PACE Global Haiku • PACE July 2013
Dr. Randy Brooks

Haiku

by
Stacey Longfellow

I came into this class with little knowledge of haiku.

I knew they were usually 3 lines and they didn’t rhyme but didn’t really know anything else about them.  I wouldn’t have known where to start writing one. Once we started going through the process of learning about haiku, I really started to enjoy thinking of things that I could write about.  Reading everyone else’s you realize that we all care about a lot of the same things in life. 

I learned how to close your eyes and paint a picture of what you are wanting to write about.  I think that is my favorite part about writing haiku.  You learn to choose your words carefully and word them so they flow easily through your readers mind.  People can tell a lot about you by reading your haiku.

My approach to writing haiku is thinking of the happy memories of my childhood and what I hold close to my heart as an adult.  The older I  get the more I appreciate the things the money can not buy.  I tried to show those things in the following haiku. 

kids to bed
she looks his way
flirty smile

weeping willow
we swing
vine to vine

pedaling . . .
one mile
at a time

chubby cheeks
are no more
graduation day

hot sand
between my toes
gentle salty breeze

chicken car
lemon custard twist
with sprinkles

cool summer night
wind through my hair
rumbling pipes