This annual haiku competition was launched in 2003 in memory of longtime Modern Haiku editor Robert Spiess, who died in 2002. Each year one of Spiess’s “Speculations” is selected as a theme. Poets may submit up to five haiku. Typically three prizes and as many as five honorable mentions are chosen double-blind by one or two judges. In recent years the competition has drawn as many as 577 entries. Results, including the judges’ commentaries, are published in the summer issue of Modern Haiku following the contest.
- Competition Guidelines
- 21st Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2023
- 20th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2022
- 19th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2021
- 18th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2020
- 17th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2019
- 16th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2018
- 15th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2017
- 14th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2016
- 13th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2015
- 12th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2014
- 11th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2013
- 10th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2012
- 9th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2011
- 8th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2010
- 7th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2009
- 6th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2008
- 5th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2007
- 4th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2006
- 3rd Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2005
- 2nd Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2004
- 1st Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2003
Competition Guidelines
(Based on the guidelines for the 2023 contest)
Theme: Haiku are to be written in the spirit of a “Speculation” selected each year by competition coordinator Billie Wilson from Robert Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku, Modern Haiku Press, 1995).
Deadline: In hand no later than March 13 (Bob Spiess’s death date).
Rules: The competition is open to everyone but the staff of Modern Haiku, the competition coordinator, and the judge(s). Entries must be in English. Each entry must be the original, unpublished work of the author, and should not be under consideration in a contest or for publication elsewhere. For purposes of this competition, appearance of a haiku in an Internet journal, on a website, in a blog, or in any other public medium is considered publication, but posting haiku on a private email list is not. Of course, entries should not be shared in an Internet journal, website, blog, private or public email list, or social media during the term of the competition.
Submission guidelines: Poets may submit a maximum of five haiku written in the spirit of the given Speculation, accompanied by the applicable entry fee.
Email entries are to be submitted as follows: on the Modern Haiku subscription page, find the Donate button; make a donation of up to $5 (i.e., $1 for each entry); a payment confirmation number will be provided, and it should be copied and pasted into an email with the haiku submissions; the poet’s name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address; and the email sent to Billie Wilson at akwilsons@gci.net.
Postal entries are to be be typed or printed legibly on one sheet of paper that contains all haiku being submitted (not one sheet per haiku). The poet’s name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address (if any) should appear in the upper lefthand corner of the sheet of paper.
Poets should keep a copy of their submission; entries will not be returned. Instructions should be followed carefully: entries that are incomplete or that do not comply with the instructions are discarded.
Postal entries are sent to:
Billie Wilson
1170 Fritz Cove Road
Juneau, AK 99801-8501 USA
Entry fee: US$1 per haiku, cash, check, or PayPal (U.S. funds); checks should be made payable to Modern Haiku. For email entries, follow the instructions above.
Adjudication: One or more judges are selected by Modern Haiku; their name(s) are announced at the time of the awards. Judging is double-blind, and the judge(s) do not know the identity of the entrants. The judges’ decisions are final.
Selection criteria: The judge(s) look for entries that hew to Western norms for haiku as published in Modern Haiku and other leading English-language haiku journals and that best capture the spirit of the theme Speculation. There are no rules as to syllable or line count.
Awards: Currently—First Prize $100; Second Prize $50; Third Prize $25 and up to five poets awarded Honorable Mentions. Through the 2019 competition, until the stocks at Modern Haiku Press were depleted, winners and honorable mentions received copies of Robert Spiess‘s books. See the “Awards” sections in the table below for the prizes in each competition.
Notification: Winners are notified by email or phone before the general announcement. Winning entries are published in the summer issue of Modern Haiku, posted on the Modern Haiku website, and announced on social media.
Participating poets may receive a list of the winners by requesting it in their email entries or including a stamped, self-addressed envelope (SASE) with their postal entries.
Competition archives: The complete results of each competition, including the judges’ commentaries, are archived by Modern Haiku webmaster Randy Brooks on the website and provided a principal source for this Haikupedia article.
