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

1^st 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

3^rd 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

15^th 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

1^st 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

1^st 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

1^st 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

2^nd 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

1^st 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

1^st 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

2^nd 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

3^rd Place (tie)

Irish Haiku Society 7^th 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

2^nd Place

Bulgarian Haiku Union

2^nd 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

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