Assignment One: Haiku #2

Haiku #2: by Tish Davis

Source: http://www.hsa-haiku.org/hendersonawards/henderson.htm

autumn
an empty booster seat
in the barber's window

I like how this haiku began by stating the season in which this particular image occurred; I think that it automatically establishes a kind of melancholy tone for the rest of the poem. By knowing the season, the reader interprets the image of an empty booster seat in a barber's window in a particular way. Because autumn is associated with the ending of summer, colder weather, the beginning of school, and a heavier sense of responsibility, the word "empty" in the second line implies a sort of sadness to me; it makes me wonder why the booster seat is empty, and though I have no tangible ideas of where the child went that used to occupy the seat, my mind does not wander toward light and happy things. However, if you replace the word "autumn" with the word "summer," the reader would interpret the scene differently; for example, one could assume that the booster seat is empty because the child is outside playing in the nice weather, which is a happy back story that creates a lighter feeling to the haiku as a whole. The more haikus that I read, the more I realize that I like to fill in the blanks and invent the details that the poets leave out, which is something I noticed that other students in class do as well. By claiming a very specific sense of time and place, Davis guides readers to fill in the blanks in a particular way.