Saturday, April 23, 2016

Bulgarian Haiku Union, The Second International Cherry Blossom Haiku Contest, April 2016

Translated into Bulgarian by Iliyana Stoyanova


rusted bucket
cherry blossoms patch
every hole


2nd Place
The Second International Haiku Contest, "Cherry Blossom", 2016

Hedgerow Poems, Number 74, April 2016

Resident Artist

(for National Poetry Month)








These poems (without art) appeared respectively in the Bright Stars Tanka Anthologies (first two),
Undertow Tanka Review, and Gems Anthology.

World Haiku, Number 12, 2016

Translated into Japanese


blood moon
one ripe strawberry
in a black bowl


winter bird
am I the only one
who knows your song


brewing ants
a rusted teapot
in the garden


Note: the above haiku previously appeared in Brass Bell Haiku Journal



Award of Excellence, WHAC8 Commemorative Haiga Contest, September 2015



World Haiku Association, March 2016

140th Monthly Haiga Contest





VerseWrights, 2016




Under the Basho, February 2016

Hokku Category


painted gourds
purple martins sway
with the wind


northern lights
melting into the lake
a loon's quaver


bent grasses
the flattened shadows
of mule deer


Modern Haiku Category


spangled web
one thing holding
us together

The Haiku Foundation, EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration, April 2016

Theme:  Food Crops


harvest moon . . .
the cat's whiskers sparkle
with grain dust

cattails, January 2014


bumper crop
a grasshopper sky
all that remains

cattails, May 2015


empty chrysalis . . .
the summer snap
of sugar peas

Akitsu Quarterly, Summer 2015


a quiet field
and the loudness
of pumpkins

Prune Juice 14, November 2014


NeverEnding Story, April 2016

Translated into Chinese by Chen-ou Liu


f i s s u r e s
and (whose) fault lines
cracking open
we try to mend the damage
of our quaking lives


Undertow Tanka Review 1, August 2014


Chen-ou's comments:

Combined with the effective use of space placement and (), the prefatory image is logically metaphoric or at least resonates closely with the emotional point of the poem.

Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York - March, 2016

Daily Haiku - Featured Poet for March, 2016


chinook wind
magpies bathing
in snowmelt

snow geese
a chevron tattooed
on the moon

square dancers . . .
the frosted ruffles
of flowering kale

on the tundra
caging a winter sky
caribou bones

geese unzip the sky
a snowflake trembles
on your eyelashes

blood-veined leaf
on your upturned palm . . .
these life lines

Perseid shower
the scent of tamarack
on the campfire

sleigh bells
the hayloft rustles
with deer mice

evening fog
antlers ghosting through
the coulee

stone cairns
a faded cap drifts
downriver

riding the sway-backed barn setting sun

red-tailed hawk
on a telephone pole . . .
the prairie listens

antelope
the humming of wind
in barbed wire

pussywillows
the swollen bellies
of feral cats

gone too soon
saura blossoms
my old friends

sun catcher
the flicker's tail
a yellow fan

summer camp
children sieve the sky
for tadpoles

in cupped hands
the harvest moon rests
for a moment

ancient lichen liver-spotted stones these hands

ice skating
on a bluebird day . . .
our winged feet

a dragon kite
carries the sun
in its mouth

chickadee
the sound of your name
on my tongue

rusted gate
old lilacs blooming
for no one

on a bridle path
the scent of apple blossoms
in my horse's mane

sea smoke
gulls fading into mountains
into sky

a wild sky
tethered to earth . . .
chain lightning

solar flares
a spill of buttercups
in the meadow

a muskrat
sequins of sun ripple
the silence

garden snail how you carry morning dew on your back

thunderheads
a squabble of crows
in the larch

spiderlings
the way life hangs
in the balance


Author Bio:

Debbie Strange is a Canadian short form poet and haiga artist. She is a member of the Writers' Collective of Manitoba and the Manitoba Writers' Guild, as well as several haiku and tanka organizations. Her writing has received awards, and has been translated, anthologized and published internationally. Debbie is an avid photographer whose images have been exhibited and published. Her other interests include singing, playing guitar, writing songs and gardening. Debbie's best "haiku moments" are those spent exploring nature with her husband in their lime-green 1978 Volkswagen camper named Ludwig Van. Every journey and every poem brings her closer to the world, and to herself.

(first publication and award credits appear in this blog's archive)



Kokako, Number 24, April 2016

country road
light smeared across
the horizon


gale warning
in the rugged highlands
wind-chafed
we count the sheep again
and think of emigrating

Hedgerow Poems, Number 72, April 2016

Resident Artist







These poems (without art) originally appeared in A Hundred Gourds.

Gusts, Number 23, Spring/Summer 2016

a corona
around the wolf moon's eye
looking deeply
into every shadow
I touch the pulse of night


the soughing
of willows in night wind
how gentle
the songs of daughters
tending to their mother


though nothing
more than hieroglyphs
these names inked
upon ancient stones
I carry them with me

Failed Haiku - A Journal of English Senryu, Issue 4, April 2016

moonshine in mason jars firefly constellations


downed trees
a different view after
the argument





Chrysanthemum, Number 19, April 2016

Translated into German




Brass Bell, April 2016

a curl of eyelash on your pillow crescent moon

Atlas Poetica Special Feature, April 2016

I'll Be Home: Tanka on the Theme of Your True Home


unbidden
the memories flooding
my mind
for miles, looking backward
at a dollhouse in the mirror