In all honest, being new to Portsmouth when we started this project to create a Haiku, I wasn’t sure where to start with this project. In the project I am referring to, me and group of six other individuals at the University, had to create a haiku based off of a setting or location in the Portsmouth University.

Our group eventually settled on choosing the Highland Road Cemetery near the seaside. The Haikus I wrote were:

“A field of dead, something mysterious among cold fields”.

“Forest of the past, the winds of time flowing through passing those lives gone”.

“Flowers lay sullen among the chasms of death, reminders of love”

Looking at all three of the Haikus, you can probably figure out that the overall themes of them are the mysteries of death and the emotions expressed towards those who have passed away.

I chose these themes as the group I was in split up to observe the cemetery separately, so I travelled into an area of forestation that oversaw several of their graves.

The large number of graves I saw, even among the relatively small plot of land, made me think about the high number of people who died on a daily basis, thus I made death a major focus.

Whilst their, I saw a man and his pet dog, plus two parents and an infant child also walking around the cemetery. Thus, I also made the emotions of those related to the deceased a focus.