{"id":7386,"date":"2007-03-08T14:32:05","date_gmt":"2007-03-08T19:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/03\/08\/cherry-blossom-festivals-and-haiku"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:52","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:52","slug":"cherry-blossom-festivals-and-haiku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/03\/08\/cherry-blossom-festivals-and-haiku\/","title":{"rendered":"cherry blossom festivals and haiku"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blossomBranchF\" You may recall that the first week of 2007 brought the premature blossoming of cherry blossoms in parts of the Washington, D.C. area. (see USAToday<\/em> article<\/a>, Jan. 4, 2007)\u00a0 It may have been extra-warm in many parts of the USA in December, but lots of places are now having the coldest nights of this winter as we approach the ides of March.\u00a0\u00a0 This chill makes it especially important to remind ourselves how soon we’ll be enjoying those cheery harbingers of Spring — cherry blossoms and<\/em> cherry blossom festivals.\u00a0 Two major North American festivals will soon take place:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The 2007 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival<\/a> [VCBF], in British Columbia, Canada, which\u00a0“is scheduled to kick off the season on March 22,” and will last a week.\u00a0 Linda Poole is its Creative Director.<\/li>\n
  2. The National Cherry Blossom Festival<\/a>\u00ae in Washington, D.C., which will be held March 31 \u2013 April 15, and “is an annual two-week, citywide event featuring daily cultural performances, sporting events, arts & crafts demonstrations and other special events.”\u00a0 This morning (March 8), festival organizers held a press conference<\/a> to announce the calendar of events and the projected peak blossoming period.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    so far away –
    \ncherry blossoms and the smile
    \nthat humbles them<\/p>\n

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by dagosan<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \"VancouverTreePoole\" The blooming period of cherry blossoms can last as long as 14 days.\u00a0\u00a0 As we said last year<\/a>, in a post about the DC festival, the contrast of the beauty and the impermanence of the blossoms have long made them the perfect subject for haiku (and for zen philosophers).\u00a0 Due to this traditional link between haiku and cherry blossoms, the two-year-old Vancouver festival has held a cherry blossom Haiku Invitational Contest<\/a> each of the past two years.<\/p>\n

    Last year, seven of f\/k\/a<\/em>\u2019s Honored Guest Poets<\/a> had haiku that were selected by the VCBF judges for special recognition.\u00a0 You can find their 2006 poems reprinted below the fold\u00a0of this\u00a0posting.<\/p>\n

    . . . . . . . . . See our 2008 cherry blossom update<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This year, VCBF’s contest attracted 1,130 haiku entries from 32 countries.\u00a0 Five members of the f\/k\/a<\/em> Honorable Guest family had winning haiku for 2007, as did our adopted family member, Aurora Antonovic (of Toronto).\u00a0\u00a0 Here are their poems:<\/p>\n

    2007 VCBF Sakura Award Haiku<\/a> \"blossomBranch\"<\/p>\n

    the wiggle
    \nof a bee\u2019s behind\u2014
    \ncherry blossom<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    . . . . . . by Laryalee Fraser<\/p>\n

    the beaver\u2019s tail
    \nstrikes bright water\u2014
    \ncherry blossoms<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    . . . . . . . by Peggy Lyles\"DontPickBLossomsN\"
    \nTucker, Georgia<\/p>\n

    The National Park Service says Don’t Pick the Blossoms<\/em><\/a> \"DontPickBlossoms\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    cherry blossoms\u2014
    \nwith my daughter in my arms
    \nI am weightless<\/p>\n

    ………………… by Andrew Riutta
    \nTraverse City, Michigan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Honorable Mention<\/a> selections: \"VCBFLogo\"<\/p>\n

    as though it were
    \nthe first time\u2014
    \ncherry blossoms!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    . . . . . . . by Aurora Antonovic
    \nToronto, Ontario<\/p>\n

    blossom viewing\u2014
    \nmother shrinks deeper
    \ninto her shawl<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    . . . . . . . . by Roberta Beary
    \nWashington, D.C.<\/p>\n

    blossom rain\u2014\u00a0 \"BlossomsDC\"
    \nshe sweeps the front steps
    \nin her Sunday best<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    . . . . . . by Carolyn Hall
    \nSan Francisco, California<\/p>\n

    \"canjapSBC\" Two of my all-time favorite cherry blossom poems are\u00a0from Japan’s 19th Century Haiku Master, Kobayashi Issa:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    the great lord
    \nforced off his horse\u2026
    \ncherry blossoms<\/p>\n

    growing old–
    \neven the cherry blossoms
    \na bit annoying<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    ….. by Kobayashi Issa<\/a>, translated by David G. Lanoue (60 more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

    \"DontPickBLossomsN\"dagosan<\/em> didn’t win, but makes this humble offering anyway:<\/p>\n

    the streetsweeper
    \nlooks up, looks down —
    \ncherry blossom week ends<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    For more vernal inspiration, the 2006 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival haiku winners<\/a> (and Highly Commendables<\/a>, too)\u00a0from our Honorable Guest Poets can be found below the fold. <\/p>\n

    distant thunder
    \na few cherry blossoms
    \nfloat to earth<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    just blossoming
    \nwe meet under
    \nthe cherry tree<\/p>\n

    \n. . . . by w.f. owen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    cherry blossoms\u00a0\u00a0 \"blossomBranch\"
    \nthe tug tug tug
    \nof baby\u2019s hand<\/p>\n

    \nmorning mist
    \na bent back sweeps
    \nyesterday\u2019s blossoms<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    . . . . . by roberta beary<\/p>\n

    a shortcut\u00a0 \"DontPickBLossomsN\"
    \nto the sanitarium —
    \ncherry blossoms<\/p>\n

    . . . . . . by andrew riutta<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    cherry blossoms free fall
    \ninto the pond . . .
    \nbaby\u2019s first steps<\/p>\n

    blossoms . . .
    \nI dust off the last
    \njar of cherries<\/p>\n

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . by alice frampton<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    grizzled poet\u2014
    \na sprig of cherry blossoms
    \nin his knapsack<\/p>\n

    . . . . . . by Laryalee Fraser<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    cherry blossoms
    \na street vendor hums
    \nthe Ode to Joy<\/p>\n

    \"blossomBranchF\". . . . . . . . . . by peggy willis lyles<\/p>\n

    cherry blossoms
    \nthe one that falls
    \non mother\u2019s headstone<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    . . . . . . . . by ed markowski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    You may recall that the first week of 2007 brought the premature blossoming of cherry blossoms in parts of the Washington, D.C. area. (see USAToday article, Jan. 4, 2007)\u00a0 It may have been extra-warm in many parts of the USA in December, but lots of places are now having the coldest nights of this winter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1V8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12588,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386\/revisions\/12588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}