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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.

Wow ... a terrific poem, Jack.

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

Thanks, chibi575.

Regarding the last poem: My in-laws are big Saints fans. They maintain that it's okay to skip mass for a Saint's game. Of course, there is a kind of communion at these games.

I like the humor in a lot of your work here. There's a big kitschy aspect to Halloween, which I obviously did not address. It's great you brought in this element.

Thanks for sharing!

David

"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?

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for sharing George Swede's essay. I like his categorization of poems, and also the idea of the epitaph as a relative (though he says "precursor") of haiku. The featured haiku are uniformly powerful, and taken collectively are even more so.

David

Don,

I've read your poem before. Knowing the context makes it doubly powerful; I especially love the word "teetering."

Glad to know you're alright!

David

Gabi,

"Write each haiku as if it was your last one ..."

Sage advice.

Al,

I like this one, too, for the same reason. The sweet gum (liquidambar) trees on our street in Northern California are beginning to shed their leaves.

Thanks for sharing.

David

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.

Good point about the merriam webster definition. Rereading their various definitions for religion, a few are certainly tautological. Interesting. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion

Hi Gary,

Welcome! Thanks for starting this thread!

Is Buddhism a religion? I looked up "religion" on Merriam-Webster and found this definition: "a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices." When I think of Buddhism, I immediately think of that last word in the definition: "practices." 

Good point about Pure Land, Theravada, and so forth.

David

Mishima,

Love the poem. There is an almost Sufi feeling to it.

Best,
David

Hi haikurambler,

You note: "We are reminded that all around us is a mystery in process so vast and pressing that, when we gravitate back to our daily mundane tasks, it bugs us."

This reminds me of a short (four line) Robert Bly poem: "After Long Busyness"

I start out for a walk at last after weeks at the desk.
Moon gone, plowing underfoot, no stars; not a trace of light!
Suppose a horse were galloping toward me in this open field?
Every day I did not spend in solitude was wasted.

I've always loved this poem, and I think it underscores what you are pointing out.

However, I think a strength of haiku can be connecting the two: the mundane and the mysterious.

Best,
David

Hi haikurambler,

I like the phrase "magic spell." From my perspective, what you describe is common to all literature and art. John Gardner described fiction as "dream," which I think is what you are pointing to. The haiku poet creates a world (or hints or implies a world) that the reader then inhabits. And because of the open-ended quality of haiku, that world can veer in many directions.

lingering snow
the game of catch continues
into the evening

Cor van den Heuvel (Baseball Haiku, p. 13)

Thanks for starting this discussion!

David