The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems were first presented by The Haiku Foundation in 2011 for haiku and senryu published in 2010 that represented noteworthy additions to English-language haikai in the estimation of a panel of distinguished poets, editors, and scholars.
Since 2011 the Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone awards for excellence in haiku published in the previous year have been given out in two categories, Individual Poems and Distinguished Books. Selections in each category are made b separate panels of prominent haiku poets, editors, and scholars who typically serve a three-year term. The process is overseen by an awards committee chair. Jim Kacian was the first to perform this task, replaced by Mark Harris, and then, since 2015, Bruce H. Feingold.
Nominations for the annual Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems are accepted from any individual who has had at least one haiku or senryu published during the award year. A person may nominate no more than two haiku or senryu, one of which may be his or her own. For the purposes of this award, publication is constituted by, but not limited to, first appearance in a juried public venue such as a book, journal, online site, or contest. The Selection Panel reserves the right to determine whether a poem meets this criterion. Work by members of the Selection Panel, Committee members, and THF Board members are not eligible for consideration. A nomination form with detailed instructions is available on The Haiku Foundation website.
The Selection Panel selects a shortlist of typically about thirty haiku or senryu, then a few weeks later announces six to eight winning entries. Award laureates receive an etched glass plaque with their winning poem. Competition results are announced on The Haiku Foundation website.
Below are listed, most recent first, the individual poems that were awarded a Touchstone Award for the years from 2011 to the present, the authors’ names and publication in which each poem appeared, and links to The Haiku Foundation’s web pages that contain the text of the winning poems and the Selection Panel’s comments.
Table of Contents
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2025
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2024
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2023
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2022
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2021
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2020
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2019
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2018
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2017
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2016
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2015
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2014
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2013
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2012
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2011
- Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2010
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2025
| Selection panel: | Thomas Haynes, Annette Makino, Sarah Paris, Dan Schwerin, and Mary Stevens | |
| Poems award coordinator: | Matthew Markworth | |
| Nominations: | 1,501 by 252 poets in 35 countries and apppearing in 55 journals and 7 contests | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (5): | secrets she did not mean to keep the war | Claire Vogel Camargo, Whiptail 13 (June 2025) |
| an old olive tree listed among the dead | Adele Evershed, Frogpond 48:2 (Spring/Summer 2025) | |
| dusk fine tuning the dark around a cello | Jonathan Humphrey, NOON 27 (April 2025) | |
| big enough prayer rug | Peter Newton, Modern Haiku 56:3 (Autumn 2025) | |
| summer solstice every day a little more daughter than son | Marjolein Rotsteeg, Mainichi Haiku in English, August 21, 2025 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (17): | undocumented a man without a planet | Cynthia Anderson, Prune Juice 46 (August 2025) |
| snowflakes each breath of the newborn on its ventilator | Bisshie, Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2025 | |
| darkness pressing on the house my hands in warm dough | Shawn Blair, Modern Haiku 56:3 (Autumn 2025) | |
| moonlight the shimmer-sound of an electric car | Louise Carson, Frogpond 48:2 (Spring/Summer 2025) | |
| taking her history of falling leaves | Barbara Fink, Mariposa 53 (Autumn/Winter 2025) | |
| blue eggshell something in me made of sky | Edward Cody Huddleston, The Heron’s Nest 27:3 (September 2025) | |
| sunday dosing winds in parts per willow | Jonathan Humphrey, Acorn 54 (Spring 2025) | |
| low-slung sky the rain hanging by a hundred prayers | Anju Kishore, The Heron’s Nest 27:4 (December 2025) | |
| river cloud the X of this body unsolvable | Kat Lehmann, Rattle, April 25, 2025 | |
| as much as I want to be still these wild flowers | Kat Lehmann, Rattle, May 27, 2025. | |
| eventide— a murmur of pigeons folds the night | Madhuri Pillai, Echidna Tracks 15 (Winter/Spring 2025) | |
| before autumn unpetals the last word inoperable | Rich Schilling, Whiptail 13 (June 2025) | |
| wind-bent reeds the part of me that won’t stop swaying | Nalini Shetty, haikuKATHA 49 (November 2025) | |
| whitening pine the crow shakes itself back to black | Laszlo Slomovits, Geppo 50:2 (May 2025) | |
| raising the host a glimpse of the priest’s tattoo | Stephen Toft, Haiku in Action, August 18, 2025 | |
| emptying the house story by story winter’s end | Susan Yavaniski, Acorn 55 (Fall 2025) | |
| a prayer without translation border fence | Nitu Yumnam, Whiptail 13 (June 2025) | |
| Other longlisted poems (24): | half-moon the tingle of a phantom breast | Rupa Anand, haikuKATHA 40 (February 2025) |
| taking a detour after the diagnosis- scarlet sky | Hifsa Ashraf, Suspect Device 17 (October 2025) | |
| dry spell … the magpie rattles a peach stone | Sabrina Blom, Creatrix 71 (December 2025) | |
| news cycle the same explosion from a different angle | Sandip Chauhan, haikuKATHA 41 (March 2025) | |
| stroke by stroke midnight falls on my father’s face | Bill Fay, First Frost 10 (November 2025) | |
| winter stars the history of exclusion | Goran Gatalica, Heliosparrow, December 20, 2025 | |
| ICU the fragments and phrases of your breath | Lee Gurga, Modern Haiku 56:2 (Summer 2025) | |
| long migration a whale’s flukes studded with stars | Lorraine Haig, 6th Star Haiku Contest, July 2025, Honorable Mention | |
| hospital corridor the touch of two wheelchairs | Vladislav Hristov, Heliosparrow, September 6, 2025 | |
| forest stream a fawn steps into itself | Edward Cody Huddleston, Francine Porad Haiku Award 2025, Honorable Mention | |
| w a n i n g gibbous forgett ing to e a t | Kat Lehmann, Rattle (March 26, 2025) | |
| prairie walk our conversation mostly pauses | Tanya McDonald, Frogpond 48:2 (Spring/Summer 2025) | |
| a b utter fly a new born’s po llin ate ing yawn | Scott Metz, Acorn 54 (Spring 2025) | |
| god ray the goldfinch adds an exponent | Sarah E. Metzler, Frogpond 48:3 (Autumn 2025) | |
| lambing season … snowdrops on a long forgotten grave | Isabella Mori, The Pan Haiku Review 6 (Autumn/Winter 2025) | |
| lavender-eyed frogs my place on the spectrum of visible light | Marianne Paul, Trash Panda 9 (Summer 2025) | |
