The Haiku Foundation Forums

As the Jewish high holidays approach, it's an opportune time to call attention to Jewish-related haiku being published today, especially haiku focused on the different facets of Judaism.

Not surprisingly, holidays are a common topic of Jewish-related haiku and senryu. Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is probably the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The focus is on recognizing, reflecting, and addressing one's sins. As part of this, the observance calls for fasting for more than twenty-four hours:

day of atonement
the redeeming lightness
of being hungry

- Mel Goldberg (1)

Another Yom Kippur tradition is remembering loved ones who have passed away. This includes the lighting of a yahrzeit (memorial) candle. Even though we feel connected to the deceased through the act of remembering, we nevertheless feel a distance, or separation:

Yom Kippur
the memorial candle flickers
in its own world

- Bruce Ross (2)

The Bar Mitzvah is a well-known tradition, marking the transition from childhood to adulthood. Because the participants are teenagers (thirteen-year-olds), this can provide a window into changing social mores:

Bar Mitzvah
on top of his mohawk
a yarmulke

- David Grayson (3)

Not surprisingly, haiku with Jewish themes are diverse. However, even when they address subject matter that is not strictly religious, Judaism and its traditions sometimes remain in the background:

her 80th Passover
mother doesn't cook anymore
grandmother's tsimmes (4)

In the above poem, Zinovy Vayman fondly recalls his grandmother's version of a traditional Eastern European stew cooked on Passover.

The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has also been a topic of haiku poets. Here, too, religion is a presence in multiple ways:

Sea of Galilee
a white gull glides
peacefully   

- Rick Black (5)

Rick Black's haiku seems to be a simple description in the shasei tradition. Of course, the Sea of Galilee sits in the middle of the conflict zone. Beyond this contemporary reality, the sea is the setting for key events in the life of Jesus. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- Do any of these haiku resonate with you?
- Are there Jewish-oriented haiku that you'd like to share?
- Have you composed haiku that touch upon or reflect Judaism and its teachings? Or related teachings in Christianity or Islam? 
- Food and cooking are central to the experience of many cultures, and are often tied to religious events and holidays. Beyond Judaism, have you seen (or written) haiku that reflects this?

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Notes:

(1) Mel Goldberg, in The Sacred in Contemporary Haiku, ed. Robert Epstein (CreateSpace, 2014), p. 108.

(2) Bruce Ross, in The Sacred in Contemporary Haiku, ed. Robert Epstein, p. 195.

(3) David Grayson, in Hebrew Haiku Newsletter, 2005. Translated by David Grayson and John Kinory. 

(4) Zinovy Vayman, in Lishanu: An Interlingual Haikai Journal (Autumn 2005, Issue 1). http://xaiku.com/lishanu/01/haiku/vayman1.htm: Accessed September 6, 2015. Note: The original poem was published in Yiddish. 

(5) Rick Black. Cornell University Mann Library's Daily Haiku. http://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/category/author/rick-black/page/7/: Accessed September 6, 2015.

The religious philosopher Jacob Needleman was asked in an interview: "When we question the meaning of life, you insist that we add the Earth to this query. Why is it important that we do so?"

He answered:
"One of the main aims of this book [Unknown World] is to see what it means for us that the Earth itself is a living being. Within a living organism everything that exists has a function, a role to play, in the whole of the life of which it is a part. Therefore, the meaning of human life is inseparable from the function that the human species is meant to serve as part of the living Earth. The central question of my book is: What, then, does the Earth really need from us?—far beyond the kind of efforts we are making to fix the environmental crisis we have created. Since everything human is part of the Earth, and is meant to play an essential role in the very evolution of the Earth—then everything human, including especially our inner and most inmost life, has an essential function within the life of the planet." (1)

Following the thread of Needleman's idea, I imagine that there would be two principal tasks for haiku poets. The first task is to simply describe the world as-is (the "organism").   

indian summer
the intersecting circles
of hawks

- Carolyn Hall (2)

Of course, this is the classic shasei approach, which Lee Gurga defines as the poet learning to simply "record what he or she sees, hears, smells, tastes, and touches." (3) 

A second task would be an attempt toward communion with the environment and all of its inhabitants:

at the fence
we tell our stories ...
the old horse and I

- Joan Vistain (4)

A central component of each of these tasks is communication. Citing the concept of quantum entanglement from physics, the poet Christian Wiman wrote that "if related particles react in similar or opposite ways even when separated by tremendous distances, then it is obvious that the whole world is alive and communicating in ways we do not fully understand. And we are part of that life, part of that communication ..." (5)

I'm curious about how other haiku poets view Needleman's idea of the meaning of life being inseparable from the function of our species as part of "the living Earth." Are there haiku that you've come across that reflect or embody this idea? Have you composed any haiku that do?


