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Writer's pictureJoe Woodhouse

Touchstone Award '23 Nominations




It is without doubt one of the highlights of my year: to sit down with all four editions of the Wales Haiku Journal, and take time to choose ten powerful, poignant poems from each season to submit to the Haiku Foundation Touchstone Awards.


This year I'd like to share these with you, with the aim of giving such evocative pieces another opportunity to be read, to be thought about, to be delighted in.


Here are the haiku chosen...



Winter 





first light

the kangaroo’s yawn

holds the sun


Marilyn Humbert 



meadow wind—

this urge of becoming

a butterfly


Hifsa Ashraf



snow on the rice paddy

the crow has gained

the world


Patrick Sweeney



meditation deepening into a hoopoe's song


Srini



the last hundred butterflies white lie


Aidan Castle



3D printing sunlight in the forest


Tony Williams



Teenage laughter   cornstalks swaying behind the barn


Danny Daw



after all the leaves have fallen pregnant earth


Marilyn Fleming



following the footsteps

of a polar bear

winter dream


John Han



a late bloom

on the briar rose

full moon


Bri Bruce



Spring






snow melt

I enter a year

of seconds


Bisshie



morning mist

the softness of

pussy willow


Farah Ali



spring lake

a beaver's tail

strikes the sun


Marilyn Ashbaugh



zazen...

a lotus rises

above the mud


Neena Singh



rain-washed air

the empty clothesline

dripping clouds


Lesley Anne Swanson



Spring blizzard

father retells

my birth story


Jenn Ryan-Jauregui



in the eyes

of the strung-up fish

island sunrise


Bryan Rickert



coastal walk

the tumult of the sea

in my son’s eyes


Adele Evershed



gleaning

the stubble field

evening light


Helen Ogden



in praise

of darkness –

fireflies


Alvin Cruz



SUMMER 





morning dream ----

the mountain

kissing the moon


Manoj Sharma



forest walk

the phoenix stirring

within me


Antoinette Cheung



clear sky

the way you hold

my hand


Adrian Bouter



sunshine

on the nape of my neck

my father’s hand


Tate Lewis-Carroll



deep down in the center

of a thistle bud—

summer


Laurie Morrissey



Summer woods

I gain admission

as a child


Millicent Bee



pocked red dust in the sockets of the sheep’s skull the rain


Mark Miller



their campfire’s smoke

blends with ours...

canopy of stars


Lee Hudspeth



wolfpack—

a freight train surges

into the night


Aiden Castle



a dove disappears

in the heat shimmer

summer breakup


David Watts



AUTUMN





summer stillness

a fisherman taps his cane

across the creek


Glenn Coats



September rain...

by the hedge the soft patter

of sheep



Dorothy Burrows



fresh drilled earth...

more fine lines waiting

to be written


Dorothy Burrows



just words...

slipping peaches

from their skins


Tony Williams



where you try

to ease my mind

wild mussels


Adrian Bouter



distant lightning—

the heron

switches legs


Aiden Castle



rain glistening

on the curl of an oak leaf

my son drives off


Thomas Festa



the fwop

of a pulled cork

hay bale


Bill Cooper



dry desert waterfall

my thoughts

exactly


Lee Hudspeth



holding

the sunset still

his last poem


John Pappas

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3件のコメント


Lovely poems.

いいね!

maryam
1月15日

Thank you for sharing the deep reach of these inspiring haiku 🪷

いいね!

Terrific selections, congratulations y'all!!! :D

いいね!
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