I
also hope that my writings will have an impact on those
who read them. I write in hopes that people will take my
words and somehow relate them to their own lives, making
them see things in a different light or think about things
in ways they never would have before. Hopefully, my haiku
and senryu will help open people’s eyes to the reality
of the world around them, causing them to notice more of
the truths in life.
Most
of my ideas for my haiku in this collection came to me while
I daydreamed and spaced off in other classes. I have little
tidbits of haiku and different ideas scattered throughout
my notebooks, written in the margins and scribbled onto
scrap paper. I would seize the moment they popped into my
head (for whatever reason they did) and took the opportunity
to jot them down.
When
I would try to actually set time aside in my day to sit
down and write good haiku, I repeatedly found myself unsuccessful.
I could not force myself into producing ideas, no matter
what inspirational efforts I took. I had to work with the
random impulsive thoughts I had at any time of the day.
However, I believe these haiku to be some of my best—the
ones that show depth and meaning through the easiest and
simplest forms. My collection reflects this by the variety
and randomness of its contents. I feel that I have really
grown as a haiku writer after the course of the past semester.
My
reading partner, Shannon Kroner, and I often joke around
about how we will continue to write haiku for the rest of
our lives, back and forth to each other. We probably won’t
be completely serious about our haiku writing, but I have
found haiku to be a fun, stress-relieving hobby and I hope
to find it just as amusing in twenty years as I do now.
Thanks for reading! And enjoy!
—Alexis
M. Iffert
Reading
Partner's Introduciton
Alexis’s
haiku are largely a collection of senryu. Some of her work
is haiku in nature, but it is her playful senryu that I
enjoy the most. Being good friends with Alexis, I can usually
tell which haiku come from her life and which are random
moments she was able to express through haiku. However,
there is no distinction between the effectiveness of these
two classifications of her work. All of her peices either
bring a smile to your face or make you laugh uproariously.
Perhaps
the most significant characteristic that I notice repeatedly
about Alexis’s haiku and senryu is that no two are
the same. Her work is full of variety in theme and image.
Sometimes I even read her haiku and just look at her in
bewilderment, simply because I cannot imagine where here
inspiration came from. From whatever depths of randomness
her haiku originate, Alexis is a unique haiku author who
writes delightful snippets of life.
—Shannon
Kroner