Notes:

(1) Jacob Needleman. Blog post: "Responding to Questions About An Unknown World," February 9, 2013. http://www.jacobneedleman.com/blog/?offset=1364933100000 (Accessed December 27, 2014).

(2) Carolyn Hall, Water Lines, ed. John Barlow (Liverpool: Snapshot Press, 2006), 29.

(3) Lee Gurga, Haiku: A Poet's Guide (Lincoln, Illinois: Modern Haiku Press, 2003), 133.

(4) Joan Vistain, Acorn: A Journal of Contemporary Haiku (Spring 2013), 38.

(5) Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), 35. 

From Bob Spiess' A Year's Speculations on Haiku, here is the entry from November 7th:

"As it is generally accepted that in haiku creation 'ego per se' should not intrude itself, lest the nature of the now-moment of awareness be marred, it may be of interest for haiku poets to be cognizant that for some Sufis there is the view that Iblis (Satan, the Devil) was the first being to say 'I.'"

I think it is not so much the use of the word "I" but rather how the word is used, and the motive behind it, that is important. Sometimes the use of the first person form does not "mar" the moment but actually makes it more immediate and accessible—as in these poems by Sue Antolin and Fay Aoyagi:

and so I agree
not to die before she does—
the sound of crickets

- Sue Antolin (1)


long night
I distort the globe
with Photoshop

- Fay Aoyagi (2)


Both haiku are rooted in the first person experience and perspective, and their power derives from it. The presence of the ego is pronounced in both haiku—and is used to move beyond it.



Notes:

(1) Sue Antolin, Artichoke Season, pg 4.

(2) Fay Aoyagi, Moonlight Changing Direction (Two Autumns), pg. 13.

As usual, last Wednesday I walked from my office in downtown San Francisco to the BART (metro) station. The station manager announced that all trains were running 15 minutes late, due to an equipment failure. I braced myself for an overcrowded and miserable ride home. However, when my train arrived, it was miraculously empty. I wondered if some fluke of timing was the cause.

The next night, I had a conference call with a member of my company's tech team in India. He casually mentioned that about a third of the workers were out of the office, due to Krishna's birthday celebration. I realized that this was the reason my train was empty. We both laughed about the connection between Silicon Valley and India. Since then, I've read about the celebration: http://hinduism.about.com/od/festivalsholidays/a/janmashthami.htm.

Two haiku (in progress) that I've composed since last week:

eastbound train
carries the evening home
Janmashtami


Janmashtami
the emptiness
of the metro train

For the sake of convenience, I've created a table of contents for Religio: Religion and Haiku. Rather than scroll through two pages to locate a discussion of a specific topic, you can simply navigate from here.

Haiku and Religion: Introduction http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=16.0

Haiku and Religious Concepts:
Unity http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=17.0
Mystery http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=157.0
Grace http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=280.0

Haiku and Religious Practice:
Ritual http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=1233.0
Haiku as Prayer http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=694.0

Haiku and Religious Traditions:
Six Traditions, Six Poems http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=436.0
Notes on Taoism and Haiku http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=2075.0
Notes on the Shinto Tradition and Haiku http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=2371.0
Buddhist Haiku http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=958.0
Diwali Haiku http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=1859.0

Other Topics:
Death Poems http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=1490.0
The Living and the Dead (Halloween Haiku / Day of the Dead Haiku) http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=1816.0
The Room Aflame http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=991.0

Guest Posts ...

Gabi Greve:
Religion and season words in Japan http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=463.0
Pilgrimages http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=466.0
Religion and Nature http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=465.0
Statues, paintings with religious motives http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=462.0
Christian Celebrations in Japanese Kigo http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=464.0

Gary Gach:
Haiku & Buddhism http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=1396.0

Colin Stewart Jones:
A Sense of Something Bigger http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=453.0

John P:
Haiku as Magic Spell http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=1372.0
Is haiku still a stained glass window, nowadays? http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=1356.0

In 1999, 83% of Japanese indicated that they followed Shintoism.(1) While it's not easy to disentangle the religious threads that have shaped haiku, it is possible to note key concepts that Shintoism and haiku share. As a starting point, I want to highlight five Shinto assumptions and beliefs that are reflected in haiku.

1. Shintoism is local - A characteristic of Shintoism is that it is locally focused. Kami are rooted in specific locales, as are the shrines dedicated to them, and their constituents.

2. Physical vs. spiritual - Shintoism does not draw a hard distinction between the physical world we inhabit and the spiritual world. A nice illustration are Torii gates, which mark the entrance to shrines. The gates, which are actually arches, often have no gate or fence -- marking the permeability between our world and the spirit world.

3. The natural world - Shintoism is grounded in the natural environment. Shrines are built in harmony with nature, usually built with natural materials and incorporating natural elements. Indeed, some "shrines" are natural landmarks like waterfalls and trees.