21st Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2023
Theme Speculation | The value of juxtaposition of entities in haiku, when appropriately accomplished, is that the often rather divergent qualities or characteristics of the phenomena act like the striking together of flint and steel: a spark flashes forth that is analogous to an illuminative experience or intuition. |
Judge | Gary Hotham |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 514 |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 54:2 (Summer 2023) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 Second Prize: $50 Third Prize: $25 Five poets were awarded an Honorable Mention |
First Place | Alan S. Bridges | train tunnel— sliding a bookmark between pages of a mystery |
Second Place | Scott Mason | lace curtains the visiting nurse tries to find a good vein |
Third Place | Ronald J. Scully | raking leaves all the words never used |
Honorable Mention (5, unranked) | Robert Witmer | empty pockets in a secondhand coat Indian summer |
MJ Mello | moonlight lifted by the tide the scatter of his ashes | |
Joe McKeon | robin songs an immigrant’s child translates for grandpa | |
Alvin B. Cruz | finding where I belong the empty space in a jigsaw puzzle | |
Antoinette Cheung | sweeping fog her last breath still in the room |
20th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2022
Theme Speculation | [T]he more satisfactory haiku are those that incorporate or juxtapose two (sometimes three) elements or perceptions in an aesthetic manner, rather than merely elaborating on one entity. The use of a season word, for example, has the function of relating ‘in absentia’ all the aspects and entities of the season to the entities put forth in the haiku. |
Judge | Angela Terry |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 517 from 115 poets in 18 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 53:2 (Summer 2022) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 Second Prize: $50 Third Prize: $25 Four poets were awarded an Honorable Mention |
First Place | Julie Schwerin | the too much of shoes that tie summer’s end |
Second Place | Bill Cooper | twilight chill gumbo simmering to the voice of Sweet Emma |
Third Place | Greg Schwartz | midday heat the lumberjack rests in the shade |
First Honorable Mention | Dian Duchin Reed | winter’s blue sky the missing boy found |
Second Honorable Mention | Frank Hooven | double rainbow the trailer park glistens |
Third Honorable Mention | Greg Schwartz | night train the trundle of the coffee cart |
Fourth Honorable Mention | Kat Lehman | flashes of white butterfly junkyard yarrow |
19th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2021
Theme Speculation | In the better haiku there is a surprisingly large amount of subjectivity beneath the objectivity of the haiku’s entities. This subjectivity is not stated as such, but is wordlessly perceived. |
Judge | Carolyn Hall |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 530 from 116 poets in 16 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 52:2 (Summer 2021) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 Second Prize: $50 Third Prize: $25 Five poets were awarded an Honorable Mention |
First Prize | Tom Bierovic | origami boat the hospice nurse gives it a name |
Second Prize | Alan S. Bridges | thistle seed a new spot on her spine |
Third Prize | Sandra Simpson | no headstone— the rosemary bush finds its shape |
First Honorable Mention | Frank Hooven | news of his passing I walk my feet through morning dew |
Second Honorable Mention | Scott Mason | four walls I trace a nautilus |
Third Honorable Mention | Amy Losak | empty begging cup the old man builds a cross out of pennies |
Fourth Honorable Mention | Antoinette Cheung | lullaby … grandma’s hand cradled in mine |
Fifth Honorable Mention | Frank Hooven | morning fog the wail of saws against the sycamore |
18th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2020
Theme Speculation | A genuine haiku … has … an inherent felt-rhythm that is in concord with that which is portrayed in the haiku. |
Judge | Alan S. Bridges |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 552 from 127 poets in 13 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 51:2 (Summer 2020) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 Second Prize: $50 Third Prize: $25 Five poets were awarded an Honorable Mention |
First Place | Corine Timmer | sprouting grass— the slaughter tag in the lamb’s ear |
Second Place | Terri L. French | in the center of the cavern a call to worship |
Third Place | Julie Emerson | daffodils in a jar of rain on her grave |
Honorable Mention, unranked (5) | Bob Redmond | shearing season— before the first snip the boy’s wince |
Sandra Rector | a baby’s cry— her breasts remember | |
Tia Haynes | gathering the last of the sun … a lullaby | |
Vicki Miko | four o’clocks in the bowl on the day she forgot my name | |
Eric Sundquist | spring wind the distant flute of a wood thrush |
17th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2019
Theme Speculation | Originality in haiku does not mean novelty but direct contact with things in their original nature. |
Judge | Scott Mason |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 477 from 106 poets in 11 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 50:2 (Summer 2019) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus an inscribed copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s Noddy (1997, out of print) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001, out of print) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Place | Matthew Markworth | fog … it comes and it goes |
