Global Haiku • Spring 2021
Dr. Randy Brooks

Whirlwind

by
Colin McGonagle

Haiku, for me, has been a way to explore the depth of simplicity. A way to explore the ways that scaling back and returning to the simple can have an effect on my writing. Having the opportunity to really dedicate time to writing haiku this semester has really revived my love of writing, and has given me so many more opportunities to take note of the world around me.

Having to spend last semester and the majority of this semester online for class, and having this class be completely online, it took away a comradery that I believe is woven into the course, but there has never been a week where I didn’t look forward to the Haiku Zoom. Getting to sit and be with everyone helped me get out of my head, and it gave me such an immense joy to share my own individual pieces and listen to these brilliant haiku.

I loved this class, and I am going to miss it very much.

pizza box forts
we stayed up
too late again

merry christmas
we're getting
a divorce

alone at recess
I ask the teacher
about her dreams

fight or flight
I wipe the blood
from my left nostril

in another universe
we're married . . .
I think

I cry
unprompted
in child's pose

home alone
I check the locks
for the third time

reach for the phone
deciding instead
to let it 
           r         n
                 i         g

I will plant a garden
in the plot that was
meant for you

poooooooooooof!
the flour bag tumbles
to the ground

the hair falls to the floor
maybe this was
a bad idea

blue summer sun
i send him 
straight to voicemail

the library's musk
not a single book
out of place

crack of the spine
as I settle in my seat

mile 6 or 7
she hits her
runners high

remember to turn left
at the fire hydrant on oak street