4. Seasonality - This is related to number three, but deserves to be called out. Festivals are tied to the seasons and to milestones in the farming calendar. Gabi Greve has compiled a saijiki of kigo for festivals and ceremonies: http://wkdfestivalsaijiki.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html.

5. Focus on the present - Shintoism is very much focused on the here and now.

..........

Shinto-inspired haiku abound; here are several that I've enjoyed:

on the trail of the gods ...
all creatures and spirits
blessed by hoarfrost

- Nozomi Sugiyama, from Seasons of the Gods (2)


flicking off water
a dragonfly quickly
becomes divine

- Hoshinaga Fumio (3)


there is no voice
in this waterfall in November --
Fudo Waterfall

- Shimomura Hiroshi, from the "Religion and Nature" Topic in Religio (4)


Having climbed Mt. Fuji,
My shadow stretches into
The form of a giant man

- Nobuyuki Yuasa, from Seasons of the Gods (5)


As mentioned above, Gabi Greve's Saijiki for Festivals and Ceremonies (http://wkdfestivalsaijiki.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html) is a good resource.  Do you have recommendations to share for good resources on Shintoism and haiku?

Have you composed, or read, any haiku that touch upon or reflect Shinto ideas?

What are your thoughts about the influence of Shinto traditions on haiku?

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

Notes:

(1) BBC Religions: Shintoism - http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/beliefs/religion.shtml. 76% indicated that they followed Buddhism. 

(2) Icebox - http://hailhaiku.wordpress.com/representative-haiku/

(3) Richard Gilbert, Poems of Consciousness (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2008), 167.

(4) "Religion and Nature" Topic in Religio, created by Gab Greve.  http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/forum_sm/index.php?topic=465.0

(5) Icebox - http://hailhaiku.wordpress.com/representative-haiku/

There's been a lot of discussion in recent years about the relationship between Zen and haiku. I've found less focus on one of Zen's forebears, Taoism. I think that the topic of Taoism and haiku deserves some attention; as Robert Spiess noted, "One of the historical aspects of haiku is that of Taoism ..." (1)

The Tao Te Ching opens with the declaration:

"The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name." (2)

Spiess writes that "entities in haiku are presented in their unadorned naturalness" (3). The shasei (objective/realist) approach has been predominant in classic haiku and much contemporary American haiku. Through a focus on the everyday world, haiku poets hope to peek into the ultimate reality. As William Carlos Williams famously wrote, "No ideas but in things." Fidelity to things, as they are, is a door through which the conscientious can possibly glimpse the un-nameable Name.

     They end their flight
one by one--
     crows at dusk.

- Buson (4)

Paul Williams observed that strong haiku are often born from our daily lives: "such perceptions as do transform themselves into haiku tend to emerge from the familiar rather than the new" (5). This is in line with the Tao Te Ching: "Thus the Master travels all day / without leaving home" (6). Of course, this is not meant to be a literal injunction against travel or new experiences. Rather, it is a recognition that effective insights often grow out of seeing the same things in a new light.

the golden sunset
i lay waiting on my board
for the perfect wave

- Bruce Feingold (7)

Lao-tzu said: "We shape clay into a pot, / but it is the emptiness inside / that holds whatever we want" [8]. Haiku's brevity and the practice of suggestion -- the spaces before, between, and after the words -- are ways into Lao-tzu's emptiness.

listening to
the ocean's history--
spring sunset

- Fay Aoyagi (9)

One of the objectives of Taoism is to teach people how to conduct their lives and live in harmony with the Tao. Practices like Tai Chi and mediation are designed to help. For haiku poets, the notion of "creative quietude," as Huston Smith terms it, is relevant. Smith describes how "genuine creation, as every artist knows, comes when the more abundant resources of the subliminal self are somehow trapped" (10). This, of course, is challenging but satisfying to achieve.

wind-shaped trees
a young hawk
measures the sky

- paul m. (11)

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

- Huston Smith writes that "Buddhism processed through Taoism became Zen" (12). I've met several haiku poets who arrived at haiku through a background in Zen or Buddhism. I don't recall the same with Taoism. What is your experience with Taoism, and has it influenced your haiku?

- A search for the terms "Tao," "Taoism," and "Lao Tzu" on Charles Trumbull's Haiku Bibliography produces few results. This points to a relative dearth of writing about the topic in contemporary American haiku. Do you have recommendations to share with readers for good resources on Taoism and haiku?

- Have you composed, or read, any haiku that touch upon or reflect Taoism and its teachings?


Notes:

(1) Robert Spiess, A Year's Speculations on Haiku (Madison, WI: Modern Haiku, 1995), January twenty-ninth.

