Keith Johansen • John Dunphy Words of Wisdom and Reality

Haiku Through the Eyes of a College Kid by Keith Johansen Haiku is a vehicle of expression. When we start learning how to write haiku, this vehicle is like a used Ford Pinto—it's unattractive and probably won't take you very far. Once you learn how to capture feeling and how to stimulate the senses, your haiku becomes a Porsche—highly desireable and able to take you places you've never been before. My collection is somewhere between these two extremes. Why does Keith Johansen write haiku.? I like to think of haiku as a photo album. I write haiku to take others and me places we've been before. I especially like childhood haiku that remind me of much simpler times. Times when homework was coloring inside the fines and stress came from winning the big T-ball game.

I also like to write about my experiences in college. I remember when I first went away to school and people would say to me, 'Cherish every minute of it kid! College is the best four years of your life!" Five years later, I finally realize what they were trying to me. This is a great chapter of your life with the freedom of being away from your parents, while not having to deal with the pressures of the "real world. " I think a great way to capture these memories for the future and reminisce about the past is to paint a living photo with haiku. This collection of haiku is my own personal photo album So, buckle up everyone! We're going on a trip down memory lane in a Honda Civic.