AbhayEvery year, DC has a haiku contest from which they select a few poems to be displayed around the city. This year, I thought I’d try entering (wish me luck!). The theme for 2023 is “Notes to Nature”. The contest adheres to contemporary haiku standards, which don’t follow the strict 5-7-5 format but still emphasize the brevity of traditional haiku.
Below are two haiku poems that I am submitting for the contest. After each, I’ve included a short description of my inspiration.
Vibrant Sakura
Tender beginnings
Soon fade away
Every DC local is familiar with the both the chaos and the beauty of cherry blossom season. For a few short weeks, if that, the tidal basin area transforms into a magical place. People visit from all over to see this, so I feel fortunate to live within walking distance. Every year, I am awed by what appears to be an instant transformation from the dead of winter to the heart of spring. Blooming flowers, renewed life, and the fleeting nature of all of this, were the inspirations for this first haiku.
Timid rays
Peeking from the horizon
Paint the morning sky
Where my first haiku was about a rare event in a specific place, this second one is about a daily occurrence that can be experienced anywhere (barring, I suppose, the polar extremes where day and night drag on for months). I speak, of course, about the sunrise. In many ways, the same themes of renewal and transition run through this second poem. The daily nature of solar cycle leads us to treat it as something mundane, but I think we’d all benefit from watching a few more sunrises. I wrote the first version of this haiku while watching the sun rise over an empty beach. The first bits of light, spilling over the horizon, and the visual transformation from night to dawn, were the inspirations for this second haiku.
