Global Haiku • January 2025
Dr. Randy Brooks

Cold Keepsakes

by
Lucas Wallen

This is a collection of haiku about various topics that relate to my own introspection and interpersonal relationships. I spent time in quiet and cozy environment to contemplate and create these haiku. I think if haiku as short moment with high impact, that allow people to relate on a level longer forms are unable to. I draw most of my inspiration from the people, places, and animals I interact with in my day to day, with singular moments thrown in as a way to organize my own emotions.

I believe that haiku has given me another outlet for creativity and means for introspection. Being able to boil moments down to their most powerful parts helps in understanding some of the more complicated feelings and moments in my life. I have found myself thinking in forms of haiku more often and it has just made me appreciate the imagery of life a little bit more. I hope to continue writing haiku from this point on, and maybe incorporate them into my other artistic endeavors. I think incorporating haiku into my art would be a very fun project and enhance all that I gain from haiku. It would also bring the less apparent emotions in haiku to life through a physical medium.

sheets of muddy ice
over uneven sidewalks
low-income housing

old band t-shirts
with bleached collars
are our rebellion

thin red lines
your wrinkled hands
will never wipe tears again

Kitsune
running throw meadows
cold sheets

a good cry last night
wine crystalized
on the snowy steps

car horns
faded crosswalks
with no stop signs

in haunted halls
my sobs
quieter than yours