Second Place | Cyndi Lloyd | not a thought sparkle after sparkle across the lake |
Third Place | Angela Terry | moon glow … an owl’s screech fades into it |
First Honorable Mention | Tom Painting | old linoleum a permanent scuff from the cottage door |
Second Honorable Mention | John Barlow | the long shadow of a standing stone midsummer’s eve |
Third Honorable Mention | Gary Hotham | rain crosses the pond a center for each ripple |
Fourth Honorable Mention | Celia Stuart-Powles | springtime the cat’s tail a little higher |
Fifth Honorable Mention | Alan S. Bridges | into winter the last drop of oolong leaves the gooseneck spout |
16th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2018
Theme Speculation | A haiku lets things become what they are. |
Judge | Michael Dylan Welch |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 407 from 92 poets in 13 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 49:2 (Summer 2018) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print; previous owner’s name written on first page) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Cottage of Wild Plum (1991, out of print) Third Prize: $25 plus an inscribed copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001, out of print) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Place | Tia Haynes | after packing our quiet embrace |
Second Place | Chris Bays | flapping police tape … snow fills a kiddie pool |
Third Place | John Hawk | old sandbox the weeds all grown up |
First Honorable Mention | Angela Terry | night train … the false positive that wasn’t |
Second Honorable Mention | Robert Witmer | Bamiyan the rock face before the mountain was born |
Third Honorable Mention | Michele Root-Bernstein | deep snow the whole day inside myself |
Fourth Honorable Mention | Peter Barnes | garden project— a little paint on the ladybug |
Fifth Honorable Mention | Debbie Strange | longer days I knight my sister with an icicle |
15th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2017
Theme Speculation | When haiku poets are truly stirred by a now-moment of awareness they respond with a simple, usually silent “Yes,” not because they “understand,” for that means the intellect is operating on the event- experience. This “Yes” is not one of considered approval but is prior to such an intellective judgment, it is an unqualified acceptance of the moment and its entities just as they are in their true nature at that particular and never to be repeated split second. |
Judge | Ferris Gilli |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 577 from 136 poets in 17 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 48:2 (Summer 2017) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001, out of print) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Five Caribbean Haibun (1972, out of print) (1982) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Alan S. Bridges | an old song pours from a Navajo toehold canyon wren |
Second Prize | Cherie Hunter Day | nightfall— moths the color of the dying pine |
Third Prize | John Barlow | morning frost the trunks of birch saplings beginning to silver |
Honorable Mention, unranked (5) | Olivier Schopfer | day moon out of the subway entrance a saxophone solo |
Debbie Strange | last campout … sandhill cranes call down the northern lights | |
Jacqueline Pearce | after the rain the rainbow in the fly’s wings | |
Michele L. Harvey | another notch out of the tomcat’s ear … spring breeze | |
Sandra Simpson | summer solstice— pulling the earth back round a zinnia |
14th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2016
Theme Speculation | As haiku poets we can learn much from such sources as the traditional masters’ haiku and from contemporary haiku publications; but our best teachers are wind and rain, oaks and anemones, rivers and mountains, minnows and giraffes, eagles and earthworms, children and God’s fools. |
Judge | Christopher Herold |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 505 from 121 poets in 13 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 47:2 (Summer 2016) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed copy of Spiess’s The Heron’s Legs (1966, out of print) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Ann Magyar | tent city somehow the children make kites |
Second Prize | Joe McKeon | oil swirls in a sand castle moat screeching gulls |
Third Prize | Michele L. Harvey | so little left of the no trespassing sign … snowmelt |
Honorable Mention, unranked (5) | Sharon Pretti | news of refugees the pieces of sea glass I decide to keep |
Rita Odeh | heavy snow— each branch with its burden | |
Olivier Schopfer | afternoon stillness a cricket leaps out of its shadow | |
Lesley Anne Swanson | ordinary morning the cat grooming anyway | |
Brad Bennett | Grand Canyon neither of us mentions the silence |
13th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2015
Theme Speculation | It seems that those haiku that have an inherently melodious quality are the most expressive and contain the most felt-depth. |
Judge | Marjorie Buettner |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 248 from 60 poets in 9 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 46:2 (Summer 2015) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed copy of Spiess’s The Heron’s Legs (1966, out of print) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Cottage of Wild Plum (1991, out of print) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Place | Rebecca Lilly | The life behind the one I think I’m living— daylily pollen in wind |
