Haiku Walk from Joy Kogawa House in Marpole

Winnipeg poet Sally Ito would have led this walk as part of her author residency at Historic Joy Kogawa House. Unable to travel west due to restrictions at the time, Sally wrote haiku to accompany locations on a self-guided walk of the Marpole neighbourhood that begins and ends at the heritage house. There are haiku for the full set of stops, one for each day of self-quarantine. Here is a map of the whole route.

See also Cherry Trees and Haiku: A Digital Haiku Hedge by Lesley Donaldson.

Stanley Park –
early to end of April

Nina Shoroplova, author of Legacy of Trees: Purposeful Wandering in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, would have led this walk in 2021. The stars of the show in Stanley Park are the grove of ‘Akebono’ on Chilco at Alberni, near the Welcome to Vancouver sign on Highway 99; the grove of ‘Akebono’ trees in the Shakespeare Garden across Pipeline Road from the Rose Garden; the allee of ‘Shirotae’ leading to the non-grafted and rare ‘Ojochin’ at the Japanese-Canadian War Memorial near the aquarium. The final week featured ‘Shiro-fugen’ and rare ‘Gyoiko’ and ‘Shujaku’.

Strathcona –
2nd half of March

One of the highlight trees of this walk are the ‘Accolade’ trees on Pender between Princess and Campbell and at Strathcona Liner Park, blooming late March or early April.

Downtown and West End – mid April

‘Akebono’ trees might start to open at Burrard Station at the end of March; later, the West End features ‘Shirotae’, ‘Umineko’, Sendai-shidare’, ‘Takasago’, ‘Mikuruma-gaeshi’, wrapping up with ‘Ukon’ and a flood of ‘Kanzan’.

UBC – end of March, beginning of April

Featured here are the iconic ‘Somei-yoshino’ block on Lower Mall. You get to compare those with young infill ‘Akebono’ trees. Around the corner are two ‘Shirotae’ outside the Fraser Parkade. Walk a bit to the Chan Centre to see two more magnificent ‘Somei-yoshino’. The first video features several cultivars at the Peter Wharton Cherry Grove at UBC Botanical Garden.

Queen Elizabeth Park – early to mid-April

One of the highlight trees of this walk are the ‘Accolade’ trees on Pender There are many exotic and native trees at Queen Elizabeth Park’s arboretum. Founded in 1949, it contains tree species from around the world. Cherries you should see starting in April include ‘Somei-yoshino’, ‘Akebono’, ‘Shirotae’ and ‘Umineko’.