(2) Tao Te Ching, tr. Stephen Mitchell (New York: HarperPerennial, 2006), Ch. 1.

(3) Spiess, Speculations, January twenty-ninth.

(4) The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa, tr. Robert Hass (New Jersey: The Ecco Press, 1994), 89.

(5) Paul O. Williams, "Loafing Alertly: Observation and Haiku," in The Nick of Time: Essays on Haiku Aesthetics, eds. Lee Gurga and Michael Dylan Welch (Foster City, CA: Press Here, 2001), 21.

(6) Tao, Ch. 26.

(7) Bruce Feingold, A New Moon (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2004), 58.

[8] Tao, Ch. 11.

(9) Fay Aoygai, In Borrowed Shoes (San Francisco: Blue Willow Press), 4.

(10) Huston Smith, The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), 208.

(11) paul m., finding the way: haiku and field notes (Foster City, CA: Press Here, 2002).

(12) Smith, World's Religions, 216.

Today (October 26th) is Diwali -- known as the "Festival of Lights" and one of the most important Hindu holidays. Diwali is celebrated with the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas), sharing sweets, and fireworks. The holiday marks the Hindu New Year and the return of Rama from exile. It celebrates themes such as renewal and the triumph of good over evil. The World Kigo Database has several good haiku about Diwali: http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/2005/04/divali-india.html. Here are two that I like from vishnu p kapoor: 

dark night--
tiny lamps take over
from autumn sun

Diwali night:
sparklers dazzling the dark
as they die

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."   -- from The Dead, by James Joyce


It's October and the days are getting shorter and colder. Two autumn holidays are approaching: Halloween and Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead. Though distinct, the two holidays are both grounded in some of the same conceptual soil.

Halloween is rooted in the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the onset of winter, the season associated with death. The Celts believed that on this day the boundary between the living and the dead became more permeable and the departed returned to earth. The Samhain tradition included donning costumes/disguises to trick ghosts when they arrived.(1)  

Autumn ghosts
I make them go away
by giving them candy

Garry Gay (Mariposa 9)

In 1000 A.D., the Church designated November 2 as All Souls' Day, partly (it is thought) to replace Samhain with a similar, church-sanctioned event.(2) The same dynamic occurred with a longstanding Aztec commemoration, Day of the Dead. On Day of the Dead, families visit the graves of their deceased relatives, decorating the gravesites with flowers (usually yellow and orange marigolds and chrysanthemums), candles, and other meaningful items. Families also create home altars (ofrendas) honoring their relatives.(3)

As with Samhain, after the Spanish conquest the Catholic Church combined the holiday with All Souls' Day. Originally celebrated in the summer, the Church moved the celebration to November.

With dense and layered meanings, it's no surprise that good haiku have been derived from this cluster of holidays, hovering in autumn, that marks the relationship between the living and the dead.

marigold spice
on the autumn wind
Day of the Dead

"Autumn Moon" (Shiki Online Kukai, November 2005)


All Souls' Day
I open my father's
black umbrella

Petar Tchouhov (Shiki Online Kukai, December 2006)


the night after Halloween
four blackbirds settle
on the arms of a scarecrow

Joseph Baird (Modern Haiku 40:3)


All Souls' Day ...
flies in the darkened eyes
of the jack-o-lantern

Bill Pauly (Red Moon Anthology 2003)


snow fills
the pumpkin's grin
November

Ann Schwader (Shiki Online Kukai, October 2010)


Notes

(1) "Halloween," The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/topics/halloween (accessed Oct 18, 2011).

(2) Ibid.

(3) Dia de los Muertos: San Francisco, http://www.dayofthedeadsf.org/history.html (accessed October 20, 2011).

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

Has Halloween, or Day of the Dead, or All Souls' Day spurred any haiku for you? Do any of the example haiku resonate with you? Do you have favorites from other haiku poets?

Carl Jung was reported to have said that he never met a patient over forty whose problems did not root back to the fear of approaching death (1). The topic of death is an important one for religious thought and for haiku. This year, Robert Epstein has edited and published an anthology of poetry (mainly haiku) about dying and "death awareness." Entitled Dreams Wander On, the collection includes both "death poems" (composed while close to death) and poems more broadly about dying.

Below are several haiku from Epstein's anthology:

terminally ill ...
when I was a kid I tried
to count all the stars

Jerry Kilbride (bottle rockets #14)


and so I agree
not to die before she does
the sound of crickets

Susan Antolin (Artichoke Season)


simmering tofu--
father asks me where I intend
to be buried

Fay Aoyagi (Acorn #24)


all the poems
I've written
melting snow

Carlos Colon (Frogpond 33:1)


reincarnation--
already have a death poem
from the last time

Stanford Forrester


the longest night--
the death poem
rustles

Claire Gallagher (The Heron's Nest 9)


this life ...
a soap bubble beautiful
before it bursts

Kala Ramesh (bottle rockets #15)


d e a t h p o e m t h e l i g h t b e t w e e n t h e l e t t e r s

Ed Markowski (bottle rockets #21)


Are there any haiku about death that you've come across and would like to share? Have you written a death poem?


