Zen Haiku • Spring 2025
Dr. Randy Brooks

Life of Haiku

by
Helana Swensen

I think that this course has helped me exist more in the present and take a moment to enjoy nature and to simply feel the emotions that I’m feeling. In the future I hope to take a moment to appreciate the moment even with dealing with stressful days or tasks.
 
In this class I have learned how to write Haiku with a simplicity that will help the reader to both understand and feel what is going on. I learned how to word Haiku in a certain way for it to sound the best or have the most impact on the reader. I have learned to choose words very carefully and to select words that are more descriptive, but not too specific.

grandpa’s house
frozen in time:
still just the same

morning dusk
a runner
calls out a greeting

willow tree
a slight breeze
takes the pages

brush on canvas
painting tense lines
of her shoulders

under the streetlight
two shadows
merge to one

jaw unmoving
speaking words
without a sound

thousands of steps
lead the way
the big city

freckles cover her skin
becoming the stars
in the sky

facing Mecca
reading Hebrew
different devotions

a music skip
pushes me
two counts forward