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The Editors and Web Master of The Heron’s Nest are pleased to announce the results of the Readers’ Choice Awards for favorite poems and poets featured in Volume X, 2008.

Our thanks to all who found time to consider the 472 haiku we published in 2008 and to register votes for their favorites. We heard from fewer voters this year, compared to last year’s record total of eighty-eight. Still, this year’s total of seventy-four voters is a good turnout. We sent fewer reminders about voting than in recent years and will remedy that next time in hopes of hearing from even more readers.

The print edition of Volume X, to be mailed in April, will include the contents of all four regular issues, the entire awards report, including winning poems and poets along with commentary, special mentions, and a generous sample of comments by readers on individual poems and on the voting process, plus winning entries in the Illustration Contest. For information on how to order, please visit http://www.haikupoet.com/nest/journal/.

And now on to the results!

Grand Prize: POEM OF THE YEAR (12 votes totaling 100 points)

Hiroshima Day
multi-color threads
on the weaving machine
            — Fay Aoyagi (Volume 10:4)

First Runner-up: (10 votes totaling 75 points)

first snow
the snug fit of spices
in their rack
            — Burnell Lippy (Volume 10:1)

Second Runner-up: (10 votes totaling 72 points)

thumbing a coat
       over my shoulder
cloudless sky
            — Christopher Herold (Volume 10:2)

Third Runner-up: (11 votes totaling 71 points)

one deep breath
for a moment the pine
is part of me
            — Harriot West (Volume 10:4)

This category results from totaling the number of points awarded to each poet for their entire body of work in Volume X. The most poems one can have accepted in The Nest each year is eight. Obviously, the more poems a person publishes, the greater chances he or she has for garnering votes. It follows that success in the Readers’ Choice Awards is significantly affected by a poet’s earlier success in having work accepted by the editors throughout the year. One poet had eight poems in Volume X. Two poets had seven poems published and four poets had six published.

To put into perspective how well the winners did: the average total points for combined works this year was 26.

GRAND PRIZE: POET OF THE YEAR ( 21 total votes for 4 of 5 poems = 140 points)

Burnell Lippy

First Runner-up: (22 total votes for 6 of 8 poems = 136 points)

Carolyn Hall

Second Runner-up: (19 total votes for 5 of 5 poems = 127 points)

Christopher Herold

Third Runner-up: (17 total votes for 5 of 5 poems = 104 points)

Gary Hotham

We would also like to commend the following poets for garnering well over the average total point score of 26.

Fay Aoyagi: one poem received votes totaling 100 points

Peter Yovu: 4 of 4 poems received votes totaling 100 points

Harriot West: 3 of 6 poems received votes totaling 98 points

Lorin Ford: 5 of 5 poems received votes totaling 81 points

Connie Donleycott: 4 of 5 poems received votes totaling 78 points

Collin Barber: 4 of 4 poems received votes totaling 71 points

Chad Lee Robinson: 6 of 7 poems received votes totaling 68 points

D. Claire Gallagher: 4 of 5 poems received votes totaling 67 points

Susan Constable: 3 of 4 poems received votes totaling 65 points

Hilary Tann: 6 of 7 poems received votes totaling 65 points

Roberta Beary: 4 of 5 poems received votes totaling 63 points

Paul Pfleuger Jr.: 4 of 5 poems received votes totaling 63 points

Mark Arvid White: one poem received votes totaling 63 points

Ellen Compton: 3 of 3 poems received votes totaling 61 points

Dietmar Tauchner: 3 of 4 poems received votes totaling 60 points

Ann K. Schwader: 4 of 5 poems received votes totaling 58 points

Marian Olson: 2 of 2 poems received votes totaling 55 points

Ruth Yarrow: 3 of 4 poems received votes totaling 55 points

Randy Brooks: 2 of 2 poems received votes totaling 54 points

Bill Kenney: 2 of 2 poems received votes totaling 52 points

Our congratulations to all contributors to Volume X of The Heron’s Nest. Every one of your poems passed through a multi-layered selection process and garnered appreciative readings from our panel of editors. We are grateful to have been able to feature your work this year.

John Stevenson