Global Haiku • January 2021
Dr. Randy Brooks

Life and Its Beautiful Paradoxes

by
Parag Sachdeva

I wrote and selected these haiku purely out of my experiences with life and its beautiful paradoxes. The theme of my haiku roam around nature, both human and in general. My purpose to write these was to encourage readers to explore the deeper meanings of seemingly mundane things. As we have all learned throughout our subliminal experiences with Haiku reading and writing that a haiku is only born when it finds its lover. So, even if only one reader relates to any of my haikus, my purpose of writing it will be served. I hope my haiku bring out the once lost memories and experiences for some of you.

Haiku isn’t just literary art but is rather a way of life. It is a detox for our mind the way engine oil change is for automobiles. It brings out the deepest feelings to the surface of our mind in just a matter of three lines, sometimes even less. At times, it even elicits the absolutely forgotten memories, incidents, or flashbacks – not all of them are quite as pleasant though. Nevertheless, I feel fortunate to have stumbled upon haiku and even more grateful to learn from such an amazing professor and the dean of arts & sciences, Dr. Randy Brooks. Haiku reading and writing made me more in touch with my mind, body, and soul. However, it was certainly challenging having to navigate the vicissitudes of my daily life while continually digging deeper into my feelings.

the bicycle
overlooked with
care & love

This haiku is the most personal & cathartic to me out of all of them. “the bicycle” may elicit various stories for many different readers, but it brought very vivid imageries or flashbacks for me. Funnily, I don’t quite remember what exactly made me think of writing this haiku, but I certainly was thinking of my childhood days when my father would drop me to school on a bicycle. My school was about 3 miles away from my home – totaling close to 6 miles of distance for him to travel first thing in the morning for a better part of my childhood. My dad took great care of the bicycle not only to keep it running smoothly but also to overlook for our basic needs and education purely out love & care. That never lets me forget where I come from no matter what I ride today or I will in the future.

full moon
serene
the graveyard lights up

monkey mind
leaps and jumps
into the GORGE

far-fetched field
calmly . . .
awaits the caretaker

childhood friends
hate the hate
bewteen them

pet dog
struggling to
teach the master

rear-view mirror
memories are closer
than they appear

friendship bonds
trading
sticks & stones

little girl
waiting for
father-in-clown

zoom-zoom
who's this?
pandemic.

Well, this one’s not so subtle and paradoxical, but I still like it. I like it mainly because this is so ubiquitous, at least for most people around the world, be it students, professors, administrators or what have you. 2020 completely changed the way we interacted with people, especially with a group of people. So, I couldn’t quite resist but pen or at least acknowledge the times in which I was enriching my life with haiku learning. As one may notice, I tried to put this haiku in a very clichéd form of the knock-knock joke to deliberately illustrate how pedestrian zoom has become in our lives. The purpose of the solo word, pandemic ending with a full-stop, was to really showcase how pandemic controlled our lives (it still is) while invoking many different emotions and experiences for people from all walks of life.

Utah snow
     dancing
on the mountains

starless night
a newborn
a funeral

candle melting
the dark chocolate
child labor