Global Haiku • Spring 2020
Dr. Randy Brooks

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AshleyChristenson
Ashley Christenson

The World - An Inspiration

by
Ashley Christenson

Over the semester, I have found a great appreciation for haiku and I learned how to connect my personal life into writing haiku. During weekly kukai I learned that it is okay to break out of your shell and try new things especially when writing your own haiku. While I still find it is easier to write about haiku when you have a topic chosen, I now know several approaches to writing. It was when we were assigned to “stop, look and listen” to our surroundings in class, I realized that haiku was about capturing moments. After this, I found that the simplest ways to write about haiku was when we take a moment to pause our daily lives and just enjoy the little things. For some, inspiration comes naturally while others have to stop, look and listen to what they are experiencing throughout life. This particular title is important to me because through this class I learned it is important to enjoy the simplicity in life itself and to be grateful for these experiences. Haiku helps people appreciate their experiences in life and it helps individuals recreate these moments into writing. I learned that you can connect with individuals and memories through the art of haiku. To me, I now value the ability to write haiku because it can truly affect people in positive ways. Haiku is a way to lift people’s spirits and connect individuals in a unique way.

This title “The world - an inspiration” is important because it helps readers understand that inspiration for haiku can stem from anything. For some, inspiration comes naturally while others have to stop, look and listen to what they are experiencing throughout life. This particular title is important to me because through this class I learned it is important to enjoy the simplicity in life itself and to be grateful for these experiences.

Ashley Christensen, Spring 2020


crisp fall day
we pack up the car
to go pick pumpkins

I enjoy this haiku of mine because I think it represents my growth in this class. I like this one because it reminds me of a Sunday in the fall where the family would all come together to go spend the day at the local pumpkin farm. I feel that the choice of words for this specific haiku help make it stand out a little bit. When you read this one you can have an association with a similar experience. Ashley Christensen, Spring 2020


store bought flowers
un bloomed
in the waiting room

I like this piece of mine because I think it can have several meanings to it. When I wrote it I wanted to represent anticipation, anxiety and perhaps fear when people are in an emergency room waiting room. This particular instance, perhaps the individual is anxious and trying to keep their mind off a situation and these un bloomed flowers catch their eye. It could also represent bringing a child into this world and maybe the soon to be new parents are in the waiting room of a delivery room and the un bloomed flowers represents their unborn child. Ashley Christensen, Spring 2020


the ocean
inhaling and exhaling
at my feet

This haiku of mine is simple and it is a good example of how you can use nature and describe it in a way that is outside of nature itself. Over the semester I learned how you can use personification in haiku of various subjects. This helps make the haiku stand out because it catches the eyes of its readers when you add that the ocean was inhaling and exhaling, referring to the waves crashing. This style is using nature and observations from nature to write a haiku on it, similar to the stop look and listen. Ashley Christensen, Spring 2020


one by one
she drops
the rose petals


amongst the chaos
time stood still . . .
on that hospital floor

 


the peaceful garden
I plant
trying to avoid my work


a large crowd
suddenly scatters . . . at
the sound of a sneeze


streets once filled
now empty,
just the streetlight and me


the park bench
I tune everyone out
to think


© 2020, Randy Brooks • Millikin University
All rights returned to authors upon publication.