REFLECTIONS Selected Haiku by Amber Millikin My Name is Amber Millikin and I am a Studio Art major at Millikin. I was born and raised at Lake Bloomington (about 15 miles north of Bloomington, IL) and the only daughter in a family of 6. I had my first run in with haiku poetry in high school and again gained interest in it during my junior year of College. My inspirations for my haiku come from photography, which I have a passion for, and from my deep spiritual relationship with God. I feel I can express myself with a little bit of humor at times through my poetry, but all in all, they can depict certain aspect of my personality in them.

I have several inspirations for my haiku. Coming from a large family, I have certain closeness with my brothers and parents. My father has always been an important role model in my life, he always taught me to work hard at whatever it I that I am doing and to have faith in myself because he did. I have a certain soft spot for my dad since I am his only daughter. As a family, growing up on the lake, we spent many days out on the lake skiing and swimming. For this reason, I have a deep appreciation for boats and water. You can see that in some of my haiku. I am a visual person and I associate lots of things to photographs and bold colors. This has been an inspiration for me in writing my haiku. I like to use photographs to inspire and at times illustrate my self-expression through my poetry and haiku. I would like to thank my family for being in my life and thus, inspiring my spirited haiku, and my friends for allowing good times to motivate my work.