Through the generosity of the Museum of Haiku Literature in Tokyo, since 1992 the British Haiku Society has received an annual gift in support of an award for the best poem of each quarterly issue of its journal, Blithe Spirit. A selector for each issue is named by the Blithe Spirit editor, although a pattern was established early on that the winner from one issue would become the judge for the next issue. From the outset winning poets have received a £50 prize and a certificate. The chosen haiku, and usually one or more runners-up, are featured and discussed in the following issue of Blithe Spirit.
The table below presents, in reverse chronological order, the winning haiku, its author, the issue of Blithe Spirit in which the poem was originally published, and the award selector.
| Haiku | Poet | Issue / Selector |
| Blithe Spirit 34:2 (May 2024), Andrew Shimield | ||
| school satchel the weight of a life not yet lived | Andrew Shimield | Blithe Spirit 34:1 (February 2024), Pris Campbell |
| falling leaf I learn the gravity of dying | Pris Campbell | Blithe Spirit 33:4 (November 2023), Carole MacRury |
| another summer another notch in the old rabbit’s ears | Carole MacRury | Blithe Spirit 33:3 (August 2023), Debbi Antebi |
| toddler’s bedtime searching for the moon room to room | Debbi Antebi | Blithe Spirit 33:2 (May 2023), Gary Hotham |
| my brother’s grave dew carried away on a pair of shoes | Gary Hotham | Blithe Spirit 33:1 (February 2023), Michele Root-Bernstein |
| evening shadows lengthening my stride | Michele Root-Bernstein | Blithe Spirit 32:4 (November 2022), Helen Buckingham |
| bluebells congregate … getting there | Helen Buckingham | Blithe Spirit 32:3 (July 2022), Clare McCotter |
| standing water a deer nosing the moon | Clare McCotter | Blithe Spirit 32:2 (May 2022), frances angela |
| broken window pane birdsong as i shower | frances angela | Blithe Spirit 32:1 (February 2022), Tanya McDonald |
| between hummingbirds our conversation | Tanya McDonald | Blithe Spirit 31:4 (November 2021), Kristen Lindquist |
| hurricane update the soft adagio of the crickets | Kristen Lindquist | Blithe Spirit 31:3 (August 2021), Kate B Hall |
| I greet the sun every morning even when I can’t see it | Kate B Hall | Blithe Spirit 31:2 (May 2021), Phillip Murrell |
| feeding the stray I cannot take in the endless stars | Phillip Murrell | Blithe Spirit 31:1 (February 2021) Susan King |
| decluttering until my one-eared lamb | Susan King | Blithe Spirit 30:4 (November 2020), eddy lee |
| wind and frogsong not enough quilt for my shoulder | eddy lee | Blithe Spirit 30:3 (August 2020), Debbie Strange |
| prairie town rusted rails lead us into sunrise | Debbie Strange | Blithe Spirit 30:2 (May 2020), Anna Maris |
| sleet our promise to stay in touch | Anna Maris | Blithe Spirit 30:1 (February 2020), David Jacobs |
| autumn twilight a bat flickers past my window | Graham Humphrey | Blithe Spirit 29:4 (November 2019), Dennis Tomlinson |
| yellow gorse I push your wheelchair over hidden bumps | Dennis Tomlinson | Blithe Spirit 29:3 (August 2019), Gary Hotham |
| the line for coffee curves the same design on each cup | Gary Hotham | Blithe Spirit 29:2 (May 2019), Steve Dolphy |
| one daffodil leans against another— she would have been one by now | Steve Dolphy | Blithe Spirit 29:1 (February 2019), Paul Beech |
| wisps from a steam iron coil through time my young mum sings | Paul Beech | Blithe Spirit 28:4 (November 2018), Debbie Strange |
