PACE Global Haiku • Spring 2008 Dr. Randy Brooks

Amanda Aukerman I am a freshman and a double major in BA Applied Mathematics and Music with my concentration being percussion. I am from Bloomington Normal, Illinois, where I live with my sister, mother and father. I enjoy all of nature's seasons whether I am inside or outside, playing percussion and piano, and reading.

Mother Nature by Amanda Aukerman I choose to write my collection on the different seasons that occur each and every year. I like to write from personal experiences that either I have had or a friend or family member has had because I feel as though it makes the haiku easier to relate to. My collection consists of haiku that take the reader on a trip from fall to winter to spring and lastly to summer. Reader's Introduction: It is easy to see that the author's haiku are influenced by love and the simple pleasures of nature. She writes in a straightforward style that can easily be understood by readers, yet she also leaves enough room for the readers to interpret the haiku in different ways according to their own experiences.  My favorite haiku of hers was the following: first day of summer the little girls dust off the jump rope I really love the imagery that this haiku provides. The choice of words in the last line "dust off the jump rope is very descriptive. I can picture a jump rope that has been sitting in a dark garage all year, and now the little girls are taking it out into the sunlight for its first use in months. --Jessica Villarreal

the first date he brings her a bunch of daises

rain strikes the window her fingers bring out the sweet piano melody

cold afternoon chapped hands cradle a cup of tea

the snowman grows through the blizzard

the evening breeze washes over me as the sun sets

© 2008, Randy Brooks • Millikin University
All rights returned to authors upon publication.