PACE Global Haiku • PACE July 2011
Dr. Randy Brooks

Selected Haiku

by
Celeste Settles

Learning more about Haiku and how it has originated has given me a better understanding of what haiku truly is. In reading the several haiku presented throughout the books that have been given, I can now see how just a few words, depending on their position can lead the mind in several directions of imagination. Not only the imagination of time and place but also how they can relate to a personal experience that several without knowing have in common. What one haiku might mean to one reader might mean something completely different to another. Some authors choose to take a more comical approach, some prefer writing strictly about nature, and others enjoy referencing their own personal experiences. The haiku I have chosen to present are a mixture of all. Many of them were developed throughout my daily routine, memories, and others with the help of my husband. An evaluation of the life, together, we have created. What you as the reader imagine when reading these haiku will depend on the memories you have gained throughout your own life and how you choose to see the world around you. Enjoy!

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my family for the patience they have given in allowing me to complete this haiku project. There help and encouragement are greatly appreciated. Another special thanks to my husband Josh, as he too has a better understanding of haiku and without his help, a few of these haiku would still be left undiscovered. Finally, I would also like to thank my professor, Dr. Randy Brook, because without him my family and I would still believe haiku to be a poem of lines written 5-7-5 syllables each.

haiku © 2011 Celeste Settles

my 100th swing
Finally, I found my
sweet spot

as the last
child leaves the nest
divorce papers files

after the cookout
empty plates and
glasses

a child measures
the footprints in the snow
One day I will be as big as daddy!

spool-unraveling
the wind carries the child's
kite into the sky

Aging

tears falling
on the pillow
sunshine

three decades ago
a child born

thirty candles
light up
the dark room

looking at her reflection
what happened to the woman?
who stood here ten years ago?

three children later
a sudden breeze from the night

the feet continue to take steps
and where they go
Only the Lord will know!

a rengay by
Josh and Celeste Settles

the cougher
smokes
to a tune

highchair
she pulls out of the driveway
with her long blonde hair

large metal fish on a pole
grandpa's fishing
story

change for a dollar
Klink!
the pinball machine awakes