“At the time of entering the contest, I had just completed a renga with some friends, and we had tried very hard to maintain a connection with Japanese culture as we wrote. My head was full of lovely images of Japanese life and manners, and yet with a sense of how difficult it is to preserve beautiful impressions. So, my poem celebrates the traditions of family, while understanding that even the things that are the same from year to year are not the same.”
family picnic
under the cherry tree
one more than last year
Nan Dozier
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational 2013