after the breakup
her smile never glowed
like this before

cigarette on the porch
Holden Caulfield keeping me company

There's nothing I don't like about a Catcher in the Rye fan . . . except maybe the fact that he smokes. This poem caught me because I like references to books or movies within the haiku. The author seems lonely, and perhaps a bit depressed. I admire the fact that he's reading for pleasure (or so it appears to me). I noticed that when I copied and pasted this haiku, company was located on the second line, and there existed no third. I'm wondering if it was the author's intention to have two lines or three...? —Allisha

escalating gray clouds
            won't you ease
            my mind

no work
and a lazy guitar string
summer's eve

the hum of the dryer
the shake of the washer
i love laundry day

barren crawlspace
the silence of approaching winter
closes in on her

everyone’s gone
now I can
truly be myself

her glowing face
reflects the moon
reflects the sun

I really dug this one because it expanded with each line. An awesome ripple effect to show how expansive and amazing the universe is, and how the author could see the whole galaxy in her face. very nice realization. —Emily

dunking cookies
he makes me laugh
projectile milk

the empthy theatre
the actor
fills with possibilites

still holding the phone
shaky breathing
dial tone

This haiku gives me the feel of a phone call that is so upsetting you can’t really hang up. Maybe the person’s boyfriend/girlfriend just broke up with her/him, or maybe they just learned that someone close to them died. They can’t bring themselves to hang up, so they sit there breathing heavily until they hear a dial tone. I like this a lot. —Bethany

six years later
the ring missing
from her left hand

broken glass
empty dashboard
they nabbed my favorite CD

this haiku shows the great and delicate moment after the daughter falls off the $10,000 motorcycle and the father runs over to her to make sure she is okay BEFORE he checks to see if the chrome is okay. I love the author’s priorities in this haiku. very simple and small — they don’t even care about the expensive windshield, just about the CD that held so many memories to them. great turn. —Emily

first snow
a wet tongue awaits
the ice crystals

What is it about snow that just makes you stick your tongue out to catch the snowflakes? The challenge of trying to catch just one, then trying to catch as many as possible, and the accomplishment we feel upon succeeding — it seems so pointless when you think about it, but at the time it is invigorating. What child hasn't shared time laughing with a friend while trying to catch the season's first snowflakes on her little pink tongue? . . . it's practically a rite of passage! —Jenny

I think this haiku really captures the way the first snow of the year feels when you are a child. I remember when I lived in California, it only snowed one time in my town, and it was only for five minutes. Our teacher let us out of class, and we ran around outside with black pieces of construction paper to catch snowflakes so we could see how they looked. All of us ran around with our tongues hanging out of our mouths trying to catch a snowflake. It’s playful and fun, and while I don’t usually like haiku that are reminiscent of children (don’t hate me, haha), I like this. —Bethany

chilly morning . . .
just a stretching cat
and a cup of Joe

Took apart
my spare bed
where will Spongebob sleep?

Awww. So maybe this girl (and I'm just assuming the author is a girl because that's the way this haiku plays out in my head) has Spongebob Squarepants bedsheets, and now that she's disassembled her extra bed, she won't be using the sheets anymore. It's a cute poem but not too cutesy, and I enjoy that about it. It seems like an honest question. More importantly, I think maybe the character in the haiku does not respond well to change. Maybe it's hard for her to accept bigger changes in her life, and this haiku is one way of expressing that. —Allisha

all alone
i play our song
for us

Melancholy reminiscing and sappy love songs...Sometimes I just get in one of those moods where I find more significance in someone else's words than in my own. It makes me feel profound, and yet I KNOW that I can express myself so much better than someone else ever could; I feel that when I quote someone else's lyrics, I am skirting my own issues. I prefer to quote someone because of the beauty of what they have said, not the pertinence of their words to my own life. But that's just me. —Jenny

nice usage of “alone” and “us” at the end of the lines. just enough to help the reader into realizing your moment. —Emily

familiar figure
on the bed
is there no longer

wind in the grass
echoes my thoughts;
language ceases

This haiku is unique because it seems that this majestic scenery is consuming the mind and the soul of the narrator (but in a good way). The beauty of the sound of nature is rather incomparable to what our human minds often conjure up. —Aaron

rolling out of sleep
half empty bed—
only a note remains

ouch. That's about all I can say. Waking up the next morning and the person you spent the night with only left a note. I see this as negative...but I can see someone taking this as a positive. I can see that the person woke up to go to work and they wanted to leave a love note to their lover. I can also see someone quietly walking out the door to get away--like it was a one night stand that wasn't supposed to happen. All they really had to say was left in a note...and never to be heard from again. I liked this one because it really makes you think about you consider this one. —Sarah

at first I thought “sleep” and “bed” should be switched, but then I realized the great image of “half empty bed” and then the author hits you with that terrible? great? feeling of a good-morning note. Tanka poems were traditionally left by lovers after the night, and only the great poets and masters of words got called back to the bed…I hope this note is a happy one, but somehow get the feeling it is not… —Emily

legs around my waist
melting in her skin
one plus one equals one

I loved this one because it's so sensual. I think that it's very sweet and has a bit of a calming effect to it. It's so vivid too. I really enjoyed this one. There's just so much passion...it's a bit overwhelming..and I like that. —Sarah

rainstorm
looking out my wet window
no one there

There’s something humbling about a rainstorm. You cannot really go out anywhere, and you cannot really do anything indoor that won’t remind of the rain… Even though there seems to be a sense of anticipation or longing, I think the ambience in general is rather sublime. —Aaron

wood paneling freshly installed
the husky's bark echoes
in a new-fashioned way

high-pitched and incomprehensible
to the human ear
voices of the sea hawks