The Touchstone Award for Individual Poems Committee Announces Its 2019 Shortlist

We are announcing The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems at a perilous moment as we face the uncertainly of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Haiku Foundation and panel members hope for the safety and health of the entire haiku community as well as everyone beyond.

We have had a tremendous number of submissions to the Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems for 2019. The Touchstone Awards recognize excellence and innovation in English-language haiku and senryu published in juried public venues during each calendar year. Twenty-seven editors nominated 573 haiku to accompany 225 individual haiku nominations. Haiku were nominated from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, United States and Viet Nam. We thank all the editors and individual haiku poets who have nominated poems.

After much deliberation, the panel has selected a Shortlist of poems that will move to the final round. The six panelists compile the Shortlist by first selecting ten favorite haiku from the total pool of 800 plus nominations, or 60 haiku each; in this first round, only four haiku overlapped on the lists of two or more panelists. In the second round, in another round of voting, the panelists winnowed the nominated 56 haiku to the Shortlist. As it turns out, the Shortlist includes at least the top three haiku chosen by each panelist.

Reflecting the various haiku sensibilities of the panel, the Shortlist includes a range of traditional to experimental haiku, and this year there were ten monoku. Twenty Shortlist haiku were nominated by editors of journals, and ten were nominated by individual haiku poets.

Many thanks to our distinguished panelists — Chuck Brickley, Susan Constable, Anna Maris, Chris Patchel, Wally Swist and Michelle Tennison — who have been so reflective about their choices and generous with their time and effort over the past few months, especially in the last few weeks, in light of the pandemic.

The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems recipients will be selected from the following list. Final results will be announced on April 17, as part of the Haiku Foundation’s celebration of International Haiku Poetry Day.

Bruce H. Feingold
Chairman, Touchstone Awards

country road
the long ride through the scent
of cattle gone ahead
     — Adjei Agyei-Baah, Wales Haiku Journal Spring 2019
living alone . . .
both ends
of the wishbone
     — Francine Banwarth, The Heron’s Nest XXI:3
light rain the karst of everyday mind
     — Sondra J. Byrnes, Sonic Boom 15
lichen
in a stone angel's palm
advancing rain
     — Paul Chambers, Presence 67
hardening the tractor ruts blackthorn wind
     — Simon Chard, Presence 64
rain —
earwigs spill
from fennel stalks
     — Sarah-Jane Crowson, Wales Haiku Journal Autumn 2019
dust of a moth
all that i’ve been
belongs to the moon
     — Lucia Fontana, Failed Haiku 46
moonlight what’s left of the river
     — Lorin Ford, The Heron’s Nest XXI:3
mom’s grave —
the breeze parts my hair
just so
     — Warren Gossett, Acorn 42
oak leaf frozen to the sidewalk a celibate life
     — Lee Gurga, Mariposa 40
strawberry season
acres and acres
of bent backs
     — Gregory Longenecker, The Heron’s Nest XXI:2
field of poppies the war somewhere
     — Elmedin Kadric, Presence 64
three tiny bones
in my inner ear
meadow lark
     — Marietta McGregor, The Heron’s Nest XXI:4
power cut
we reach Mordor
by candlelight
     — John McManus, hedgerow 129
summer the heat of his punch
     — Lori A Minor, THF Troutswirl, Haiku Dialogue: Poet’s Choice
backyard weeds everyone has a name
     — Ben Moeller-Gaa, hedgerow 129
wind song
between boulders —
ochre handprints
     — Leanne Mumford, Echidna Tracks 2
dappled light
the voice a crow has
for its young
     — Polona Oblak, The Heron’s Nest XXI:4
be still     wind
and know     rain
that I am    tree
     — Renée Owen, Modern Haiku 50.2
night bus
the emptiness
well lit
     — Bryan Rickert, The Heron’s Nest XXI:2
both tent flaps
tied open
morning solitude
     — Chad Lee Robinson, Acorn 43
maple keys tomorrow a sermon on doors
     — Dan Schwerin, Modern Haiku 50:3
Woodstock forever stamps summer’s end
     — Charlie Shiotani, The Heron’s Nest XXI:4
carving
the snow
ulu moon
     — Robin Anna Smith, Seventh Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards, Third Place
bioluminescence
I skip a pebble across
the universe
     — Debbie Strange, Seashores 2
ghost apple
this emptiness
inside
     — Debbie Strange, Shamrock Haiku Journal 42
weathered oars
we fold our worries
into the river
     — Debbie Strange, Acorn 42
day moon
the only witness
remains silent
     — Julie Warther, Acorn 42
immigrant
seeds sewn
into her dress
     — Mary Weiler, Frogpond 42.2
late-life affair
the weathered stone wall
wild with foxgloves
     — Lucy Whitehead, Modern Haiku 50.3