Haiku Society of America

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HSA Haiku Awards 2025

Judged by
Meredith Ackroyd & Kelly Sargent
Judges Commentary

~ First Place ~

dandelion chain
I weave myself
into the meadow

Joshua St. Claire, New Freedom, PA

~ Second Place ~

breath prayer
moss breaking stone
into soil

Dan Schwerin, Sun Prairie, WI

 

~ Third Place ~

it's not a bug
it's a feature
first firefly

Matthew Markworth, Miamisburg, OH

 

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HSA Senryu Awards 2025

Judged by
Marilyn Ashbaugh & Paul David Mena
Judges Commentary

~ First Place ~

recycled plastic now a buddha

Matthew Markworth, Miamisburg, OH

 

~ Second Place ~

family dinner
our heated discussion
on global warming

Rowan Beckett Minor, Lakewood, OH

 

~ Third Place ~

trapped fly
from his sickbed he asks me
to open a window

Alan Peat, Biddulph, United Kingdom

~ ~ ~

 

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HSA Haibun Awards 2025

Judged by
Glenn G. Coats & Aubrie Cox Warner
Judges Commentary

~ First Place ~

by John Barlow, Ormskirk, UK

Lucky

Lucky wants to do it. Birdy does too. We’re in the boys’ bogs, Lucky swinging from the frame of the cubicle door. The priest’s just asked if we’d like to be altar servers, and Sir made out it was an honour, an expectation even, like a rite of passage. Birdy’s by the pissers, his shirt still sticking through his open fly. I’m by the sink, just far enough away not to get my face shoved into the manky tap. The water is warm and tastes disgusting. The sense of guilt weighs heavily, but I tell Lucky and Birdy that I’m gonna say no.

the heat of 45 summers what we know now

~ ~ ~

~ Second Place ~

by Edward Cody Huddleston, Baxley, GA

Rocky Mountain Postcard

Silhouetted by dust and snow, a moose drinks in profile, sipping from the hole in the ice where your signature trails off. Between the summit and the sunset, I put my finger on your fingerprint, or the inky smudge I pretend is your fingerprint.
 
I wish you were here too.

out of stories—
cold wind creaks
the rocking chair

~ ~ ~

~ Third Place ~

by Dru Philippou, Arroyo Hondo, NM

Housecleaning

Each day I walk past him in the hallway, barely glancing his way, but today the light from a window casts a gentle glow on Mañjushri. I lift the bodhisattva from his altar, rousing him from samãdhi. I blow away cobwebs and the whispers of forgotten prayers, although dust will forever lodge beyond reach in the folds of his robe. Using a moistened Q-tip, I tend to his long, flowing hair and imagine easing out the tangles, strand by strand. I gaze at the shimmering ruby-like gem in his earring; its hidden intensity pulls me in. I take my time polishing the stem and leaves of the lotus that cradles the Perfection of Wisdom sutra. Above his head, Mañjushri wields a flaming sword, broken many times by careless handling, yet it remains poised to cut through my delusions.

cloudless sky
          a butterfly
opens its wings

~ ~ ~

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Haiku Society of America 2025 Rengay Award
in Honor of Garry Gay

Judged by
Jonathan Roman & Agnes Eva Savich
Judges Commentary &
Honorable Mention Awards

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2025 First Place

Current

sweat bees
drowned migrants
look up 

head down
they shave his hair

her grandpa's corrido
crying is part
of the joy 

ICE van idling
outside the taquería
a baker’s dozen

huddled masses
she knows it by heart 

they cross the river
with the moon
on their backs

Anton R–kelian, San Diego, CA 1, 3 & 5
Orense Nicod, Paris, France 2, 4 & 6

 

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2025 Second Place

Maiden Voyage

early morning mist
the shipwright's hands
pungent with oil

a whisper of white oak
curls from the blade

the dinghy
made of ancient Huon pine
rigged for a sail

tacking planks
to the steam-bent ribs
scent of red cedar

a last coat of varnish
warming twilight

starboard  side . . .
polishing the fog bell
for its maiden voyage

Ron C. Moss, Tasmania, Australia 1, 3 & 5
Paula Sears, Exter, New Hampshire 2, 4 & 6

 

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2025 Third Place

Between Worlds

deep in the marsh
one watches, one weaves
nest-making geese

a grey heron pauses
where the river bends

soft as fog
hard as seed
cattail fluff

clatter of white storks 
a courting dance
ruffles the reeds

half dead half living
lightning struck pine

empty duck blind
where a hunter’s shadow  
used to fall 

John Thompson, Sonoma, CA 1,3 & 5
Neena Singh, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India 2,4 & 6

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Haiku Society of America Student Haiku Awards
in Memorial of Nicholas A. Virgilio

Student Haiku Awards for 2025

The judges for the 2025 competition were Eavonka Ettinger and John Pappas. See the web page of comments from the judges.

Download a free
PDF copy of the award winning student haiku & senryu up to 2022 to share with teachers and students (does not include award haiku since 2022).