Second Place | Judt Shrode | mesa wind flutes the mouths of clay vessels spring snow |
Third Place | Lesley Anne Swanson | that old tune … knots in my shoelace coming loose |
Honorable Mention, unranked (5) | James Chessing | losing you slowly the incremental way light leaves the day |
Robert Witmer | butterflies feeding blossoms a boy with a net catching sunshine | |
Tracy Davidson | my footprint fades with the turning tide hint of whale song | |
Natalia L. Rudychev | darkness falling into the stars between us | |
Robert Witmer | wind chimes in winter moonlight through broken glass |
12th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2014
Theme Speculation | After the awareness of a haiku moment, the poet must select and arrange the words of the haiku in such a manner that when the haiku is read or heard, the words arouse or evoke in the reader/hearer those immediate feelings that the poet had. The art of haiku is that of the haiku poet’s feel for words, the selection of the absolutely appropriate words and the exact positioning of them. |
Judge | Roberta Beary |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 340 from 81 poets in 9 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 45:2 (Summer 2014) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print, inscribed to a former owner) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Ernest J. Berry | alcatraz manacles of kelp |
Second Prize | Carolyn Hall | quince blossoms he stops the chemo |
Third Prize | Kristen Deming | alone now no ruby slippers to take me home |
First Honorable Mention | John Barlow | thousands of feet of darkness above us sleeping swifts |
Second Honorable Mention | James Chessing | lullaby meteorites flash beneath heavy lids |
Third Honorable Mention | kjmunro | tall grass a hand drowning in snow waves |
11th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2013
Theme Speculation | Another of the marvelous paradoxes of haiku is that the better they express the suchness of entities the better they intimate the essential mystery of these things. |
Judges | Eve Luckring and Lew Watts |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 256 from 66 poets in 8 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 44:2 (Summer 2013) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print, signed to a previous owner) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Ernest J. Berry | midsummer under a leaf hidden from |
Second Prize (2 equal) | Margaret Dornaus | alphabet soup I practice cradling love in a stainless spoon |
Scott Mason | sautéed fiddleheads dinner begins with grace | |
Honorable Mention, unranked (2) | John Barlow | overnight the spider’s mathematics |
Julie Warther | nightfall no decision required |
10th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2012
Theme Speculation | Haiku have three forms or manifestations: the written, which enters the eye; the spoken, which enters the ear; and the essential … which enters the heart. [Prompted in part by a passage by Sa’in al-Din ibn Turkah.] |
Judges | Melissa Allen and Carlos Colón |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 323 from 83 poets in 9 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 43:2 (Summer 2012) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Heron’s Legs (1966, out of print, signed to a previous owner) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Scott Mason | nautical chart I touch the depth of my mother’s ashes |
Second Prize | Duro Jaiye | slave quarters … the shapes of their shadows in this dust |
Third Prize | Susan Constable | shades of blue … the deer’s remaining eye cradled by bone |
Honorable Mention, in alphabetical order (4) | Margaret Chula | winter dusk my grief released from the crow’s throat |
Michele L. Harvey | formation of geese— a log opens to the woodsman’s maul | |
Kirsty Karkow | I seem to be an intermittent shadow … summer clouds | |
Scott Mason | bitter wind the towhee’s song three notes short |
9th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2011
Theme Speculation | Haiku help to make our senses more alive to sounds, and colors, to textures and odors. |
Judges | Wanda Cook and Paul Miller |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 433 from 108 poets in 7 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 42:2 (Summer 2011) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Heron’s Legs (1966, out of print, slight damage) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Catherine J.S. Lee | falling leaves the clang of horseshoes in the crisp air |
Second Prize | Sandra Simpson | spattering rain the pulse in a sparrow’s throat |
Third Prize | Jennifer Gomoll Popolis | weathered rail— all those carved names through my hand |
Honorable Mention, unranked (4) | Melissa Allen | mice beneath the floorboards … all her small noises |
Catherine J.S. Lee | daybreak the scent of crushed sweetgrass where deer have lain | |
Clare McCotter | the timbre of a horse’s heart winter sea | |
Angela Terry | trying to name the color of the sun yellow peony |
8th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2010
Theme Speculation | Many haiku of quality combine unexpectedness with inevitability—that “shock of mild surprise” (Blyth), followed immediately by the felt-significance of “Of course, that’s just as it is.” |
