Haiku Society of America Rengay Award
in Honor of Garry Gay
2025
Judged by
Jonathan Roman & Agnes Eva Savich
Judges Commentary
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 & 6
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
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
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 &6
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 & 6
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 2,4,6
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