2003
​
HAIKU (Judge: paul m.)
First Place ($100)
a phoebe’s erratic flight
this canoe trip
won’t settle anything
Laurie Stoelting (Mill Valley CA)
Second Place ($50)
autumn sunset
the wake of a tugboat
sloshes ashore
Christopher Herold (Port Townsend WA)
Third Place ($25)
Indian summer
rust on our hands
from the swing
w. f. owen (Antelope CA)
Honorable Mentions (unranked):
year end—
a trail of footprints crosses
the old pond
Timothy Russell (Toronto OH)
first snow
some time left
on the parking meter
John Stevenson (Nassau NY)
SENRYU (Judge: John Stevenson)
First Place ($100)
trapped
in the vinegar bottle
mother
Evelyn Hermann (Mill Valley CA)
Honorable Mentions (unranked)
3-block Main Street
the waitress asks if we want
menus
D. Claire Gallagher (Sunnyvale CA)
tourists talking
in several languages—
the glassblower exhales
Michael Dylan Welch (Sammamish WA)
TANKA (Judge: Lynne Leach)
First Place ($100)
absurd no doubt
letting my day be shadowed
by a novel’s gloom
as if a neighbor’s tree
had dropped an earlier twilight
Carol Purington (Colrain MA)
Honorable Mentions (unranked)
for breakfast
I’ll give you bread
but for the afternoon
please carry the worms
and let’s go fishing
Michael McClintock (Ssouth Pasadena CA)
keening winds . . .
leaves are dust in chimney pots
webs shiver stone to stone
where are you as yet unmet
or brushing past, unknown?
Nancy Stewart Smith (Athens (GA)
from The Wall
Down the valley of shadows
that pour into your name
a tiny snail
leaves a trail soft as tears
Linda Jeanette Ward (Coinjock NC)
RENGAY (Judge: Paul Watsky)
First Place ($100)
THE HILTOP CASTLE
autumn rain—
the blurred view
from the hilltop castle
umbrellas sold out
a shower of cherry blossoms
distant siren…
an unexpected drizzle
mists my sunglasses
thunderstorm—
a dog’s black coat
steaming
cloudburst ends
the little girl’s tantrum
rainbow
over the meadow
where we used to picnic
Michael Dylan Welch
Ikuyo Yoshimura
Second Place
CLACK OF THE RAILS
commuter train
tantalizing headlines
two rows ahead
a valentine’s day bouquet
perfurmes our trolley
uptown bus
the pickpocket courteously
offers me his seat
leaving the station—
the conductor’s ticket punch
glints at her waist
from the knapsack in his lap
a muffled meow
clack of the rails…
meadowlarks on a fence
whisk past the window
Carolyn Hall
Ebba Story
Third Place
LINGERING LIGHT
alfresco art class
clouds sweep across
every canvas
lingering light—
the nude model’s charcoal smudge
a chalk outline
on the asphalt—
hot summer night
thin moon—
an unfinished sculpture
gathers dust
Venus in Aquarius—
her mood darkens
street signs
blackened with graffiti—
we drive toward the dawn
Carolyn Hall
Billie Wilson
Honorable Mentions
AROUND MAY
May Day
a cloud of mosquitoes
rings the sapling
family get-together
mayonnaise or Miracle Whip?
a little blond girl
leads the boys in a game
Mother, May I?
maple tree shade
grandma’s arms circle
my child
high-stepping through grass
future majorette
maze of stars—
silver streamers glitter
on her tambourine
Michael L. Evans
Connie Donleycott
BREAK IN THE CLOUDS
winter dusk
the trolley doors close
between us
as if she will return…
her unmade bed
break in the clouds
twigs unravel from
the fallen nest
cracking walnuts—
the crooked part
in grandmother’s hair
a sea cliff’s widening rift
above the fault line
granite gravestone—
beside his name
a space for hers
Ebba Story
Carolyn Hall
ON BROADWAY
another birthday…
overpriced cheesecake
at the neon-lit diner
the rapper’s sneakers
flash at each step
red light—
a streetwalker whispers
hello there…
Club 69—
the stretch limo
turns on a blinker
drunken girls
waving glowsticks
a taxi home—
Broadway lights
dimmed for Hepburn
Brian Tasker
Maichael Dylan Welch