| new nest, mornings begin early, at my window. | Vaishnavi Pusapati, Autumn Moon Haiku Journal 8:2 (Spring/Summer 2025) | |
| island sound waves of silence between us | Barbara Sabol, The Heron’s Nest 27:2 (June 2025) | |
| island sound waves of silence between us | Kelly Sargent, Rattle 87 (Spring 2025) | |
| old tin shed a bullet hole for the wind | John Shiffer, Acorn 55 (Fall 2025) | |
| not enough to become an angel first snow | Richard Tice, Geppo 50:2 (May 2025) | |
| canopy of stars the magnitude of not knowing | Kevin Valentine, Autumn Moon Haiku Journal 8:2 (Spring/Summer 2025) | |
| the ache at day’s end prairie moon | Evan Vandermeer, Hedgerow 148 (March 17, 2025) | |
| catching sun around the pool descendants of reptiles | Joseph P. Wechselberger, Five Fleas Itchy Poetry, August 21, 2025 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2024
| Selection panel: | Roberta Beary, Gregory Longenecker, Marianne Paul, Agnes Eva Savich, Dan Schwerin, and Shloka Shankar | |
| Poems award coordinator: | Robin Smith | |
| Nominations: | Just over 1,400 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (4): | Susan Antolin, Mariposa 49 | |
| Norma Bradley, Whiptail 7 | ||
| Mark Gilbert, Stardust Haiku 73 | ||
| Laurie Greer, Kingfisher 7 | ||
| Other shortlisted poems (21): | Matthew Markworth, Modern Haiku 54:2 | |
| John Pappas, FreshOut Magazine, July 2, 2023 | ||
| Chad Lee Robinson, The Heron’s Nest 25:1 | ||
| hunger moon a mother swaddles her silent infant | Farah Ali, Suspect Device 11 | |
| spring cleaning we sweep a war under the rug | Marilyn Ashbaugh, haikuKATHA 16 | |
| forest walk the phoenix stirring within me | Antoinette Cheung, Wales Haiku Journal, Summer 2023 | |
| early phone call I watch grief claim my mother’s face | Marion Clarke, Under the Bashō, November 5, 2023 | |
| coastal walk the tumult of the sea in my son’s eyes | Adele Evershed, Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2023 | |
| proxy war chills at Netflix | Tazeen Fatma, Prune Juice 39 | |
| breaking waves we talk with our children about our ashes | Bruce Feingold, Tinywords 23:1, May 17, 2023 | |
| bone white winter moon breath of a snow hare | Joan C. Fingon, Whiptail 6 | |
| infant funeral the hush of snow falling into an ocean | John Hawkhead, Asahi Haikuist Network, November 3, 2023 | |
| should you clip my rorschach’s wings | Jonathan Humphrey, Prune Juice 41 | |
| six spruces where astral rhymes are scent | Jonathan Humphrey, Whiptail 8 | |
| THiRD PLaNET FROm THE SUN an antHILL | Julie Bloss Kelsey, tsuri-dōrō 17 | |
| hospice invoice: date of arrival date of departure | Ellen Kom, Prune Juice 39 | |
| father’s war journal … an ocean without a shore | Kathryn Liebowitz, Kingfisher 8 | |
| inexperienced moonlight in the bed of lilies | Mary McCormack, Kingfisher 8 | |
| robin songs an immigrant’s child translates for grandpa | Joe McKeon, Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards | |
| and i the fine slackline and i and i | Kati Mohr, Marlene Mountain Memorial Haiku Contest 2023, 2nd Place | |
| beam by beam the old barn taken down to sky | Peter Newton, The Heron’s Nest 25:2 | |
| folding towels my mother’s way with the past | Michele Root-Bernstein, The Heron’s Nest 25:1 | |
| broken rice bowl— I never stopped to be a daughter | Maria Teresa Sisti, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, June 16, 2023 | |
| all the notes I’ll never reach birdsong | Jennifer Sutherland, Modern Haiku 54:3 | |
| summer sliding into autumn slow trombone jazz | Tony Williams, Haiku in Action, Week 72 | |
| Other longlisted poems (25): | the secret song of the creek my mother asks for her mother | Anette Chaney, Trailblazer Contest 2023 |
| grief an ancient dialect of snow | Cherie Hunter Day, Hedgerow 144 | |
| eggshell at some point they all leave | Johnette Downing, Modern Haiku 54:3 | |
| autumn morning a few atoms of Issa in each dewdrop | Keith Evetts, Leaf 2 | |
| desert cliffs the shadow of a raven carries dad home | Bruce H. Feingold, Giorgia Di Pancrazio and Katherine E Winnick, eds., To Live Here: A Haiku Anthology | |
| moon slipping through the old oak’s hold of dark | Cynthia Hendel, Whiptail 8 | |
| making its own weather hearsay | Jonathan Humphrey, Prune Juice 41 | |
| reconciled— mother stops balancing her checkbook | Barbara Kaufmann, Pulse, May 19, 2023 | |
| idleschoolgirl a drizzle plucking p u dd l e s | Anju Kishore, haikuKATHA 21 | |
| her long gaze at The Birth of Venus … a teenaged niqābi | Chen-ou Liu, Tsuri-dōrō 16 | |
| 15 items or lest we forget | David McKee, Frogpond 46:1 | |
| opening dad’s pocket knife the cold between us | Ron C. Moss, Modern Haiku 54:3 | |
| betel leaf vine— a farmer chews the tip of her folksong | Daipayan Nair, haikuKATHA 22 | |
| border checkpoint she tells her dolls to be brave | John Pappas, Haiku in Action, Week 73 | |
| no letup in the culture wars Memorial Day | Christopher Patchel, Tsuri-dōrō 18 | |
| the machete used to cut the cane used to cut the neighbors | Bryan Rickert, Haiku in Action, Week 77 | |
| still born inside the after-black an ounce of moon | Rowan Beckett, Trailblazer Contest 2023 | |
| the last song I sing her the lullaby she taught me | Patricia McKernon Runkle, Tinywords 23:1, May 15, 2023 | |
| fading into frame this deer quiet dawn | Rich Schilling, Whiptail 8 | |
| pallanguzhi the filling and emptying of life’s coffers | Vidya Shankar, Under the Bashō, May 8, 2023 | |
| a million twilit reasons but one white stork | Richa Sharma, Whiptail 6 | |
| snow grains the field dad had no time to plant | Debbie Strange, Folk Ku 1 (May 2023) | |
| so far from the nest will anyone who knows you know your tree | Herb Tate, Folk Ku 1 (May 2023) | |
| river mouth her mother tongue flows freely | C.X. Turner, haikuNetra 1:3 | |
| ))) hUM ^^^ miNg bird ! > | Joseph P. Wechselberger, Whiptail 7 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2023
| Selection panel: | Roberta Beary, Gregory Longenecker, Marianne Paul, Agnes Eva Savich, Dan Schwerin, and Shloka Shankar | |
| Poems award coordinator: | Robin Smith | |
| Nominations: | 1,671 from 51 journals, 14 contest organizers, and 298 individuals | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (7): | the mother my summer died | Susan Antolin, Mariposa 49 |
| while(the clouds turn into rain)the lily blooms | Norma Bradley, Whiptail 7 | |
| cocooned feeling my wings become | Mark Gilbert, Stardust Haiku 73 | |
| cathedral vaulting the centuries of whale fall | Laurie Greer, Kingfisher 7 | |
| until it’s a noun garden | Matthew Markworth, Modern Haiku 54:2 | |
| laughing daughters somewhere sunflowers | John Pappas, FreshOut Magazine, July 2, 2023 | |
| advice for my son— the tissue paper protecting each pear | Chad Lee Robinson, The Heron’s Nest 25:1 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (22): | hunger moon a mother swaddles her silent infant | Farah Ali, Suspect Device 11 |
| spring cleaning we sweep a war under the rug | Marilyn Ashbaugh, haikuKATHA 16 | |
| forest walk the phoenix stirring within me | Antoinette Cheung, Wales Haiku Journal, Summer 2023 | |
| early phone call I watch grief claim my mother’s face | Marion Clarke, Under the Bashō, November 5, 2023 | |
| coastal walk the tumult of the sea in my son’s eyes | Adele Evershed, Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2023 | |
| proxy war chills at Netflix | Tazeen Fatma, Prune Juice 39 | |
