ear against the bark: ta-tum ta-tum ta-a-TUM ta-tum… The wood trembled at each jab. Even the scrapes of the bird’s claws were amplified: every movement echoed inside me, as if the bird, the tree, and I were unified in a single, ringing vibration.

a simple procedure
to remove the weevil
—then silence

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Second Place:

by Dian Duchin Reed, CA, USA

What I'm Doing on My Summer Vacation

My yard is not very big, but it’s big enough to shelter a million ants, keep the bees in business, and lure hummingbirds down to flirt with red flowers.
 
Who knew that aphids came in a rainbow of colors? When I sit still, I might see a gopher pushing dirt out of its hole, then taking a break while its head soaks in the warmth of the sun. I’m learning the towhee’s cat alarm and the crows’ hawk taunts. I sometimes hear coyotes singing along with a passing siren.
 
Did I mention the opossum babies who ride on their mother’s back at dawn? The skunk’s evening saunter? School’s about to start, and I haven’t even scratched the surface. The millipedes and Jerusalem crickets will have to wait till next summer.

the mockingbird
plays its whole repertoire
endless afternoon

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Third Place:

by J Hahn Doleman, CA, USA

True Places Never Are

Lighter than a tuft of seafoam, yet tasting heavy as iron, this palmful of mycelium dust dissolves on my tongue as we trudge across an ancient caldera high above the territory of mapped consciousness.

thinning air
an obsidian cairn
warm to the touch

Under the retreating sun, still shining like a new doubloon, our breath becomes visible as we follow the lost footsteps of Klamath and Paiute. Traversing the first sequence of switchbacks, a jagged mountain scrimshaw leading to the summit, our boots awaken prehistoric ghosts beneath the crunch and scuttle of igneous rock. On one flank of the volcano, bleached skeletons of mountain hemlock blur into a Danse Macabre, their trunks swaying like mizzen masts in a typhoon. A whale-sized andesite obelisk crests above us, spouting luminescent fractals from an invisible blowhole.

the universe still expanding rhyolite fragments

This white-haired alp appears to slumber as gusts of wind from an invisible, eternal Victrola play across its skin, spinning out records of our past. We test our sea legs on the glacier, a frozen brig drifting within its own concept of time, as meltwater runoff rushes its way to the ocean and a world we will never quite fathom.

open crevasse
a Pandora moth
enshrined in ice

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HSA Rengay Awards 2024

Judged by
Billie Dee & Richard L. Matta
Judges Commentary

2024 First Place

Ding Dong Ding

white coral bells —
those endless rounds we sang
as children

still wanting to believe
life is but a dream

the third blind mouse
suddenly
able to see

the fuzziness
between sleep and wakefulness
morning bells are ringing 

the farmer’s wife pauses
to catch her breath

warm breeze . . .
cherry petals drift
gently down the stream 

Angela Terry 1, 3 & 5
Julie Schwerin 2, 4 & 6

 

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2024 Second Place

Post Roe

without her
bindweed starts
to flower

until the smell
mousetraps forgotten

migrations
a monarch stops
in the purple aster

front porch
a dish of water
for the strays

trust the barn light
to cross the prairie

far back pasture
a young cow
drops her calf

Dan Schwerin 1, 3 & 5
Julie Schwerin 2, 4 & 6

 

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2024 Third Place

Blow on By

whoosh of wind
a crimson leaf lands
in a new year

around the corner
unseen chimes

cool breeze
the scattering scraps
of a torn letter

sharp screech
high above the well pump
metal blades wheel

origami cranes
fly in the swift draft

in the garden
a whirligig cardinal
wings spinning

Eavonka Ettinger 1, 3 & 5
Annie Holdren 2, 4 & 6

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Haiku Society of America Merit Books Awards 2024
for books published in 2023

Laurie D. Morrissey and Elliot Nicely, judges

(judges commentary to be published
in Frogpond then on the web site)

HAIKU BOOK AWARDS:

First Place

Beverly Acuff Momoi. How the Wind Sighs. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2023

Second Place

Kristen Lindquist. Island. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2023

Third Place

James Roderick Burns. Crows at Dusk. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2023

Honorable Mentions (not ranked but in alphabetical order by author)

