Monday, July 31, 2017

The Haiku Foundation Haiga Galleries, 2017

The following galleries showcase 39 award-winning haiku and tanka:


Haiku and Tanka Sketches Gallery



#1

downriver

stone cairns
a faded cap drifts
downriver

1st Place
H.G. Henderson Haiku Contest 2015
Frogpond 38.3 Autumn 2015 

watercolor/digital elements



 #2

light

two deep valleys
in a mountain’s shadow
village children
pleading at day’s end
for one more shaft of light

Certificate of Merit
Japan Poets’ Society 8th Int’l Tanka Festival Competition 2016
Ribbons 12.3 Fall 2016

watercolor/digital elements



 #3 

still

great blue heron
leaning into the mirror
I become still

Front Cover Illustration Contest Winner
The Heron’s Nest 2014
cattails May 2014

digital sketch



 #4 

bones

on the tundra
caging a winter sky
caribou bones

3rd Place
Second Annual “AHA” Awards 2014
cattails May 2014

watercolor/digital elements



 #5

wings

the stillness
of a dragonfly’s wings
first frost

Judge’s Choice
Craigleigh Press Haiku Contest 2016

watercolor/digital elements



 #6 

small

split chrysalis
all the ways we learn
to become small

Museum of Haiku Literature Award
Blithe Spirit 26.1 February 2016

digital sketch



 #7 

curve

the curve
of an avocet’s bill . . .
sickle moon

Editor’s Choice
cattails April 2017

watercolor/digital elements



#8

curling

curling leaves
you turn your face up
to the sun

Honorable Mention
Japan Information and Culture Center
Autumn Haiku Contest 2015

watercolor/digital elements



#9

moth

atlas moth
the places I thought
we’d go

Honorable Mention
Jane Reichhold International Prize
15th Annual ukiaHaiku Festival 2017

digital sketch



#10

symphony

your fingers
played a symphony
in my hair
when I was a cello
and you were the bow

Editor’s Choice
cattails January 2015

watercolor/digital elements



#11

blossoms

gone too soon
sakura blossoms
my old friends

Sakura Award, Canada
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational 2015
Wordless: Haiku Canada – 40 Years of Haiku Anthology 2017

watercolor/digital elements



#12

cupped

in cupped hands
the harvest moon rests
for a moment

1st Place
Bangor Haiku Group
Autumn Moon Contest 2015

digital sketch



#13

wind

out to pasture
only the wind upon
her bent back

Commendation
Romanian Haiku Group
Sharpening the Green Pencil 4th Haiku Contest 2015 

watercolor/digital elements



#14

cranes

last campout . . .
sandhill cranes call down
the northern lights

Honorable Mention
Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition 2017
Modern Haiku 48.2 Summer 2017


watercolor/digital elements


Tanka Nature Photography Gallery



#1

rainsong

with rainsong
whispering in my ear
how could I
not have known that
the time had come for leaving

Commended
British Haiku Society Awards 2014/15
Soft Thunder Anthology 2015

photo




#2

swans

mute swans
under a moon bridge . . .
the things
I should have confessed
make no difference now

1st Place
Fleeting Words Tanka Contest 2016
cattails September 2016

macro photo




#3

numbered

each moment
here on earth is numbered . . .
so why not
fly too close to the moon,
and hang our hats on stars

1st Place
Mandy’s Pages Annual Tanka Contest 2016

photo




#4

cursive

migrating geese
writing cursive letters
across the sky . . .
I finally read between
the white of your lies

Runner-up
British Haiku Society Awards 2014/15
Soft Thunder Anthology 2015

macro photo




#5

smile

they called us
to collect her things . . .
not knowing
what to do with her teeth,
we left her smile in the trash

Honorable Mention
World Tanka Competition 2013
Lyrical Passion Poetry 2013

photo




#6

miracles

wishing seeds
cartwheel through warm air
how quiet
this fleeting moment
this belief in miracles

