Haiku Contest
We are thrilled to announce the four winners of this year’s Haiku Contest! Each of the following poems was selected by judge and San Mateo Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto from over 500 individual haiku poems submitted this year.
First Place
Dripping with pollen
Sweet Wisteria humming
Bustling in concert
-Emily
Second Place
苔むした
幹の叡智や
萌え出る
Translation:
From the old mossy trunk,
All the wisdom through the buds
Sprouting up into the air
-Kumiko Nishikawa
Best Under 18
Planting in the ground,
one seed sprouts before another,
slowly turning flowers.
-Sophia Lagana
Ecopoetry Award
Bee clothed in pollen
Gathering what will become
Honey for my tea
-Jessica Chen
Semi-finalists
Dripping with pollen
Sweet Wisteria humming
Bustling in concert
-Emily
苔むした
幹の叡智や
萌え出る
From the old mossy trunk,
All the wisdom through the buds
Sprouting up into the air
-Kumiko Nishikawa
Bee clothed in pollen
Gathering what will become
Honey for my tea
-Jessica Chen
Planting in the ground,
one seed sprouts before another,
slowly turning flowers.
-Sophia Lagana
Dappled light shines through
Each branch a puzzle of Sun
The leaves glow chartreuse
-Rachel Matzke
Swaying long necks, lithe
Stems of tulips greet the spring;
Lighten winter hearts.
-Diane Grindol
The sundial's truth:
Time began in a garden
And never truly departs.
-Jessica Yaffa Shamash
Soft heads nod and bow
As petals of thoughts blow free
Kindred with the wind.
-Aisha Houston
Once a year
Fields of tulips bloom
Under spring skies and morning dew
-Julie Natali
Magnolias glow
over unseen alliums
toiling underground.
-Vishesh Jain
We invite you to come visit Filoli during the month of May and experience these evocative poems as they are displayed in the lush spring Garden that inspired them!