Akita International Haiku Network, 2025

Honoured to be included in the Haiku Beyond Earth Series, with five haiku selected from my chapbook "A Year Unfolding" (Folded Word, 2017) on March 17, 2025. I'm grateful to Hidenori Hiruta for translating these haiku into Japanese:

https://akitahaiku.com/2025/03/17/haiku-beyond-earth%e3%80%8c%e5%a4%a9%e4%b8%8a%e4%bf%b3%e5%8f%a5%e4%bc%9a%e3%80%8dhaiku-by-debbie-strange-in-canada-1/

white bells

ringing the changes

lily of the valley

muddy jeans

the pasture speckled

with crocuses

in the hills

cattle lowing between

silences

wind gusts

a rotten burl full

of wild plums

in the pond

a white begonia

and old news

Akita International Haiku Network, 2024

Thrilled to be included in the Haiku Beyond Earth Series, with ten haiku, tanka, and haiga translated into Japanese by Hidenori Hiruta on September 28, 2024:

https://akitahaiku.com/2024/09/28/haiku-beyond-earth%e3%80%8c%e5%a4%a9%e4%b8%8a%e4%bf%b3%e5%8f%a5%e4%bc%9a%e3%80%8dhaiku-by-debbie-strange%e3%80%80/

skinny-dipping the moon snail's umbilicus

Runner-up
2022 British Haiku Society Awards


drifting sands
sometimes the poem
writes itself

1st Place
2023 Drifting Sands Wearable Art and Haiku Contest


cattle roundup
a charred bean can
full of rain

1st Place (Joint)
2024 Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest


marsh marigolds
dark waters patched
with light

Highly Commended
2023 New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition


at the moment
I became motherless
something
brushed against me
softer than a feather

1st Place
2022 British Haiku Society Awards

 
sunbeams sift
between the bones
of our barn
mucking out stalls
has never felt so holy
 
Runner-up

2023 British Haiku Society Awards
 
 
fireflies the synchronicity of it all
 
1st Place
2022 Irish Haiku Society International Competition
 
 
there was
so much I wanted
to teach you . . .
a blue jay's feathers
are not really blue
 
1st Place
2023 San Francisco International Competition for Haiku, Senryu and Tanka
 
 
between the spokes
of your spinning wheel
a dusty web . . .
I never thought our lives
would so quickly unwind
 
1st Place
2019 British Haiku Society Awards
 
 
watching you
prepare a star fruit
just so
the small galaxies
of grace in your hands
 
Runner-up
2019 British Haiku Society Awards

Akita International Haiku Network, March 2023

Thrilled to be included in the World Haiku Series 2022, with ten haiku, tanka, and haiga translated into Japanese by Hidenori Hiruta on March 14-16, 2023:

https://akitahaiku.com/2023/03/14/world-haiku-series-2022-24-haiku-by-debbie-strange-canada/

https://akitahaiku.com/2023/03/16/world-haiku-series-2022-24-haiku-by-debbie-strange/

sakura

we learn the lesson

of resilience

Honourable Mention, Sakura Award (Canada)

2022 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational

herring shoals

the ocean turns itself

inside out

2nd Place, Shintai Haiku

World Haiku Review, Winter 2021-2022

prairie blizzard

squirrels take the shape

of their tails

Zatsuei Haiku of Merit, Neo-Classical Haiku

World Haiku Review, Winter 2021-2022

estuary light

the treble clefs

of flamingos

2nd Place

2022 Third Maya Lyubenova International Haiku Contest

awaiting

rain's unkept promise

crops wither

in the dust of dreams

passed down to me

1st Place

2022 Drifting Sands Monuments Number 1 Contest

dried cattails

delicately spun with frost

confections

sweetening the bitterness

of winter without you

2nd Place

2022 Fleeting Words Tanka Contest

stubbled fields

the remains of something

I cannot name

Editor's Choice

Haiga in Focus, Number 52, 2022

busker's hat

a child offers coins

of dried lunaria

1st Place

2022 Bloodroot Haiku Award

heated debate

even the fence

is barbed

1st Place

2022 Creatrix Haiku Prize

canyonlands

a meadowlark sings

me out of myself

1st Place

2022 Drifting Sands Monuments Number 1 Contest

Serow: Journal of the Akita International Haiku Network, Volume 5, Spring 2022

Happy to have the following three haiga included in this issue featuring 5/7/5 format on the theme of yūgen:

This issue also features reflections on making haiga, and the following is my contribution:

Making haiga serves as my daily meditation. It helps to distract me from chronic illness, and brings me much joy! I use a variety of techniques, such as ink, watercolour, photography, and digital components in my original artworks. Sometimes the poem comes first, and at other times, the art begs me for words! The Haiku Foundation Haiga Galleries feature several examples of my work. There is something timeless about haiga and the way in which it elevates both the haiku and the art, expanding the scope of each so that they resonate in a more profound way.