| sun spider I centre myself in its web | Debbie Strange | Blithe Spirit 28:3 (August 2018), Mary Weiler |
| a sea of oats skinny-dipping in grandpa’s silo | Mary Weiler | Blithe Spirit 28:2 (May 2018), Phillip Murrell |
| the dinosaur room my charge’s tiny hand slips into mine | Phillip Murrell | Blithe Spirit 28:1 (February 2018), Diana Webb |
| Sunday morning just a wood pigeon’s call and the click of Lego | Diana Webb | Blithe Spirit 27:4 (November 2017), Tecla Schotanus |
| children’s voices over the water once my own | Tecla Schotanus | Blithe Spirit 27:3 (August 2017), Kohjin Sakamoto |
| spring morning … ploughing the warm air into the soil | Kohjin Sakamoto | Blithe Spirit 27:2 (May 2017), David J Kelly |
| red velvet carelessly unwrapping new antlers | David J Kelly | Blithe Spirit 27:1 (February 2017), Rose Ades |
| october morning noticing the changing colours of your hair | Seán McWilliams | Blithe Spirit 26:4 (November 2016), Gary Hotham |
| other lives a coat of paint below ours | Gary Hotham | Blithe Spirit 26:3 (September 2016), Dietmar Tauchner |
| quarter moon the parts of being in darkness | Dietmar Tauchner | Blithe Spirit 26:2 (May 2016), John Rowlands |
| vacant seats on sunbaked sands plane debris | John Rowlands | Blithe Spirit 26:1 (February 2016), Debbie Strange |
| split chrysalis all the ways we learn to become small | Debbie Strange | Blithe Spirit 25:4 (November 2015), Colin Blundell |
| This great sunlit beach making anger and grief impossible | Ken Jones | Blithe Spirit 25:3 (August 2015), Ron Woollard |
| our last meeting— I still remember to shut the gate | Ron Woollard | Blithe Spirit 25:2 (May 2015), Colin Oliver |
| the burn of far lights all the darkness listening | Colin Oliver | Blithe Spirit 25:1 (February 2015), David J Kelly |
| first rain the country lane’s secrets spoken aloud | David J Kelly | Blithe Spirit 24:4 (November 2014), Bill Wyatt |
| Lingering within it but the longest day soon passes | Bill Wyatt | Blithe Spirit 24:3 (August 2014), Jo Pacsoo |
| a whole lifetime into one small room snow on the hills | Jo Pacsoo | Blithe Spirit 24:2 (May 2014), John Parsons |
| lily buds sink unopened all those plans I made | John Parsons | Blithe Spirit 24:1 (February 2014), Ce Rosenow |
| porch swing my feelings come and go | Ce Rosenow | Blithe Spirit 23:4 (November 2013), Frances Angela |
| dancing lessons things i didn’t know about my father | Frances Angela | Blithe Spirit 23:3 (August 2013), Colin Oliver |
| nothing said the stone axe weighed in his palm | Colin Oliver | Blithe Spirit 23:2 (May 2013), John Parsons |
| our old garden chairs held together by sunlit webs | John Parsons | Blithe Spirit 23:1 (February 2013), Margery Newlove |
| the plum tree full again with fruit and dark shadows | Margery Newlove | Blithe Spirit 22:4 (December 2012), Edith Bartholomeusz |
| forbidden love carved in stone the weight of longing | Edith Bartholomeusz | Blithe Spirit 22:3 (August 2012), Klaus-Dieter Wirth |
| after the divorce … could have rag-bagged even her brand-new bra | Klaus-Dieter Wirth | Blithe Spirit 22:2 (May 2012), Leo Lavery |
| frost the postman curses the stuck gate | Leo Lavery | Blithe Spirit 22:1 (March 2012), Humberto Gatica |
| slowly moonlight moves into her silence | Humberto Gatica | Blithe Spirit 21:4 (December 2011), Ken Jones |
