2025 Lyrical Iowa Haiku Contest

     Michael Dylan Welch, judge

First Place ($65)

fall time change . . .

I shush a little voice chattering

in the dawn light

Ashley WolfTornabane, Storm Lake, Iowa

There’s a momentary mystery to this poem. What is the source of that little voice chattering at dawn? It is surely a bird that wouldn’t know of the time change in human clocks. The dawn is still the dawn, and that’s what’s gotten the bird to chatter. The human observer hasn’t yet adjusted and so tries to shush that temporary and unexpected annoyance.

Second Place ($40)

the mourning doves

call to each other

from separate farmsteads

Mike Lindseth, Primghar, Iowa

The plaintive sound of mourning doves often serves to attract a mate. But in this poem, the doves may also be perceived to lament vanishing farmsteads, as farming becomes increasingly corporate. Maybe one day these doves and their family farms will become a thing of the past. But for now, we can still hear them call.

Third Place ($25)

windstorm

treehouse memories tumble

to the ground

Roberta Beach Jacobson, Indianola, Iowa

One probably won’t lose the memories of one’s childhood treehouse just because the tree falls in a storm, but it can feel like those memories are fragile. At the very least, for that moment it feels like that treehouse is all those memories.

First Honorable Mention

first day of college

students standing in line

for cotton candy

Angela McGlothlen, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Despite reaching the milestone of heading off to college, these students are still kids at heart, and their college knows how to reach them. Let’s hope the students stay young into old age. I appreciate the touch of humor in this poem with its vivid and immediate images.

Second Honorable Mention

my face wheels around

to catch the westering sun—

field of sunflowers

Talbot Hook, Newton, Iowa

Here a person is doing what the sunflowers do—turning to face the sun. Facing the sun feels optimistic, so no wonder we often have a fascination with sunflowers. The “w” sounds in this poem also give it a pleasing euphony.

Third Honorable Mention

exhausted farmer

leans against frozen barn door

windchill ten below

William Dall, Dubuque, Iowa

This feels like a deeply Midwest predicament. I’ve never worked on a farm but I know those cold temperatures (and much colder). We don’t know why the farmer is exhausted but it’s easy to imagine that he or she has been tending to cows or other chores, only to discover that the barn is frozen shut. But we also know that the farmer will figure out a resourceful solution to this predicament, despite tiredness.

Additional Selections

pokeberry poison

grows in my flower garden

inked words on a page

Pat Bieber, Muscatine, Iowa

hot breeze three geese

drink from puddles

at the car wash

Virginia Mortenson, Des Moines, Iowa

strand of golden hair

gently, it tickles my cheek

a kiss blown from you

Devin Creek, Calmar, Iowa

Leaves cover the yard,

A rake rests six feet beyond

Memorial garden.

Rosella Myles, Des Moines, Iowa

birds in March

sing of surrender

you walk away

Sharon Ruth Hensley, Urbandale, Iowa

One additional poem incorrectly appeared in the haiku section of Lyrical Iowa 2025, but it was not a poem I selected for inclusion, so I have omitted it here.