Golden Haiku

I’m especially honored to have a haiku selected in the internationally recognized 2026 Golden Haiku Poetry Competition. This year’s theme, The Joy of Nature, drew nearly 5,000 submissions from poets in more than 90 countries. From that remarkable field, a panel of judges selected 127 haiku to be displayed on signs in the tree box gardens throughout Washington D.C.’s Golden Triangle neighborhood, where they will remain on view from March through May.

My haiku reflects my own lived experience driving my car. There is beauty all around us, quietly present in even the most ordinary moments, and I never let one pass unnoticed. Stopped at a red light, I find myself scanning the sky, the trees, whatever fragment of the natural world has slipped into view between buildings or beside the road. What some drivers experience as a minor interruption, I’ve long understood to be an invitation. Red lights are not delays. They are small, unexpected pauses. Moments to look up, to look around, and to reconnect with the living world just beyond the windshield.

I don’t know exactly where my haiku is displayed within the neighborhood, but if anyone reading this happens to find themselves in the Golden Triangle between now and May, I’d be genuinely grateful if you snapped a photograph or two of the sign itself and the scene of world surrounding it.

Click here to learn more about the Golden Triangle BID and view all the haiku selected for the 2026 competition.