The Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest ran from 1993 through 1997. It was the creation of David Priebe (Rengé), the Los Angeles–based editor and publisher of Haiku Headlines: A Monthly Newsletter of Haiku and Senryu. The contest offered cash prizes for three winning haiku or senryu, exclusively in 5–7–5–syllable format, and book prizes for a handful of Highly Commended entries. The Final Judge for all five years of the contest was the distinguished Zen and haiku specialist James W. Hackett.
- 5th Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1997
- 4th Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1996
- 3rd Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1995
- 2nd Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1994
- 1st Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1993
- Sources / Further Reading
- Related Haikupedia Articles
David Priebe (1937–2006; haigō Rengé), the editor and publisher of Haiku Headlines: A Monthly Newsletter of Haiku and Senryu, began gathering submission for an auxiliary annual publication, Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance, in 1992. Following the format of Priebe’s earlier project, Haiku Headlines Rhyming Haiku Contest, 1991, Timepieces was published in a desk-calendar format featuring a week’s worth of haiku or senryu on each left-hand page and a normal one-week calendar with space for notations on the facing page. The volume was comb-bound to lie flat on a desk.
Priebe explained the origins of the contest in his Foreword to the 1993 edition of Timepieces: Haiku Week-at a-Glance:
The first preliminary judge, Thomas Bilicke, then screened the entries and chose 425 candidates for the book. As the second preliminary judge, I further refined the count to 354, then added 11 of my own to fill the quota. I then began to arrange the poems to fit the calendar days. The holidays, solstices, equinoxes, and moon phases were easy to fit into places. Even the days of the week were accounted for, to avoid anachronisms. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle the poems fit into their appropriate places, until, at last it was done.
Priebe followed this multistage selection procedure for each of the five years that Timepieces appeared, and, although the preselectors changed, the final choices were made by James W. Hackett. Hackett also provided notes on the winning and highly commended selections; these were were featured at the front of the annual Timepieces: Haiku Week-at-a-Glance 199x (see Sources / Further Reading below).
5th Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1997
| Judges | Thomas Bilicke Dion O’Donnol James W. Hackett | Preliminary Judge Secondary Judge Final Judge |
| Number of Entries | 1,308 by 127 poets | |
| Grand Prize ($100) | Kevin Hull, Atascadero, California | fragrance of woodsmoke— guided by my half-filled tracks in the moonlit snow |
| Second Prize ($75) | Ernest J. Berry, Picton, Marlborough, New Zealand | nibbling on a leaf a yellow caterpillar letting in the sun |
| Third Prize ($50) | Leatrice Lifshitz, Pomona, New York | Graveside drizzle the family umbrella torn along one rib |
| Highly Commended (5) | Lee Gurga, Lincoln, Illinois | running with the car— the black tip of the dog’s tail through knee-high corn |
| Riána Knowles, Laguna Niguel, California | practicing Tai Chi in the summer wind … everywhere swirling thistledown | |
| Rita Z. Mazur, Richland, Washington | under the back steps catfish flop-flop in the pail— the long August night | |
| C. Mele, Davidson, North Carolina | Along empty dunes wind bends the broken sea-oats, weaving winter roots. | |
| Kohjin Sakamoto, Yawata, Kyoto, Japan | cherry petals fall on the talking fingers of the deaf boy and girl |
4th Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1996
| Judges | Thomas Bilicke Dion O’Donnol James W. Hackett | Preliminary Judge Secondary Judge Final Judge |
| Number of Entries | 1,180 by 132 poets | |
| Grand Prize ($100) | Višnja McMaster, Zagreb, Croatia | back empty-handed from the bursting meadow: idle ikebana bowl |
| Second Prize ($75) | Celia Stuart-Powles, Tulsa, Oklahoma | Barely contained in its thin velvet skin —soft fragrant peach. |
| Third Prize ($50) | Peggy Heinrich, Westport, Connecticut | December sunset putting aside her journal to peel an orange |
| Highly Commended (5) | Sydney Bougy, Memphis, Tennessee | All the art we need— a window on the landing framing pine branches |
| Jean Jorgensen, Edmondton, Alberta | another birthday wind disturbs the falling leaves … what’s left of his hair | |
| Ellen Compton, Washington, D.C. | broken stillness a rippling in the meadow where the fox goes | |
| Ebba Story, San Francisco, California | still summer pond— a slipping turtle rocks the sunning log | |
| Nancy Henry Kline, Larksville, Pennsylvania | wind whips the snow a chickadee crouches inside the feeder |
3rd Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1995
| Judges | Thomas Bilicke David Priebe James W. Hackett | Preliminary Judge Secondary Judge Final Judge |
