Haiku Kukai 07 Favorites
Global Haiku • Millikin University • Fall 2024
1 vacation condo |
2 winning the lottery Rachel Nott (5) I absolutely love going to the beach. Every single beach that I visit, I always bring a jar or a plastic bag to collect items or mementos of my trip. At the beach, I scour the shore for beautiful shells, rocks, or anything that looks cool and pretty. I have done this since I was a child, so I have collections of beach items all over my house. I always show my mom what I find so that we can admire the beauty together. I get so excited about the cool things I find. It’s probably not exactly like the feeling you would get for winning the lottery, but the pure excitement and joy is a similar feeling. Ava Zukowski, Fall 2024 |
3 ten-minute drive Katelyn Wendt (10) I love this haiku. I love to drive. I think music in the car is so important. The mood of the music serves a purpose and I think you always have to find the right song. The length of the drive does not matter. Music can prepare you for wherever you are going. It is the peace to yourself before you have to deal with people or do whatever you need to do. Izzy Jones, Fall 2024 I liked this haiku because it was very relatable. When I go anywhere, I have to listen to music when I drive. However, I like to get where I’m going fast, so I will choose a song as I start driving. This leads me to be halfway into my drive when I finally pick a song. Then I don’t have much time to listen to the songs I wanted to play. Lily Moore, Fall 2024 Before moving to college and away from my best friend, we used to take turns driving each other to school. Whoever each of us would pick up the other, a particular song would be playing every day. We found out that one of the songs we liked at the time was the exact time it took us to travel. It became a good way for us to get fired up as we had early bird P.E. at the time. We would also do this when we would drive out of state. We would sit in the car and debate what songs we would queue up to play. Maliyah Battle, Fall 2024 I relate to this haiku because I love music. From the time I wake up, to walking around campus, to working out, I always have music playing. As a result, even if it’s to move my car 5 minutes down the road, I will pick the perfect song to play that can make me that short of a drive. I’ve even purposefully taken longer routes or stalled just so I can finish a song out. I think this haiku ties humor into the author also hinting at their enjoyment of music. Charlie Armstrong, Fall 2024 |
4 my brother and i |
5 girls’ night in |
6 to-do list complete Ava Zukowski (3) |
7 new magnet Caroline Arnold (8) This haiku is so relatable to me. I am a huge souvenir collector, and I have been collecting magnets for many years. I love finding the most artistic ones. I have a big magnet board in my room that is filled, so I had to move stuff to the fridge. This specifically reminds me of my trip to Europe this winter. Every single city we went to, I bought at least one magnet. I think magnets are the best souvenirs because they are easy to display and small enough to treasure forever. Charley Condill, Fall 2024 This haiku drew my attention due to the word choice of this author. Normally, when you go on vacation, most people collect state magnets, so when I saw city magnets, it brought a different meaning to the haiku. When on vacation, it is common to just go to one place and stay there for the entire trip, but here, it gives the feeling that they are not doing this. Rather, they are going around and exploring multiple different new cities on this trip. Gracie Shaffer, Fall 2024 I thought this haiku was really cool. I imagined someone who has done a lot of traveling over the years, and now their fridge is covered with a souvenir magnet from each place they visited. I think this is cool because every time you see one of the magnets on the fridge you can remember the fun moments of the trip. My family recently started doing something similar, except we collect ornaments rather than magnets. We have a small collection started of ornaments from different trips we’ve taken in the last few years, so every year when we decorate our tree we’re reminded of the memories from those trips. Katelyn Wendt, Fall 2024 I liked this haiku because it reminded me of my family. Anytime we go anywhere or even when one of us goes somewhere, we always get a magnet and all the magnets are collected on the side of the fridge where they don’t serve a purpose other than just to look at it. Abby Wilken, Fall 2024 |
8 toes in the sand Ava Zukowski I like this one because of how it starts with the sensory feeling of toes in the sand. And instead of just saying “relaxing” or “stress-free” they found a creative way to word it and offer a fun visual. You can almost hear the waves crashing on the shore. It offers a serene feeling to the reader, and invites them to relax with you. This haiku feels like a breath of fresh air. Rachel Nott, Fall 2024 |
9 family beach trip |
10 reds oranges and yellows Ava Zukowski (8) I really liked how this haiku was written as well as the image that it gave me. I imagined a person walking through a park or along the street where there are a ton of different colored leaves covering the trees and scattered along the road. I thought the first line was a creative way to describe the season and the scenery of the area. Instead of specifically saying what is red, orange, or yellow, it tells the reader that those colors are present, and I feel like it also implies that they are the predominant colors of the scene. The second and third lines complete the scene, telling us that the subject is in cold weather. Katelyn Wendt, Fall 2024 When I read this haiku, I can feel the chilly breeze and see the red and orange leaves in front of schilling. Last year the trees in front of schilling were so pretty, and I can imagine walking in front of the building very vividly on a cool fall day. Fall is my favorite season, and I really like how we can assume that the colors mentioned are describing leaves. Caroline Arnold, Fall 2024 |
11 destination unknown— |
