Lovely cherry blossoms at the BBG

It’s cherry blossom season here in New York, the time to sit in silence beneath a tree, observe nature, put quill to parchment and compose some traditional Japanese poetry. Or something like that. The entries to our National Poetry Month Food Haiku Contest were an artful blend of the ancient, the modern, and the kind of gross. It was no small job to judge these beauties, but we have for your enjoyment three finalists and one grand prize winner. Here in no particular order, were the Runners-Up…

Food guru and blog favorite Roger LaMarque (Brooklyn, NY) sent in this haiku (imparting some sage advice, as usual):

let me be your guide
eat pork butt and spotted dick
but avoid sweetbreads

From mountain man musician Dave Humeston (Columbus, OH) came this Appalachian Trail-inspired haiku:

stewing fiddleheads,
bring up the royal boil;
top ramen crowns out

Writer and aspiring flâneur Kent Lam (Brooklyn, NY) sent us this winsome poem:

Ice cream memories
The boardwalk in gone summers
Melting as hearts warm

Though to fully get a sense of Kent’s sugar-and-spice personality, you really need to read both of his entries…

Undercooked red meat
Diarrhea flows, brown waves,
Dead-cow rivulets

But set aside that stunning image for a moment to better appreciate our Grand Prize Winner. It comes to us from Julia McCabe (Baltimore, MD) and was chosen because of its traditional focus on nature, its stirring assonance in the final line, and its bold use of vegetable apostrophe:

Oh pattypan squash
Birthday cake of the garden
Much cuter than zukes

Congratulations to all of our winners! And, oh, the Prizes! Julia will receive a vintage copy of the childhood favorite (and Reading Rainbow pick) Poem Stew, and our illustrious finalists will receive some pretty rad food stickers, one of which is a banana in a bow tie. Don’t you wish you had a banana in a bow-tie? Don’t you wish LaVar Burton had endorsed the book you’re reading? Then keep your eyes peeled for our next contest!