Global Haiku • Spring 2020
Dr. Randy Brooks

One-Way Ticket

by
Hope Klessig

These haiku are full of life experiences, whether they be past, present, or future for myself. They speak of youth, love, and sadness - all of the things that make life LIFE. Life is a one-way ticket, there’s no going back, there’s only going to. I hope that these haiku inspire you to live your life to the fullest while holding onto the memories that are the co-pilots of your journey.

boarding the plane
she looks back
one-way ticket

This one may be my absolute favorite. I feel like it is a perfect example of a haiku because it tells a story with feeling in three lines. You can ask a lot of questions, is she apprehensive when she looks back? Is she confidently looking back? Where is she going? How long is she staying? This haiku paints a clear picture in my mind of a girl with a backpack and a small carry-on, smiling back and the life she’s leaving.

burning supper
again
he holds me

This haiku came from my love story haiku anthology. It starts off as a negative feeling and ends with a happy feeling. The comfort of knowing that someone loves you, even when you have faults, is the best comfort in the world. Also, this isn’t the first time she’s burned supper (noted by the second line), and yet he still is there to comfort her. It’s a wonderful image.

white wall
filled with pencil marks
measuring our growth

This haiku is nostalgic. It reminds me of my childhood, and I hope that it makes readers feel the same way. There is a wall in my basement that has me and my three other sibling’s growth marks all the way up to 18. I remember getting measured each birthday, always hoping that I’d be taller than my siblings when they were my age. Of course, having two brothers who grew to be 6’4” made that quite impossible as I got older. Anyways, the last line also has double meaning. Measuring our growth of course means height, but also how we’ve grown as people. Looking back at the memory now, I can see how much I’ve grown both ways.

grandpa's farm
a "for sale" sign
in the front yard

This haiku does a great job of evoking feeling in the reader. Similar to Aubrie Cox, one of my inspirations in haiku, I create a setting in the first line. Then each line creates a new feeling. This also comes from my memory, as we had to sell my grandparent’s farm after both of them passed. But I think other people can relate to the feeling I had when this happened. It’s never fun to sell a house, because with that house goes all the memories created in it.

she plays chess
with herself
check mate

I think this may be one of my most creative haikus. I’ve always enjoyed haikus where you can hear the voice in it. I feel like the last line, “check mate,” offers a lot of voice. I also thought of it in a way where she is alone, without a man, and she says, “check mate.” although she has no mate. This haiku is not like my other haiku, so I’d say it’s my wildcard haiku.

sparklers
the get away car
“just married” on the bumper

summer day
they rock on the porch
sweet tea in shaky hands

thunder storm
flickering lights
we pull out the Ouija board

silent campus
the bronze man
frowns

rusty barn door
I dance
in the straw

kids finally asleep
they sneak downstairs
for a glass of wine