| breaking waves we talk with our children about our ashes | Bruce Feingold, Tinywords 23:1, May 17, 2023 | |
| bone white winter moon breath of a snow hare | Joan C. Fingon, Whiptail 6 | |
| infant funeral the hush of snow falling into an ocean | John Hawkhead, Asahi Haikuist Network, November 3, 2023 | |
| should you clip my rorschach’s wings | Jonathan Humphrey, Prune Juice 41 | |
| six spruces where astral rhymes are scent | Jonathan Humphrey, Whiptail 8 | |
| THiRD PLaNET FROm THE SUN an antHILL | Julie Bloss Kelsey, tsuri-dōrō 17 | |
| hospice invoice: date of arrival date of departure | Ellen Kom, Prune Juice 39 | |
| father’s war journal … an ocean without a shore | Kathryn Liebowitz, Kingfisher 8 | |
| inexperienced moonlight in the bed of lilies | Mary McCormack, Kingfisher 8 | |
| robin songs an immigrant’s child translates for grandpa | Joe McKeon, Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards | |
| and i the fine slackline and i and i | Kati Mohr, Marlene Mountain Memorial Haiku Contest 2023, 2nd Place | |
| beam by beam the old barn taken down to sky | Peter Newton, The Heron’s Nest 25:2 | |
| folding towels my mother’s way with the past | Michele Root-Bernstein, The Heron’s Nest 25:1 | |
| broken rice bowl— I never stopped to be a daughter | Maria Teresa Sisti, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, June 16, 2023 | |
| all the notes I’ll never reach birdsong | Jennifer Sutherland, Modern Haiku 54:3 | |
| summer sliding into autumn slow trombone jazz | Tony Williams, Haiku in Action, Week 72 | |
| Other longlisted poems (25): | the secret song of the creek my mother asks for her mother | Anette Chaney, Trailblazer Contest 2023 |
| grief an ancient dialect of snow | Cherie Hunter Day, Hedgerow 144 | |
| eggshell at some point they all leave | Johnette Downing, Modern Haiku 54:3 | |
| autumn morning a few atoms of Issa in each dewdrop | Keith Evetts, Leaf 2 | |
| desert cliffs the shadow of a raven carries dad home | Bruce H. Feingold, Giorgia Di Pancrazio and Katherine E Winnick, eds., To Live Here: A Haiku Anthology | |
| moon slipping through the old oak’s hold of dark | Cynthia Hendel, Whiptail 8 | |
| making its own weather hearsay | Jonathan Humphrey, Prune Juice 41 | |
| reconciled— mother stops balancing her checkbook | Barbara Kaufmann, Pulse, May 19, 2023 | |
| idleschoolgirl a drizzle plucking p u dd l e s | Anju Kishore, haikuKATHA 21 | |
| her long gaze at The Birth of Venus … a teenaged niqābi | Chen-ou Liu, Tsuri-dōrō 16 | |
| 15 items or lest we forget | David McKee, Frogpond 46:1 | |
| opening dad’s pocket knife the cold between us | Ron C. Moss, Modern Haiku 54:3 | |
| betel leaf vine— a farmer chews the tip of her folksong | Daipayan Nair, haikuKATHA 22 | |
| border checkpoint she tells her dolls to be brave | John Pappas, Haiku in Action, Week 73 | |
| no letup in the culture wars Memorial Day | Christopher Patchel, Tsuri-dōrō 18 | |
| the machete used to cut the cane used to cut the neighbors | Bryan Rickert, Haiku in Action, Week 77 | |
| still born inside the after-black an ounce of moon | Rowan Beckett, Trailblazer Contest 2023 | |
| the last song I sing her the lullaby she taught me | Patricia McKernon Runkle, Tinywords 23:1, May 15, 2023 | |
| fading into frame this deer quiet dawn | Rich Schilling, Whiptail 8 | |
| pallanguzhi the filling and emptying of life’s coffers | Vidya Shankar, Under the Bashō, May 8, 2023 | |
| a million twilit reasons but one white stork | Richa Sharma, Whiptail 6 | |
| snow grains the field dad had no time to plant | Debbie Strange, Folk Ku 1 (May 2023) | |
| so far from the nest will anyone who knows you know your tree | Herb Tate, Folk Ku 1 (May 2023) | |
| river mouth her mother tongue flows freely | C.X. Turner, haikuNetra 1:3 | |
| ))) hUM ^^^ miNg bird ! > | Joseph P. Wechselberger, Whiptail 7 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2022
| Selection panel: | Roberta Beary, Gregory Longenecker, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Marianne Paul, Agnes Eva Savich, and Angela Terry | |
| Poems award coordinator: | Robin Anna Smith | |
| Nominations: | 1,294 from 42 journals and 395 individuals | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (5): | coming out … my father’s love with an * | Peg Cherrin-Myers, Kingfisher 6 (October 2022) |
| once more around the dance floor IV pole | Lorraine A Padden, Blōō Outlier Journal, Senryu Special, New Year’s Eve/Winter 2022 | |
| shifting clouds my child’s pronouns | Bryan Rickert, Prune Juice 38 (2022) | |
| a bookmark where my son grew too old | Chad Lee Robinson. Prune Juice 37 (2022) | |
| silent after the shooting stars | Joshua Eric Williams, Rattle’s Poets Respond, Rattle, July 2022 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (26) | letting go of what’s not mine prairie wind | Hifsa Ashraf, Tinywords 22:2 (October 27, 2022) |
| sunrise all the colours of a second chance | Gavin Austin, Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2022 | |
| leaving him a love note six persimmons | Stephanie Baker, Geppo 47:2 (May 2022) | |
| egg laying a little blood on the dew | Rowan Beckett, Horror Senryu Journal, September 24, 2022 (as Lithica Ann) | |
| schrodinger’s womxn knowing and unknowing our place | Tracy Davidson, 5th Marlene Mountain Memorial Haiku Contest, 2022, Third Place | |
| i am i am not the darkness between subway stations | Frank Dietrich, re: Virals 368, Frogpond 45:2 (Spring/Summer 2022) | |
| {{{{{woodpecker}}}}} | Keith Evetts, Cold Moon Journal, July 3, 2022 | |
| whale song— the distances that call us | Lorin Ford, Echidna Tracks 9, September 3, 2022 | |
| the space between stars— a missing child remains missing | John Gonzalez, Time Haiku 55 (February 2022), 21 | |
| a vanessa flutters light’s thesaurus | Marshall Hryciuk, Kat Lehmann and Robin Smith, eds., Sea Change: An Anthology of Single-Line Poems (2024) | |
| kite-flying lessons holding on while letting go | Kim Klugh, Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2022 | |
| morning sea I shake the night from my wings | Kat Lehmann, Kingfisher 5 (April 2022) | |
| sun tea … a slow pour of afternoon | Barrie Levine, The Heron’s Nest 24:3 (September 2022) | |
| refugee center— an empty room labeled family | Ashish Narain, Modern Haiku 53:2 (Summer 2022) | |
| bus stop a room inside the rain | Peter Newton, The Heron’s Nest 24:2 (June 2022); The Heron’s Nest Award | |
| roadcut— a mountain spring seeps from the Eocene | Linda M. Papanicolau, Mariposa 47 (Autumn–Winter 2022) | |
| storm clouds what a father says with silence | Rich Schilling, The Heron’s Nest 24:1 (March 2022) | |
| simmering heat the pots and pans deliver a timpani of spices | Alan Summers, Haiku Seed Journal, September 20, 2022 | |
| long summer night the coffin maker sleeps inside his coffin | R. Suresh babu, The Heron’s Nest 24:2 (June 2022), | |
| chimney swifts a headlong dive into darkness | Lesley Anne Swanson, Akitsu Quarterly, Fall 2022 | |
| red lipstick smears the little face child bride | Elisa Theriana, Prune Juice 38 (2022) | |
| silver lining— what the storm takes from the magpie’s fable | Richard Thomas, Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest 2022, Joint First Place | |
| empty bird’s nest the span of a pianist’s hand | Richard Tindall, The Heron’s Nest 24:4 (December 2022) | |
