Popular Poets

•  Carolyn Hall

•  Peggy Lyles

•  John Crook

•  H. F. Noyes

Volume III, Valentine Awards: February, 2001.

Copyright © 2001. All rights reserved by the respective authors.  

Carolyn Hall received the second highest number of votes overall. Of her thirteen poems to appear in Volume II, this favorite received the most points. It also won The Heron's Nest Award in May, 2000:

            spilt milk
            spreading along the grout lines
            morning chill

The next poem also earned many votes. It is my personal favorite of Carolyn's poems in 2000:

            one rock for my garden–
            a thousand ants
            rescuing eggs

Ten words. Carolyn expresses the profound impact humans have on the environment. Many of Carolyn's haiku illustrate her ability to connect emotionally with the subjects of her inspiration. Her vision can also sweep with simple elegance from a winter sunset to pink pelicans, from sunglasses to the entire sky. I'm delighted that readers so widely appreciate Carolyn's perceptive and compassionate work.

– Ferris Gilli

Peggy Lyles is keenly attuned to nature, and she is deeply aware of humanity's role in nature. Her haiku are insightful and fresh. Every time I read one I discover a new wonder. Often I realize that what I'm seeing isn't new at all; it's been there all the time, unremarked, until Peggy showed it to me. The combination of classic rhythm and vivid imagery in her grand-prize winning “dragonfly . . .” allows us to experience Peggy's writing skill at its finest. Others of her haiku that received votes of admiration demonstrate sharp focus and effective juxtaposition. Peggy creates haiku that transcend craft, each inspired moment becoming a work of art:

            a broader path . . .
            I rake away my footprints
            with the yellow leaves

                 low sun
            the glass blower twirls
             a tear-shaped vase

Each of Peggy's poems contains an essential element, the absence of which would attenuate the emotional connection, no matter how finely crafted the verse. Peggy's poems contain “heart.”

– Ferris Gilli

Nine of John Crook's poems were presented in Volume II. A majority received votes, and he received the fourth highest number of votes overall. John's most poplular poem this year is “Remembrance Day.” Here are two more of his poems:

grey morning
the slow beat of a heron
against the wind

            starry night
            fragments of conversation
            drift over new snow

It was interesting to find certain recurring themes in John's poems. Often drawn skyward, he writes of birds (geese, starlings, blackbirds, herons); a butterfly in one poem, and four mentions of wind. John's spirit soars, yet there's another prominent side: one of shadows, bare trees, fallen petals, approaching storms–ultimately, the impermanence of all things. I am deeply moved by the haiku of John Crook and delighted that our readers find his work worthy of high praise.

– Christopher Herold

Tom Noyes won the Heron's Nest Award in the Journal's very first Issue, September, 1999. In Volume II he was again given this honor, and most of his other haiku received readers' votes. Noyes, a native of the U.S.A., lives in Greece. One of his haiku:

            storm clouds brew–
            a crone on the mountain road
            draws tight her black cloak

bears the imprint of Greece but Tom's subjects are wide-ranging, from animals and flowers to religion and painting. “morning stroll” and the following:

            church door locked
            a hollow sound
            answers my knock

            bamboo in snow–
              but for a Sung painter's art
            I'd have passed it by

involve the poet directly yet are easily entered into by readers. Seemingly without effort Tom Noyes evokes mood with his haiku, drawing the reader in. Only after the initial reading experience does Tom's skill with language become obvious.

– Paul MacNeil