Michelle Ground • Essay on Tom Clausen

Through My Eyes Selected Haiku by Michelle Ground I wrote most of my haiku that are in this book with two people in mind, my daughter, Morgan, and my significant other, Dan. These two people give me enough to write about with all the funny things they do, and all the love they bring to my life. I also have included some about sports. Golf, which is my favorite sport to play, and baseball, which is a great sport to watch in person. I chose these particular haiku because they are important and mean something special to me. I also let my Mom and Dan have input into the haiku that were selected for this collection.

The title of this collection, “Through My Eyes”, came about because each of my haiku mean something to me. They are my experiences and it is how I see life, as strange as life can be sometimes. There are few imagined haiku in the collection, but those imagined ones are not that far off from how I really want my life to be. That is what makes haiku so personal because it is so hard to write about subjects/experiences you don’t want to happen or you don’t believe in. My personal favorites are the two rengay Dan and I did together. The “Finding Love” haiku really captures how we feel about our relationship and where we want it to go. That was a lot of fun and I think we even learned a little more about each other. It was fun adding the pictures to those two also. A special thanks to Morgan and Dan for being you and giving me plenty of material to write about. I love you guys more than you will ever know. • • • Michelle's haiku offer a selection of many of the things she holds dear to her heart. Her love and affection for her daughter are the theme for her most interesting haiku. Also her hobbies of golf and traveling are displayed. Michelle really expresses herself well and makes her haiku very enjoyable to read. —Dan Patterson