| Ot there on the bar a line of wild breakers makes up my mind | Ken Jones | Blithe Spirit 21:3 (September 2011), Graham Duff |
| crimson tulips beneath silver birch the spaces she left | Graham Duff | Blithe Spirit 21:2 (June 2011), Clare McCotter |
| in freezing fog what might have been a light | Clare McCotter | Blithe Spirit 21:1 (March 2011), Maeve O’Sullivan |
| I blow raspberries into your tiny palm— sleepy nephew | Maeve O’Sullivan | Blithe Spirit 20:4 (December 2010), Polly Joel |
| How long does this firefly stay motionless on my palm ? | Yasuhiko Shigemoto | Blithe Spirit 20:3 (September 2010), frances angela |
| summer opening hours she reads her book on the library steps | frances angela | Blithe Spirit 20:2 (June 2010), Keith J Coleman |
| meteor watch: sailing down heaven in the wee hours, a white gull | Keith J Coleman | Blithe Spirit 20:1 (March 2010), Fred Schofield |
| a lone swan’s loud wingbeats half the river’s width | Fred Schofield | Blithe Spirit 19:4 (December 2009), Malcolm Williams |
| mountain moon— sheep’s eyes glow in the car’s headlights | Malcolm Williams | Blithe Spirit 19:3 (September 2009), Graham High |
| sickle moon— the cat creeps along a wall of broken bottles | Graham High | Blithe Spirit 19:2 (June 2009), Clare McCotter |
| Snow bent branches moonlight slides to the ground | Natalia L. Rudychev | Blithe Spirit 19:1 (March 2009), Mark Rutter |
| Dust motes in a lexicon of light the library’s faded colours | Clare McCotter | Blithe Spirit 18:4 (December 2008), Diana Webb |
| rainy pavement— our big umbrella blooms every puddle | Mark Rutter | Blithe Spirit 18:3 (September 2008), Felicity Brooksmith |
| mid-February— if you were here I know that you’d listen and tell me it’s true that I can hear a song thrush | Felicity Brooksmith | Blithe Spirit 18:2 (June 2008), Graham High |
| first snow she runs to every window just to check | Ron Woollard | Blithe Spirit 18:1 (March 2008), Frank Williams |
| Oh … the smell Still a trace of summer In the autumn night | Humberto Gatica | Blithe Spirit 17:4 (December 2007), Maggie West |
| southerly flow the blue heron hunches his shoulders | Patricia Prime | Blithe Spirit 17:3 (September 2007), Katherine Gallagher |
| oppressively seasoned a taste of Indian summer twilight mist lingering in the valley last train home | Max Scrag Edmund Gentle | Blithe Spirit 17:2 (June 2007), David Steele (two haiku by young people selected) |
| Hollow ruins the keep filled with winter sun | Ken Jones | Blithe Spirit 17:1 (March 2007), Annie Bachini |
| in the autumn light a prehistoric circle —just bales of hay money changes hand when buying the newspaper— but not eye contact | Philip Ashton | Blithe Spirit 16:4 (December 2006), Andrew Detheridge (two haiku selected) |
| how quickly it’s been … from the shared taxi, to you pairing my socks | Andrew Detheridge | Blithe Spirit 16:3 (September 2006), Caroline Robson |
| two weeks on the geriatric ward my elderly aunt now identical to all the rest | Caroline Robson | Blithe Spirit 16:2 (June 2006), Basem Farid |
| forty years on in a different continent a smell from childhood | Basem Farid | Blithe Spirit 16:1 (March 2006), Leo Lavery |
| birthday always Autumn always leaves falling | Leo Lavery | Blithe Spirit 15:4 (December 2005), Diana Webb |
| behind the beach hut my everlasting world of pebbles | Diana Webb | Blithe Spirit 15:3 (September 2005), Martin Lucas |