| heartwood something like forgiveness growing in the cut | Marcie Wessels, haikuKATHA 11, (September 2022) | |
| taken up by a hawk every letter of a snake’s alphabet | Peter Yovu, The Heron’s Nest 24:4 (December 2022) | |
| windless dawn a marigold wreath sways in the kelp | J. Zimmerman, Acorn 48 (Spring 2022) | |
| Other longlisted poems (22): | bird’s eye speedwell all the march clouds blown to blue | Meredith Ackroyd, Blōō Outlier Journal, Natural History Haiku Issue, Summer 2022 |
| as if damp were a colour … deep woods | Sidney Bending, Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees (2022) | |
| in the field among the bush clover shell casings | Deborah A. Bennett, Haiku in Action 27 (2022) | |
| rabbit + owl = owl | Tom Blessing, ubu. small absurdist poems 3 (March 2022) | |
| autumn afternoon up a ladder, down a ladder move a ladder | Alan S. Bridges, The Heron’s Nest 24:1 (March 2022) | |
| date rape a pocket full of posies | Susan Burch. 5th Marlene Mountain Memorial Haiku Contest, 2022, Honorable Mention | |
| skipping stones answering questions with questions | Christopher Calvin Stardust Haiku 64 (April 2022) | |
| Penrose process … how much energy can my heart muster? | Joshua Gage, The Starlight SciFaiku Review 2 (Summer 2022) | |
| brand new day insert fresh violence | Gary Hittmeyer, Frogpond 45:3, (Autumn 2022) | |
| pressed freesia — the fragrance of absence | Dan Iulian, Haiku Dialogue (The Haiku Foundation), June 22, 2022 | |
| spring green you discover my bare breasts again | Isabella Kramer, Poetry Pea Journal 1:22 (2022) | |
| autumn unfolding a plaid shirt in the country store | Barrie Levine, The Heron’s Nest 24:1 (March 2022), The Heron’s Nest Award | |
| (r)aging | Barrie Levine, 5th Marlene Mountain Memorial Haiku Contest, 2022, Honorable Mention | |
| the magnolia wasn’t ours, yet its absence is | Patricia Machmiller Kingfisher 6 (October 2022) | |
| stained glass the half-empty church | Lorraine A Padden, Kingfisher 5 (April 2022), | |
| my size the shoes he said would see him out | Alan Peat, Mayfly 73 (Summer 2022) | |
| open range the unbridled horsetail clouds | Bryan Rickert, Blithe Spirit 32:4 (November 2022) | |
| in a while the firefly once | Michele Root-Bernstein Whiptail: Journal of the Single Line Poem 3 (2022) | |
| overcast sky … a leaf floats back to the burning pile | Kavitha Sreeraj, haikuKATHA 4 (February 2022) | |
| circling around and around and around … black dog | Joshua St. Clair, Kokako 37 (2022) | |
| 64 crayons white the least used | Margaret Walker, Babylon Sidedoor Journal, January 2022 | |
| tornado the name stitched into a kid’s cap | Peter Yovu Hedgerow 140 (2022) |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2021
| Selection panel: | Roberta Beary, Chuck Brickley, Anna Maris, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Christopher Patchel, and Angela Terry | |
| Touchstone awards coordinators: | Bruce H. Feingold and Robin Smith | |
| Nominations: | 1,506 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (6): | before they were my daughters … wildflowers | Meredith Ackroyd, Frogpond 44:3 |
| late-night train the mother’s lullaby for everyone | Hifsa Ashraf, Kontinuum: Kortárs haiku/ Contemporary Haiku 1:1 | |
| middle age I build the snowman a son | Peter Newton, The Heron’s Nest 23:2 | |
| beneath the blossoms she counts her years on one hand | Sasha A. Palmer, Japan Fair Haiku Contest 2021 | |
| not every color has a name … midnight jazz | Tiffany Shaw-Diaz, Stardust Haiku 50 | |
| below the missing dog a missing woman | Joan Torres, #FemkuMag 31 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (25): | sanitized for the children my twenties | Susan Antolin, Mariposa 44 |
| capitol steps a riot of cherry blossom | Marilyn Ashbaugh, Geppo 46:3 | |
| as the crow flies fentanyl | Aaron Barry, Prune Juice 35 | |
| the river in every room brown trout | Bisshie, The Heron’s Nest 23:1 | |
| gone to seed … wind and light sweep the field | Tom Clausen, Upstate Dim Sum 2021/I | |
| incoming tide sand unzips the soles of my feet | Robert Davey, Acorn 46 | |
| ancient syllables the forest alive in birdsong | Pat Davis, Cold Moon, October 7, 2021 | |
| the minor notes in a half scale slow rising moon | Terri L. French, Tsuri-dōrō 5 | |
| not just blowing smoke climate change | Terri L. French, Tinywords 21:2 | |
| refuse refuge refugee refuse | Lee Gurga, Modern Haiku 52:1 | |
| not as long as it used to be summer day | Jennifer Hambrick, Wales Haiku Journal, Autumn 2021 | |
| years of being who we are my shirt letting the rain soak in | Gary Hotham, Tsuri-dōrō 4 | |
| reawakening to what is not mine the passing clouds | Lakshmi Iyer, THF Monthly Kukai, April 2021 | |
| tearing the filter off his cigarette— war stories | PMF Johnson, Bottle Rockets 44 | |
| spring sun still some winter in the turtle | Laurie D. Morrissey, First Frost 1 | |
| ancient wisdom— naming negative space in the night sky | Helen Ogden, Cold Moon, October 22, 202 | |
| the blue swallows the blue swallows | our thomas, Whiptail 1 | |
| bottled water does the river know its many names? | Minal Sarosh, Akitsu Quarterly, Fall 2021 | |
| scenting the night with somewhere else train whistle | Ann K. Schwader, The Heron’s Nest 23:1 | |
| childhood memories … I open and close the wrought iron gate | Neena Singh, THF Haiku Dialogue, October 6, 2021 | |
| conger eel thrashing in the creel this hunger | Lew Watts, Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2021 | |
| starry night —a lighthouse —a lighthouse | James Young, Poetry Pea Journal, Spring 2021 | |
| acres of cotton his son asks if they’ll be slaves again | J. Zimmerman, Presence 71 | |
| bobolink in flight his song for her the length of a hay field | J. Zimmerman, Modern Haiku 52:3 | |
| global warming the delicate oars of this lifeboat | J. Zimmerman, Tinywords, October 14, 2021 | |
| Other longlisted poems (27): |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2020
| Selection panel: | Chuck Brickley, Anna Maris, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Christopher Patchel, Michelle Tennison, and Angela Terry | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Bruce H. Feingold | |
| Nominations: | More than 1,300 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (4): | what remains after the river is gone this empty bed | Kat Lehmann, Mayfly 68 |
| long before language the S of the river | Annette Makino, Francine Porad Haiku Award, 2020 | |
| rain-soaked earth a robin tugs one end of the universe | Julie Schwerin, Frogpond 43:3 | |
| pasture fence where the paint ran out a bluebird’s song | Rick Tarquinio, The Heron’s Nest 22:1 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (24): | through the cracked window a chirp of sunlight | Kelly Sauvage Angel, Wales Haiku Journal, Summer 2020 |
| within the song of a winter wren another begins | Joanna Ashwell, Shamrock 43 | |
| viewing the tree three generations of crossed arms | Roberta Beary, Modern Haiku 51:1 | |
| co- v. id | Helen Buckingham, Bones 20 | |
| midnight blue a grandma-shaped crater on the moon | Hemapriya Chellappan, Blōō Outlier Journal 1 | |
| returning time a poppy seed drops the sun | Beate Conrad, Sonic Boom 18 | |
| washing our hands— each soap bubble holds all the colors | Christine Horner, Geppo 45:3 | |
| in the space our light makes moths | Gary Hotham, Scott Mason, ed., Gratitude in the Time of COVID-19: The Haiku Hecameron | |
