Haiku Contest and Hike Return!

Haiku Contest and Haiku Hike will return for 2025.
See the Hillside Festival page for more details!

Haiku Contest:  Our annual haiku contest is a popular feature every year. 

• Submit your poem by the entry deadline.
• The Haiku Contest culminates in a hike during the Hillside Festival.

Haiku Hike:  Date and time TBD

• Meet at one of the Hillside Natural Area entrances
• Contest winners will read their haiku at various points in the hike. 
• Options for different length hikes 

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Let your poems be inspired by your experiences in the Hillside Natural Area, to celebrate the annual El Cerrito Trail Trekkers Hillside Festival. 

Classical Japanese Haiku includes: the season; the place; the transitory nature of life; suffering; the surprise moment.  

17 syllables in 5-7-5 format is not strictly required.  See the examples in the feature box.

You do not need to be an El Cerrito resident to enter. 

An ancient pool
A frog jumps in
The sound of water.
--Matsuo Basho.
 
The neighing horses
are causing echoing neighs
in neighboring barns.
--Richard Wright

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