The Haiku Foundation Announces Its Touchstone Individual Poems Long List for 2020

The Haiku Foundation is pleased to announce The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2020 Long List. 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. In 2020 we had exponential growth in the number of submissions to the Awards, comprising 1302 distinct entries. Forty-two editors nominated 945 haiku, and individual poets nominated 357 haiku. Haiku were nominated from 31 countries: Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece,  India, Indonesia, Ireland,  Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nepal,  Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Pakistan,  Philippines  Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States. Our heartfelt thanks to the editors and poets who nominated poems published during 2020.

In the first round, the six panel members consider the entire anonymous roster and nominate their ten highest-ranking haiku. These poems become the Long List (56 poems this year due to a small overlap in panel members’ choices). In the second round the panel will select their top 6 selections each from the Long List, which becomes the Short List. In the final round the panel selects the haiku from the Short List that will be recognized as the Awarded haiku for 2020.

The Long List includes a range of haiku from traditional to experimental. It represents work from twenty-five journals. 39 of these haiku were nominated by journal editors and 17 by individuals.

Many thanks to our distinguished panelists: Chuck Brickley, Anna Maris, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Christopher Patchel, Michelle Tennison, and Angela Terry. They have been incredibly generous with their time and effort over the last several months. Their diligence, expertise, and thoughtful consideration have been beyond exemplary.

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.

Bruce H. Feingold
Chair, Touchstone Awards

to be to become to remain to seem a mushroom cloud
Melissa Allen, is/let (2020)
through the cracked window
                      a chirp
                                of sunlight
Kelly Sauvage Angel, Wales Haiku Journal (Summer 2020)
within the song
of a winter wren
another begins
Joanna Ashwell, Shamrock 43
first to go 
the pencil’s 
eraser 
Francine Banwarth, The Heron’s Nest 22:3
radish harvest 
a child’s tug of war 
with the earth 
Saumya Bansai, 25th International “Kusamakura” Haiku Competition, First Prize 
viewing the tree
three generations
of crossed arms
Roberta Beary, Modern Haiku 51.1
co-
v.
id
Helen Buckingham, Bones 20
midnight blue 
a grandma-shaped crater 
on the moon 
Hemapriya Chellappan, Blo͞o Outlier Journal 1 
a hot date 
the gentle creaking 
of moored boats 
Marta Chocilowska, Frogpond 43:3 
returning time a poppy seed drops the sun
Beate Conrad, Sonic Boom 18
all the rage white masks 
Cherie Hunter Day, Acorn 44
rock, paper, flower 
the temple 
of forgotten things 
Cherie Hunter Day, hedgerow 133
on the altar 
with the host and wine 
hand sanitizer 
Karen DiNobile, Modern Haiku 51.3
a cloud becomes a cat the dr i f t of th in g s 
Lorin Ford, Presence 68
contact tracing 
a cold breeze sweeps
through the meadow grass
Jay Friedenberg, bottle rockets 44 
crocus buds 
the flavor of my friend’s 
new pronoun 
Joshua Gage, Frameless Sky 13.1 
zen garden 
every snowflake 
finds a stone 
William Scott Galasso, Wales Haiku Journal (Autumn 2020)
tideline . . . 
a breaker delivers sea glass 
to an old sailor’s feet 
Beverley George, Kokako 33
windswept leaves— 
the memory of mother 
combing my hair
Trivarna Hariharan, Isacoustic (July 16, 2020)
finding deeper water 
the last skip 
of the child's stone 
Gary Hotham, Presence 68 
 in the space
our light makes
   moths
Gary Hotham, Gratitude in the Time of Covid-19: The Haiku Hecameron
washing our hands— 
each soap bubble holds

all the colors       
Christine Horner, GEPPO XLV:3
moving van . . .       
everything but the growth marks
on the closet door
Elinor Pihl Huggett, GEPPO XLV:3
rolling thunder 
what the heron swallowed 
kicks 
Humphrey, Jonathan, The Heron’s Nest 22:1
deep autumn							
now I am
the oldest
Bill Kenney, The Heron’s Nest XXII.3
steady rain
might as well
keep walking
Bill Kenney, The Heron’s Nest XXII.1
fall starts measuring time in butterflies
Craig Kittner, Bones 21
what remains
after the river is gone
this empty bed
Kat Lehmann, Mayfly 68
saltmarsh dawn
fish scales glinting
in the otter scat
Kristen Lindquist, Mariposa 42
long before language the S of the river 
Anette Makino, Francine Porad Haiku Award, 2020, First Place
switching to
    a lower case i
autumn stars
Matthew Markworth, Modern Haiku 51.3
	
pre-dawn stars
the rattle of glass bottles 
from a passing milk truck 
John McManus, hedgerow 132
bloodwood moon
a starving dingo paces
the rain shadow
Ron C. Moss, Failed Haiku 49
dusk between the fragments of a prehistoric bird I recognize my mother’s beak
Reka Nyitrai, NOON: journal of the short poem 16
behind a mountain mother's face becomes a lake 
Réka Nyitrai, Modern Haiku 51:3 
look down for cosmos most roots form worlds 
Victor Ortiz, Heliosparrow Poetry Journal (27 Oct 2020)
her eulogy—
the sound of the ocean
in a small shell
Carol Ann Palomba, Mayfly 68

an orchid

trapped in a paperweight 
child bride
Vandana Parasha, The Heron’s Nest XX11.4
horse pasture
the prairie wind moves
with muscle
Chad Lee Robinson, The Heron’s Nest 22:4
i 
c 
i 
c 
l 
e 
s 
t 
a 
r 
l 
i 
g 
h 
t 
Mark Rutter, Blithe Spirit 30.4 
starlings 
shape-shifting 
dusk 
Olivier Schopfer, tiny words (3/30/20) 
adult coloring book 
I still can’t stay
within the lines
Adelaide B. Shaw, Failed Haiku 51
in the space
left by twilight
crickets
Ann Schwader, tiny words (8/13/2020)
before we were human the sparrow’s call
Tiffany Shaw-Diaz, Heliosparrow Poetry Journal (10 Jan 2020)
bristlecone pine 
such a long life 
with so few choices 
Barbara Snow, The Heron’s Nest 22:2 
taking their heat 
with them through the barn door 
winter solstice 
Barbara Snow, bottle rockets 42 
ripening pear the bruises that never heal 
Debbie Strange, #FemkuMag 27
pasture fence
where the paint ran out
a bluebird’s song
Rick Tarquinio, The Heron’s Nest 22:1
harder now 
the ground beneath 
a pile of leaves 
Rick Tarquinio, Modern Haiku 51.3 
our car never nearer the shimmer of black water on the desert road 
Richard Tice, The haiku pea podcast Series 3, Episode 24, 2020
sprouting grass— 
the slaughter tag 
in the lamb's ear 
Corine Timmer, Modern Haiku 51.1
blackbird singing light into the womb
Stephen Toft, is/let (2020)
what pines!
what lady's slippers!
when i take tomorrow's walk
Vincent Tripi, Modern Haiku 51.3
rain-soaked earth
a robin tugs one end
of the universe
Julie Warther, Frogpond 43:3
kicking the tires 
to stay warm — 
hearse driver 
Lew Watts, Modern Haiku 51.3 
moss-grown stone 
a daughter’s age 
in days
Mike White, Frogpond 43.3