| moving van … everything but the growth marks on the closet door | Elinor Pihl Huggett, Geppo 45:3 | |
| steady rain might as well keep walking | Bill Kenney, The Heron’s Nest 22:1 | |
| fall starts measuring time in butterflies | Craig Kittner, Bones 21 | |
| switching to a lower case i autumn stars | Matthew Markworth, Modern Haiku 51:3 | |
| pre-dawn stars the rattle of glass bottles from a passing milk truck | John McManus, Hedgerow 132 | |
| dusk between the fragments of a prehistoric bird I recognize my mother’s beak | Réka Nitrai, NOON 16 | |
| her eulogy— the sound of the ocean in a small shell | Carol Ann Palomba, Mayfly 68 | |
| an orchid trapped in a paperweight child bride | Vandana Parashar, The Heron’s Nest 22:4 | |
| horse pasture the prairie wind moves with muscle | Chad Lee Robinson, The Heron’s Nest, 22:4 | |
| adult coloring book I still can’t stay within the lines | Adelaide B. Shaw, Failed Haiku 51 | |
| in the space left by twilight crickets | Ann Schwader, Tinywords 20:1, August 13, 2020 | |
| before we were human the sparrow’s call | Tiffany Shaw-Diaz, Heliosparrow, January 10, 2020 | |
| our car never nearer the shimmer of black water on the desert road | Richard Tice, Haiku Pea Podcast Series 3 Episode 24 | |
| blackbird singing light into the womb | Stephen Toft, is/let 2020 | |
| what pines! what lady’s slippers! when i take tomorrow’s walk | Vincent Tripi, Modern Haiku 51:3 | |
| moss-grown stone a daughter’s age in days | Mike White, Frogpond 43:3 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2019
| Selection panel: | Chuck Brickley, Susan Constable, Anna Maris, Christopher Patchel, Wally Swist, and Michelle Tennison | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Bruce H. Feingold | |
| Nominations: | Nearly 900 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (6): | strawberry season acres and acres of bent backs | Gregory Longenecker, The Heron’s Nest 21:2 |
| wind song between boulders— ochre handprints | Leanne Mumford, Echidna Tracks 2: Landscapes, March 17, 2019 | |
| dappled light the voice a crow has for its young | Polona Oblak, The Heron’s Nest 21:4 | |
| be still wind and know rain that I am tree | Renée Owen, Modern Haiku 50:2 | |
| carving the snow ulu moon | Robin Anna Smith, Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards | |
| day moon the only witness remains silent | Julie Warther, Acorn 42 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (24): | country road the long ride through the scent of cattle gone ahead | Adjei Agyei-Baah, Wales Haiku Journal, Spring 2019 |
| living alone … both ends of the wishbone | Francine Banwarth, The Heron’s Nest 21:3 | |
| light rain the karst of everyday mind | Sondra J. Byrnes, Sonic Boom 15 | |
| lichen in a stone angel’s palm advancing rain | Paul Chambers, Presence 65 | |
| hardening the tractor ruts blackthorn wind | Simon Chard, Presence 64 | |
| rain— earwigs spill from fennel stalks | Sarah-Jane Crowson, Wales Haiku Journal, Autumn 2019 | |
| dust of a moth all that i’ve been belongs to the moon | Lucia Fontana, Failed Haiku 46 | |
| moonlight what’s left of the river | Lorin Ford, The Heron’s Nest 21:3 | |
| mom’s grave— the breeze parts my hair just so | Warren Gossett, Acorn 42 | |
| oak leaf frozen to the sidewalk a celibate life | Lee Gurga, Mariposa 40 | |
| field of poppies the war somewhere | Elmedin Kadric, Presence 64 | |
| three tiny bones in my inner ear meadow lark | Marietta McGregor, The Heron’s Nest 21:4 | |
| power cut we reach Mordor by candlelight | John McManus, Hedgerow 129 | |
| summer the heat of his punch | Lori A Minor, Troutswirl Blog | |
| backyard weeds everyone has a name | Ben Moeller-Gaa, Hedgerow 129 | |
| night bus the emptiness well lit | Bryan Rickert, The Heron’s Nest 21:2 | |
| both tent flaps tied open morning solitude | Chad Lee Robinson, Acorn 43 | |
| maple keys tomorrow a sermon on doors | Dan Schwerin, Modern Haiku 50:3 | |
| Woodstock forever stamps summer’s end | Charlie Shiotani, The Heron’s Nest 21:4 | |
| bioluminescence I skip a pebble across the universe | Debbie Strange, Seashores 2 | |
| ghost apple this emptiness inside | Debbie Strange, Shamrock 42 | |
| weathered oars we fold our worries into the river | Debbie Strange, Acorn 42 | |
| immigrant seeds sewn into her dress | Mary Weiler, Frogpond 42:2 | |
| late-life affair the weathered stone wall wild with foxgloves | Lucy Whitehead, Modern Haiku 50:3 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2018
| Selection panel: | Terry Ann Carter, Gary Hotham, Renée Owen, Michele Root-Bernstein, Wally Swist, and Dietmar Tauchner | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Bruce H. Feingold | |
| Nominations: | More than 800 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (6): | blood moon he doesn’t take no for an answer | Susan Burch, Marlene Mountain Memorial Haiku Contest 2018 |
| crow … the dark crackle of river ice | Elinor Pihl Huggett, Geppo 43:3 | |
| crown of thorns things we make with our hands | Jessica Malone Latham, Mariposa 39 | |
| the blade after the whetstone— summer rain | Tanya McDonald, Mariposa 38 | |
| deep night sky the dashboard lights too bright for this loneliness | Chad Lee Robinson, Frogpond 41:3 | |
| more automatic words about weapons | John Stevenson, Frogpond 41:2 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (25): | housewarming … a swarm of honey bees in the crawl space | Barnabas I. Adeleke, The Heron’s Nest 20:4 |
| summer’s end the fence splinters into meadowlarks | Elizabeth Alford, Stardust Haiku 20 | |
| learning to eat around bruises winter apples | Debbi Antebi, The Heron’s Nest 20:1 | |
| lilac on her dress for a moment I’m in the fields | Faten Anwar, The Mamba 6 | |
| Russian nesting dolls— where’s the room to be oneself | Betty Arnold, Amy Ostenso-Kennedy, and Phillip Kennedy, eds., Nesting Dolls (YTHS 2018 Members’ Anthology) | |
| pre-dawn stars … plumes of breath from a cattle truck | Paul Chambers, Acorn 41 | |
| spring wind a young sheepdog skedaddles the lambs | Claire Everett, The Heron’s Nest 20:1 | |
| morning frost how brightly shines the barbed wire | Florin C. Florian, Johnny Baranski Memorial Haiku Contest, 2018 | |
| signs of spring at the bottom of one pot shards of another | Robert Gilliland, Mariposa 38 | |
| your absence in my hands snowdrop | Eufemia Griffo, Modern Haiku 49:2 | |
| the mountains Santōka never saw again— closed saké shop | Engin Gülez, Little Haiku Contest (Iris), 2017 | |
| silent as a mouse the trap | John Hawkhead, The Heron’s Nest 20:1 | |
| keepsache | David J Kelly, Frogpond 41:1 | |
| petroglyphs the short drive to Los Alamos | paul m., Acorn 40 | |
| family gathering sliced warm beetroot stains what it touches | Ron C. Moss, Acorn 40 | |
| stepping stones … someone else years ago | Guy Nesom, Mayfly 64 | |
| all souls’ day something startles a field of doves | Polona Oblak, Presence 60 | |
| rain one steeple at a time | Bryan Rickert, Modern Haiku 49:1 | |
| another year the weight of my shadow on new snow | Joseph Robello, Mariposa 39 | |
| the heartbeat of a painted pony winter prairie | Chad Lee Robinson, Mariposa 38 | |
| skinny-dipping in the outback river paperbark trees | Maureen Sexton, Creatrix 43 | |
| summer visit mother fits into a smaller hug | Sushma A. Singh, The Heron’s Nest 20:4 | |
| fallow fields a light dusting of snow geese | Debbie Strange, Mariposa 39 | |