Judges | Allan Burns and Charles Trumbull |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 377 from 99 poets in 8 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 41:2 (Summer 2010) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Heron’s Legs (1966, out of print, slight damage) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Carolyn Hall | mayflies— an unfinished painting on the easel |
Second Prize | James Chessing | opening the door to an unexpected knock the fragrance of plum |
Third Prize | Kirsty Karkow | a box turtle slowly unpacks its legs first warm day |
Honorable Mention, in alphabetical order (5) | John Barlow | so few feathers left it barely has a name the melting snow |
Jennifer Corpe | Caravaggios— a passing cloud darkens the skylit room | |
Carolyn Hall | autumn wind he wills his body to science | |
Origa | drive-in movie the car surrounded by fireflies | |
John Soules | woodsmoke— the last long weekend of the summer |
7th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2009
Theme Speculation | In haiku the juxtaposition or “confrontation” of entities produces a tension charged with energy that generates an insight, intuition or felt-depth of an aspect of reality; it is a movement, a birth, that leads to a new level of awareness [Prompted in part by a passage of C.G. Jung’s]. |
Judges | Natalia Rudychev and Charles Trumbull |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 309 from 80 poets in 5 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 40:2 (Summer 2009) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed and previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print, slight damage) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Anne LB Davidson | spring floods— I move the sink spider to a safer spot |
Second Prize | Nola Borrell | adult walk a skip in the child’s step |
Third Prize | Bruce Ross | a sudden tinkling of the wind bell winter stars |
Honorable Mention, in alphabetical order (5) | Stephen Gould | A redstone church— still echoing its Angelus, the red stone hills |
Michael McClintock | square little windows the laughter of women at work inside | |
Scott Mason | near sunbathers driftwood nearly bleached | |
Bill Pauly | her therapy the basket unwoven | |
Marilyn Appl Walker | man in the moon a newsman reports a beheading |
6th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2008
Theme Speculation | A haiku is a profound testimony that a most humble object of nature when put into the simplest of aesthetic forms can become a revelation. |
Judges | Lee Gurga and Peter Yovu |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 405 from 103 poets in 9 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 39:2 (Summer 2008) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed, previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Natalia L. Rudychev | letting go the heart of a sparrow |
Second Prize | Linda Jeannette Ward | cog railway— white sky becomes snowflakes |
Third Prize | Peggy Willis Lyles | daffodils— a laughing girl with rain in her shoe |
Honorable Mention, in alphabetical order (5) | Janelle Barrera | wide open the roses we leave on the motel dresser |
ken hurm | lantern shadows two-teat harmony in the milk pail | |
Dru Philippou | sparse shadow of the plum tree the pull of an old friend | |
Sandra Simpson | hot night at the filling station songs of love | |
Eduard Ţară | Shop window— winter light along the violin strings |
5th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2007
Theme Speculation | If a haiku is to have life it must have rhythm or flow— for whatever life is, there is rhythm. Needless to say, this rhythm will seldom be a regular meter, but will be a rhythm or flow that is natural to the entities of the haiku and their particular relation. When the rhythm is proper to the haiku it simply will be felt in an aesthetic mode of “rightness.” |
Judges | Jeffrey Winke and Charles Trumbull |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 381 from 97 poets in 11 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 38:2 (Summer 2007) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print) signed to the previous owner Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Ernest J. Berry | childhood home i park in the shade of my cherry stone |
Second Prize | Origa | the school bell rings … the wings of a butterfly tremble on the pin |
Third Prize | Jim Kacian | followed home by a dog I don’t know autumn dusk |
Honorable Mention, unranked (5) | Kenneth Elba Carrier | blizzard day— extra brown sugar on my oatmeal |
Raffael de Gruttola | in the gutter a crumpled scratch card— ragweed in bloom | |
Scott Mason | gathering dusk fragments of sky between limbs become one | |
Patricia Neubauer | solar eclipse— the rare silence of seagulls | |
Marie Summers | family secrets a thicket full of ripe raspberries |
4th Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2006
Theme Speculation | Juxtaposition of entities in haiku cannot be simply the throwing together of just anything; the poet must have the intuition that certain things, albeit of “opposite” characteristics, nonetheless have a resonance with each other that will evoke a revelation when they are juxtaposed in accordance with the time-tested canons and aesthetics of haiku. |
