The Haiku Foundation Forums

Thanks for sharing, Alan. I like these poems as a set. As I've thought about them the last few days, the one that has stuck with me the most is "unspoken joke." Your point about teachers practicing spontaneity while at the same time using longstanding rituals is a good one -- sometimes the structure of a ritual can facilitate spontaneity. I think that's an important insight.

Best,
David

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?

Thanks, Don. I first came across that haiku in J. D. Salinger's short story, Teddy. Salinger has it as a one-liner.

I like your haiku; there's a real sense of intimacy present. The image has a lot of implications: the moment, ephmerality, etc. Very nice.

David

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?

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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.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for pointing this out. This actually has been a concern of mine throughout my writing for this column. I've been aware that my examples tend to be precisely those that, as you put it, are "about, or refer to, religion." I've felt that this is simply due to the fact that, as an external reader, I can know if a haiku is religious/spiritual in nature only if there is an explicit reference to a religious tradition, practice, etc. Otherwise, I am only guessing about the intent of the poem.

That being said, I have certainly come across poems that seem to be not about, but of. This is a haiku from David Giacalone that I read recently:

squinting to see him
another generation
sent to right field

(Baseball Haiku, ed. by Cor van den Heuvel)

This may not be the best example, but the empathy of the writer for his son, in my mind, almost constitutes a prayer, or hope, for a better future.   

David

chibi575,

Your post reminded me of a passage I came across by Karl Maurer, a professor of classics at the University of Dallas. While discussing a translation of Mandelstam's "The Ode on Slate," he noted:

"Poetry, like simple real prayer, is nothing but orientation towards the source of all light. It is nothing but -- in pitch blackness -- facing in the right direction, to where a new day will dawn, which is still invisible, except in one poetʹs inner hearing."

http://www.udallasclassics.org/maurer.html

Mark,

Thanks for sharing Scott's poem. What strikes me about it is the simple physical act -- crumbling a bayberry leaf. It's such a simple act, but it's important to remember that rituals associated with prayer often involve these types of acts.

There's so much more present in the poem, too: the small bits of the bayberry taking off with the wind; sand, which is often associated with time; etc.

Great haiku.

Thanks for sharing!

David

Colin -

Interesting point about spells. My sense is that spells have an outward focus -- that is, are directed outward toward a person or situation -- and that prayer is more of an internally-focused process involving introspection.

David 

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.

Thanks, Alan. I love Karen's haiku. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Gabi,

I like the haiku and image by Isabelle Prondzynski. I've made several attempts to write haiku about stained glass, but I haven't quite gotten where I wanted to. Isabelle does it.

Hi Alan,

I like your "link like verse amongst the prose." Some of the words are quite visceral, maybe because they are food-related!

David

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 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.