| peat bog the spreading fire of cloudberries | Debbie Strange, Shamrock 40 | |
| the thin whistling of the wind in the bottle has faded away | Max Verhart, Chrysanthemum 24 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2017
| Selection panel: | Gary Hotham, Ron C. Moss, Renée Owen, Michele Root-Bernstein, Dietmar Tauchner, and Diane Wakoski | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Bruce H. Feingold | |
| Nominations: | 730 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners(6): | crematorium the sound of someone unwrapping flowers | frances angela, Acorn 38 |
| nightfall— moths the color of the dying pine | Cherie Hunter Day, Modern Haiku 48:2 | |
| prairie sky the depth of a sigh | Rajandeep Garg, Modern Haiku 48:3 | |
| their ancient hum to sunrise honeybees | Michele L. Harvey, The Heron’s Nest 19:3 | |
| poppies as if they know they won’t last | Sharon Pretti, Frogpond 40:2 | |
| its gentle push on the curtains … summer night | John Shiffer, Acorn 38 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (24): | the last of mother’s things packed the snow globe settles | frances angela, Modern Haiku 48:2 |
| empty notebooks the poems I keep unwritten | Debbi Antebi, Presence 58 | |
| cut flowers the short life of compliments | Debbi Antebi, Tinywords 17:2 | |
| mellow sunset notes of the wide bore clarinet | Bill Cooper, The Heron’s Nest 19:4 | |
| carousel she asks to ride the winged horse home | Robert Epstein, The Heron’s Nest 19:2 | |
| black ice— a memory that isn’t mine | Seren Fargo, Frogpond 40:2 | |
| certain that nothing is mine clear skies | Lucia Fontana, Chrysanthemum 22 | |
| dwarfed by the trees I planted— summer night | Ruth Holzer, Frogpond 40:1 | |
| winter sunrise butter finds its own path across grandma’s skillet | Frank Hooven, The Heron’s Nest 19:1 | |
| daybreak a black swan takes the night under its wing | Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy, Kokako 26 | |
| burning for all my sins incense stick | Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy, Modern Haiku 48:2 | |
| dementia I lose the lily petal by petal | Lori A Minor, H. Gene Murtha Senryu Contest | |
| starving refugee a hand approaches her mouth with a microphone | Indra Neil Mekala, International Kusamakura Haiku Competition | |
| when a white bear roamed the unheard of | Peter Newton, Bones 12 | |
| sweltering night a hole in the backyard bleeds scorpions | Anthony Itopa Obaro, The Heron’s Nest 19:2 | |
| endless closed doors along the hotel hallway winter solstice | Olivier Schopfer, Modern Haiku 48:1 | |
| eggs in a shirt to be here so lightly | Dan Schwerin, Frogpond 40:1 | |
| the way we left our dining room chairs | John Stevenson, Modern Haiku 48:1 | |
| letting go of letting go … apple blossoms | Michael Stinson, Stardust Haiku 3 | |
| silence for some includes birdsong | Hilary Tann, The Heron’s Nest 19:4 | |
| as if nothing an empty seashore had happened | Ernest Wit, Bones 12 | |
| depth of winter the ukulele just right in my arms | Karina M. Young, Mariposa 36 | |
| last breath … someone opens the window to the soul | Romano Zeraschi, Chrysanthemum 22 | |
| memorial day each name soaked in rain | David He Zhuanglang, Stardust Haiku 5 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2016
| Selection panel: | Gary Hotham, Ron C. Moss, Renée Owen, MicheleRoot-Bernstein, Dietmar Tauchner, and Diane Wakoski | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Bruce H. Feingold | |
| Nominations: | Nearly 500 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (5): | whale vertebrae drifting from one god to another | Nicholas Klacsanzky, A Hundred Gourds 5:3 |
| November wind the hollow places that form a song | Peter Newton, The Heron’s Nest 18:1 | |
| darkness … her name slips into it | Dave Read, Acorn 37 | |
| last day of summer the taste of the wooden stick inside the ice cream | Katrina Shepherd, The Heron’s Nest 18:4 | |
| house clearance room by room by room my mother disappears | Alan Summers, Blithe Spirit 26:1 | |
| Other shortlisted poems publications (24): | new home we unpack our old habits | Debbi Antebi, Failed Haiku 1:6 |
| off to on I disappear into the visible | Francine Banwarth, Frogpond 39:3 | |
| winter sun a crow gives in to the wind | Brad Bennett, Presence 55 | |
| heartland the world winnowed down to wheat | Alan S. Bridges, The Heron’s Nest 18:2 | |
| midnight call his car a pumpkin | Helen Buckingham, Mayfly 60 | |
| night sky I release the minnows all at once | Glenn G. Coats, Acorn 36 | |
| silence where the river ran this bed of stones | Susan Constable, Acorn 36 | |
| late winter I hit the bottom of my fantasy world | Robert Epstein, Mariposa 34 | |
| slip one knit one the pattern of winter bones | Lorin Ford, The Living Haiku Anthology Annual Haiku Contest, 2016 | |
| the length of the night when it matters why | Samar Ghose, Sonic Boom 5 | |
| galaxy | LeRoy Gorman, is/let, October 1, 2016 | |
| drunk on snow melt from your clavicles wolf moon | Anita Guenin, The Living Haiku Anthology Annual Haiku Contest, 2016 | |
| death what kind of plan is that | Carolyn Hall, Mariposa 35 | |
| the squeak of tulips into a vase … hospice reception | Michele Harvey, Frameless Sky 4 | |
| campfire light the color returns to dead leaves | Alexander B. Joy, The Heron’s Nest 18:1 | |
| all day rain the weight of trees in my bones | Ben Moeller-Gaa, Modern Haiku 47:3 | |
| the groundhog’s shadow white where there shouldn’t be on her mammogram | Elliot Nicely, Modern Haiku 47:2 | |
| slow thunder a lizard’s ribs pressed against concrete | Polona Oblak, The Heron’s Nest 18:2 | |
| death anniversary … his fading odor in treasured shirt | Aparna Pathak, Wild Plum 2:2 | |
| wheeling her chair through leaf fall … we sure knew how to dance | Bill Pauly, The Heron’s Nest 18:4 | |
| restringing fence wire— meadowlark’s song one post ahead of the wind | Chad Lee Robinson, Mariposa 35 | |
| thin harvest— I salt the bitterness out of the gourd | Carl Seguiban, The Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards, 2016 | |
| winter night— the last tram carrying only the light | Eduard Țară, Concorso Internazionale Haiku in Lingua Italiana, 2016 | |
| insomnia length of the night on her knitting needles | Maria Tomczak, The Heron’s Nest 18:3 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2015
| Selection panel: | Carolyn Hall, Eve Luckring, Lenard D. Moore, Ron C. Moss, Barbara Ungar, and Diane Wakoski | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Bruce H. Feingold | |
| Nominations: | Nearly 500 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (6): | a flash of Pan in the goat’s eye barn shadows | Mary Frederick Ahearn, Frogpond 38:3 |
| the carving knife out of its sheath winter darkness | Francine Banwarth, The Heron’s Nest 17:1 | |
| the answer is yes no yes breaking waves | Robert Epstein, The Heron’s Nest 17:4 | |
| squash blossoms the ribbon on her dress unraveling | Patricia J. Machmiller, Frogpond 38:2 | |
| spring dream … slipping my wings into a work shirt | Michael McClintock, The Heron’s Nest 17:3 | |
| unplanned pregnancy the hum of a beehive beneath the porch | John McManus, Acorn 35 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (25): | twelve strokes in the Kanji for ‘rhinoceros’ New Year begins | Fay Aoyagi, Mariposa 32 |
| winter galaxy the social network of lost mermaids | Fay Aoyagi, Mariposa 32 | |
