A Winning Haiku
Our regional monthly newspaper, The Columbia River Reader, has sponsored a Haiku contest for about the last 20 years. In case you don’t know what a haiku is, it’s a 17-syllable poem in 3 lines of verse. The first line is 5 syllables, the second is 7, and the third one is 5 syllables again. They’re typically short lessons or observations on life or nature, but can be any topic, really.
Composing poetry is something I enjoy doing and I’ve entered this contest most, if not all, years of the contest. One year I even won the “grand prize” which was a small book of Haiku written by one of the masters of the craft. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to create the maximum of 5 poems we’re allowed to enter, and I eagerly await the March issue of the newspaper to see if one of them has been chosen.
I picked up the paper this morning and was tickled to see that the third one selected was one of mine. My “winner” this year is:
Just before I traveled to Japan 18 months ago, Paula shared her knowledge about “weather-grams” with me. It’s a short poem, similar to a haiku, that is written in Calligraphy on a strip of brown paper. It’s meant to be hung outdoors until it falls apart or fades away. I created a dozen or so of my own weather-grams and took them with me. Little did I know that one of our guides volunteered at a local library and was enthralled with what I had done. She planned to teach the students at the library about weather-grams and have them make some of their own. They typically are also nature-related such as “Rain is softer at the beach” or “Butterflies spread joy with their colorful wings.”
One never knows when an idea will inspire someone else to carry that idea forward—like the proverbial snowball effect.
Or like sharing books that you’ve enjoyed reading!
The winners of our 2026 Reader Survey have been randomly selected and are listed below. When the entries poured in, we were genuinely overwhelmed by the response. The volume and thoughtfulness of your feedback far exceeded our expectations, and it felt wrong to limit the prize drawing to just ten readers. So we’ve expanded the winner pool to 25, because such a loyal and responsive community deserves it.
Steve F. from the UK
Lynne M. from Australia
Teresa B. from the US
Ron D. from Canada
Kathy F. from the US
Susan H. from the US
John W. from the US
Ann A. from the US
Harriet F. from the US
Thomas G. from the US
Heather W. from the US
Diane S. from Canada
Greg S. from the US
Carol P. from Canada
Dave B. from the UK
Phyllis K. from the UK
Petra V. from the Netherlands
Linda T. from the UK
Ross S. from the UK
Cheryl G. from the US
Carol G. from the US
Lenny D. from the US
Mariela A. from the US
Mark D. from the US
Gene B. from the US
Winners have been contacted directly by each author to arrange for prize distribution, so be watching for that email (Gmail users especially should check their Promotions inbox). If any name on the list looks like yours, please refrain from contacting the authors to ask if that was you; each winner will be notified by email or phone (should have been received on or around April 10th).
Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts. Your input directly shapes the future of our respective books, and we are each grateful for every response.
With appreciation,
Gary McAvoy
PJ Peterson
Dave Bartell
Brian H. Roberts
Rob Samborn
Until next time, happy reading!
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