Erin Osmus • Contemporary Haiku Poet Lori Laliberte-Carey

Personal Best Haiku by Erin Osmus After completing my personal best collection, I have come to realize a few things. The first is that I am not as affiliated with nature as I once thought. I was always of the mind that a good nature haiku was what I enjoyed reading and writing the most. After compiling my own work, I noticed I had barely any haiku relating to nature at all. It was the senses and emotions of life that I enjoyed the most. I have a strong love for colors and the emotions they can evoke in a haiku. For instance, the tranquility of blue or the loneliness of black. I also noted that I enjoyed describing emotions like a deep seeded love, lust and desire, embarrassment, content and tranquility, and finally hatred. These subjects appeal to me because they can relate to everyone, even if the haiku is personal to only me.

After completing this semester, I find that I have developed a better idea of my writing. I know what I would like to pursue and how I can go about doing so. I have also learned the skeletal framework and philosophy of American and Japanese haiku, but with enough freedom to go my own way. I find haiku to be yet another outlet for my emotions. —Erin Osmus Reader's Response yellowed love letters wrapped in a ribbon stuffed in a drawer I responded to this one quite a bit, it reminds me of life. A momento to remember a certain moment, but the sentiments attached to that moment or the member of it fades and we are forced to push it aside and forget the spirit and vitality it once held for us. Actually this haiku reminded me of a poem I read last semester for my Asian Humanities Japan class: A thing that fades With no outward sign— Is the flower Of the heart of man In this world The poem is by Ono no Komachi, I feel Erin's haiku invokes a similar response in the reader. your eyes follow the amber wave between my shoulder blades finger combing my hair I lean back into your body I have to compare this two haiku together since they seem to go together quite well. The read gets the sense that the unnamed figure of the lover in both haiku is the same person, especially since both use the motif of hair in their composition. The use of hair also reflects the writers own pride in her hair, something which is a common theme in Japanese classic (like The Tale of Genji, and The Pillow Book—well kept hair reflect refinement and good breeding). I must say the two lines that really grabbed me were "I lean back / into your body." They not only set the mood and intimacy of the scene but also paint a picture of the couple relaxing into one another and at ease in their closeness. Valentines a rouge heart on the rim of my glass I have to say the first two lines don't particularly grab me as anything special- I fear the use of the words "valentines" and "heart" a a little too kitsch (especially in combination with one another) and the use of the word "rouge" forced in conjunction with the aforementioned words. However what pulls it together is the last line—it gives the reader the notion that the writer is drinking their heart. It's a lonely image, as if the writer is alone on Valentine's Day in a bar drinking down the bitter taste of their loneliness, and their aching heart. The heart taints the flavor of the alcohol as well as the day (a day that should feel like any other, but isn't if there is no one to share it with). —Megan Elise McFarlane