Shortlist of Poems: Touchstone Awards 2013

In the closing months of last year, we had a terrific response to our call for submissions to the Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems. The Awards recognize excellence and innovation in English-language haiku and senryu published in juried public venues during each calendar year. To those of you who nominated poems published during 2013, thank you.

After much deliberation, the panel has selected the shortlist of poems that will move on to the final round. Many thanks to the distinguished panelists who have been so generous with their time and attention over the past few months—well over 500 poems were nominated!

Award-recipients will be selected from the following list. Final results are scheduled to be announced in mid April. Author names are in alphabetical order:

nagasaki . . .

in her belly, the sound

of unopened mail    

—Don Baird, HaikuNow! 2013, 1^st prize

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overnight the spider’s mathematics

—John Barlow, Honorable Mention, Modern Haiku Robert Spiess Awards

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august mist

the magnificence

of thought

—Ernest J. Berry, Polish International Haiku Competition

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gale-force wind

a bird’s nest becomes

what it was

—Alan S. Bridges, IHS International Haiku Competition

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cubist lesson . . .

I look at my cat

differently

—Dawn Bruce, Shamrock No. 26

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dysle,xia s,ympto.ms? Sp,ring. fever      

—Metod Češek, Modern Haiku 44.3

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night border crossing –

the elephant calf holds

his mother’s tail

—Sonam Chhoki, Shamrock No. 26

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cold snap –

a sparrow flicks its tail 

of snowflakes

 —Marion Clarke, Shamrock No. 25

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purple clematis . . .

changing her wardrobe

into summer

—Anne Curran, Shamrock No. 26

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washed up body

the one who moves

toward it

—Mike Dillon, Modern Haiku 44.3

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Father’s Day . . .

the weight of his hammer

that never fit my hand

—Michael L. Evans, Francine Porad Award Winner

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waiting for the blossoms

the birds are still

up the magician’s sleeve             

—Marco Fraticelli, Best Canadian Poem, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

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sand dune    the width of the wind

—Harry Frentz, NZPS Jeanette Stace Memorial Award Winner

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overcast morning

the road worker’s gaze

on southbound geese

—Ferris Gilli, Acorn No. 31

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     intensive care

the plant’s last leaf

         hangs on

—Scott Glander, Mayfly No. 54

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the love we once shared

in the phone book

a hundred of you

—Kate Godsey, Chrysanthemum No. 14

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Memorial Day

I paint each fingernail

a different color

—Carolyn Hall, A Hundred Gourds 3.1

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cowlick

some part of me

still wild

—Annette Makino, tinywords 13.2

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no escaping

this moonlight —

Pompeii

—Scott Mason, Frogpond, Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest

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morning fog . . .

when my embryo

had gills

—Tyrone McDonald, The Heron’s Nest, Vol. 15

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fire duty

the newly ironed shirt

still warm

—Ron C. Moss, The Herons Nest, Vol. 16

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prenuptial contract

fish bones neatly spaced

on white china

—Ron C. Moss, Acorn No. 30

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silence of snow

we listen to the house

grow smaller

—John Parsons, Frogpond 36:2

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a meteor flares —

the scrape of a tailpipe

throwing sparks

—Chad Lee Robinson, Mariposa No. 29

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humid evening —

the census taker’s

arched eyebrows

—Sandra Simpson, Kokako No. 19

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southbound birds the loop of identity

—Dietmar Tauchner, Grand prize, Kusamakura Haiku Contest

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breaching whale

the time between

too soon and too late

— Julie Warther, Polish International Haiku Competition

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orange blossom —

lifting her niqab

just enough

—Sara Winteridge, Modern Haiku 44.2

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a blue coffin

one nail escapes

the solar system

—Peter Yovu, R’r 13.1

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