Notes

(1) Huston Smith, The World's Religions, p. 333.

Note: Original publication credits of the haiku are in parantheses.

Ritual is ubiquitous in religion. Mention any religion, and a ritual is usually the first image that comes to mind. Rituals are closely tied to family and community; they also mark the seasons and the passing of time. For these reasons, they continue to be important not just to the segment of practicing believers but also the broader public.

Ash Wednesday foreheads
        here and there
in the financial district

Tom Tico (Modern Haiku 41:2)

Christmas Eve
the last wisp of smoke
from the blown-out candle

Michael Ketchek (Modern Haiku 40:3)

When we miss these observances, we feel it.

Tanabata festival
weaving at home
alone

Tatsuki Matsutani (Modern Haiku 41:1)

Festival of Souls
probably no water for them
in the cemetery this year

Yotenchi Agari - Composed in a U.S. internment camp (Modern Haiku 40:2, from Margaret Chula's essay)

From a practical point of view, rituals can seem arbitrary and extraneous: window dressing when compared to the substance of religious ideas. However, ritual performs a key function, helping us manage life transitions. Huston Smith writes: "Death is the glaring example. Stunned by tragic bereavement, we would founder completely if we were thrown on our own and had to think our way through the ordeal. This is why death, with its funerals and memorial services, its wakes and sitting shiva, is the most ritualized rite of passage." (Smith, The World's Religions, pp. 300-301)

bouquet of daisies
       a bee comes to visit
       my mother's grave

Christoper Herold (Mariposa 12)

Of course, rituals are rooted in the past. But rituals are also dynamic, changing over time and adapting to new realities: everything from new technology to more diverse audiences.

Chicago's grotto of Lourdes--
an electric switch
lights a candle for my father

Mary L. Kwas (Modern Haiku 40:2)

late mourners
the rabbi switches
from Hebrew to English

Michael Dylan Welch (Modern Haiku 39:1)

In large and small ways, each of us can turn to our tradition, and be enveloped in its warm embrace.

Chinese New Year
recent immigrants
carrying the dragon

Patrick Gallagher (Mariposa 16)

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

Because many of us grew up with at least some religious/cultural rituals, I believe that this topic is fertile ground for haiku poets. Rituals open the door not only to the religious/spiritual, but also to family, relationships, childhood, the seasons, food, and much more.

On July 17, I presented a talk on religion and haiku at HPNC's summer meeting. At the end of the presentation, I asked the audience (about 25 people) to try to write a haiku about a religious topic of their choice. I was impressed with the quality. I was also impressed with the accessibility of the topic -- the group only had 10 minutes to compose their haiku!

Have you composed haiku around rituals, observances, or holidays that you'd like to share?

Carolyn Hall wrote an article, entitled "To Tell the Truth," that appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of Frogpond. In the article, Hall considered the role of fact, or truth, in haiku. She asked: Is it acceptable to bend the facts in order to produce a haiku that is truer to the emotional experience? Hall concludes: "We put our haiku out into the world in hopes of sharing our emotional response with others. And sometimes that requires fictionalizing the haiku just enough to stay true to the moment but also to communicate to our audience the full impact that experience had on us." (1)

Religious writing takes this practice a step further. To illustrate, here's a short tale from the 18th century from the Hasidic Jewish tradition. It tells of the first meeting between a respected Jewish scholar and the founder of Hasidism, Israel ben Eliezer (also known as the Baal Shem Tov). This is the story in full from Martin Buber's Tales of the Hasidim:

His Reception

Rabbi Baer was a keen scholar, equally versed in the intricacies of the Gemara and the depths of the Kabbalah. Time and again he had heard about the Baal Shem and finally decided to go to him, in order to see for himself if his wisdom really justified his great reputation.

When he reached the master's house and stood before him, he greeted him and then – without even looking at him properly – waited for teachings to issue from his lips, that he might examine and weigh them. But the Baal Shem only told him that once he had driven through the wilderness for days and lacked bread to feed his coachman. Then a peasant happened along and sold him bread. After this, he dismissed his guest.

The following evening, the maggid [preacher] again went to the Baal Shem and thought that now surely he would hear something of his teachings. But all Rabbi Israel told him was that once, while he was on the road, he had had no hay for his horses and a farmer had come and fed the animals. The maggid did not know what to make of these stories. He was quite certain that it was useless for him to wait for this man to utter words of wisdom.