| a rusting ladder down to the river autumn clouds | Martin Lucas | Blithe Spirit 15:2 (June 2005), John McDonald |
| lower and lower, the daffodils’ heads in the rain | John McDonald | Blithe Spirit 15:1 (March 2005), Andrew Shimield |
| white fish bones scattered among the rocks winter sunrise | Ross Figgins | Blithe Spirit 14:4 (December 2004), Martin Lucas |
| swaying yet unbroken over the hidden land-mine a spider’s web | Ružica Mokos Matuka | Blithe Spirit 14:3 (September 2004), Katherine Gallagher |
| almost hidden behind the house— an ancient orchard in flower | Katherine Gallagher | Blithe Spirit 14:2 (June 2004), frances angela |
| toy shop little girl eyeing what I buy | frances angela | Blithe Spirit 14:1 (March 2004), Janet Blundell |
| silence— after the diagnosis silence | F. Matthew Blaine | Blithe Spirit 13:4 (December 2003), Andrew Detheridge |
| blue sky: so full of mountain so full of silence | Andrew Detheridge | Blithe Spirit 13:3 (September 2003), Jean Michel Guillaumond |
| in the land of the blue sun eyes closed | Jean Michel Guillaumond | Blithe Spirit 13:2 (June 2003), Graham High |
| after the avalanche kisses like snowflakes pink fissure of dawn the sky slowly lifts from the land | Graham High | Blithe Spirit 13:1 (March 2003), Klaus-Dieter Wirth (two haiku selected) |
| So great the silence the mime’s rowing through, he rolls without any boat | Klaus-Dieter Wirth | Blithe Spirit 12:4 (December 2002), Heather Kirk |
| on the birdbath’s rim a hesitant blackbird— at last the tears | Heather Kirk | Blithe Spirit 12:3 (September 2002), Claire Bugler Hewitt |
| fallen leaves have narrowed the road to a pram’s width | Claire Bugler Hewitt | Blithe Spirit 12:2 (June 2002), David Walker |
| sound of drizzle between power lines a fuzzy moon | David Walker | Blithe Spirit 12:1 (March 2002), John McDonald |
| Concave against the baby’s head: the mother’s cheek. | John McDonald | Blithe Spirit 11:4 (December 2001), David Cobb |
| in a darker wind hands in each other’s pockets— rhododendron leaves | David Cobb | Blithe Spirit 11:3 (September 2001), Ken Jones |
| From lamp to lamp a rakish fellow striding forward, falling back | Ken Jones | Blithe Spirit 11:2 (June 2001), Ama Bolton |
| frost underfoot and a ring round the moon light-years wide | Ama Bolton | Blithe Spirit 11:1 (March 2001), D. J. Peel |
| The fiddler’s wife watching his fingers move knits him a scarf | Kim Paul Richardson | Blithe Spirit 10:4 (December 2000), Janet Blundell |
| Singing the storm our words hurl in the spinning drift | Arwyn Evans | Blithe Spirit 10:3 (September 2000), David Steele |
| Those new glasses make her eyes look brighter dog-eared Rubaiyat | Ross Figgins | Blithe Spirit 10:2 (June 2000), Ken Jones |
| Still there the hills of childhood still unclimbed. | W M Tidmarsh | Blithe Spirit 10:1 (March 2000), Ernest J. Berry |
| Shaking old leaves the crow perches in a low moon | Arwyn Evans | Blithe Spirit 9:4 (December 1999), Helen Robinson |
| absently getting up to answer next door’s phone | David Rollins | Blithe Spirit 9:3 (September 1999), Patricia V. Dawson |
| helicopter— poets glance at the ceiling | Frank Dullaghan | Blithe Spirit 9:2 (June 1999), Matthew Paul |
| Hoar frost— barbed wire blossoms | Arwyn Evans | Blithe Spirit 9:1 (March 1999), Stuart Quine |
| the baby’s come at last— grandpa congratulates grandmother | Dick Pettit | Blithe Spirit 8:4 (December 1998) Cicely Hill |
