Award-winning poet dedicates victory to archbishop

Men's hostel employee's haiku awarded first place at the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

Poet Marianne Werner shares a laugh with coworker Gordon Chualna during
a shift at the Catholic Charities Men's Hostel. Werner took home first prize
for her haiku at the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival earlier this year.
Nathan Rumohr / The B.C. Catholic.

Here's a story by The B.C. Catholic about an award winning poet who works at the Catholic Charities Men's Hostel:

The Catholic Charities Men's Hostel has a poet in its ranks. Marianne Werner, who writes professionally under the last name Baharustani, won first prize at the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival's Haiku Invitational earlier this summer. She has dedicated her poem, "Cherry Blossoms," to Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB.

The poem is about a person being alone in an airport, and the "cherry blossom" is found on the person's suitcase.

"I thought a lot times in his life he has been alone in airports," she said. "I would want him to carry the people of his diocese in his heart, in his mind, and in his prayers like the cherry blossom on the suitcase."

Read the full story at The B.C. Catholic website.