The Heron’s Nest Readers’ Choice Awards for 2007 were announced last night (illustration by Doris Thurston). Congratulations to skipping stones editor Chad Lee Robinson, who was the Grand Prize winner in both categories — Poem of the Year and Poet of the Year. (This will perhaps be a year for handing the torch to a new generation in both poetics and politics: Chad was born in Pierre, SD, in 1980.) This is the favorite poem from Volume IX of The Heron’s Nest:
buffalo bones
wind less than a whisper
in the summer grass……………………….. by Chad Lee Robinson,
The Heron’s Nest, Reader’s Choice Poem of the Year 2007
This year, eighty-eight “readers” took the time to muse over and evaluate the 485 poems that (after review by “five critical editors”) appeared in The Heron’s Nest in 2007. As often happens (see our “such naches” posting this time last year), members of our f/k/a Honored Guest Poet family were prominently represented among the winning Readers’ Choice poems and poets. To wit:
Favorite Poems
First Runner-up:
circle of lamplight —
I complete the baby quilt
begun for me…………………. Carolyn Hall
Second Runner-up:
between windows
the space the spider
lived and died
………………… Tom Clausen
Poet of the Year:
First Runner-up
……………. John Stevenson
Second Runner-up
……………… Carolyn Hall
Third Runner-up
……………….. Yu Chang
The Heron’s Nest Vol. IX (due April 2008) [cover detail, Jamie Edgecombe]
As The Heron’s Nest‘s founding editor Christopher Herold reminds us:
Full coverage of the awards, including an overview, editorial commentary,
thirty additional poems that merit inclusion in the “special mention”
section, and comments by several voters will all be presented along with
the four quarterly issues in their entirety in the paper edition of
Volume IX, due to come out early in April.The cost to purchase a copy of Volume IX is $16 in the United States,
u.s.$18 in Canada or Mexico, and u.s.$20 elsewhere. Please make checks
or money orders payable in U.S. funds to The Heron’s Nest or
Christopher Herold and send to:The Heron’s Nest
Christopher Herold, Ed.
816 Taft Street
Port Townsend, WA 98368
Click here to see the winning illustrations that will be included in the paper edition of THN IX.
No poet can have more than 8 poems accepted for publication in THN in any year. Only John Stevenson (who is has now taken over as Managing Editor at THN and will no longer by gracing its pages with his poetry) and Yu Chang had 8 poems in THN Volume IX. Carolyn Hall had six. You’ve already seen them here at f/k/a, but here is a reprise of a pair of haiku from each of our aptly-named Honored Guests:
Mother’s Day
filling the bare spots
with nasturtiumsscudding clouds —
the creak of wagon wheels
through Grandfather’s journal…………………………………………………….. by Carolyn Hall
“deep autumn” – The Heron’s Nest, Vol. IX:2 (June 2007:)
“scudding clouds —” – The Heron’s Nest Vol. IX: 3 (September 2007).
lucky bamboo
a single leaf
tipped with sun
longer days
a nameless bug
on my bicycle
………………. by Yu Chang – The Heron’s Nest, Vol. IX:2 (June 2007)
spring morning —
the hand of a student who
may know the answer
the rooster’s
first five syllables . . .
all he’s got
.… by John Stevenson – The Heron’s Nest, Vol. IX:2 (June 2007)
The political-punditry devil who lurks within the heart of the f/k/a Gang has been dying to write about the presidential nomination process, despite our continuing 
2005
– 
– 
– Frogpond (XXVIII: 2, 2005); repub. in 
– 
– Nisqually Delta Review (Winter-Spring, 2006; errata page)
– 
– 
– in 
. . . in “
Happy 
[“Rat Pack”/
Although I understand how this Anonymity Thing started, and can sympathize with the almost-captive nature of the Anonymous Editor Mystique, I believe I owe it to readers and bloggers across the blawgiverse to help unmask the man behind the unseemly secrecy shtick. In addition to this Law.com headline: “
“
…………………….. by 
……………. by Lee Gurga in “
It can now be revealed: My “three magi” poem in our “
The Gazette [see its 
Of course, I first learned thirty years ago (when even Washington Post legal-beat reporters kept mis-stating the facts and law in cases I worked on at the Federal Trade Commission), that newspapers can get things wrong when describing laws and the details of lawmaking. So, I’d be most pleased to have a more flattering account of what went into the efforts to salvage the future of the GE Sign. Since I can’t image Schenectady’s skyline without it, I’m pleased indeed that this catastrophe, or the customary embarrassment around this town when inadvertent regulatory missteps are noticed too late, was avoided.
Senryu from Frogpond XXXI:1 (Winter 2008):
Speaking of human nature circa 2008, the 
Congratulations to the 152 haijin [meaning writers of haiku-related literature, 
Roberta Beary, Yu Chang, Carolyn Hall, Jim Kacian, Peggy Willis Lyles, paul m., Matt Morden, Tom Painting, John Stevenson
In the haikai community, the annual edition of the 
“There are some brilliant English language poets, but many are missing from Big Sky in favor of some of the above [senryu] inclusions. Perhaps the anthology’s editors didn’t look hard enough. I hope they dig deeper for next year’s anthology. And will be more up front next time and identify any senryu as such. “
Nevertheless, I will say two things: (1) I joined “
.
On the morning of my father’s 
……………………. by Michael Dylan Welch
………………. by 
[
……………………. by 
…………. by Jim Kacian
p.s. I’ve created a 
Regrets are often neither helpful nor healthy, but I’ve nevertheless been bemoaning my failure to live up to 
As mentioned 
Carolyn’s book Water Lines (Snapshot Press, 2006; 
It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and as we did 
[Don’t forget the 2008 Martin Luther King Day Edition of 