Judges | Francine Banwarth and Charles Trumbull |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 402 from 104 poets in 7 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 37:2 (Summer 2006) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed and previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print, slight damage) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Carolyn Hall | plum blossoms I make plans for my ashes |
Second Prize | John Barlow | the piano hammers barely moving … night snow |
Third Prize | Jim Kacian | dusklight— I read her poem differently |
Honorable Mention, unranked (5) | an’ya | first snow— my child’s footprints no longer fit inside of mine |
Darrell Byrd | late winter … a king snake stretches across the road | |
Peggy Heinrich | evening news the soothing weight of the quilt | |
w. f. owen | snow flurries the square dancers do-si-do | |
Linda Jeannette Ward | sunglints off falling snow— the silent no in her smile |
3rd Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2005
Theme Speculation | It is [the] subjective aspect that accounts for very much of the difference between a haiku that is merely descriptive per se and one that engenders intuitional feeling—and this is the deciding factor between a haiku in which the poet simply records stimuli and one in which the poet is in accord with the haiku moment. |
Judges | Pamela Miller Ness and Lee Gurga |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 316 from 83 poets in 10 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 36:2 (Summer 2005) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed like-new copy of Spiess’s first book, The Heron’s Legs (1966, out of print) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001). Honorable Mentions: Each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
First Prize | Carolyn Hall | wild berries— one training wheel lifts round the curve |
Second Prize | Marjorie Buettner | winter light— she holds the teacup with both hands |
Third Prize | Darrell Byrd | Orion rising she reaches to loosen the pup’s collar |
Honorable Mention, unranked (3) | Marjorie Buettner | spring stars— washing my daughter’s lipstick off the mirror |
kirsty karkow | still arguing we swim the same river further upstream | |
Marjorie Buettner | winter rain— finding that part of silence which speaks to me |
2nd Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2004
Theme Speculation | True haiku poets do not write to demonstrate how different their haiku are from those of other haiku poets. Goethe wrote, “I have reaped the harvest that others have sown. My work is that of a collective being and it bears Goethe’s name.” |
Judges | Ce Rosenow and Lee Gurga |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 191 from 104 poets in 8 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 35:2 (Summer 2004) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed and previously-loved copy of Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print, slight damage) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995). |
1st Prize | Garry Gay | Autumn woods yesterday’s walking stick just where I left it |
2nd Prize | Linda Jeannette Ward | late for work— one empty space petaled in wisteria |
3rd Prize | Marjorie Buettner | frozen eyes of the just netted fish winter rainbow |
Honorable Mention, unranked (3) | Tom Painting | the foul ball lands in an empty seat summer’s end |
Liz Fenn | rainy day … a crow on the bare branch sharpens his beak | |
Marilyn Appl Walker | hide and seek among the hollyhocks August moon |
1st Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards, 2003
Theme Speculation | Most haiku of excellence are serenely vibrant. Although they seldom are concerned with grand or marvelous events, or employ highly charged language, or possess startling qualities, they nonetheless are intensely alive in their quiet and deep evocation of aspects of life and the world, aspects that can easily be overlooked. In and through these haiku we are able to live more fully and with a non-exclusiveness that lets us participate in and appreciate multitudinous event-experiences. |
Judges | Peggy Willis Lylesand Lee Gurga |
Contest coordinator | Billie Wilson |
Number of entries | 376 from 193 poets in 23 countries |
Results announced | Modern Haiku 34:2 (Summer 2003) |
Awards | First Prize: $100 plus a signed and previously-loved copy of Bob Spiess’s The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print) Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Bob Spiess’s The Shape of Water (1982) Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Bob Spiess’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001) Honorable Mentions: each received a copy of Bob Spiess’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995) |
First Prize | James Chessing | winter solitude— the lima beans soaking in half-moonlight |
Second Prize | Ellen Compton | first light dark limbs of the walnut holding their snow |
Third Prize | Angelee Deodhar | rumors of war up into a darkening sky —a child’s newsprint kite |
Honorable Mention, unranked (5) | Connie Donleycott | summer meadow a blade of grass becomes a whistle |
Maria Steyn | deep night … a moth stirs the windchime | |
Marjorie A. Buettner | steady snowfall … I make hot chocolate grandmother’s way | |
Marlene J. Egger | quiet night the watchman bends to touch a rose | |
Ellen Compton | gentle rain— a shimmer of pennies beneath the koi |
Compiled by Billie Wilson and Randy Brooks (for Modern Haiku), and the Haikupedia Editors
Related Haikupedia Articles
Miscellaneous Modern Haiku Awards
Modern Haiku
Robert Spiess