| can’t sleep tonight— I love the baby too much | Claire Bugler Hewitt | Blithe Spirit 8:3 (September 1998) Keith Coleman |
| Willy-nilly through her ashes mother’s daffodils | David Leather | Blithe Spirit 8:2 (June 1998), Fred Schofield |
| clouds scudding fast birds blown over trees | David Steele | Blithe Spirit 8:1 (March 1998), Dick Pettit |
| our bare feet next to each other next to the ocean | Gary Hotham | Blithe Spirit 7:4 (November 1997), ai li |
even in my pocket it is everywhere this morning’s spring wind | Gilles Fabre | Blithe Spirit 7:3 (August 1997), Susumu Takiguchi |
| virile young men shooting their semen out in the trenches | Mirko Vidović | Blithe Spirit 7:2 (May 1997), Caroline Gourlay |
| The Bon moon shining over the Tower of London | Yasuhiko Shigemoto | Blithe Spirit 7:1 (February 1997), Richard Goring |
| Herb Robert growing by the tracks rust on the rails | Maggie West | Blithe Spirit 6:4 (December 1996), Bill Wyatt |
| evening— the her heads gatewards the traffic thins | Jackie Hardy | Blithe Spirit 6:3 (August 1996), George Swede |
| four legs outstretched a turtle floats— first cherry blossoms | Tsunehiko Hoshino | Blithe Spirit 6:2 (May 1996), Annie Bachini |
| Wind tears an old web insects’ husks spin off in a last brief flight | Edward D Glover | Blithe Spirit 6:1 (February 1996), Kohjin Sakamoto |
| this winter night my only company an unknown star | Nika [Jim Force] | Blithe Spirit 5:4 (November 1995), Jackie Hardy |
| smell of last year’s fire down the chimney with each autumn gust | Janice M Bostok | Blithe Spirit 5:3 (August 1995), David Cobb |
| in winter silence oystercatchers swoop down on the cold sand | Jack Hill | Blithe Spirit 5:2 (May 1995), Martin Lucas |
| after the goodbye kiss the sweetness of a russet apple | Martin Lucas | Blithe Spirit 5:1 (February 1995), Fred Schofield |
| estuary the artist’s brush catches the hot sun | Ruth Robinson | Blithe Spirit 4:4 (November 1994) Tsunehiko Hoshino |
| Outside the classroom the bicycles stand all day in spring rain | David Steele | Blithe Spirit 4:3 (August 1994), Susan Rowley |
| In the tiny purplish mushroom, All of the dampness, All of the twilight Of some distant forest floor | Tito [Stephen Gill] | Blithe Spirit 4:2 (May 1994), Cicely Hill |
| evening hush … a tabby cat slips through the railings cars race noisily into the gentleness of drizzle | Martin Lucas | Blithe Spirit 4:1 (February 1994), Stephen Gill (two haiku selected) |
| Still unopened The greenish hydrangea flowers: The taste of tea | Cicely Hill | Blithe Spirit 3:4 (October 1993), George Marsh |
| a cake of ice leaves the shore at the touch of my finger | Kohjin Sakamoto | Blithe Spirit 3:3 (July 1993), Jim Norton |
| startled in tall grass the pheasant’s wings beat faster than my heart | Jackie Hardy | Blithe Spirit 3:2 (April 1993), Dee Evetts |
| on the fixture list the name of the groundsman we buried last week | David Cobb | Blithe Spirit 3:1 (January 1993), Colin Blundell |
| in a passing car just in time to see the batsman, out | Jackie Hardy | Blithe Spirit 2:4 (October 1992), James Kirkup |
Compiled by the Haikupedia Editors
Sources / Further Reading
- High, Graham, ed. Barbed Wire Blossoms: The Museum of Haiku Literature Award Anthology 1992–2011. Essex, U.K.: British Haiku Society, 2012.
Related Haikupedia Articles
Blithe Spirit
Museum of Haiku Literature, Tokyo
Museum of Haiku Literature Award—Frogpond (1981– )