Haiku Invitational 2006

Here are the best haiku of the 2006 Haiku Invitational:

• Best Canadian Poem
  the long road
  boughs of white blossoms
  light the way

  Helen Baker

  North Vancouver, British Columbia

• Best U.S Poem
  cherry blossoms
  I fold my résumé
  into a crane

  Barry Goodmann

  Hackensack, New Jersey

• Best Youth Poem
  stopped in traffic—
  on my window
  cherry blossom

  Sophia Frentz (age 13)

  Tauranga, New Zealand

• Best International Poem
  cherry tree
  even the blind woman
  picks blossoms

  Rosa Clement

  Manaus, Brazil

(Poems appear alphabetically by each poet’s last name.)

• a new son born—
  from the hospital window
  cherry blossoms and rain

  Cheryl Ashley

  Nanaimo, British Columbia

• my sad ride
  to the hospital—then this street
  with cherry blossoms

  Winona Baker

  Nanaimo, British Columbia

• after the rain
  the cherry blossoms
  brighter

  Peter Brady

  Gatineau, Quebec

• hospital watch—
  we open her window shade
  to cherry blossoms

  Ellen Compton

  Washington, D.C.

• first light
  once more the pink
  of cherry blossoms

  Wanda Cook

  Hadley, Massachusetts

• pink paving-stones—
  the cherry trees are again
  common trees

  Ferre Denis

  Antwerp, Belgium

• morning light—
  the cherry tree shadows
  also blossom

  Stanford M. Forrester

  Wethersfield, Connecticut

• blossoms . . .
  I dust off the last
  jar of cherries

  Alice Frampton

  Wynndel, British Columbia

• rap music
  vibrating
  the cherry blossom

  Sophia Frentz (age 13)

  Tauranga, New Zealand

• buds on the cherry—
  I wrap new chiffon
  around my hat

  D. Claire Gallagher

  Sunnyvale, California

• Her new puppy
  already chasing
  cherry blossoms

  Garry Gay

  Santa Rosa, California

• late winter dusk . . .
  from the music classroom
  a sakura song

  Keiko Izawa

  Yokohama, Japan

• under a shower
  of cherry blossom petals—
  wish I were naked

  Helen Kyle

  Thunder Bay, Ontario

• early spring
  under the cherry blossoms
  deaf lovers sign

  Denise Lizarraga

  El Centro, California

• cherry blossoms
  a street vendor hums
  the Ode to Joy

  Peggy Lyles

  Tucker, Georgia

• the guests are coming—
  are the petals to be swept
  away from the paths?

  Tomislav Maretic

  Zagreb, Croatia

• distant thunder
  a few cherry blossoms
  float to earth

  w. f. owen

  Antelope, California

• childhood home—
  with knobbly fingers she picks
  the fallen blossoms

  Kala Ramesh

  Maharashtra, India

• a shortcut
  to the sanitarium—
  cherry blossoms

  Andrew Riutta

  Traverse City, Michigan

• cherry blossoms
  a breeze carries them
  to an unmarked grave

  Gabriel Rosenstock

  Dublin, Ireland

• cold morning
  amongst the blossoms
  our pink fingers

  Sandra Simpson

  Tauranga, New Zealand

• cherry blossoms!
  today I’ll brush on
  a pinker blush

  Ebba Story

  San Francisco, California

• waiting for my pills—
  the old cherry tree’s blossoms
  about to open

  Eduard Tara

  Iasi, Romania

• as if there were
  no other blossoms—
  a cherry in bloom

  Sanja Varga (age 17)

  Varazdin, Croatia

• cherry blossoms—
  i wear my silk scarf
  from Japan

  Angelika Wienert

  Oberhausen, Germany

• popcorn in the park
  the cherry blossoms
  free of charge

  Oleg Yurov

  Donetsk, Ukraine