| Number of Entries | 1,003 by 126 poets | |
| Grand Prize ($100) | Beatrice Brissman, Brookfield, Illinois | Subzero morning … all the smoking chimney pots beaded with starlings |
| Second Prize ($75) | Kohjin Sakamoto, Yawata, Kyoto, Japan | gathering faint light in the darkness of the barn the young onion shoots |
| Third Prize ($50) | Bernice Coca, San Bernardino, California | The old apple tree stands heavy with moonlight and forgotten fruit |
| Highly Commended (9) | Brett Taylor, Wartburg, Tennessee | in a stack of hay a yellow-spotted spider resting in its web |
| Elizabeth Howard, Crossville, Tennessee | down in the valley a lone peacock’s plangent cry evening shadows spread | |
| Carlos Colón, Shreveport, Louisiana | algae gliding across the stagnant pond . . . . unveils the moon | |
| George Knox, Riverside, California | Mohave rainstorm … lizard flattens out against the tree’s lee side | |
| Gene Williamson, Petersburg, New Jersey | relentless heat— the dog’s chain fails to reach the old shade tree | |
| Jean Jorgensen, Edmonton, Alberta | auto wrecker’s yard— poplar fluff’s slow pirouette along the car’s hood | |
| Kohjin Sakamoto, Yawata, Kyoto, Japan | just from within the heap of wood shavings a kitten’s head | |
| Sydney Bougy, Memphis, Tennessee | Sunrise on the snow … in niches of the hollies cardinals warming. | |
| Edward J. Rielly, Westbrook, Maine | January wind — an old farmer hides his face from the auctioneer |
2nd Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1994
| Judges | Rengé / David Priebe James W. Hackett | Preliminary Judge Final Judge |
| Number of Entries | 1,034 by 138 poets | |
| Grand Prize ($100) | Jean Jorgensen, Edmonton, Alberta | friends talk on the porch birds call out to each other in the waning light |
| Second Prize ($75) | Richard Burri, Los Angeles, California | standing very still … the white butterfly I met circles back to me |
| Third Prize ($50) | Christopher Herold, Woodside, California | a large beetle with each step up the dune slides further down |
| Highly Commended (5) | George Knox, Riverside, California | denizens of dark fleeing in all directions … woodpile’s last layer |
| Lennie Kaumzha, Putney, Vermont | coaxing the turtle from the middle of the road looking in its eyes | |
| Donald Holroyd, York, Pennsylvania | Midsummer heat wave— a robin in the birdbath prolongs his splashing | |
| Jean Jorgensen, Edmonton, Alberta | all the trees greening stench of the branding iron sears the dusty air | |
| George Knox, Riverside, California | on leafless branches bird-hollowed pomegranates agape in the rain |
1st Annual Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1993
| Judges | Thomas Bilicke David Priebe James W. Hackett | Preliminary Judge Secondary Judge Final Judge |
| Number of Entries | 823, but 160 were disqualified because of irrregular syllable counts | |
| Grand Prize ($100) | Nina A. Wicker, Sanford, North Carolina | hot summer highway— a yellow jacket tasting the opossum’s tongue |
| Second Prize ($75) | Francine Banwarth, Dubuque, Iowa | in cellar darkness where potatoes lie sprouting falls a wedge of light |
| Third Prize ($50) | Richard Burri, Los Angeles, California | eighty winters old … and once again I visit with the plum blossoms |
| Highly Commended (5) | Timothy Russell, Toronto, Ohio | at the river’s edge ice melts from willow branches a dangling fishhook |
| George Knox, Riverside, California | again this morning going to unlock the gate new web in my face | |
| Emily Romano, Boonton, New Jersey | just a half-moon rim protrudes from occlusive bark: useless pulley wheel | |
| Leatrice Lifshitz, Pomona, New York | away from it all already the spider’s web strung from tree to car | |
| George Knox, Riverside, California | long after summer: my granddaughter’s mandala crayoned on concrete |
Sources / Further Reading
- Priebe, David, comp. and ed. Timepieces: Haiku Week-at-a-Glance 1993. Los Angeles: Cloverleaf Books, 1993. Contains 365 haiku and senryu by 87 poets, including contest prize winners chosen by James W. Hackett, arranged in a cycle for the year 1993.
- Priebe, David, comp. and ed. Timepieces: Haiku Week-at-a-Glance 1994. Los Angeles: Cloverleaf Books, 1994.
- Priebe, David, comp. and ed. Timepieces: Haiku Week-at-a-Glance 1995. Los Angeles: Cloverleaf Books, 1995.
- Priebe, David, comp. and ed. Timepieces: Haiku Week-at-a-Glance 1996. Los Angeles: Cloverleaf Books, 1996. Contains 366 haiku and senryu by 102 poets, including contest prize winners chosen by Thomas Bilicke, Dion O’Donnol, and James W. Hackett, arranged in a cycle for the year 1996.
- Priebe, David, comp. and ed. Timepieces: Haiku Week-at-a-Glance 1997. Los Angeles: Cloverleaf Books, 1997. Contains 365 haiku and senryu by 100 poets, including contest prize winners chosen by Thomas Bilicke, Dion O’Donnol, and James W. Hackett, arranged in a cycle for the year 1997.
Related Haikupedia Articles
Haiku Headlines: A Monthly Newsletter of Haiku and Senryu
Haiku Headlines Rhyming Haiku Contest, 1991
Rengé / David Priebe