2nd Honorable Mention
Fleeting Words Tanka Contest 2015
cattails September 2015

macro photo




#7

softly

dried curls
of gray reindeer moss
crunch softly
underneath our boots . . .
no other sound, but breath

1st Place (tie)
San Francisco Int’l Competition 2016
Mariposa 36 Spring/Summer 2017

macro photo




#8

meander

tracks of birds
meander through snow . . .
the surgeon
marks her left breast
with a cross

1st Place
British Haiku Society Awards 2016
Blithe Spirit 27.2 May 2017

macro photo




 #9

nesting

gulls nesting
on the cottage roof . . .
fallen feathers
sprouting from my boots
today, my feet have wings

Honorable Mention
Undertow Tanka Review Annual Tanka Contest 2015
Undertow Tanka Review September 2015

photo




#10

mercury

impossible
to hold the light
of mercury . . .
your memory
slips away

Runner-up
British Haiku Society Awards 2016
Blithe Spirit 27.2 May 2017

macro photo




#11

mythology

fallen leaves
in uncured cement . . .
we imprint
our own mythology
upon each other’s lives

Short-listed
Eucalypt Distinctive Scribblings Award 2016
Eucalypt 21 December 2016

macro photo




#12

ache

the dry ache
of a long goodbye . . .
how do we
reach the other side
with the bridge washed out

Editor’s Choice
cattails January 2016

photo




Haiku Mixed Media Gallery



#1

broken

broken eggs
in the chicken coop
I find your note

2nd Place
Penumbra Haiku Competition 2017
Seven Hills Review 22 2017

photo/digital elements



#2

breath

the whistle
of a wood duck . . .
her last breath

Honorable Mention
Betty Drevniok Award 2015
On Down the Road, Haiku Society of America 2017 Members' Anthology

watercolor/digital elements



#3

mindscapes

mindscapes
the childhood pets
i never had

Honorable Mention, Mixed Media Category
Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga Competition 2016
Failed Haiku 11 November 2016

layered sketch and photo/digital elements



#4

wolf

rocky ledge
a wolf with the moon
in its mouth

3rd Place (tie)
Irish Haiku Society 7th Int’l Haiku Competition 2015
Wordless: Haiku Canada - 40 Years of Haiku Anthology 2017

photo/digital elements



#5

flowering

stark branches
the first flowering
of snowflakes

Award of Excellence, WHAC8
World Haiku Association Commemorative Haiga Contest 2015
World Haiku 12 2016

watercolor/digital elements



#6

shine

fireflies
so many reasons
to shine

Honorable Mention, Shintai Category
World Haiku Review June 2016

layered photos/digital elements



#7

between

fog weaving
between fence posts
a coyote’s song

Honorable Mention
Griffin-Farlow Haiku Award 2015
Pinesong 52 2016

photo/digital elements



#8

tines

harsh winter
squirrels gnaw the tines
of shed antlers

Special Mention
British Haiku Society Awards 2016
Blithe Spirit 27.2 May 2017

photo/digital elements



#9

moonlight

weathered barn
the silence of cobwebs
in moonlight

Honorable Mention
European Haiku Society Prize 2016

photo/digital elements



#10

circles

painted ponies
going around in circles
we find ourselves

Honorable Mention, Mixed Media Category
Jane Reichhold Memorial Haiga Competition 2016
Failed Haiku 11 November 2016

photo/digital elements



#11

rusted

rusted bucket
cherry blossoms patch
every hole

2nd Place
Bulgarian Haiku Union
2nd Int’l Haiku “Cherry Blossom” Contest 2016

layered photos/digital elements



#12

silence

lavender
we pack her clothes
in silence

Selected Haiku
Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum
English Haiku Contest 2016

watercolor/digital elements



#13

night

fog deepens
the sound of rabbits
nibbling night

Grand Prize
World Haiku Competition 2016
Lyrical Passion Poetry 2016

photo/digital elements





Sunday, July 30, 2017

Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest 2017

9th Contest Selected Haiku Collection


floodwater . . .
muddy toys dangle
from branches


jelly jars
on the windowsill
twilight ripens

Write Like Issa: A Haiku How-To, May 2017

first snow . . .
three deer asleep
in my garden


Editor's Comments:

Note that Issa has loaded these and all of our previous examples with emotions without relying on overtly emotional words. He lets his images speak for themselves, and they speak volumes. This is an important secret of great haiku.

