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.

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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

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

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Compiled by the Haikupedia Editors