When he returned to his inn, he ordered his servant to prepare for the homeward journey; they would start as soon as the moon had scattered the clouds. Around midnight it grew light. Then a man came from the Baal Shem with the message that Rabbi Baer was to come to him that very hour. He went at once. The Baal Shem received him in his room. "Are you versed in the Kabbalah?" he asked. The maggid said he was. "Take this book, the Tree of Life. Open it and read." The maggid read. "Now think!" He thought. "Expound!" He expounded the passage which dealt with the nature of angels. "You have no true knowledge," said the Baal Shem. "Get up!" The maggid rose. The Baal Shem stood in front of him and recited the passage. Then, before the eyes of Rabbi Baer, the room went up in flame, and through the blaze he heard the surging of angels until his senses forsook him. When he awoke, the room was as it had been when he entered it. The Baal Shem stood opposite him and said: "You expounded correctly, but you have no true knowledge, because there is no soul in what you know."

Rabbi Baer went back to the inn, told his servant to go home, and stayed in Mezbizh, the town of the Baal Shem. (2)


There are two ways to understand this story: literally (the room actually did burst in flame, angels sang, etc.) or figuratively. It's obvious that something important, indeed life-changing, happened to Rabbi Dov Baer the day he met the Baal Shem Tov. What happened in their meeting? Instead of the imagery of flames and angels the author(s) of the story could have said something like "the two argued into the night," or "the Baal Shem's cogent arguments finally persuaded the rabbi," or "the magnetic personality of the Baal Shem won him over," or whatever. But the story does not hew to a realist narrative; instead, it resorts to the fantastical in order to better – that is, more truthfully – convey the impact the encounter had on Rabbi Baer.

Indeed, Dov Baer must have felt that the world as he knew it went up in smoke. The story above is true to that experience, and stirs the reader appropriately.

There is a lesson here for we haiku poets. Bending the facts but still staying within the realist tradition can certainly lead to a more impactful haiku. Taking the next step – resorting to the fantastical – is sometimes called for. This approach is a specialty of religious and mythic writing. And it can be a potent tool for haiku poets, too.

Shoved off the stairs –
falling I become
a rainbow

Ban'ya Natsuishi (3)

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

Notes:

(1) Carolyn Hall, "To Tell the Truth," Frogpond, Vol. XXVIII, No. 3 (Fall 2005), 57-58.

(2) Martin Buber, ed., Tales of the Hasidim: The Early Masters, tr. Olga Marx  (New York: Schocken, 1947), 99-100.

(3) Ban'ya Natsuishi, A Future Waterfall (Winchester, Virginia: Red Moon Press, 2004), 8.

It's well known that many haiku poets were first led to haiku through an interest in Buddhism. Karma Tenzing Wangchuk refers to "a growing, already vast, gathering of what might be called the canon of American Buddhist songs and poems." (1)

Below are six of my favorite Buddhist or Buddhist-influenced haiku (haiku that, to my mind, reflect Buddhist elements). The selection includes a classic (one of the first haiku I read) and more recent work. Each one has something or other that I find compelling; together the poems reflect key Buddhist ideas such as aloneness, impermanency, and humor. They are in no particular order.


       Along this road
Goes no one,
       This autumn eve.

Basho (2)


Solitary spring --
throwing a javelin and then
walking up to it

Toshiro Nomura (3)


A hundred butterflies --
the centre of each one
shining and shining

Masaharu Goto (4)


small box from japan
the smile of a clay buddha
through the packing straw

Jerry Kilbride (5)


monastery outhouse --
Buddha
also sitting

Stanford Forrester (6)


such a fuss
as though nothing lasts
birds, toyon berries

Roger Abe (7)

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

- Do any of the above haiku stand out for you?
- Of course, there are so many great Buddhist- and Zen-inspired haiku. What are some of your favorites? 
- As the community of haiku poets has grown and broadened, do you think that there is proportionally less Buddhist-inspired haiku now?

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

Notes:

(1) Stanford Forrester and Vincent Tripi, Temple Marigold (Wethersfield, Connecticut: bottle rockets press, 2006).

(2) R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Vol. I: Eastern Culture (Hokuseido, 1964), 179.

(3) Koko Kato, ed. A Hidden Pond: Anthology of Modern Haiku (Kadokawa Shoten), 55.

(4) Ibid., 61.

(5) Raffael de Gruttola et al., A Motley Sangha (Wethersfield, Connecticut: bottle rockets press, 2006), 14.

(6) Stanford Forrester and Vincent Tripi, Temple Marigold (Wethersfield, Connecticut: bottle rockets press, 2006), 13.

(7) Anne Homan, Patrick Gallagher, and Patricia Machmiller, eds., San Francisco Bay Area Nature Guide and Saijiki (San Jose, CA: Yuki Teikei Society, 2010), 100.