Twenty-first century poets Deborah P. Kolodji, Julie Warther, and Debbie Strange have learned this secret. They offer the following haiku as examples of verses imbued with Issa-like perspective and Issa-like compassion, their emotions encoded in pure imagery...

These poems are not parodies of Issa; they are original works of art for which the poets have adopted Issa's habits of mind. First, they stretched their imaginations to visualize what this world might look and feel like to fellow denizens...

In the third example Strange suggests an abiding, shared sense of peace and security under the year's first snowflakes. The deer doze peacefully, while the poet, beyond mere tolerance of their presence, honors and celebrates it. The herbivores that she might chase off with a broom in warmer seasons adopt the poet's garden as their safe dormitory—and all is right with the world.

All three poets have learned Issa's lesson of imagining a fellow creature's perspective to the point that "it" and "I" become "we": sharing both space and consciousness. In addition, all three poets, like Issa, deftly allow their images alone to convey emotion. In the art of haiku, that which is unspoken often speaks the loudest.

—David G. Lanoue

World Haiku Association, July 2017

155th Monthly Haiga Contest




World Haiku Association, June 2017

154th Monthly Haiga Contest



Tinywords, Issue 17.1, June 2017




The Zen Space, Summer Showcase, 2017

 





1) inscriptions - tanka without art appeared in Atlas Poetica, 2016
2) ocean waves - tanka without art appeared in Blithe Spirit, 2016
3) river stones - tanka without art appeared in cattails, 2016
4) these stones - tanka without art appeared in cattails, 2016

Stardust Haiku, Issue 7, July 2017

new foals . . .
the morning-scented
pasture

Stardust Haiku, Issue 6, June 2017

distant hills . . .
turbines harvest
windsongs

Red Lights, Vol. 13, Number 2, June 2017

a trunk full
of frayed ballet slippers . . .
your feet,
broken reminders
of the pageantry of pain


we march
in our pink hats
s t a i n e d
with the blood
of our bodies


bouquets of clouds
on a cornflower day
wherever you are
I hope your wild blood
is singing hallelujah

Prune Juice, Issue 22, July 2017

sheet lightning
my hands find the bones
of your hips


turbulence
so many unaired
grievances


teaching him how
to make cookies . . .
summer snow






Presence, Number 58, July 2017

on the taiga a glimpse of something bigger


mountain goats on a scree slope the sound of rain


hand-me-downs . . .
my sister's boots
take me home


a bull moose
ploughs through snow . . .
we follow,
sinking deeper
into ourselves

Moonbathing, Issue 16, Spring/Summer 2017

on this day
of my atonement
your face
a fragile watermark
at the edge of sky

Modern Haiku, Vol. 48.2, Summer 2017

boundary lines
every fence post topped
with a baseball cap


last campout . . .
sandhill cranes call down
the northern lights

Honourable Mention
Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition for 2017


Judge's Comments:

The first line implies autumn, which implies migration of the sandhill cranes to their wintering grounds. There is much to be found between the lines of this poem. I can see sparks from the campfire drifting upward in the night. Then into the camper's consciousness, the wonderful, rattly yodels of the cranes, followed by the waves and ripples of the northern lights. If I were the camper, I might think, "A heavenly light show and cranes on the move; all's right with the world."

—Ferris Gilli


Hedgerow Poems, Number 116, June 2017

Resident Artist


Creatrix 36, March 2017




More Grows in a Crooked Row, 2016