The Touchstone Award for Individual Poems Committee Announces its Shortlist for 2015

The Touchstone Award for Individual Poems recognizes excellence and innovation in English-language haiku and senryū published in juried public venues during each calendar year. The committee received an overwhelming response to its call for submissions for poems published in 2015 with 575 nominations.

After much deliberation, the panel has selected a 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 effort over the past few months.

Award-recipients will be selected from the following list. Final results will be announced April 17, 2016 as part of The Haiku Foundation’s celebration of International Haiku Poetry Day. Poems are listed alphabetically by author:

a flash of Pan
in the goat’s eye
barn shadows
   — Mary Frederick Ahearn (Frogpond 38:3, Autumn 2015)

twelve strokes
in the Kanji for 'rhinoceros'
New Year begins
   — Fay Aoyagi (Mariposa 32, 2015)

winter galaxy
the social network
of lost mermaids
   — Fay Aoyagi (Mariposa 32, 2015)

the carving knife
out of its sheath
winter darkness
   — Francine Banwarth (The Heron’s Nest XVII:1, March 2015)

nesting time —
the magpie returns
the branches to the tree
   — Paul Bregazzi (Shamrock 32, 2015)

daybreak
blackdog
pixelating
   — Helen Buckingham (NOON: journal of the short poem 10, October 2015)

he casts his line into the first peal of thunder
   — Matthew Caretti (The Heron’s Nest XVII:3, September 2015)

     shorthand
    for a cloud
inside a blue jacket
   — Markeith Chavous (NOON: journal of the short poem 9, 2015)

the answer is yes no yes breaking waves
   — Robert Epstein (The Heron’s Nest XVII:4, December 2015)

desert stones
slowly their shadows
change sides
   —Simon Hanson (Wild Plum — a haiku journal 1:2, Fall & Winter 2015) 

desert twilight
white-winged doves deeper
into the canyon
   — Devin Harrison (Shamrock 32, 2015)

daylight savings
what was never
ours to keep
   — Michael Henry Lee (tinywords, March 9, 2015)

distant sirens
over the border bridge
a blood moon
   — Chen-ou Liu (Shamrock 31, 2015)

rock paper scissors war
   — Elmedin Kadric (A Hundred Gourds 4:4, September 2015)

graveyard shift
the leftover radish
tumbles in the lunchbox
   — Elmedin Kadric (The Heron’s Nest XVII:3, September 2015)

    evening lull
a seaside cave exhaling
     butterflies
   — Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Vladimir Devide Haiku Award 2015, runner-up)

squash blossoms
the ribbon on her dress
unraveling
   — Patricia J. Machmiller (Frogpond 38.2, 2015) 

loneliness
opening the window
to let in the rain
   — Jeannie Martin (tinywords, February 26, 2015)

spring dream…
slipping my wings
into a work shirt
   — Michael McClintock (The Heron’s Nest XVII:3, September 2015)

unplanned pregnancy
the hum of a beehive        
beneath the porch
   — John McManus (Acorn 35, 2015)

evening calm
a spider webbing
the breeze
   — Ben Moeller-Gaa (Shamrock 32, 2015)

first warm day
     a robin works
                   the infield
   — H Gene Murtha (The Heron’s Nest XVII:3, September, 2015)

into the owl
a night train's
whistle fading
   — Sandi Pray (A Hundred Gourds 4.3, June 2015)

after tsunami
a surplus
of emptiness
   — Dorota Pyra (20th International Kusamakura Haiku Competition 2015, Grand Prize)

in a rush to reach stillness whitewater
   — Chad Lee Robinson (The Heron’s Nest XVII:4, December 2015)

his best lure
passed to me
this floating world
   — Dan Schwerin (Modern Haiku 46.2, Summer 2015)

the depth of the lake
still in question —
autumn chill
   — Angela Terry (The Heron’s Nest XVII:1, March 2015)

military base —
even the eucalyptus trees
stand in straight lines
   — Tom Tico (bottle rockets 32, 2015)

stillness . . .
the sound of dusk
washing ashore
   — Paresh Tiwari (The Heron’s Nest XVII:1, March 2015)

ripened grapes
the midday sun
closed inside
   — Maria Tomczak (Cattails, September 2015)

spring field —
each step an explosion
of grasshoppers
   — Kent Travis (Shamrock 31, 2015)

Bruce Feingold
Chair, Touchstone Awards