PACE Global Haiku • January 2009
Dr. Randy Brooks

Blooming into Life

haiku by
Lauri Torbert

I have enjoyed learning about haiku and the traditions behind it. I must admit that I knew nothing about haiku before this class. I have learned that haiku can be very emotional and that one poem can be interpreted in many ways depending upon where the reader is at in life. Haiku is a form of expressing yourself in three short lines, but oh how those lines can really pack a punch! I would like to thank Dr. Randy Brooks for his instruction and guidance in this process. Thank you for opening my haiku eyes!

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I would like to dedicate this book to my niece Britney who thought that it was awesome that I was going back to college. I would like to think that she is sitting under a cherry blossom tree in heaven watching over us. We miss you!

wedding ring
only she remembers
broken promises and lost dreams

snow day
so many options
what to do first

lazy summer afternoon
cold sticky lips
a popsicle kiss

rainy morning
I snuggle deeper
in the abyss

hot Sunday morning
hard wooden pews
mother’s stern look

cracked face
broken hand
grandfather’s pocket watch

Forest Fantasy

the family finds
among the snow
the perfect tree

the cool blade echoes
as it hits the trunk

with the flurries
timber falls
on the frozen ground

a cardinal proudly perches
between crystal branches

pale moonlight
on crimson feathers
winter frost

filling the crisp air
silence

by Lauri Torbert, Mark Isaacs
& Courtney Kerley