Sometimes, it seems, Mary's painting provokes an exceptional response in readers. It was certainly the case for this painting. We received so many excellent submissions with such a range of interpretations that we decided you'd find it interesting and informative to see them all. Click here for a flash slideshow where each entry gets its chance to poem the painting.

We hope you'll especially enjoy the haiku that we chose to poem the painting as a traditional haiga. This haiku is by Patricia Tompkins and as always, it has been set into a haiga composed by Mary, Hiromi, Choshi and Jasminka. Regrettably, we no longer have Shisen, who has done so much over the years to make our Traditional Haiga feature the centerpiece of Haigaonline. We're grateful to Hiromi for undertaking to do the calligraphy for this issue.