Bruce Nielsen

Global Haiku PACE June 2005
Millikin University

Bruce Nielsen

Catching My Breath
Selected Haiku

by Bruce Nielsen

As I sat down in the counselor’s office, she said you have already fulfilled the requirements for the next course offered in the cohort, would you like to replace it with a global studies class called Global Haiku. I said, pardon me. I was not quite sure what she had just suggested I take or even do. She went on to let me know that it was an interesting class and that everyone has enjoyed it. I decided to take her word for it and I am glad I did.

Essay on
Nicholas Virgilio's Haiku

For some reason this class has opened my mind to memories from my childhood all the way up to now. What is even better is many of my family members have enjoyed these memories, as well, since they were a part of them. I must say that most of my haiku have come from the many good and sometimes even the bad moments in my life. I have always spent a lot of time outdoors and it shows in these haiku. Selected below are some of my fondest moments in life from when I was very young until the present time, each of these memories are pieces of my life captured in time, where my family or closest friends were right beside me. This course on haiku has been not just an eye opening experience, but an inner body, mind and soul opening experience.

country road to camp
gravel snaps
beneath the tire

Refreshing Shores

soft sand
warms
as the sun rises

pelicans gliding
overhead

the breeze
from the ocean
thunder

my salty hair
tangled
as it dries

suds clinging
to the kelp

morning shower rinses
everything clean
summer

Bruce & Melissa Nielsen & Don Byers

poolside screams
as children splash
my hair

wet kisses
upon my face
the dog

pumpkins smiling
eyes glow
as the candle flickers

sun glistening
across the wildflowers
a rainbow

bright light
star fades
into the darkness

wooden roller coaster rumbles
catching my breath
another hill

cold precious metal
slides down my finger
“I do”

Hunter Haiku

doves fly over
dried sunflowers
opening Day

          light gray sky
          my father sits
          patiently waiting

rod bending as I reel
the catch of the day
a stick

          glowing sunrise
          hiding behind the brush
          our blind

hazy winter sky
lying together
we try to blend in

          black line
          across the horizon
          geese

sitting in the blind
telling stories
the good old days

          everything still
          except the dog's eyes
          tracing the duck

quietly in my mind
I thank God
the ducks

          a lone duck flies
          into eternity
          the taxidermist

overcome by emotion
his hands shake
first deer

          old dirt road
          a lone hunter
          heads for home

Catching My Breath Selected Haiku

Catching My Breath
Selected Haiku