Sarah Lutz   Sarah Lutz's haiku

Colleague Analysis of Sarah Lutz’s Haiku Sarah Lutz is a very creative, intelligent, and witty Haiku poet. Her work presents charming and interesting slices of modern life and shows incredible insight into everyday events of our culture. Throughout the semester she has certainly created a style of her own, writing haiku that deal with personal topics such as family, friends and romance. Many college students experience these relationships in similar fashion, so Sarah’s poetry is well understood and appreciated by her peers. Sarah’s knack for expressing the emotion of a moment in a few short lines is outstanding: watching a movie— aiming an M&M at the chatterbox This simple, funny poem captures a moment that is shared by many readers while it conveys the wild, innocent fun of seeing a movie with a group of close friends. Many readers can relate to the emotion of this haiku, even if they have never actually aimed an M&M. I believe Sarah’s best haiku are those that deal with the experiences of dating and romance. She writes powerful emotions through these haiku without providing too much of her own interpretation, creating very effective poetry: polite conversation eyes scanning the room for someone better This haiku does not place the reader in either the position of the person scanning the room or of the person around whom someone else is scanning. It simply presents the reality of our own tendency to continually evaluate ourselves and our peers as we look for happiness in relationships. Of course, Sarah also writes on the intended happy result of this striving: lips on my forehead I feel his smile She presents a very serene moment in this haiku and again does not explain her own personal feelings. Whether or not the two people involved are in love or even in a healthy relationship is irrelevant. This haiku simply presents the experience for the reader to accept as a beautiful part of life. Sarah Lutz’s creativity and insight is obviously shown in her own work, and also in her study of haiku and her collaborative work on the subject. Through discussions of the haiku masters and various projects and assignments, Sarah has shown tremendous intelligence and a deep understanding of how haiku can be used to really touch people. She is a very talented new student of the haiku tradition. —Mark Grizzard