Poet Profile

Alegria Imperial

Alegria Imperial, a former journalist in the Philippines, graduated from the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, Manila with a degree of Literature in Journalism, a course that steeped her in Continental literary works especially poetry. Her discovery of haiku decades later, started her writing it as well as other short Japanese poetry forms. Her works have since been widely published with some gaining awards.

Awards and Other Honors:

Fourth Place, 2019 Haiku Canada Weekend Sea to Sky Haiku Contest, Vancouver, BC; Second Place, European Quarterly Kukai, Autumn 2017; Vancouver Sakura Award, 2014 Vancouver Cherry Blossoms Festival Haiku Invitational; First Place, free format category, Shiki kukai Sept 2013; Zatsuei, Haiku of Merit, World Haiku Review, March 2013; Honourable Mention, 2013 Diogen Autumn Contest; Commended, Traditional haiku,The Haiku Foundation's 2012 Haiku Now Contest; Dottie Dot Award, haiku bandit society, September 2011; Honorable Mention, 2007 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Haiku Invitational; Honourable Mention, 2007 Passager Poetry Contest, the University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland.

Books Published:

at the water’s edge, Haiku Canada Members’ Anthology, May 2019; counting star-bones e-chapbook of 20 contemporary haiku, Yavanika Press, Bangalore, India, July 2018, The Haiku Foundation Digital Library; The Jade Pond Collection: Sun Yat Sen Gardens Anthology, Vancouver Haiku Group, 2017; The Living Haiku Anthology; Red Moon Anthology, Red Moon Press, 2014; Haiku 2014 (Modern Haiku anthology); National Haiku Writing Month (February) Anthology 2012; With Cherries on Top , National Haiku Writing Month (February) Anthology 2012.

moon beggar hesitant

the song I used to hear
swish-swash 
of a bamboo broom

summer dusk
a dog sniffs 
an empty chair

magnolia sky . . .
the blister in my ceiling
bursts

first dawn alone―
the widow eats his half
of the orange

twilight rain
the blue heron mid-lake
somehow smaller

Credits:

“moon beggar” - Haiku 2014 (Modern Haiku anthology); prev. publication: Notes from the Gean 20, June 2013; “the song I used to hear” - Bones 17, July 15, 2019; “summer dusk” - The Mainichi Shimbun July 2, 2019; “magnolia sky” - The Asahi Shimbun (Asahi Haikuist Network) May 17, 2019; The Mainichi Shimbun, June 7, 2019; “first dawn alone - First Place, free format category Shiki kukai, Sept 2013; The Haiku Foundation's Per Diem Daily Haiku, Theme: “Light and Dark”, Dec. 2014; “twilight rain” - Commended, Traditional haiku The Haiku Foundation's 2012; Haiku Now Contest Under the Basho 2013.