The British Haiku Society Awards, 2025

Thrilled to receive the following award:

distant slopes

turning blue at twilight

the soft folds

of this tweed blanket draped

around father's shoulders

Runner-up, The Linda Jeannette Ward Tanka Award

Judge's comments:

I was struck by the poet's apt use of natural imagery. The mountains are losing their shape and form as night begins to settle in. Pairing this image with the soft folds of the blanket (draped around father's shoulders) was so evocative. A fine tanka.

—Alan Peat

Snapshot Press, The Haiku Calendar Competition 2026

Award Winner, The Haiku Calendar Competition 2026 (for March)

Publication - The Haiku Calendar 2027 (Snapshot Press 2026)

sugar maples

small boys running

until they can't

Shortlisted for the Best-of-Issue Award in Presence 81

Romanian Kukai Group, Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest, 2026

Thrilled to receive 3rd Place in this year's contest

ragged clouds

the sleeping bag inside

a refrigerator box

3rd Place

Sharpening the Green Pencil, 2026

Judge's comments:

One might be tempted to read this as an "as above, so below" haiku — but I see it operating in the opposite direction, along the lines of a certain couplet by the visionary poet William Blake (from "Auguries of Innocence"): "The Beggar's Rags, fluttering in Air, / Does to Rags the Heavens tear." This haiku may represent an even more stinging opprobrium, with the time-release power of its purer "show, don't tell" approach.

—Scott Mason

The Haiku Foundation: HaikuLife Film Festival 2026

This haiga video, comprised of previously published poems, was created to celebrate The Haiku Foundation's International Haiku Poetry Day HaikuLife Film Festival on April 17, 2026:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldtmbxtVQoA

Haiku Ink

(with recitation)

The Haiku Foundation: Haiku of the Day (formerly Per Diem), April 2026

Selected by Anju Kishore for the theme of "Peace": April 16, 2026

hummingbird you lose the point of your story

Wales Haiku Journal, Autumn 2025

The Haiku Foundation: EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration, April 2026

Theme: International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists

cattle roundup

a charred bean can

full of rain

1st Place (joint)

Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest, 2024

Blithe Spirit, Volume 3, Number 2, May 2026

shelf clouds

a lone oak pins our farm

to the map

the suchness

of oncoming sorrow

we knew

your ship was leaving,

but could not say when

Heliosparrow Poetry Journal, April 2026

Featured April 18, 2026:

I Am

Haiga in Focus, Issue 92, April 2026

 Curated by Claudia Brefeld

Translated into German

Honoured to have the following haiga selected as the Editor's Choice:

Claudia's Commentary:

This haiga is a fine example of how a work unfolds gradually — yet without ever allowing itself to be fully grasped. At first glace, the connection between the haiku and the image may not be immediately apparent. However, when one considers that 'skyquake' can also be translated as 'sky trumpets', a point of intersection emerges between the haiku and the image. Skyquakes are described as a mysterious phenomenon (a loud bang that seems to come from the sky), which appears to have various causes but has never really been clearly explained. And the clouds in the sky? Are they unaffected  by the events (split apart/come together), or are they part of the events?

This creates a space for interpretation that is not too vast, but just large enough to be filled  with one's own associations and conjectures.

Fireflies' Light: A Magazine of Short Poems, Issue 33, April 2026

 

Note: this tanka was first published in Red Lights 20.1, January 2024 (I inadvertently omitted the last word of the first line in this tanka art version - the sacred fire)

Note: this tanka was first published in GUSTS 25, Spring/Summer 2017

Note: this tanka was first published in Kokako 42, April 2025

Note: this tanka was first published in GUSTS 28, Fall/Winter 2018

World Haiku, Number 22, 2026

Translated into Japanese

bag lady

a halo of pigeons

circling her head

garden rookery

the sycamore fills

with shadows

laden branches

chickadees displaces

a thousand stars

Note: these haiku previously appeared in Geppo

Turf Cottage: Haiku and Senryu from the pages of Tsuri-Doro, 2026

Honoured to have the following work selected by the editor, Tony Pupello, for inclusion in the 2026 anthology!

banshee fog

a barn owl summons

the night

new-fallen snow

the traces of things

unseen

 

Prune Juice, Issue 48, April 2026

theremin

hands that know the shape

of sound

fidget spinner whirlygigging into ataraxia

Presence, Number 84, March 2026

hand-to-mouth

nothing for the sun to eat

except snow

a sea lion

lolling on the rocks . . .

dad's snore strips

off-grid cabin

bog beacon fungus

lights up the duff

arctic tundra

scoured by easterlies

once again

the caribou herd finds

another patch of lichen

Our Best Haiga: Black and White Haiga/Haisha, April 2026

 Curated by Lavana Kray

April 9, 2026: "onion" feature (included among Selected Best/Onion for April) 

(note: this haiku first appeared in Akitsu Quarterly, Summer 2018)

April 25, 2026: collaboration - photo by Claudia Brefeld/senryu by me

Noon: Journal of the Short Poem, Issue 28, March 2026

glacial flour the braided river unbraids

crepuscular\rays\backslashing\into\sky\code

NeverEnding Story: Biting NOT Barking Series, March 2026

Translated into Chinese by Chen-ou Liu:

refugee train

small hands starfished

against the glass

1st Place, 2024 Triveni Awards

Chen-ou Liu's Comments:

The haiku places a heavy, geopolitical subject ("refugee train," L1) against a fragile, personal one ("small hands," L2). this contrast—the massive, moving machine versus the stationary, tiny hands—is a classic haiku technique for creating depth.

The verb, "starfished," is the emotional anchor of the haiku. It creates a stark, physical image of small fingers spread wide, suggesting vulnerability, a search for stability, or a desperate attempt to connect with the world passing by.

And the glass in L3 acts effectively as both a literal and figurative barrier. It highlights the "othering" of the refugee experience—the children are visible to the world, yet physically separated from safety or a permanent home.

Leaf Journal, Issue 9, April 2026

lacking agency : autumn leaves in the wind

homestead

the icicles taller

than we were

liquid sunshine

a prairie rainbow

in the making

Thrilled to have the following haiga selected as one of the Editor's Choices by haiga editor, Ron Moss!

Commentary:

I have had the pleasure of seeing many of Debbie Strange's creative haiga and "tree resin" is another gem. The stunning autumn shades of the leaf and surrounds are delightful to the eye. The clever link of a honeybee's wings to the flat leaf is easily connected and gives the haiga a complete feeling and resonance. The gold frame and tasteful signature on the side captures all the elements in a lovely design.

Haiku Canada Review, Volume 20, Number 1, February 2026

wheelchair ramp

the mountain continues

to grow

lynx and hare

mother's doctor cuts

to the chase

First Frost, #11, Spring 2026

the foxtails

sweep off your grave . . .

chinook wind

wet footprints

a map

on the cabin floor