Nearly 1000 people from 5 countries waxed poetic about life in Tucson, Arizona, when the city put out a call for haiku submissions in its first annual Old Pueblo Poems literary competition.

Tucson’s poet laureate, TC Tolbert, selected 20 winning entries.

You can find the poems on signs nestled among desert plants along Congress Street and Stone Avenue in Downtown Tucson.

Phillip and I spotted a few – which you can see photos of below – while we were headed to The Screening Room for the Arizona International Film Festival (AZIFF).

Several of the selections for this year’s AZIFF featured poetry in some form, and there were poetry readings almost daily. So having haiku sprinkled down the street in front of the Screening Room was a perfect complement.

‪Waiting for the buzz
Of late-summer cicadas
Yellow flowers fall.
–Alanna Mejia

El Presidio
Layers of time not of past
Sun warmed adobe
–Philip Dean Brown

late night dance party
confetti spills down Congress
monsoon washes clean
–Lisa Periale Martin
‪

Now the day goes still
Letting Tucson catch its breath
While the sky burns red
–Judi Molina

– More info on Old Pueblo Poems –

• On display during daylight hours, now through June 1.
• Take the 1/2-mile “haiku hike” to see them all.
• The Old Pueblo Poems project is a collaboration of the Downtown Tucson Partnership and U of A Poetry Center.