The early Sufi master, Ansari of Herat, tells a story about Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet. During a battle, Ali was shot in the leg by an arrow. To remove it, it was necessary to make a painful incision. Ali's family asked that the operation wait until Ali started praying because then he would be totally unconscious of the world around him. Indeed, when finished with his prayers, Ali wondered why the pain in his leg had diminished.(1)

Mary Karr has described poetry as "sacred speech."(2) Indeed, poetry has often been compared to prayer. Both poetry and prayer can remove us from our focus on daily routine, and usher in a different state of mind. Jane Hirshfield writes, "Poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being. Each time we enter its word-woven and musical invocation, we give ourselves over to a different mode of knowing ..."(3)

morning prayers--
the blind nun
closes her eyes

George Dorsty(4)


missed my mind
by this much--
Zen archery

Stanford Forrester(5)

Of course, there are many ways to engage in prayer: song, dance, silence ...

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

Robert Major (6)

People resort to prayer for a variety of reasons: petition, confession, contemplation, thanksgiving, and more. Even for the devoted, sometimes doubt creeps in:

River Baptism
for those of us not sure
the rain starts

Garry Gay(7)

In all cases, prayer and haiku require receptiveness and openness -- even, for example, to a disruption during a somber event:

at the open grave
mingling with the priest's prayer:
honking of wild geese

Nick Virgilio(8 )


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

Does meditation or prayer play a role in your writing life?

Reciprocally, does haiku provide some of the same benefits that prayer provides – for instance, clarity of mind or a sense of connection?

In Poetry, Mary Karr wrote: "People usually (always?) come to church as they do to prayer and poetry – through suffering and terror. Need and fear." Do you think people resort to haiku for the same reasons?

Have you read haiku that have reflected aspects of prayer?


Notes:

(1) James Fadiman and Robert Frager, eds., Essential Sufism (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), 207.

(2) Mary Karr, "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer" (Poetry, November 2005). http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/175809 (Accessed April 14, 2011).

(3) Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (New York: HarperPerennial, 1997), vii.

(4) George Dorsty, inside the mirror: The Red Moon Anthology, ed. Jim Kacian (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2006), 22.

(5) Stanford Forrester, Mariposa 18 (Spring/Summer 2008).

(6) Robert Major, refuge (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2008). Originally published in The Heron's Nest (IV:8 ).

(7) Garry Gay, Mariposa 12 (Spring/Summer 2005).

(8 ) Nick Virgilio, The Haiku Anthology, ed. Cor van den Heuvel (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999), 264.

Hi all,

I want to let you know that you can now start your own topic in Religio -- similar to the New to Haiku and In-Depth Discussion areas.

Cheers -

David

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")

The dictionary defines "grace" as "the freely given, unmerited favor and love of god."(1) The Koran says: "Let the People of the Book recognize that they have no control over the grace of God; that grace is in His hands alone, and that He vouchsafes it to whom He will." (2)

One form of grace originates in nature. This is not surprising as the natural world is the creation or manifestation of divinity.

In these latter-day,
Degenerate times,
Cherry-blossoms everywhere! (3)

Issa

Issa recognizes that whatever people may do, the natural world offers solace, or a reprieve. It's important to note that Issa explicitly acknowledges that the gifts of nature are offered to all people, irrespective of their character—and whether their actions be virtuous or "degenerate."

Grace can also be transmitted from fellow human beings—family and friends, acquaintances and strangers.

Christmas Eve—
under the car's hood
a stranger (4)

Glenn Coats

Grace is an immensely popular concept—and no wonder. Because, from our perspective, there is no discernible logic to it, the idea encourages us to approach the world in an open, receptive way. We cannot know when we will be visited by grace. We await those moments when we—irrespective of everything—experience the gift.

Has the idea of grace cropped up in your haiku? It is not unusual to hear artists describe their art as a "gift" received from another source; this can sometimes be understood in the context of grace. Have you had this experience? Although common to the major religions, the notion of grace is very popular in the United States and the West. Have you found differences in the idea and how it's elaborated in Western haiku and haiku from other parts of the world?


Notes

(1) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/grace. Accessed August 7, 2010.

(2) The Koran: With Parallel Arabic Text (London: Penguin Books, 2000), 540.

(3) R.H. Blyth, Haiku: Spring (Volume II) (Hokuseido, 1960), 346.

(4) A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, ed. Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2009), 24.

Religion tells us that the world is grounded in mystery—and cannot be wholly understood rationally or empirically. The Muslim scholar Muhammad Asad wrote, "Man is unable to explain to himself the mystery of life, the mystery of birth and death, the mystery of infinity and eternity."(1)  

pulling light
from the other world ...
the Milky Way(2)

Yatsuka Ishihara

Flannery O'Connor wrote that the aim of writing is to embody this mystery.(3) We need not venture far to be touched by the experience; small daily events can open the door to us.

