April 17 is International Haiku Poetry Day. According to The Haiku Foundation, the haiku is an ancient and undefinable-in-English form of Japanese poetry. At its most basic, it is three lines, the first with five syllables, the second with seven and the third with five.
The NAU Review asked Lumberjacks to submit their own haiku about NAU, Flagstaff or Arizona. Enjoy the poets among us!
Alison Singer, assistant professor of practice, biological sciences
sharp whiteness, striving
upward always, breaking blue
sky. at night, stars fall.
Dr Bev
Mollusk to mountain
comet to dinosaur bone
yet humans persist
Lisa Dahm, marketing and communications coordinator, CHER
Majestic mountains
Aspens gently quivering
Flagstaff is beauty
T Noecker, director of strategic planning and institutional analytics, SPIRA
dark and ominous
monsoon storm brings rain and life
green emerges (add one more syllable?)
Tammy Cornell, assistant director, marketing
Atop mountain peaks,
NAU Flagstaff stands tall, proud,
Knowledge echoes clear.
Mary McGee, assistant director, alumni communications
Red rocks of Old Main
Green grass, blue skies in North Quad
True Blue and gold pride
Jessica Minster, student majoring in English
Throne of white splendor
Overlook tall trees of green
Joy spirit within
Zachary Gerber, applications programmer, ITS; physics alum
Farewell to the pines,
NAU forever shines,
in my memory.
Jessie K. Finch, chair of the Department of Sociology
Sociology
To Make A Better Culture
Take SOC 101
Tessa Alexander, academic program coordinator, Department of Educational Psychology
Peaks standing so tall
Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall
Flagstaff’s beautiful
Rob Wallace, associate teaching professor, Honors College
Cone of clouds over
Sacred Mountain, bearing spring–
Sun is almost here!
Andrew Patrick, student in mathematics and mathematics education
scattered by April’s strong gusts.
Autumn winds and leaves.