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:

Failed Haiku - A Journal of English Senryu, Vol. 5, Issue 49, January 2020

Eucalypt, Issue 27, December 2019

fingers of barley
strum the prairie skies
in this heat
our bones become liquid
our minds become still

Blithe Spirit, Vol. 29, Number 4, November 2019

journey's end
the red eyes
of a loon


sunflower fields
I never knew yellow
until now


the slough
behind our farmhouse
viridescent
with mallard drakes
in praise of morning


the vibrant trills
of prairie meadowlarks
rising up
from every fence post,
these old familiar songs

Root, British Haiku Society Members' Anthology, 2019

beachcombing . . .
a fossil emerges
out of extinction

Hedgerow Poems, Number 129, Autumn 2019

Note: haiku first published in Modern Haiku 50.3, Autumn 2019

Naviar Records - Haiku Music Challenge 312, 2019

Featured Haiku December 25, 2019


Please enjoy the music created in response to my haiku:

https://www.naviarrecords.com/2019/12/25/naviarhaiku312-frozen-trough/

frozen trough
I cup the warm breath
of my horse

1st Place
2018 Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest

#FemkuMag: An E-zine of Womxn's Haiku - Issue 19, December 2019

Guest Editor: Elizabeth Alford


snow shadows we find a deeper meaning


polar
night
the
hospital
corridor
even
longer


freezing rain . . .
every worry doubles
in size

The Bowerbird Tanka Group - 21st Bowerbird Tanka Workshop, November 30, 2019

I extend my deep gratitude to Julie Thorndyke for the following generous and sensitive commentary:

Appraisal by Julie Thorndyke

stubble fires
scarred fields under siege
we surrender
to the acrid breath
of smoking dragons

Cattails, January 2014


"When I read this poem for the first time, it gave me shivers up my spine. No doubt it is because in Australia we are in the grip of early bushfires: a spring in which even rainforests are burning, and koalas are dropping from heat in a scarred landscape which no longer resembles the lush seaside towns of our childhood summer holidays.

stubble fires
scarred fields under siege

Debbie Strange is writing about specific agricultural fields but for me they are the country landscapes of memory, brought to mind through the poet's use of sibilance and the hard, consonant sounds of 'f's and 'b' and 'd' and 'c/k'. The metaphor of the dragon representing fire is traditional, but the specific mention of "acrid breath" makes the image very real and reinforces for me the allusion to lost childhood places. The terrible smell after the bushfire. The desolation brought by a monster more real than Smaug himself. The word 'siege' represents the battle between nature and man, as in Tolkien's mythical war. How I wish that our native trees were able to mobilize, like Ents, and carry our wildlife to safety.

But no: the third line, the classic tanka pivot, is chilling: "we surrender". Hope is gone. We accept the dragons' power. It is a death scene.

I have never met Debbie Strange, except on the pages of tanka journals. I have learned that her words are elegant and piercing, and often they provide that little emotional jolt that make tanka such a powerful form of poetry. Here she uses a clasic tanka shape; fewer than 31 syllables; there is a rhythm in the lines and a build-up to line 5 and the drama of the dragon image.

There is plenty of room for wondering in this poem. Smoke can be used as a tool, and perhaps that is another message that readers could glean from these words. The mark of an effective tanka is that there is space for readers to bring to it their own interpretations.

This poem

stubble fires
scarred fields under siege
we surrender
to the acrid breath
of smoking dragons

is for me, a call to arms—we must react against these words and not surrender to the dragon but work to change the seemingly inevitable descent into smoke-filled disaster on this planet. Thank you, Debbie."

San Francisco International Competition for Haiku, Senryu and Tanka, 2019

the coiled tips
of fiddlehead ferns
remind me
that every forest knows
how to make music

2nd Honourable Mention Tanka


Judge's comments:

These coiled fern tips remind me of what's called the "scroll" at the top end of a violin, which is surely why these ferns are named for fiddles. These tips will uncoil, as if to release their music. All aspects of the forest—the high canopies of swaying trees, the forest duff below, and everything in between—all contribute to the music of the forest. The poet notices and is filled with appreciation for the harmony of nature.

—Michael Dylan Welch

World Haiku Review, December 2019

father waxes
his handlebar moustache . . .
crescent moon

Zatsuei Haiku of Merit
Shintai Haiku Category

Stardust Haiku, Issue 36, December 2019

solstice moon
our skis cross-stitch
the snow to earth

Atlas Poetica, Number 39, 2019

leaving


when death
calls me home
let it be
while I lie with you
in the wilderlands

I surrender
myself to mystery
believing
that something immutable
waits beyond my ken

Daily Haiku, Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, December 2019

star-nosed mole
we search for light
in dark places

Shortlisted
Best-of-Issue, Presence 63, 2019

Irish Haiku Society International Haiku Competition 2019

soft rime
a chickadee's song
becomes visible


Honourable Mention
12th IHS, International Haiku Competition 2019


Note:

over 320 entries judged blindly by Anatoly Kudryavitsky

The Haiku Foundation, Per Diem, November 2019

Selected by Pravat Kumar Padhy for the monoku theme of "Celestial Bodies": November, 2019


a curl of eyelash on your pillow crescent moon

Brass Bell, April 2016

The Haiku Foundation, Haiku Dialogue, November 2019

"Social Issues" prompts by Lori Minor: poverty and hunger


charity
how hard it is
to ask

Purple Cotton Candy Arts, Will You Still Love Me? A Puppy Haiku Story, December 2019

Will You Still Love Me? A Puppy Haiku Story: written by Christine L. Villa, illustrated by Jiliane Vilches, and published by Purple Cotton Candy Arts.


I'm honoured to have the following haiku included:


ice cream truck . . .
our Dalmatian appears
out of nowhere

Australian Haiku Society, December 2019

Summer Solstice 2019 AHS Haiga Kukai: Seasonal Entry


firestorm a dusting of red on the glacier


Summer Solstice 2019 AHS Haiga Kukai: Non-Seasonal Entry


patchwork quilt . . .
a happy cow produces
more milk

(Note: these haiku were written in response to artwork by Ron Moss)

Seashores - An International Journal to Share the Spirit of Haiku, Vol. 3, November 2019

prognosis . . .
in the cranberry bog
cinders of light


fern spores
the ellipsis after
your goodbye