Cherry Blossom Haiku

Whatever your plans, put them aside to gaze up, into fragrant, blossoming cherry trees, for if ever there was a flower which symbolized living in the present, it's the cherry blossom.  The Sakura are revered in Japan.  The delicate blooms last only one short week, before their petals start to fall, or the wind and rain tear them from the tree.  The Japanese have a word for flower gazing:  hanami. 

Cherry blossom

I fold my resume

into a crane.    

This winning Haiku poem, by Barry Goodman of Hackensack, New Jersey says it all!  Take time to stop and smell the flowers.  The future can wait - the cherry trees are blooming!  Or, perhaps, "I'm going to sit under this tree, contemplate life, and rewrite this resume from a fresh perspective". Goodman's Haiku won Best US Poem in the 2006 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational.   

More than 40-thousand flowering trees blossom each year in Vancouver, Canada. Many of the oldest trees were gifted to the city, by the Japanese.  In addition to celebrating the beauty of the cherry blossoms, the Cherry Blossom Festival, which this year runs from March 1 - June 1, promotes tree preservation, history, and culture.  People paint the blossoms en plein air;  take bicycle rides through tree lined streets, that look like ribbons of pink;  photograph the blossoms;  picnic under the boughs; and simply flower gaze.  They also take part in a contest for the best Haiku to the cherry blossom.

Haiku is an ancient Japanese poetry style, known for simple, subtle, and sensitive verse.  One of the earliest, by Arakide Moritake (1473 - 1549) delights in the - you guessed it - cherry blossom.

A cherry petal
flies back up to a branch
oh, a butterfly!

Masaoka Shiki is another master Haiku poet.  His work from the late 1800s was written in Japanese, however, because of its simplicity, and imagery it translates beautifully.

Moon at twilight
a cluster of petals falling
from the cherry tree.

The traditional three line haiku poem follows a 5-7-5 syllable count.  Every haiku must have a kigo, which is a word establishing the season, and a kireji, or word that cuts the haiku into two parts. English language haiku is not nearly as strict.  As long as the poem has three short lines, has a word to establish the season, and if necessary, uses punctuation to create two distinct parts, it's considered haiku.

Judges for the Haiku Invitational say that haiku is simple, clear and concise.  It uses everyday language.  Haiku doesn't rhyme.  Juxtaposition is commonly used, although metaphor is not.  The poem flows smoothly, then, pauses and pivots with an element of surprise.  The poems are sensory, in that they create images around sight, sound, touch, scent and taste.  They are also subtle.

A winter blizzard
I turn my calendar
to cherry blossoms.

Not surprisingly, this winning Haiku was written by a Toronto woman, Marilyn Potter.  How many times have I actually done that - flipped my calendar pages for pictures of Spring blossoms?!!  In the dead of Winter, we long for the rebirth of flowers, for the energizing force of colour.

When the blossoms begin to appear in High Park, Trinity Bellwoods Park, or over on Centre Island, the peak dates are listed in newspapers, and on-line.  Calendars are checked, friends are called, the weather report is checked over and over again, and camera batteries are fully charged.  Parks are filled with people quietly strolling under the cherry boughs, gazing at the blossoms.  (See Widow's Endorphins archives for 2015:  It's Blossom Time! 07/05/2015).

This year, heavy rain washed away the red circle on my calendar.  So, I went the next day, to Mount Pleasant Cemetery under grey skies, and sublte light.  High Park's many, many cherry trees have white blossoms, which resemble Spring snowflakes.  While the cemetery's tiny grove of trees has heavenly pink blossoms!

Rain, although the subject of many a haiku poem, is the enemy of cherry blossom worshippers.  It shakes the petals from the branches, and leaves the rest looking like shrivelled kleenex.  It stains the petals with rain spots, which become brown spots.

It is part of life, and therein lies the beauty of blossoms on a rainy day.  Port Moody's Garry Eaton wrote this winning entry back in 2014.

Subway platform
she brushes cherry petals
from her black umbrella.

If you'd like to write haiku, there's still time to enter the 2017 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational contest. Since it is Canada's 150th birthday, this year's theme is Freedom.  The contest is open to people from all over the world. There are six categories:  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the US, International and Youth.  

Perhaps this lovely haiku from one of last year's Haiku Invitational winners, Rachel Enomoto will inspire you...

Double cherry blossoms
I breathe in
the entire sky.

As I wrote this blog, the sunshine gave way to black, ominous clouds and by evening we were deluged with heavy rain, high winds, thunder and lightning.  I doubt that any of these blossoms survived the storm.  They are, however, forever preserved by my camera!

...and preserved in my clothing designs!  The bodycon dress and draped kimono are now available in my Art of Where on-line shop...

http://bit.do/AOWbodycon
http:/bit.do/drapedkimono

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.