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Timepieces Haiku Week-at-a-Glance Contest, 1993–1997

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.



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 contest, open to the public, was first announced in the April 1992 issue of the newsletter. The proposal was to come up with 365 haiku and senryu to be arranged into a Week-At-a-Glance Calendar Book for 1993. Prizes of $100/75/50 were offered for the poems judged First, Second and Third Places, book awards to Honorable Mentions, and 50% discount coupons to all selected contributors. Deadline was July 31, 1992. The rules simply called for three-liners of 5/7/5 syllables only. Altogether there were 823 entries received. Of these, 160 were disqualified because of irregular syllable counts.

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.

In the meanwhile, I had a letter off to James W. Hackett, America’s most celebrated haiku poet, requesting him to be the final judge for the award winners. He wanted to see the list before committing himself. I then typed all the poems in single lines with caesuras, without authors’ names, and sent the list to him. In about a week he called me with his choices for the winners.… Mr. Hackett also chose five others to be Highly Commended.

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

JudgesThomas Bilicke
Dion O’Donnol
James W. Hackett

Preliminary Judge
Secondary Judge
Final Judge
Number of Entries1,308 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

JudgesThomas Bilicke
Dion O’Donnol
James W. Hackett
Preliminary Judge
Secondary Judge
Final Judge
Number of Entries1,180 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

JudgesThomas Bilicke
David Priebe
James W. Hackett
Preliminary Judge
Secondary Judge
Final Judge
Number of Entries1,003 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

JudgesRengé / David Priebe
James W. Hackett
Preliminary Judge
Final Judge
Number of Entries1,034 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

JudgesThomas 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.

Haiku Headlines: A Monthly Newsletter of Haiku and Senryu

Haiku Headlines Rhyming Haiku Contest, 1991

Rengé / David Priebe


Compiled by the Haikupedia Editors

Updated on May 28, 2022