Global Haiku • Spring 2016
Dr. Randy Brooks

Jagged Diamond

by
Jacob Hamilton

This collection is entitled “Jagged Diamond,” after my signature haiku, which is based on a motto that a man I look up to had told me when I first met him. These haiku have been selected for the purpose of creating an image of who I am as a person. I believe there to be my best haiku, haibun, and rengay that display my writing style. The following pieces are not all necessarily personal experiences, but observations of haiku from stories that I have heard from another person. No matter how hard the times ahead might seem, in the end something beautiful will come from the struggles that one goes through. As a great man once told me, “Pressure makes diamonds.”

About the Author

Jacob Hamilton is a student athlete at Millikin University in Decatur, IL. He was born and raised in Belleville, IL. His Major is Chemistry Business, and the sport he likes to compete in is tennis. Only writing haiku for about four months upon completing this collection, Jacob plans to continue writing haiku well into the future. The collection, “Jagged Diamonds,” is the first collection of Jacob Hamilton’s haiku, most of which were written in the Global Haiku course at Millikin University.

intense pressure
creates the piercing shine
a jagged diamond

turkey
they did not know
I used to bowl

rental shoes
one size too big
slide across the hardwood

pyramid of empty
beer cans
adult Lincoln logs

girl he crushes on
sucking in
his beer gut

backwards hat
tuft of blonde hair
he spits another seed

Sinister Smiles

neighborhood kids
dismount the trampoline
one biffs it

cousins run amok
their whipped cream faces

in the sandbox
the big brother
besieges the castle

deviants circling parents
a card game ruined

first time players
shuffle their chips…
royal flush

grandmas house sticky
fingers on the old clock

by Jacob Hamilton,
Noah Klumpe,
and Katherine Viviano

Goat Leg Boy

Hiding the hairy goat legs is hard when you cannot find shoes that look normal. Not being able to shop at average stores is time consuming and tough on me. Most people exclude the goat boy from their social groups and events because of the way his hooves click-clack on the school's tile floors. He just wants to fit in with his peers but the peers are not willing to let him in. If anyone befriends the goat boy, their social life will go down the toilet, and they cannot have that. So the goat boy stamps home every day to find shelter in a nice book and imagine the adventures that his real friends cannot have with him.

sitting alone
no one to share half
of this sandwich

salt grains fall
from the table top
puppy licks the floor

roller blades
through the dirty window
I see the face plant