The
editors of Modern Haiku are pleased to announce the winners
of the third annual competition to commemorate the life and
work of Robert Spiess.
The
judges were Pamela Miller Ness and Lee Gurga. We received 316
entries from 83 poets, representing 10 countries. Haiku were
to be written in the spirit of the following Speculation
(Robert Spiess, A Years Speculations on Haiku,
Modern Haiku Press, 1995):
It
is [the] subjective aspect that accounts for very much of
the difference between a haiku that is merely descriptive
per se and one that engenders intuitional feelingand
this is the deciding factor between a haiku in which the poet
simply records stimuli and one in which the poet is in accord
with the haiku moment.
The
awards are as follows: First Prize: $100 plus a signed like-new
copy of Bobs first book, The Herons Legs
(1966, out of print); Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Bobs
The Shape of Water
(1982); Third Prize: $25 plus a copy of Bobs Some Sticks
and Pebbles (2001). Three poets are awarded Honorable Mentions,
and each will receive a copy of Bobs A Years
Speculations on Haiku (1995).
Special
thanks to Billie Wilson for the idea of a competition to remember
Bob
Spiess and for all her hard work as contest coordinator.