Global Haiku • January 2023
Dr. Randy Brooks

Haiku Collection

by
Larissa Olympe Senga

A haiku is typically intended to freeze a moment in time—a moment of beauty, grief, or realization—and preserve it for all time. At first, I was scared to say the wrong thing when interpreting what I understood from a haiku, but I came to understand that a haiku can have more than one meaning, and the poet leaves room for the reader to complete the story from their own understanding. The art of haiku has taught me to appreciate the journey; whether good or bad, there is always beauty in everything. For example, when it rains so heavily, we humans tend to miss the sun, but when the sun shines so brightly, we miss the cold. That is, enjoying the journey on your own is key because nothing lasts forever. Global haiku and this class have taught me to be disciplined and not to do something just because I am getting something in return, but instead to do everything I do with my whole heart.

haiku olympics
i bench press—
my pen

in a world of grief and pain
flowers bloom
even then

stuck in the realm of sleep,
unable to move
i wiggle my toes, Awake.

each day the wind
takes a little more of me
midnight shadow

a week at the beach
the old man
learns to be a child again

a prostitute leans
from a rusty balcony
spooning from a can

beggar under a bridge
builds . . .
a crib from rags   

in front of the grocery store
a homeless man . . .
asking for change

summer evening
hide and seek
until mom calls

white orchids
each petal flip—
another memory of you

lifting my cup up,
I ask the moon
to drink with me

one shot . . .
two shots
man down