The Haiku Foundation Forums

Here are six haiku that reference six religious/spiritual traditions. For one reason or another, I've found each of these poems to be compelling. Together, they evoke a range of emotion from skepticism to playfulness. I don't know if any of these featured poets are particularly religious. I suspect that they're like many haiku poets who, whatever their religious inclination, write a haiku that references religion from time to time.

- Do any of these haiku resonate with you? Do you have a favorite?
- Are there other religious/spiritually oriented haiku that you'd like to share?
- Only six traditions are represented here. Can you share a haiku that invokes another tradition?

....................


Chinese New Year
my RSVP
to the Monkey King

- Ebba Story
  (Mariposa 10)


Vedic chants ...
a heron glides to a rock
in the misty lake

- K. Ramesh
  (Montage #24)


fog in the valley --
long creak of prayer wheels
into the night

- Sonam Chhoki
  (Frogpond 34:1. From the haibun "When my father became prayer flags...")


Passover Seder . . .
the matzos
dry as sand

- Stanford Forrester
  (the toddler's chant: Selected Poems, 1998-2008)


River Baptism
for those of us not sure
the rain starts

- Garry Gay
  (Mariposa 12)


airport departure
the muezzin's voice fills
the waiting room

- Bruce Ross
  (Frogpond 34:1. From "Morocco Sequence 2010: For Moha and Aziz")

While I would like to ponder these a bit more, I want you to know how much I enjoyed them and, by the way, the sequence in which you placed them.  That's what struck me the most initially - the order that you chose to present them.  I like it and the presentation works for me as a whole and as poems individually.

Thanks for sharing these.  I'll be back to enjoy the ensuing conversations. 

best,

Don

Thanks, Don. I found that I really liked this set of haiku as a group (as well as individually). I started out listing the poems chronologically based on the date of origin of each tradition invoked. There's some room for debate, of course. Ebba's Chinese New Year poem seems the proper one to begin with. Bruce's poem about departure seemed the perfect one to end with.

David 

For some reason Christian related haiku only occasionally resonate for me.

airport departure
the muezzin's voice fills
the waiting room

- Bruce Ross
  (Frogpond 34:1. From "Morocco Sequence 2010: For Moha and Aziz")

This resonated partly because I almost lived out of suitcases and airports during my five years of constantly going round the world re pre-set & set up of conferences and conventions, as well as being part of a small dedicated team securing the area for both eventees and guest speaker V.I.P.s.   

Also for one of my few holidays I wasn't working for once and travelled through Ramadan in Turkey.  I say travelled through Ramadan because most religious festivals are a journey in themselves even if there is no physical destination.  I was impressed by the festival/religious discipline and observed it myself, although I follow no religion.

Alan

Alan,

Funny you should mention "lived out of suitcases." I've tried several times to write haiku with the word "suitcase" – to no avail, at this point. For me, the word is rich in associations and dovetails with the long tradition of travel haibun and haiku.

David

David,

Your choices are right on the money.  The Ross poem really is tight and prefect for the finish!  Now, I'm thinking of adding "suitcases" to another thread.  They are writing about clouds, crows etc. and why not a suitcase?   8)  Now ... that ought to be interesting.

best,

Don

ps... I have never kept a suitcase haiku either!

Don,

I'll check out the suitcase thread if you add it!

Best,
David

Hi David,

"Suitcase" posted in Share Haiku ... :)   But, no one has ventured a poem yet.  This may prove interesting ... on its own!

thanks,

Don

I'd like to share 6 more. Have you ever read Raymond Roseliep? He was a Catholic priest from Dubuque, Iowa who eventually studied zen, also (1917-83). Here's a one of his from the Mann Library's Daily Haiku:

birthcry!
        the stars
        are all in place

- Raymond Roseliep

the following are from Roseliep's last book, Rabbit in the Moon,

so small a child
pushing clouds
from the moon

what is
in light
is light:

And from The Morning Glory:

takes in
the world
from the heart out

There's a lot to take in from this small selection of haiku. Roseliep certainly has had a good following.

                                              * * * * * *

When I visit my niece in California, who is new age, we choose a Quaker Meeting which we both can enjoy rather than my regular church. Here's one haiku I wrote in California:

the Quakers' silence
spills out a wide-open door
--autumn woods 

Modern Haiku 35:

and another written at a pond near a Japanese Bible Camp:

an amber glow
through crimson maples
evensong 

Modern Haiku, Winter-Spring, 2005

Carmen Sterba
                                                       

Hi Carmen,

I am familiar with Roseliep. I actually featured one of his poems in my first post about unity:

downpour:
my "I-Thou"
T-shirt

I love his poetry, his sensibility, his voice. I hadn't read some of the ones you quote here. I like all four, and particularly the last two. Wow.

