Blossoms in the Breeze: Twenty Years of Haiku from the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, 2026

Thrilled to be included in this gorgeous anthology of the top winners of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational from 2006-2025. Grateful thanks to the 2017 VCBF Judges, Devar Dahl, Angelee Deodhar, and Billie Wilson, and to the editor, Michael Dylan Welch!

transience . . .

petal by petal

we let go

Canada Winner

 

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational, 2025

afternoon tea
house finches stir up
the cherry blossoms

Sakura Awards, Canada

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haku Invitational, 2025

 

The Haiku Foundation, Haiku of the Day (formerly Per Diem), March 2025

Selected by David Oates for the theme of "Passages": March 18, 2025 (reprise)

gone too soon

sakura blossoms

my old friends

Sakura Awards, Canada

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational, 2015

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational, 2023

cherry rain

the hospice shingled

with petals

Honourable Mention

Canada

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational, 2022

sakura

we learn the lesson

of resilience

Honourable Mention

Canada

The Haiku Foundation, Per Diem, June 2021

Selected by David Oates for the theme of "Passages": June 26, 2021

gone too soon

sakura blossoms

my old friends

Sakura Awards, Canada

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational, 2015 

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational, 2019

sakura petals
floating in the bath
we make amends

Honourable Mention
Canada

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational, 2018

first light
the unfolding songs
of sakura


Honourable Mention
Canada

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational, 2017

the pink nose
of a feral rabbit . . .
sakura

Sakura Award, Canada


transience . . .
petal by petal
we let go

Winning Haiku, Canada


Judges: Angelee Deodhar, DeVar Dahl, and Billie Wilson

(more than 1200 entries)

Commentary:

Transience encloses the world without and within each of us. Because we feel more secure when we have a sense of predictability, we develop a great capacity for denying a simple truth: that nothing stays the same. That can be a challenge, but the gentleness of "petal by petal" reminds us that we'll be just fine.

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational, 2016

sakura
in the garden centre
we choose her name


Honourable Mention
Sakura Award, Canada

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational, 2015

gone too soon
sakura blossoms
my old friends


Sakura Award, Canada