Touchstone Nominations for HGS
Congratulations, poets!
Because I published so many issues of Haiku Girl Summer in 2023, I was allowed to submit 30 nominations for the Touchstone Award for Individual Poems. I submitted my nominations the day after this year’s edition ended, and I’ve been waiting until other people started posting their nominations before sharing the good news. I’m thrilled to be finally making this post!
The nominees are presented in alphabetical order by first name, with their poem below.
Adele Evershed
dry spell
the stepping stones
just stones…
Agnes Eva Savich
not kissing
you never know where
fireflies light next
Ann Sullivan
a breeze pushes the back yard swing . . . empty nesters
Anne Morrigan
firefly hunters
each star in our bucket
has a name
Barrie Levine
poolside deck
a clatter of beach chairs
unfolding
Beth Nolcox
remembrance grove
brushing last years leaves
off the sun-warmed stones
Carly Siegel Thorp
beach walk
a piping plover scurries past
the exclosure net
Claire Vogel Camargo
limestone steps
too hot to sit on
news of lay-offs
C.X. Turner
seedtime dew
clinging to the old
and new
Deborah Karl-Brandt
rainbow nobody wants my truth
Heather Jagman
cloudless dusk
our eyes follow
a nighthawk’s cry
Jennifer Hambrick
unearthing
all my hidden hearts
garlic harvest
Jessica Allyson
familiar birds
sing in different dialects
across the border
J.L. Huffman
copperhead
snakes through leaf litter
susurrus
Julie Schwerin
prayers over
a fading cosmos --
resting monarch
Juliet Wilson
heat haze -
swifts coming and going
from nowhere
Kelly Moyer
journey’s end a jisei wet with sweet hibiscus tea
Kimberly Kuchar
grand finale
the firefly
lights up the frog
Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo
the splash at the end of a rope swing
Lorraine A Padden
faded lifeguard tower
another season of salt
baked into red
Marian M. Poe
traffic generates the only breeze
Nancy Orr
only a wing
and a prayer --
fledgling
Paula Sears
weathered dock
the swaying blooms
of sunfish
Roberta Beach Jacobson
endless
meadows of wildflowers
can't you stay
Rowan Beckett
high tide
sand cleanses
their deadname
Ruth Holzer
Hiroshima Day for this species what hope
Sangita Kalarickal
mast year
for the backyard oak
August storms
Sarah Paris
long evening our shadows fingers crossed
Susan Lee Roberts
rainy day campfire—
shy girl conjures sparks
into flames
Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
chrysalis
the butterfly
I hope to be
Congratulations to you all! These are outstanding and the nominations are well-deserved!