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Short And Sweet: Celebrating D.C.'s Cherry Blossoms With Haiku

The cherry blossoms are finally in bloom in Washington, D.C., and what better way to celebrate these beautiful Japanese gifts than with a haiku? Our callout on Facebook and Twitter yielded hundreds of spring haiku submissions. With the help of Ellen Compton, Roberta Beary and Kristen Deming of the Haiku Society of America, we selected 20 and made videos inspired by the top three.

streetlamps in the haze ...
this morning the stone lions
catch cherry blossoms
— Judy Totts

cherry blossom rain
sound of a love song passes
with the traffic
— Dawn Apanius

On Jefferson's watch,
Pink cherry blossoms reflect
At the water's edge
— Tim O'Malley

And here are the rest ...

The sun's light caress
Opens the cherry blossoms
And lets us all in.
— Chris Anne

Cherry trees abloom,
With a wink and a nod to
George Washington's axe.
— Carole Kinard Horton

Only three times I've
Seen these trees turned into clouds
But I cannot forget
— Glen Varnado

park bench take-away
the sky and cherry blossoms
in a cup of tea
— Paul Conneally

up far too early
there are little girls playing
in cherry orchards.
-- Devin Wayne Davis

Sitting with sake.
Gazing at the pink beauty
I dream of the past.
— April Callis

the petals fall from
an evening cherry blossom
she kisses him first
— Jenni L. Backs

Settled on a bench
In the lilting fragrance
of cherry blossoms
— Ric Cochran

a robin flies up
to cherry blossom cover;
swish of the cat's tail
— Cindy Putnam Guentherman

Blossoms open up –
stop the presses, some good news
unfolds in D.C.!
— Melissa Romero Fortner

The first day of spring
are those snowflakes or petals
twirling in the wind?
— Amy Liedtke Loy

Another year gone
The blossom a reminder
of how far we're apart
— Alex Dailey

vernal equinox...
windstorms of cherry blossoms
turn the water pink
— Paula Moore

the first day of Spring
a wooly caterpillar
wears a pink bonnet
— Amos White

As pink fades to green
one million haiku poets
put away their pens.
— Peyton Price

Wet April morning–
Windshield wiper blades
heavy with cherry blossoms.
— Joel Dias-Porter

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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