Haiku for Healing: Google Classroom Introduction

Haiku for Healing is an initiative of The Haiku Foundation (THF) examining the therapeutic potentials and benefits of haiku. An integral feature is this free 2-months Google Classroom organised by Geethanjali Rajan, distinguished haiku poet and editor. It’s not a clinical course in poetry therapy but borne out of Geethanjali’s own personal research and use of the latent restorative possibilities of this short form.

Here is Geethanjali’s introduction to the course:

The supportive role of mindfulness in the healing process has been the centre of many discussions in healthcare. Whether it is healing from physical pain, loss of a loved one, mental or emotional distress, or fatigue from the fast-paced stress-inducing lifestyle that many of us have, healing is not a simple one-shot solution. The journey is one that is challenging but the positive aspects of slowing down and being mindful are being recognised widely as a wellness practise.

Haiku is a form of poetry that encourages us to stop, pause and absorb the world around us. The building blocks of a haiku are those very moments that a person notices, be it a burst of birdsong, the appearance of a particular colour in the sunset sky or the smell of coffee wafting in as our feet touch the cold floor on an early morning. As the Zen Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh (who brought mindfulness to the mainstream) said –

“There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.” *1

Mindfully noticed moments call for attentive slowing down and also bring an opportunity to savour the moments that might have otherwise gone by without notice.

white dawn
the long spaces
between piano notes

Robert Hirschfield *2

twilight . . .
a goat-herd merges
with the fog

Geethanjali Rajan *3

In addition, haiku facilitates the expression of our own state – physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, through the sensorial engagement with moments that move us. These verses need not express only the beautiful but can encompass the pain and anxiety that we find challenging to express in our daily life.

hiking alone
a conversation
with my father

John Pappas *4

cloudburst
another node shows up
in the scan

Geethanjali Rajan *5

This programme spans six modules over 8 weeks (October 6th to December 1st 2025). Together, the participants and I will read published haiku written by poets from all over the globe and participants will be encouraged to share their comments. We hope to understand how haiku have been used to savour moments that are a result of close observation and mindfulness. We will also look at haiku that express moments of illness, pain or loss and isolation. The participants will then be encouraged to express themselves through attempting to write one or more haiku.

Note: This programme does not aim to be a poetry therapy module (I am not a trained psychologist) but instead, it hopes to study, share and use haiku as a tool that promotes healing and wellness through being in the moment and self-expression.

Geethanjali Rajan

Notes:

*1. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, Thich Nhat Hanh, Beacon Press, 1999.

*2. “white dawn”, Robert Hirschfield, cattails, April 2025.

*3. “twilight . . .”  Geethanjali Rajan, A Hundred Gourds 3:4, September 2014.

*4. “hiking alone”, John Pappas, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, May 21, 2024.

*5. “cloudburst”, Geethanjali Rajan, A Hundred Gourds 5:2, March 2016.

Bios:

Geethanjali Rajan teaches Japanese and English in Chennai, India and started her haiku journey in 2003. She edits haiku at the online journal of Japanese short forms, cattails, and is on the editorial team of Café Haiku. She is the author of a book of haikai poetry longing for sun longing for rain (Red River, 2023) and the co-author of Unexpected Gift with Sonam Chhoki, Bhutan (Éditions des petits nuages, Canada, 2021).

She was on the panel of judges in the South Asia Online Haiku Contest for The Japan Foundation (Japanese language haiku) in 2021 and 2022. She has conducted over 60 haiku workshops in schools, colleges and other fora, spreading the joy of the ancient Japanese poetry form in India. Her poetry can be sampled here and here.

Sonam Chhoki finds the Japanese short-form poetry resonates with her Tibetan Buddhist upbringing. She is inspired by her father, Sonam Gyamtsho, the architect of Bhutan’s non-monastic modern education and by her mother, Chhoden Jangmu, who taught her: “Being a girl doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.” She is the principal editor, and co-editor of haibun for the online journal of Japanese short forms, cattails.

Her chapbook of haibun, The Lure of the Threshold was published in May 2021. Mapping Absences, a collaboration of haibun, tan bun and tanka prose with Mike Montreuil was published in 2019. Another collaboration with Geethanjali Rajan: Unexpected Gift was published in November 2021. She organised a year-long email course in 2024 for The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku for Parkinson’s project.

Read past Haiku for Healing posts here.

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