Annie Bachini and Helen Buckingham. Two Haiku Poets. North Shields, England: Iron Press, 2023

Carolyn Hall. Unmended Fences. Ormskirk, England: Snapshot Press, 2023

Jeff Hoagland. Scent of Juniper. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2023

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HAIKU ANTHOLOGY AWARDS:

Best

Stanford M. Forrester and Johnette Downing, Editors. Bird Whistle: A Contemporary Anthology of Bird Haiku, Senryu, & Short Poems. Windsor, CT: Bottle Rockets Press, 2023

Honorable Mentions

Christine Lamb Stern and Jeannie Rueter, Editors. Luminaries: Celebrating the Dojin of Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. San Jose, CA: Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, 2023

Jim Kacian & The Red Moon Editorial Staff. Skipping Stones: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2022. Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2023

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HAIBUN BOOK AWARDS:

Best

Lew Watts. Eira. Ormskirk, England: Snapshot Press, 2023

Honorable Mentions

Reka Nyitrai and Alan Peat. Barking at the Coming Rain. Uxbridge, England: Alba Publishing, 2023

Sean O’Connor. A Patch of Earth. Uxbridge, England: Alba Publishing, 2023

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PROSE BOOK AWARDs:

Best

Roberta Beary, Lew Watts, and Rich Youmans. Haibun: A Writer's Guide. England: Ad Hoc Fiction, 2023

Honorable Mention

James Shea and Grant Caldwell, Editors, The Routledge Global Haiku Reader, London & New York: Routledge, 2023

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BOOK DESIGN & AESTHETICS - SPECIAL COMMENDATION:

Lisa Gerlits and Antoinette Cheung. Deepening Leaves: 2022 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology. Bellevue, WA: Haiku Northwest Press, 2023

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LINKED VERSE - SPECIAL COMMENDATION:

Christine L. Villa, Editor. How the Wind Moves: An Anthology of Collaborative Spilt Sequences. Sacramento, CA: Velvet Dusk Publishing, 2023

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TRANSLATIONS BOOK - SPECIAL COMMENDATION:

Shelley Baker-Gard, Michael Freiling, and Satsuki Takikawa. They Never Asked: Senryu Poetry from the WWII Portland Assembly Center. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2023

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Arts & Haiku - YouTube Presentation
International Haiku Day

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Richard Tice, Regional Coordinator, is pleased to announce that The Washington Region of the Haiku Society of America hosted a two-hour presentation “Art & Haiku” on International Haiku Day (April 17, 2024). This gathering featured twelve haiku writers and artists sharing their work. You may enjoy this video on YouTube by clicking on the link below:

https://youtu.be/76hoycFyVEI?si=GKmh_vg4uEbQUZ_w

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Haiku Society of America Student Haiku Awards
in Memorial of Nicholas A. Virgilio

Student Haiku Awards for 2024

Sharon Pretti and M. Shane Pruett
judges

Here are the winning haiku:

spring tide
the colored pencil box
she never used

Teo Contac — Grade 7, Botosani, Romania

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cranberry sauce
in an antique bowl—
autumn deepens

Emme Doyle – Grade 8, Atlanta, GA

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flower moon
touching the water
bullfrogs' thrum

Elsa Krol – Grade 9, State College, PA

~ ~ ~

rice cakes orbit
in a cloudy broth
lunar new year

Benjamin Moon-Chun – Grade 8, Decatur, GA

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day moon . . .
mom still needs
a blood donor

Maria Negrut – Grade 7, Botosani, Romania

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silent night
a cherry branch
hits the moon

Edi Parvu – Grade 7, Botosani, Romania

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Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu Competition Anthology

edited by Randy M. Brooks
designed by Ignatius Fay

© 2022 HAIKU Society of America

To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu Competition, the executive committee of the Haiku Society of America published this anthology of award-winning haiku and senryu. The student observations, insights, experiences, emotions and insights evident in these haiku and senryu are a wonderful testament to the fresh voices and vivid imagery of young people. We believe the judges’ commentaries add a valuable layer of meaning as we see how leaders, editors, writers and members of the Haiku Society of America carefully consider the significance of each award-winning poem.

Download your PDF copy for a teacher in your area.

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