As a memorial to Editor Bob Spiess, who died on March 13, 2002,
Modern Haiku sponsors The Robert Spiess Memorial Award
Haiku Competition.
Modern Haiku is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Contest. There were 405 entries from 103 poets in 9 countries.
Judges were Lee Gurga and Peter Yovu.
Haiku were to be written in the spirit of the following “Speculation” (Robert Spiess, A Year’s Speculations on Haiku, Modern Haiku Press, 1995):
A haiku is a profound testimony that a most humble object of nature when put into the simplest of aesthetic forms can become a revelation.
First Prize: Natalia L. Rudychev
letting go
the heart
of a sparrow
Natalia receives $100 plus a signed, previously-loved copy of The Turtle’s Ears (1971).
Second Prize: Linda Jeannette Ward
cog railway —
white sky
becomes snowflakes
Linda receives $50 plus a copy of Bob’s The Shape of Water (1982).
Third Prize: Peggy Willis Lyles
daffodils —
a laughing girl
with rain in her shoe
Peggy receives $25 plus a copy of Bob’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001).
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order). Each receives a copy of Bob’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995):
wide open
the roses we leave
on the motel dresser
Janelle Barrera
lantern shadows
two-teat harmony
in the milk pail
ken hurm
sparse shadow
of the plum tree
the pull of an old friend
Dru Philippou
hot night
at the filling station
songs of love
Sandra Simpson
Shop window —
winter light along
the violin strings
Eduard Tara
Contest coordinator Billie Wilson, the judges, and the editors of Modern Haiku thank all those who sent their haiku to the competition and congratulate the winners.