 

Akita International Haiku Network, December 2021

Thrilled to be included in the World Haiku Series 2021, with ten haiku translated into Japanese by Hidenori Hiruta on December 24, 2021:

https://akitahaiku.com/2021/12/24/world-haiku-series-10-haiku-by-debbie-strange/

Haiku:

the lighthouse

without its beacon . . .

tsunami

Runner-up

Constanta Haiku Contest 2021

lily pad rafts

dotting the pond . . .

leopard frogs

Zatsuei Haiku of Merit

World Haiku Review, Summer 2021

the darkness

arrives on a thousand legs . . .

cosmic caterpillar

Highly Commended

New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition 2021

outdoor wedding

an unexpected flurry

of cabbage whites

Haiku Laureate Award

Hexapod Haiku Contest 2021

a split keel

only these waves

of grass

Honourable Mention

Bloodroot Haiku Award 2021

frigid weather

a red rose shatters

on impact

Editor's Choice

Cattails, April 2021

rebuilt homes

fire poppies blaze

on the hillside

Honourable Mention

Capstone International Center Sakura Haiku Contest 2021

north winds roll snowballs

across empty pasturelands . . .

I let the dough rest

Honourable Mention

Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi Haiku Contest 2021

Haiga:

rippling waves

you teach me how

to film the wind

Grand Prix

10th Setouchi-Matsuyama International Photo-Haiku Contest 2020

Fata Morgana the (in)visibility of my (dis)ability

2nd Place

Marlene Mountain Monoku Contest 2021

Serow: Journal of the Akita International Haiku Network, Volume 4, Spring 2021

Grateful to be a featured poet in this issue! 

https://akitahaiku.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/serow-vol.-4s.pdf

The transcript of this feature may be viewed under the "Articles/About" tab of this blog.

Akita International Haiku Network, March 2021

Honoured to be included in the World Haiku Series 2020, with ten haiku translated into Japanese by Hidenori Hiruta on March 1, 2021!

http://akitahaiku.com/2021/03/01/world-haiku-series-2020-22-haiku-by-debbie-strange/

pine forest . . .

the advice I'd give

my younger self

Honourable Mention

2020 Soka Matsubara International Haiku Competition

crickets in the field . . .

we still hear grandma calling

us home for dinner

Honourable Mention

2020 Kiyoshi and Kiyoko Tokutomi Haiku Contest

balcony garden

the birds have finally

found me

Honourable Mention

2020 Triveni Haikai Calendar Competition

sequestered

I cultivate the seeds

of loneliness

Honourable Mention, Editor's Choice Haiku

World Haiku Review, Autumn 2020

ghost pumpkins

winter arrives without

a sound

3rd Place

2020 International Haiku Contest on the Theme of the Gourds

neonatal unit

the bleat of a mother

missing her lamb

In the Starlight Feature

Stardust Haiku, Issue 43, July 2020

ceaseless rain

the questions I still

ask myself

3rd Place

2020 Weighing Raindrops Haiku Contest

earth day

the shimmering wave

of a bee colony

2nd Place

2020 World Haiku Save Our World Competition

prairie town

rusted rails lead us

into sunrise

Museum of Haiku Literature Award

Blithe Spirit, Issue 30.2, 2020

rainless days

I make another cloud

in a bottle

Honourable Mention

2020 World Haiku Save Our World Competition

Note - the following haiga was Highly Commended in the 2020 Santoka 3rd International Haiku and Haiga Contest: 

Akita International Haiku Network, 9th Akita International Haiku Contest, 2020

My thanks to judges, Ben Grafström, Hidenoru Hiruta, and David McMurray for awarding the following haiku on the theme of "Time/Temporality":

blue nemophila

I still miss the little things

about my sister

Winning Haiku

9th Akita International Haiku Contest (English Section-Open) 

(there were 241 contest entries)

Note:

The Japanese hillsides near the sea are carpeted with little blue nemophila in the spring. I have also grown the white and purple varieties, but in this case, I wanted to convey the colour of my late sister's eyes. To write in the 5/7/5 format (contest requirements) without using excess words, is a challenge I enjoy. I'm also happy if I'm able to incorporate a pivot line, offering a bit of ambiguity for the reader to ponder and interpret in their own way. When read with line one, "I still miss the little things", might mean that the writer regrets not noticing small, everyday joys. When read with line two, the meaning might be taken more literally. 

Akita International Haiku Network, January 2020

Honoured to be included in the World Haiku Series 2019, with ten haiku translated into Japanese by Hidenori Hiruta on January 20, 2020!

https://akitahaiku.com/2020/01/20/world-haiku-series-2019-31-haiku-by-debbie-strange/


bioluminescence
I skip a pebble across
the universe

Seashores, Volume 2, April 2019
1st Place, 2019 OtherWordly Intergalactic Haiku Competition


homecoming . . .
a bouquet of sky
in an old jar

1st Place, 2017 Australian Haiku Society Spring Haiga Kukai


stone cairns
a faded cap drifts
downriver

1st Place, 2015 Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest


transience . . .
petal by petal
we let go

Winning Haiku, 2017 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational


starflowers
light the woodland . . .
we find our way

Winning Haiku, 2017 Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition


fog deepens
the sound of rabbits
nibbling night

Grand Prize, 2016 Lyrical Passion Poetry World Haiku Competition


glassy lake
flocks of snow geese
pull up the moon

1st Place, 2017 Autumn Moon Haiku Journal Contest


in cupped hands
the harvest moon rests
for a moment

1st Place, 2015 Bangor Group Autumn Moon Haiku Contest


frozen trough
I cup the warm breath
of my horse

1st Place, 2018 Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest


drought
the kestrel catches
a piece of sky

Highly Commended, 2018 New Zealand Poetry Society Int'l Poetry Competition

Note - the following haiga received an Award of Excellence in the 2015 World Haiku Association Commemorative Haiga Contest: