Cherry Blossoms

Photo:  glasseyes view / creative commons / flickr

both sides
of the wall
cherry blossoms                                                                                           

This little poem received a Sakura Award in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival  Haiku Invitational.  My haiku was one of 15 by U.S. authors recognized with Sakura Awards in this year’s competition. (Sakura means cherry blossom in Japanese). One poem was named Top Winner in the U.S. category, and another 25 U.S. poems were given Honorable Mentions.

Of the 41 U.S. poems granted awards, six – close to 15 percent – are by poets from Ohio.  We have a very dynamic haiku community here in Ohio, largely due to the leadership of Julie Warther, the Midwest Regional Coordinator of the Haiku Society of America.  Let's hear it for Ohaiku!

The theme of this year’s Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational was “freedom.”  Hmmm.  Freedom.  I carried that concept around in my head for several days.  And then one morning, it hit me as I reached for the tea canister. Cherry blossoms can go wherever they want.  All this talk of walls.  Walls can't keep them in or keep them out.  

Cherry blossoms represent innocence and new life.  Young children don't yet know about the artificial lines we draw to protect the status quo.  Neither do cherry blossoms.  In their simplicity and humility they go where they will, riding on the breeze, lasting only a short season, but is there anything more beautiful?  And long after the walls have crumbled, cherry blossoms will still waft down onto the rubble.