12 heated debate Katelyn Wendt (12) I think this one is super cute. I like how the first line sounds kind of serious. Then it is revealed that it is about marshmallows which is so light-hearted. I remember as kids someone would always light their marshmallow on fire and everyone would scream and it would be chaotic. But it was like a domino effect because then everyone was running around with marshmallow torches. This haiku brings back so many fun childhood memories. Izzy Jones, Fall 2024 I pride myself on being a great marshmallow roaster, but I can’t even see myself getting in a debate about it, because I am consistently asked by other people to roast their marshmallows. I can see the appeal of the burnt marshmallow because of the gooey-ness on the inside, but it’s possible to get that effect without getting the burnt taste. The way you do it is you rotate it in your hands like it’s a rotisserie chicken, and put it where you can see smoke but there is no fire. Eventually, you’ll get a marshmallow that is a consistent light golden, but the edges around the top circle are a bit crispier. If you like the harder shell of the burnt marshmallow, just keep the marshmallow in the fire longer and you’ll get it to crisp up without burning it. Matt Kordesh, Fall 2024 I think this haiku is really cute. I love camping and fall, and this haiku really brings me these memories of roasting marshmallows. It reminds me of being a little kid and melting a marshmallow, then getting it all over everything and making a sticky mess. Now, I prefer to burn my marshmallows, but my sister and I will argue about which is the best way to make as smore. Caroline Arnold, Fall 2024 |
13 date night argument Dayton Lasack (4) |
14 the drive Maliyah Battle I liked this haiku because it made me think of when my family drives all the way from Saint Louis to Florida, and on top of 4 of us being in a car, it feels more crammed with all the stuff in the back. All of this just adds up and honestly the trip in the car feels longer than how long you stay at the beach. Abby Wilken, Fall 2024 This haiku is very relatable. The drive when you are going on a vacation is always so long and tiring. Then you get to your vacation destination, and you have so much fun, it seems like you blink and it’s over. Then you have to get right back in the car to go home. Lily Moore, Fall 2024 |
15 the ride back Maliyah Battle (3) I liked this haiku because 1) I liked how it rhymed and 2) I am a sucker for funny haikus. I don't care what anyone says, this haiku is about sand being in someone's butt crack and that's what makes it great. Too often haiku take themselves too seriously. This haiku, however, does a great job of accomplishing its goals of being dumb and funny. Dayton Lasack, Fall 2024 |
16 in and out |
17 racing thoughts |
18 the only worry Abby Wilken (3) |
19 spring break |
20 back on the airplane Caroline Arnold (5) |
21 waves splash, birds chirp Izzy Jones (6) |
22 the sunshine state |
23 skin covered Melis Barutcu (5) This is a haiku that really represents a lot of people’s childhoods, especially mine. As a child, my sisters and I would always draw with chalk on our driveway. We would always try to draw as close to the street as we could so that the people who pass by would be able to appreciate our artwork. We would draw so much that we would go through a pack of chalk in a day so much so the chalk was ground down all the way to the size of a pebble. After a long day of art in the sun, we would always splash around with the garden hose or play with water balloons. It would wash away the chalk residue on our hands. I imagine a rainbow forming in the water coming out of the garden hose as the sun is shining and the green grass in my front yard moves with the breeze. Ava Zukowski, Fall 2024 |
24 taking the long way back |
25 rinsing my sandy feet Natalie Mase (5) I love this haiku. It’s such a specific and unavoidable experience of beach vacations. It doesn’t matter how well you rinse off your feet before going inside, there is somehow still sand everywhere and it follows where you go. And then, even if you’re fully dry and walking across the floor later, you’re still gonna pick up sand everywhere from where you tracked it earlier. It’s inevitable. Rachel Nott, Fall 2024 I just liked the image that this brought to my mind. Whenever my family goes on vacation, it always happens to be near a beach of some sort. We all enjoy relaxing by the water and walking along the shore. We enjoy everything except for the sand that we train around. Even when you clean yourself, it's like glitter, you will always find it in another place. It's grainy and dry while also being and sticky and moist. Even worse, sometimes I feel like it would somehow get into something I was eating. One moment I'm enjoying food and then the next I'm feel the grit of sand between my teeth. Maliyah Battle, Fall 2024 |
26 lulled to sleep by |
27 finally alone—cozy with a book |
28 sandcastle village Charley Condill (5) This haiku brings a wholesome feeling but then quickly changes in the last line. When at the beach, I think it is a common activity when you're with young kids to build lots of little sandcastles. But since the kids are so young, they don’t understand how tides work, so they think their creation will be safe, but in a few hours, it could be gone. Kids are always so happy to be building these creations, but when the waves start to break closer, their mood becomes frantic. When their first castle starts to wash away, they feel like all their work has been washed away and get sad. I love how the author gave the wave the same emotion that the child was feeling. Gracie Shaffer, Fall 2024 |
29 warmth radiates |
30 family vacation |
31 winter break! Dan Mungons (6) I love how the first line of this is so exciting and the second line implies that someone has been waiting for break forever. Then the last line brings it to reality and shows that winter break isn’t really a break, it is just a break from school. I work hard over winter break to earn extra cash for the next semester. At home, I do make minimum wage. But here, I make $10.25 for my campus jobs, so going home and earning $14 seems like a huge positive jump. Charley Condill, Fall 2024 I liked this haiku because it is so relatable. Every time I go on a break from school, I imagine that I will do so much and have so much fun. However, I usually end up just working the entire time. I liked how this haiku captured that feeling. Dayton Lasack, Fall 2024 |
32 weighted blanket cancels weekend plans |
© 2024, Randy Brooks • Millikin University
All rights returned to authors upon publication.