| nesting time— the magpie returns the branches to the tree | Paul Bregazzi, Shamrock 32 | |
| daybreak blackdog pixelating | Helen Buckingham, NOON 10 | |
| he casts his line into the first peal of thunder | Matthew Caretti, The Heron’s Nest 17:3 | |
| shorthand for a cloud inside a blue jacket | Markeith Chavous, NOON 9 | |
| desert stones slowly their shadows change sides | Simon Hanson, Wild Plum 1:2 | |
| desert twilight white-winged doves deeper into the canyon | Devin Harrison, Shamrock 32 | |
| rock paper scissors war | Elmedin Kadric, A Hundred Gourds 4:4 | |
| graveyard shift the leftover radish tumbles in the lunchbox | Elmedin Kadric, The Heron’s Nest 17:3 | |
| evening lull a seaside cave exhaling butterflies | Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Vladimir Devidé Haiku Awards | |
| daylight savings what was never ours to keep | Michael Henry Lee, Tinywords 15:1 | |
| distant sirens over the border bridge a blood moon | Chen-ou Liu, Shamrock 31 | |
| loneliness opening the window to let in the rain | Jeannie Martin, Tinywords 15:1 | |
| evening calm a spider webbing the breeze | Ben Moeller-Gaa, Shamrock 32 | |
| first warm day a robin works the infield | H. Gene Murtha, The Heron’s Nest 17:3 | |
| into the owl a night train’s whistle fading | Sandi Pray, A Hundred Gourds 4:3 | |
| after tsunami a surplus of emptiness | Dorota Pyra, 20th International Kusamakura Haiku Competition, 2015 | |
| in a rush to reach stillness whitewater | Chad Lee Robinson, The Heron’s Nest 17:4 | |
| his best lure passed to me this floating world | Dan Schwerin, Modern Haiku 46:2 | |
| the depth of the lake still in question— autumn chill | Angela Terry, The Heron’s Nest 17:1 | |
| military base— even the eucalyptus trees stand in straight lines | Tom Tico, Bottle Rockets 16:2 | |
| stillness … the sound of dusk washing ashore | Paresh Tiwari, The Heron’s Nest 17:1 | |
| ripened grapes the midday sun closed inside | Maria Tomczak, Cattails, September 2015 | |
| spring field— each step an explosion of grasshoppers | Kent Travis, Shamrock 31 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2014
| Selection panel: | Carolyn Hall, Eve Luckring, Lenard D. Moore, George Swede, Barbara Ungar, and Diane Wakoski | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Mark Harris | |
| Nominations: | Nearly 500 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (5): | tendrils of crabgrass in every direction that one lie | Susan Antolin, Mariposa 30 |
| forsythia the widow’s blinds part slightly | Chuck Brickley, Mariposa 31 | |
| the long night … an old woman’s loneliness follows me home | Karen Cesar, Modern Haiku 45:3 | |
| night time in the hospice aquarium the pulse of fish gills | Joyce Clement, The Heron’s Nest 16:2 | |
| “Do you want me?” she whispers, and turns to leaves | David McCann, Acorn 32 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (24): | autumn sky only one of us deciduous | Melissa Allen, Frogpond 37:1 |
| the sky turns to snow what to name the heroine | Francine Banwarth, Modern Haiku 45:2 | |
| sine wave a purple finch does the math | Alan S. Bridges, The Heron’s Nest 16:4 | |
| dandelion fluff— the weight of his army burial flag | Cezar-Florin Ciobîcă, Hortensia Anderson Memorial Awards | |
| suburban street … side by side in a bookcase the tight-shut tales | Jan Dobb, Kokako 21 | |
| clapping erasers all my wisdom turned to dust | George G. Dorsty, Bottle Rockets 30 | |
| empty park two crows start the world over | Robert Epstein, Acorn 33 | |
| global warming— my cycles closer together | Seren Fargo, Modern Haiku 45:1 | |
| gingko leaves my father rotating his pen over a legal pad | Michael Fessler, Bottle Rockets 30 | |
| Perseids counting mosquitoes | Jeff Hoagland, Tinywords 14:2 | |
| his promised return paper airplane | Yvette Kolodji, The Heron’s Nest 17:2 | |
| trailer park never enough shade for the chained dogs | Burnell Lippy, The Heron’s Nest 17:3 | |
| a copy stored in the cloud torn leaf | paul m., Mariposa 31 | |
| in and out of the pumpkin’s smile … a spider | Carole MacRury, Shiki Internet Kukai, October 2014 | |
| petition for divorce the period in every sentence | Anna Mazurkiewicz, Prune Juice 12 | |
| ice fishing my father tries to catch his breath | John McManus, Mayfly 57 | |
| old horses days of endless rain in their eyes | Ron C. Moss, The Heron’s Nest 17:4 | |
| afternoon rain emptying a book of its words | Peter Newton, Frogpond 37:3 | |
| if glass breaks easily a bird | John Stevenson, Frogpond 37:1 | |
| whale song I become an empty boat | Michelle Tennison, Acorn 32 | |
| home from war we ease out the champagne corks | Lew Watts, The Heron’s Nest 17:2 | |
| sleep’s episiotomy you slip out | Peter Yovu, Frogpond 37:3 | |
| birdsong broken into war bling | Peter Yovu, is/let, December 1, 2014 | |
| words furred over my awkward animal toward you now | Peter Yovu NOON 8 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2013
| Selection panel: | Dee Evetts, Paul Miller, Lenard D. Moore, George Swede, and Barbara Ungar | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Mark Harris | |
| Nominations: | More than 500 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (8): | nagasaki … in her belly, the sound of unopened mail | Don Baird, HaikuNow! Contest 2013 |
| overnight the spider’s mathematics | John Barlow, Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards | |
| night border crossing— the elephant calf holds his mother’s tail | Sonam Chhoki, Shamrock 26 | |
| washed up body the one who moves toward it | Mike Dillon, Modern Haiku 44:3 | |
| sand dune the width of the wind | Harry Frentz, Jeanette Stace Memorial Awards | |
| overcast morning the road worker’s gaze on southbound geese | Ferris Gilli, Acorn 31 | |
| prenuptial contract fish bones neatly spaced on white china | Ron C. Moss, Acorn 30 | |
silence of snow we listen to the house grow smaller | John Parsons, Frogpond 36:2 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (21): | august mist the magnificence of thought | Ernest J Berry, Polish International Haiku Competition |
| gale-force wind a bird’s nest becomes what it was | Alan S. Bridges, Irish Haiku Society International Haiku Competition, 2012 | |
| cubist lesson … I look at my cat differently | Dawn Bruce, Shamrock 26 | |
| Metod Češek, Modern Haiku 44:3 | ||
| cold snap— a sparrow flicks its tail of snowflakes | Marion Clarke, Shamrock 25 | |
| purple clematis … changing her wardrobe into summer | Anne Curran, Shamrock 26 | |
| Father’s Day … the weight of his hammer that never fit my hand | Michael L. Evans, Francine Porad Award | |
| waiting for the blossoms the birds are still up the magician’s sleeve | Marco Fraticelli, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Contest | |
| intensive care the plant’s last leaf hangs on | Scott Glander, Mayfly 54 | |
| the love we once shared in the phone book a hundred of you | Kate Godsey, Chrysanthemum 14 | |
| Memorial Day I paint each fingernail a different color | Carolyn Hall, A Hundred Gourds 3:1 | |
| cowlick some part of me still wild | Annette Makino, Tinywords 13:2 | |
| no escaping this moonlight— Pompeii | Scott Mason, Harold G. Henderson Awards, 2012 | |
| morning fog … when my embryo had gills | Tyrone McDonald, The Heron’s Nest 15:1 | |
| fire duty the newly ironed shirt still warm | Ron C. Moss, The Heron’s Nest 15:1 | |
