2022 Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems — Short List

The Haiku Foundation is pleased to announce the Short List for the 2022 Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems. The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems recognize excellence and innovation in English-language haiku and senryu published in juried public venues during each calendar year. This year, we have 31 poems versus our normal 30 due to a 3-way tie.

In this second round, the panel selected their top choices from the Long List. In the final round, the panel will select the haiku and senryu from the Short List that will be recognized as the Awarded poems for 2022.

Many thanks to our distinguished panelists:  Roberta Beary, Gregory Longenecker, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Marianne Paul, Agnes Eva Savich, and Angela Terry. The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems final results will be announced on April 17, as part of The Haiku Foundation’s celebration of International Haiku Poetry Day.

Robin Anna Smith,
Coordinator, Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems

letting go
of what’s not mine
prairie wind

— Hifsa Ashraf, tinywords 22.2, October 27, 2022

sunrise
all the colours
of a second chance

— Gavin Austin, Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2022

long summer night
the coffin maker sleeps
inside his coffin

— R. Suresh Babu, The Heron’s Nest, Volume 24.2

leaving him
a love note
six persimmons

— Stephanie Baker, Geppo, Volume XLVII:2, May 2022

coming out . . .
my father’s love
with an *

— Peg Cherrin-Myers, Kingfisher #6, October 2022

schrodinger’s womxn knowing and unknowing our place

— Tracy Davidson, 2022 Marlene Mountain Contest

i am i am not the darkness between subway stations

— Frank Dietrich, Frogpond 45:2 Spring/Summer 2022; re: Virals 368 October 14, 2022

{{{{{woodpecker}}}}}

— Keith Evetts, Cold Moon Journal, July 3, 2022

whale song—
the distances
that call us

— Lorin Ford, Echidna Tracks, Issue 9

the space between stars –
a missing child
remains missing

— John Gonzalez, Time Haiku, No 55

a vanessa flutters light’s thesaurus

— Marshall Hryciuk, whiptail: journal of the single line poem, Issue 3, May 2022

kite-flying lessons
holding on
while letting go

— Kim Klugh, Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2022

morning sea
I shake the night
from my wings

— Kat Lehmann, Kingfisher 5

sun tea…
a slow pour
of afternoon

— Barrie Levine, The Heron’s Nest, Volume 24.3

refugee center—
an empty room
labeled family

— Ashish Narain, Modern Haiku 53.2

bus stop
a room inside
the rain

— Peter Newton, The Heron’s Nest, Volume 24.2

once more around the dance floor IV pole

— Lorraine A Padden, Blōō Outlier Journal, Senryu Special, New Year’s Eve/Winter 2022

roadcut—
a mountain spring seeps
from the Eocene

— Linda Papanicolaou, Mariposa #47

shifting clouds my child’s pronouns

— Bryan Rickert, Prune Juice Journal, Issue 38

a bookmark
where my son
grew too old

— Chad Lee Robinson, Prune Juice Journal, Issue 37

egg laying a little blood on the dew

— Rowan Beckett, horror senryu journal, September 24, 2022 (as Lithica Ann)

storm clouds
what a father says
with silence

— Rich Schilling, The Heron’s Nest, Volume 24.1

simmering heat
the pots and pans deliver
a timpani of spices

— Alan Summers, Haiku Seed Journal, September 20, 2022

chimney swifts
a headlong dive
into darkness

— Lesley Anne Swanson, Akitsu Quarterly, Fall 2022

red lipstick smears
the little face
child bride

— Elisa Theriana, Prune Juice Journal, Issue 38

silver lining—
what the storm takes
from the magpie’s fable

— R.C. Thomas, Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest 2022 (as Richard Thomas); Haiku Commentary, September 6, 2022

empty bird’s nest the span of a pianist’s hand

— Richard Tindall, The Heron’s Nest, Volume 24.4

heartwood something like forgiveness growing in the cut

— Marcie Wessels, haikuKATHA 11

silent after
the shooting
stars

— Joshua Eric Williams, Rattle, Poets Respond, July 2022

taken up by a hawk
every letter of
a snake’s alphabet

— Peter Yovu, The Heron’s Nest, Volume 24.4

windless dawn
a marigold wreath
sways in the kelp

— J. Zimmerman, Acorn 48