PACE Global Haiku • January 2007 Dr. Randy Brooks

Jerry Bobbett

The Haiku Way by Jerry Bobbett I had always heard that the hard rule of haiku was that it was always a 5,7,5 syllable poem. I have since learned that is not true. The first haiku I encountered was that in The Haiku Anthology edited by Cor Van Den Heuvel. My first approach at haiku was confusion and loss of direction. After reading more about haiku and what haiku represents, I began to understand how powerful and influential haiku can be. I’ve learned it is not what is written, it's what is imagined. For every haiku, each one of us could have a different vision or imagination of what was originally intended by the author.

on a journey the ride so short the dream far

warm summer night country road gazing at the stars

home in the kitchen up early the fog slowly rising

© 2007, Randy Brooks • Millikin University
All rights returned to authors upon publication.