| a meteor flares— the scrape of a tailpipe throwing sparks | Chad Lee Robinson, Mariposa 29 | |
| humid evening— the census taker’s arched eyebrows | Sandra Simpson, Kokako 19 | |
| southbound birds the loop of identity | Dietmar Tauchner, International Kusamakura Haiku Competition | |
| breaching whale the time between too soon and too late | Julie Warther, Polish International Haiku Competition | |
| orange blossom lifting her niqab just enough | Sarah Winteridge, Modern Haiku 44:2 | |
| a blue coffin one nail escapes the solar system | Peter Yovu, Roadrunner 13:1 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2012
| Selection panel: | Fay Aoyagi, Dee Evetts, John Martone, Paul Miller, George Swede, and Diane Wakoski | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Mark Harris | |
| Nominations: | More than 560 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (8): | three or four fingers deep red rose | Melissa Allen, Madison, Wisconsin, Frogpond 35:3 |
| mating dragonflies— my overuse of dashes | Aubrie Cox, Taylorville, Illinois, Frogpond 35:1 | |
| autumn days drifting from text to marginalia | Mark Holloway, Bedford, U.K., Bones 1 | |
| first date the way she pronounces van Gogh | Bill Kenney, Whitestone, New York Modern Haiku 43:2 | |
| hesitating until I’m a hummingbird | Eve Luckring, Los Angeles, California, The Heron’s Nest 14:3 | |
| she stops me from picking a lemon —it’s asleep, she says | Patricia J. Machmiller, San Jose, California, The Heron’s Nest 14 | |
| planetarium my child’s grip starts to loosen | John McManus, Carlisle, U.K. The Heron’s Nest 14 | |
| winter night reaching a page someone has folded | Kieran O’Connor, Engadine, NSW, Australia, The Heron’s Nest 14 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (18): | they search for my cervix orchids on the ceiling | Helen Buckingham, Modern Haiku 43:2 |
| weeds gone to seed I lie again to my mother | Aubrie Cox, Mayfly 52 | |
| winding road for the next eight miles Coltrane | Cherie Hunter Day, Modern Haiku 43:1 | |
| egg white slipping through my fingers winter sunrise | Bill Deegan, Frogpond 35:3 | |
| clam dig the quiet passing of a sail | Garry Eaton, The Heron’s Nest 14:4 | |
| deeper and deeper into the foxglove dusk | Lorin Ford, The Heron’s Nest 14:4 | |
| “something” on my mammogram starless night | Carolyn Hall, The Heron’s Nest 14:3 | |
| autumn colors the scent of a match being lit | Michele L. Harvey, The Heron’s Nest 14:4 | |
| on his way to the hospital a dark spot on the moon | Gregory Hopkins, Mayfly 53 | |
| tree stump my father tells me how to raise a son | Gregory Hopkins, A Hundred Gourds 1:3 | |
| summer heat the strands of hair not captured by her braid | Michael Ketchek, Frogpond 35:2 | |
| discarded monuments the afterlife of shadows | Anatoly Kudryavitsky, A Hundred Gourds 1:2 | |
| Sprinkling salt a rain glistens an ease of light particles it is | Rebecca Lilly, Roadrunner 12:2 | |
| shelter in a lit match | Eve Luckring, Modern Haiku 43:3 | |
| the homeless gentleman a little soft-shoe in his stride | Peter Newton, A Hundred Gourds 1:4 | |
| all the changes while we prayed snow covers the lot | Dan Schwerin, Modern Haiku 43:1 | |
| her being dead goes on | John Stevenson, Acorn 29 | |
| family dinner siblings feed the elephant in the room | Julie Warther, Frogpond 35:1 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2011
| Selection panel: | Fay Aoyagi, David Cobb, Dee Evetts, John Martone, Paul Miller, and Diane Wakoski | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Mark Harris | |
| Nominations: | About 585 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (6): | clouded moon the sound of her slip hitting the floor | Ernest J Berry, Picton, New Zealand, British Haiku Society Awards 2010 |
| calla lily the sound of a ladder lengthening | Cherie Hunter Day, Cupertino, California, Harold G. Henderson Awards | |
| he brings flowers the same shade— bruises | Terri L. French, Frogpond 34:3 | |
| gunshot every pine needle pointing at something | Gregory Hopkins, The Heron’s Nest 13:2 | |
| back from the war all his doors swollen shut | Bill Pauly, Modern Haiku 42:1 | |
| migrating geese— the things we thought we needed darken the garage | Chad Lee Robinson, The Heron’s Nest 13:1 | |
| Other shortlisted poems (23): | bruised apples he wonders what else I haven’t told him | Melissa Allen, Acorn 26 |
| shanty town— the jagged edges of moonlight | Sanjukta Asopa, The Heron’s Nest 13:3 | |
| pan-fried trout I learn something new about my father | Dave Baldwin, The Heron’s Nest 13:4 | |
| deep summer on the battlefield cars for sale | Roberta Beary, Itoen Oi Ocha New Haiku Contest | |
| on the wings of black-necked cranes first snow | Sonam Chhoki, A Hundred Gourds 1:1 | |
| the newborn’s hand brushes my breast— white camellias | Kathy Lippard Cobb, Haiku Presence Award, 2010 | |
| spring equinox a worm on both sides of my shovel | Susan Constable, Bottle Rockets 24 | |
| dogwoods the stench of baby questions | Amelia Cotter, The Heron’s Nest 13:2 | |
| the curve of her hips— buttercups | Bruce H. Feingold, Tinywords 11:2 | |
| what we breathe in human skin and insect parts | Chris Gordon, Roadrunner 11:1 | |
| Spring rain I’ve upset the little stack of coins | Stephen Gould, Haiku Presence Award, 2010 | |
| northern lights … the scratchy play of seventy-eights | Michele L. Harvey, Harold G. Henderson Awards, 2011 | |
| nightfall … blowing out the marshmallow | John Hawk, The Heron’s Nest 13:3 | |
| his latest indiscretion I toss out the curdled milk | Mary Kipp, Magnapoets 8 | |
| Father’s Day— a potato without a face | Susan Marie La Vallée, Gerald Brady Senryu Awards, 2011 | |
| breathless quiet of a summer evening … ship in a bottle | Jo McInerney, The Heron’s Nest 13:1 | |
| winter when the invisible horse arrives | Scott Metz, Roadrunner 11:1 | |
| bare trees the little room where you’re told | Roland Packer, Modern Haiku 42:1 | |
| Indian summer mother dyes her graying hair the color of straw | Tom Painting, 2nd HaikuNow! International Haiku Contest | |
| banging about inside my ribs cherry blossom | Sandra Simpson, DailyHaiku 6:11 | |
| aftershock the crack of my biscuit | Barbara Strang, Kokako 15 | |
| koi pond how we imagine immortality | Paul Watsky, The Heron’s Nest 13:3 | |
| sun through the ears of a marmalade cat— raked leaves | Quendryth Young, Presence 43 |
Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems 2010
| Selection panel: | Fay Aoyagi, Janice Bostok, David Cobb, John Martone, Hiro Sato, and John Stevenson | |
| Touchstone Awards coordinator: | Mark Harris | |
| Nominations: | About 600 | |
| Results reported and archived: | The Haiku Foundation website | |
| Award winners (7): | ragged clouds how it feels to hold a rake | Robert Epstein, The Heron’s Nest 12:4 |
| the time it takes to thaw the breast milk— winter night | Duro Jaiye, The Heron’s Nest 12:1 | |
| morning mist— the church fills with the smell of overcoats | Mark Lonergan, Paper Wasp 16 | |
| into the afterlife red leaves | Peggy Willis Lyles, Modern Haiku 41:1 | |
| a crow at dusk— ink sinks deeper into the page | Greg Piko, The Heron’s Nest 12:1 | |
| slicing papaya— the swing of her black pearls | Sandra Simpson. The Heron’s Nest 12:3 | |
| a spiral of apple peel autumn moon | Quendryth Young, Chrysanthemum 8 | |
| No shortlist for the 2010 awards |