Paul Baker

Author's Preface I was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1978 and grew up in a small town named Bethalto, Illinois. I first heard about haiku when I moved to Decatur, Illinois to attend Millikin University. This collection of haiku was put together for Global Haiku Tradition my senior year. At Millikin I was an experimental psychology major which I think has affected my haiku some. When I began to write haiku, I found that I really enjoyed looking at several different themes from childhood, pets and even death. I like to look at the things that are taking place around me everyday and use those to inspire my haiku. Almost all of the images in my haiku are things that I had seen that day. But some of the images come from dreams that I have. I like to use images to draw my readers into my haiku and to make them experience what I am when I write them. My haiku are not in the traditional Japanese style of 5-7-5 syllables, nor are there a lot of references to nature like cherry blossoms. My haiku are a lot more focused on the small things that we may take for granted when we see them. I hope all my readers can relate to and enjoy my haiku. —Paul Baker