EN170 Haiku Writing Roundtable • Fall 2005 Dr. Randy Brooks

Josh Wild

Selected Haiku by Josh Wild Hello. My name is Josh Wild and this is my collection of haiku for Dr. Brooks' Haiku Roundtable. Before this class I had never seriously written haiku, so what you are about to see are my first baby steps with haiku. When I write haiku, I try to follow my mind to wander freely, and for my eyes to simply observe what is around me. I constantly try to avoid imposing myself onto the world. It is only when you stop straining that the moments will come to you.

I remember one time, sitting out in front of one of the dorms for several hours, and allowing the night to unfold itself for me. I felt like a little rock. At one point there was a whole constellation of people smoking out there with me, no one saying anything, everyone completely isolated. I like haiku because it evokes moments like that one, silent and honest ones. I think you learn more about humankind by reading a book of haiku than you ever would with a history book. It is in these moments we exist.

a moth fluttering toward a lamp full of dead moths

out of the corner of my eye i can't tell if they are kissing

the Buddhist monk haggling with my mom over the Bhagavad Gita

under blue neon light the dead fly praying

high school reunion another old girlfriend with a new last name

first one in the louvre mona lisa smiles at my tweed jacket

after the heart attack my fingers      strangers to me

christmas eve watching infomercials with the volume turned down

© 2005, Randy Brooks • Millikin University
All rights returned to authors upon publication.