Global Haiku • January 2025
Dr. Randy Brooks

Last Slice of Pizza

by
Eli Bland

After learning more and continuing to discover the beauty of writing haiku, I believe these selected works of mine are my best showing when it comes to the overall goal and basis of what haiku is meant for in the first place. What I aimed to create over these past couple weeks were haiku that spoke to a certain feeling and moment that anyone could relate to, while also staying true to my own experiences and thoughts.

Many haiku included in the collection can range from feelings of love, nostalgia, bittersweetness, the shifting seasons, and remaining hopeful in times of uncertainty. Titling the collection Last Slice of Pizza came pretty naturally to me. While it’s a big part of one of my favorite haiku in the collection, I also see it as much more than just what it’s displaying to us on the surface, like many haiku usually do.

You could see this “last slice of pizza” as a glimmer of hope, tenderness, kindness, or anything like that in this rather mundane cycle of life we can sometimes find ourselves in, and that’s mainly what I tried to write these haiku about. It’s truly the little things that can end up meaning the most to you in the long run, whether it be a bike ride through the neighborhood, getting coffee with a friend or relative, watching a movie on a snowy day, or getting the last slice of pizza on a night out. I hope you enjoy my selections and find that sliver of joy within them as I did.

snowed in . . .
missing our time together
we go out

candle goes out
just more uncertainty
more wonder

the snowman
doesn't live down here
anymore

on the roof
flipping through
radio silence

go ahead!
crank the ignition
turn the page

you assured me
I could eat
the last slice of pizza

rock, paper, scissors
what we watch
on television

happiness
not a two way street
one way forward

instead of blending in
be a frog
on the tennis court