                                                        how deer
                                                       materialize
                                                        twilight(4)

                                                      Scott Mason

Mason appreciates how the deer seems to materialize from nowhere—almost as if by magic. He appreciates the unique, inbred skill of the animal. One can imagine the questions that follow such an encounter: How was this marvelous animal created? What about the countless other creatures in this world?  For that matter, how was the world created?

Of course, the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen immense advances in science. Some have observed that modernity and science have predisposed us against mystery. But science, while shedding light on many unknowns, at the same time offers new avenues of wonder about the nature of life and the universe.

Venus and
the paying mantis
born from the foam(5)

Takenami Akira

How important is the element of mystery to your reading and appreciation of haiku? Is it a theme that crops up (or that you develop) in your haiku? The practice of suggestion is a hallmark of haiku. Rather than explicitly providing a meaning to the reader, the haiku approach encourages the reader to engage with the poem, and help contribute to its meaning. It can be argued that this approach makes haiku more hospitable to mystery than other poetic forms. Have you found this to be true?



Notes

(1) Muhammad Asad, Islam at the Crossroads (Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus Ltd, 1982), 3.

(2) Yatsuka Ishihara, Red Fuji: Selected Haiku of Yatsuka Ishihara, trans. and ed. Tadashi Kondo and William Higginson (Santa Fe: From Here Press, 1997), 73.

(3) Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, ed. Sally Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzgerald (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001), 124.

(4) A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, ed. Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2009), 109.

(5) Takenami Akira. World Haiku Association website. http://www.worldhaiku.net/poetry/jp/a.takenami/a.takenami.htm. Accessed September 9, 2010.

The creation story in the Hebrew Bible is well known: God created the heaven and the earth in six days. Curiously, there is a second creation story in Judaism, this one from the Kabbalistic tradition. When God created the world, He needed to make space to do so; after all, God was everything. In order to make the world, then, God withdrew "in all directions away from one point at the center of its infinity, as it were, thereby creating a vacuum. This vacuum served as the site of creation."(1)

Of course, God did not withdraw completely. The divine presence remained ubiquitous, tying everything together. Underneath the surface distinctness of things, an essential unity is the immutable reality. The Koran says, "Wheresoever you turn, there is the face of Allah."(2) Buddhists bring their palms together to represent overcoming surface duality.(3)

downpour:
my "I-Thou"
T-shirt (4)

Raymond Roseliep

Grounded in the natural world, the interdependence of all things—living and non-living—is a theme of many contemporary haiku.

out of the hermit thrush
out of the valley
one song (5)

Laurie Stoelting

As K. Ramesh notes, we sometimes become aware of this reality in the most unlikely of places.

dusk—
a chatter of frogs outside
the teacher's house (6)

R. H. Blyth wrote that haiku is imbued with "that state of mind in which we are not separated from other things, are indeed identical with them, and yet retain our own individuality and personal peculiarities."(7) Haiku offers us—as readers and poets—the joy of experiencing this reality. We appreciate and delight in the unique ways that other poets experience this—and reflect on the ways that we ourselves do.

Is the idea of interdependence or unity important for your appreciation of haiku? In my reading of haiku, this idea is usually grounded in an experience of nature, as we see in the examples from Laurie Stoelting and K. Ramesh. Have you seen this concept approached from other avenues?


Notes

1 Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), 15.

2 James Fadiman and Robert Frager, eds., Essential Sufism (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), 228.

3 Huston Smith, The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), 388.

4 Cor van den Heuvel, ed., The Haiku Anthology (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999), 163.

5  Laurie Stoelting, Light on the Mountain: Selections, ed. Vincent Tripi (Greenfield, MA: Tribe Press, 2008).

6 K. Ramesh, Soap Bubbles: Haiku (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2007).

7 R.H. Blyth, Haiku: Eastern Culture (Hokuseido, 1960), iii.

Today, haiku is being written all over the globe. The Winter 2010 issue of Frogpond, for example, featured poems from twenty-one countries. These poets naturally bring their own cultural and religious inheritances to the haiku tradition.

Religion, of course, has influenced how each of us views the world and our place in it. This is true not only for "believers" who subscribe to a specific religious tradition, but also for those who are broadly religious but do not follow a single religion, are agnostic or indifferent, or are even staunchly anti-religious. The constellation of our ethics and values; sense of community; understanding of the meaning and purpose of the world; perception of reality and time; and much more are grounded in the religious-cultural heritage of the society in which we have been raised.

How are these assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs carried into haiku? What are the key ideas and concepts of the major religions, and how do haiku poets today reflect and elaborate these? These questions will be the mandate for this column.

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