Here are the winning haiku for 2025 (in alphabetical order):

autumn leaves
her last words heard
in a voicemail

Phoebe Bain – Grade 12, Colorado Springs, CO

~

                    blood moon
                           keys between my knuckles
                                  like my mother before me

Brynn Jensen – Grade 12, Colorado Springs, CO

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grandma's kitchen
mooncake softens
in my mouth

Frances McIlvoy – Grade 8, Atlanta, GA

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autumn wind
the scent of the bonfire
on a borrowed hoodie

Evelyn Reynolds – Grade 8, Atlanta, GA

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war victory
the names of the dead
misspelled

Tenzin Tinley – Grade 12, Colorado Springs, CO

~

empty hallway
one shoe sideways
after the argument

Connor Wong – Grade 12, Newport Coast, CA

~ ~ ~

 

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HSA Haibun Awards 2024

Judged by
Peter Newton & Barbara Sabol
Judges Commentary

 

First Place:

by Dylan Stover, OH, USA

heartwood

for David "Woody" Stover

It began with a young beech tree on a windy day, mid-spring. Acting upon an impulse I cannot now explain, I pressed my ear to the smooth, gray bark and started listening. To my surprise, there was sound: a secret inner creaking, like a stifled moan, as the crown twisted in the breeze. It was voice—tree voice. Each limb, as it swayed high in the canopy, was sending reverberations down through the acoustic body of the tree and into my ear as I crouched patiently at its side.

hand at my chest
the doctor suspects
a murmur

That’s when I became a listener of trees: I quickly discovered that smooth bark was best; the thicker the cork layer, the fainter the sound. Lithe ones were more melodious, aged ones more laconic, terse. But all speaking.
 
Then one day I noticed a pileated woodpecker hammering away in the upper branches of an ash tree. Sneaking up to the bole, I put my ear against the bark: ta-tum ta-tum ta-a-TUM ta-tum… The wood trembled at each jab. Even the scrapes of the bird’s claws were amplified: every movement echoed inside me, as if the bird, the tree, and I were unified in a single, ringing vibration.

a simple procedure
to remove the weevil
—then silence

~ ~ ~

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Second Place:

by Dian Duchin Reed, CA, USA

What I'm Doing on My Summer Vacation

My yard is not very big, but it’s big enough to shelter a million ants, keep the bees in business, and lure hummingbirds down to flirt with red flowers.
 
Who knew that aphids came in a rainbow of colors? When I sit still, I might see a gopher pushing dirt out of its hole, then taking a break while its head soaks in the warmth of the sun. I’m learning the towhee’s cat alarm and the crows’ hawk taunts. I sometimes hear coyotes singing along with a passing siren.
 
Did I mention the opossum babies who ride on their mother’s back at dawn? The skunk’s evening saunter? School’s about to start, and I haven’t even scratched the surface. The millipedes and Jerusalem crickets will have to wait till next summer.

the mockingbird
plays its whole repertoire
endless afternoon

~ ~ ~

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Third Place:

by J Hahn Doleman, CA, USA

True Places Never Are

Lighter than a tuft of seafoam, yet tasting heavy as iron, this palmful of mycelium dust dissolves on my tongue as we trudge across an ancient caldera high above the territory of mapped consciousness.

thinning air
an obsidian cairn
warm to the touch

Under the retreating sun, still shining like a new doubloon, our breath becomes visible as we follow the lost footsteps of Klamath and Paiute. Traversing the first sequence of switchbacks, a jagged mountain scrimshaw leading to the summit, our boots awaken prehistoric ghosts beneath the crunch and scuttle of igneous rock. On one flank of the volcano, bleached skeletons of mountain hemlock blur into a Danse Macabre, their trunks swaying like mizzen masts in a typhoon. A whale-sized andesite obelisk crests above us, spouting luminescent fractals from an invisible blowhole.

the universe still expanding rhyolite fragments

This white-haired alp appears to slumber as gusts of wind from an invisible, eternal Victrola play across its skin, spinning out records of our past. We test our sea legs on the glacier, a frozen brig drifting within its own concept of time, as meltwater runoff rushes its way to the ocean and a world we will never quite fathom.

open crevasse
a Pandora moth
enshrined in ice

~ ~ ~

 

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Haiku Society of America Merit Books Awards 2025
for books published in 2024

Patricia J. Machmiller and Scott Mason, judges

Judges' comments will be added to the web site after
they are published in the Autumn issue of Frogpond.

First Place

Francine Banwarth. Bare Necessities: Selected Haiku of Francine Banwarth. Taylorville, IL; Brooks Books, 2024

Second Place

Jennifer Hambrick. A Silence or Two. Winchester, VA; Red Moon Press, 2024

Third Place

Debbie Strange. Random Blue Sparks. Ormskirk, Great Britain; Snapshot Press., 2024

Honorable Mentions (not ranked but in alphabetical order by author)

Roberta Beary. Carousel. Ormskirk, Great Britain; Snapshot Press., 2024

Deborah P Kolodji. Vital Signs. Cuttlefish Books, 2024

paul m. Magnolia Diary. Champaign, IL; Modern Haiku Press, 2024

Peter Yovu. Shine Shadow. Winchester, VA; Red Moon Press, 2024

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HAIKU ANTHOLOGY AWARDS:

Best

Janice Doppler, editor. One Thread: Zoka in Contemporary Haiku. Massachusetts; self-published, 2024

Honorable Mention

Susan Antolin, Garry Gay, and Carolyn Hall, editors. The San Francisco Haiku Anthology, Volume Two. Spare Poems Press 2024

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HAIBUN BOOK AWARDS:

Best

Bob Lucky. My Wife & Other Adventures. Winchester, VA; Red Moon Press, 2024

Honorable Mentions

Joe McKeon. A Man on Horseback. Winchester, VA; Red Moon Press, 2024

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Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu Competition Anthology

edited by Randy M. Brooks
designed by Ignatius Fay

© 2022 HAIKU Society of America

To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu Competition, the executive committee of the Haiku Society of America published this anthology of award-winning haiku and senryu. The student observations, insights, experiences, emotions and insights evident in these haiku and senryu are a wonderful testament to the fresh voices and vivid imagery of young people. We believe the judges’ commentaries add a valuable layer of meaning as we see how leaders, editors, writers and members of the Haiku Society of America carefully consider the significance of each award-winning poem.

Download your PDF copy for a teacher in your area.

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