Haiku Society of America Rengay Award
in Honor of Garry Gay
2025
Judged by
Jonathan Roman & Agnes Eva Savich
Comments reflect the combined
impressions of both judges.
2025 First Place
Current
sweat bees
drowned migrants
look uphead down
they shave his hairher grandpa's corrido
crying is part
of the joyICE van idling
outside the taquería
a baker’s dozenhuddled masses
she knows it by heartthey cross the river
with the moon
on their backs
Anton R–kelian, San Diego, CA 1, 3 & 5
Orense Nicod, Paris, France 2, 4 & 6Poetry, no matter how timely or relevant, must still attempt to be good poetry. Thankfully, “Current” succeeds here. This rengay is titled perfectly, capturing layers of meaning with just one word, and every verse is heart-rending. The opening plunges us into a body of water with “drowned migrants”. “Huddled masses/she knows it by heart” alludes to the invitation inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The pursuit of this invitation is the subject of the beautiful closing verse as “they cross the river/with the moon/on their backs”.
2025 Second Place
Maiden Voyage
early morning mist
the shipwright's hands
pungent with oila whisper of white oak
curls from the bladethe dinghy
made of ancient Huon pine
rigged for a sailtacking planks
to the steam-bent ribs
scent of red cedara last coat of varnish
warming twilightstarboard 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
The voyage begins in the “early morning mist”, alluding to uncertainty or danger. The authors add an element of yugen in the second verse: “a whisper of white oak curls from the blade”. “The dinghy made of ancient Huon pine” and “tacking planks to the steam-bent ribs” allows the reader to see the vessel not as something new, but something that has always been, something living. The final verse’s “polishing the fog bell” hearkens back to “the shipwright's hands pungent with oil” of the opening verse, making for a satisfying end to this rengay.
2025 Third Place
Between Worlds
deep in the marsh
one watches, one weaves
nest-making geesea grey heron pauses
where the river bendssoft as fog
hard as seed
cattail fluffclatter of white storks
a courting dance
ruffles the reedshalf dead half living
lightning struck pineempty 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
Aptly titled, Between Worlds presents the reader with many images and instances of betweenness. From the pair of “nest making geese”, where “one watches” and “one weaves”, to the “lightning struck pine” stuck somewhere between life and death. The final haiku invites speculation as to the hunter’s fate, as it may be surmised that they are no longer around, clinging to life as the pine in the preceding verse.
2025 Honorable Mention 1
Emergence
swirl of gray
the traveler’s cloak
turns to mistseeing shapes
in a starling murmurationunexpected melody . . .
the shift
in my moodtaste of sunrise
orange sherbet
push-up popswandering the garden
a petal brushes my handgrandma’s perfume . . .
I bend to inhale
pink lilacs
Mary McCormack, LaGrange Park, IL 1,3,& 5
Kathryn P. Haydon, Lake Bluff, IL 2,4 &6The first half of this rengay works in tandem with the title to evoke a sense of intrigue that propels the reader forward. Each finely crafted haiku exudes mystery and poeticism, and there are elements of synaesthesia, pareidolia, personification, and other subtleties that conspire to endear the reader.
2025 Honorable Mention 2
3AM
Samhain—
the littlest witch
in her mother’s ashesthe creak of a cradle
from the ossuaryworm moon—
deep in his skull
black dahliashood’s shadow . . .
the upturned hand
of the mummyaround the corpse
swarm of scarabsdust to dust . . .
the blue of her ghost
fogs the horizon
Rowan Beckett Minor, Cleveland, OH 1, 3 & 5
Joshua Gage, Cleveland, OH 2, 4 & 6This rengay is perfectly titled, as it sets the mood for all that one can expect from the witching hour. 3AM manages to unsettle the reader with each successive image, culminating in a final haiku that is in keeping with the theme, yet attains a poignancy and beauty that is unexpected.
2025 Honorable Mention 3
Turn, Turn, Turn
sea smoke
urchin shells litter
the breakwaterthe splay
of a tern’s wing featherssnow glitter
tracking a mink
above the high-tide linerepositioning
what’s left of the hull
‘nother nor’easterouter harbor
ice beads the mooring chaincircling
the keeper’s headstone
the automated beacon
Kristen Lindquist, Camden, ME 1,3,5
Alan S. Bridges, Westford, MA 2,4,6Each one of this nautically-themed rengay’s haiku are a pleasure to read, and are chock full of cinematic elements. Besides the consistent theme, we are fans of the bittersweet ending, where the keeper's grave is ironically being watched over by the lighthouse he kept watch over.
About the 2025 Rengay Awards Judges
Agnes Eva Savich (Poland, 1976–) has been published in major journals, anthologized in several collections, and placed in contests in the U.S.A., Canada, England, and Japan since 2004. She is also a performing musician playing oboe in a woodwind quintet and local community orchestras, and she works in administration at The University of Texas at Austin. She has a daughter and a son. Her first haiku collection will be published in September 2025 by Red Moon Press.
Jonathan Roman hails from the Bronx, New York, and is still trying to wrap his head around being a human. When he is not in charge of his two smaller humans, he is covertly re-engaging with words. His poetry can be found in a number of haiku journals. The book he co-authored, After Amen: A Memoir In Two Voices, placed third in the 2022 Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Awards and was an Honorable Mention in The Haiku Foundation's 2021 Touchstone Awards. Connect with him on Bluesky: @deftnotes.bsky.social
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