I love your Quaker silence poem. I'm working on another post about haiku as prayer. At this stage, the post includes a haiku by Robert Major, who was a lifelong Quaker:

silent Friends meeting ...
the sound of chairs being moved
to enlarge the circle


Thanks for sharing!

David

Wonderful! Ruth Yarrow is also a Quaker like Robert. She would be a good person
to get in touch with, if you haven't already. Robert was in Haiku Northwest, as Ruth
and I are, too.

Carmen

Fabulous thread.  Thanks so much for sharing these.  Perfect!

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your selection, David, and the following posts. Very interesting comments and great poems.

I'd like to offer this one:

pausing also
at the sacred matai ...
a wood pigeon

- Sandra Simpson

winner, Kokako Haiku Contest (NZ), 2008

On our way back from a niece's wedding, we stopped beside a 2-lane highway to visit this tree (which has a signpost to it). As we crossed the quiet road to the tree a native wood pigeon (kereru) flew overhead, the distinctive swooshing sound making us look up.

Matai is also known as black pine (Prumnopitys taxifolia) and this one is sacred to the Maori of the area. The story is recorded here:
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM67X0_Hinehopus_Tree_Rotorua_District_New_Zealand

Sacred places, I find, have something about them. Perhaps it's the long period of reverence at one spot that adds an "atmosphere" ... or perhaps I am too suggestible! Some believe that the land has memories.

Best wishes,
Sandra

Here's another, though I wonder if this fits your theme. Sort of yes, sort of no ...


dry season –
rock paintings
by a vanished people

- Sandra Simpson

The Heron's Nest, March 2005

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for sharing these two haiku. I like both, especially "dry season." Interesting about the matai. One reason I like to hear other poets' work is that I get the oppotunity to learn about other traditions and regions.

David

David: here are three of a religious nature but two with unfavorable connotations. Don't know if they fit. If not--let me know and I'll remove.


longtime neighbor
informed of my religion
introduces himself


Saturday Shul
someone sitting
in my paid seat


someone stole
[                   ]
a buddha statue


           --al fogel

Hello everyone, I can't remember where I saw this haiku or who wrote it, but I have always remembered it and think it is a very different angle to look at when it comes to haiku with religious connotations.

easter sunday
a ressurection
in his pants     

P.S  If anyone knows who's haiku this is and where it has appeared please let me know

-John :) 

Quote from: sandra on March 12, 2011, 04:02:57 PM

I'd like to offer this one:

pausing also
at the sacred matai ...
a wood pigeon

- Sandra Simpson

winner, Kokako Haiku Contest (NZ), 2008


Sacred places, I find, have something about them. Perhaps it's the long period of reverence at one spot that adds an "atmosphere" ... or perhaps I am too suggestible! Some believe that the land has memories.

Best wishes,
Sandra

I felt like this in Kamakura, Japan, Sandra. You can feel the layers and layers of history almost everywhere you go where the trees are a thousand years old in the temples.

Carmen

Thanks for that Carmen, good to know it's not just me!

I have tried, but so far failed, to write something meaningful about a visit to the Avebury stone circle in England. As a site it's less grand than Stonehenge, but also not as touristed and visitors are able to move among the stones (in fact the village is built across part of the circle).

http://www.avebury-stones.co.uk/ I like the part about its original use not yet being clear ... isn't it that we've forgotten?

best,
Sandra

Hi Al,

Thanks for sharing. I certainly think the three poems you shared are relevant. I think it's fair to point out that sharing a certain tradition can not only bring out the best in people, but sometimes the not-quite-best. For example, a sense of connection with other people of the same religion can sometimes lead to hostility to "outsiders," etc.

Hi John,

The haiku you mention reminds me of a short poem by Sharon Olds (not a haiku). Entitled "The Pope's Penis," it's well-known but controversial. You can read it here: http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Sharon-Olds/5582.

Hi David, thanks for the link. Sharon's poem was certainly interesting, and clever in various ways. To me her poem isn't controversial, perhaps provoking would be a better term, some people have obviously not been reading it with an objective mind and have presumed to know the poet's intent.

Here is a haiku of mine which has religious content. I hope you enjoy it :)

muffled hymns
cigarette smoke fills
the churchyard

published in Notes from the Gean, issue 2:3

-John

Hi David,

I agree with John, although her last line might upset a few people. ;-)

We also have to remember that Jesus wasn't a Christian, and I doubt he would have converted to Catholicism.  I would imagine he would expect people to be interested in what he had to say, rather than convert it to religion.

Sharon's poem (she's a regular in my part of England) is thought-provoking in as much as it can act as a catalyst if we are not closed up in our attitudes and belief-systems.

That's essentially the main useful tool for poetry, in my opinion, and it's always a shame that some poets would prefer only a closed audience for their work, and that some sections of the world population act in a similar manner.

Thanks for posting this poem, I'd forgotten about it.

Alan

Here is a tradition before recorded history:

Holding the water,
     held by it—
        the dark mud.
 
by William J. Higginson