re:Virals 563

“More difficult than making your own verses interesting is understanding those of others…” ―Shinkei (1406 –1475). Citing this, Onitsura (1661 – 1738) wrote: “…this should be a way in which a person is completely given over to training.”

Welcome to re:Virals, The Haiku Foundation’s weekly commentary feature on some of your favorites among the best contemporary haiku and senryu written in English. In the host chair today is Shawn Blair. This week’s poem, chosen by Sudha Devi Nayak is:

   
addicted to life—
a superhero beats
intoxication
 —Paul Callus, Malta
 Haiku Foundation Haiku Dialogue June 3, 2026

Introducing this poem, Sudha writes:

Life itself is the greatest intoxicant. If you are vested with determination and passion there is nothing that you cannot achieve. So much time and effort is involved in the sheer magnitude and majesty of work. There is no place for lesser intoxicants. Your vocation in life is all-consuming. There can be no further distractions. So are born great artists, writers, performers, great reformers and change makers who find fulfilment in living. As Thomas Carlyle wrote, “Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.”

Host comment (Shawn):

In this mortal frame of mine, which is made of a hundred bones and nine orifices, there is something, and this something is called a windswept spirit, for lack of a better name, for it is much like a thin drapery that is torn and swept away at the slightest stir of the wind. This something in me took to writing poetry years ago, merely to amuse itself at first, but finally making it its lifelong business. It must be admitted, however, that there were times when it sank into such dejection that it was almost ready to drop its pursuit, or again times when it was so puffed up with pride that it exulted in vain victories over others. Indeed, ever since it began to write poetry, it has never found peace with itself, always wavering between doubts of one kind and another. At one time it wanted to gain security by entering the service of a court, and at another it wished to measure the depth of its ignorance by trying to be a scholar, but it was prevented from either because of its unquenchable love of poetry. The fact is, it knows no other art than the art of writing poetry, and therefore, it hangs on to it more or less blindly.

—Matsuo Bashō, Journal of a Travel-Worn Satchel (tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa)

Bashō conveys his strong attachment to poetry, and we know that the relationship between his poetry and his spirituality was complex and even conflicted. As described here, Bashō’s attachment to poetry could be characterized as an addiction, which brings us to the present verse.

The verse might have read intoxicated with life— / a superhero beats / addiction. But reversing intoxication and addiction from this more natural progression, as the poet has done, forces the reader to introspect from the outset. What is the nature of addiction? How does it feel to be intoxicated? Is it desirable to avoid intoxication? Is it possible? Can a person be free of any and all addictions?

I take “superhero” in this context to mean a real and admirable person: someone who has worked to overcome delusions (intoxication) and negative habits (addiction), has succeeded to some non-trivial degree, flourishes, and encourages others to flourish.

Urszula Marciniak:

Is it possible to free ourselves from all addictions?

Not only those toxic to the body, but also the seemingly harmless ones that don’t poison us but consume time, destroy relationships, and take over us.

Who knows addiction better? A doctor who looks at it objectively but hasn’t experienced the depth of suffering, or a patient whose world has fallen apart.

It starts innocently. We try once, twice, ten times. After all, we can always back out, we can stop. We have control. Are we sure? When is it too late?

How much do you have to love yourself and life to come back from rock bottom?

You can change for someone, but what if they leave you?

It’s easy to be a hero when everything in life is perfect. Be a hero when you can’t get out of bed and your worst enemy is yourself. First put on your slippers. Then your cape.

Is our haiku commenting a passion or an addiction?

Can passion become an addiction?

Alan Summers:

Humour or upbeat grief? A person, perhaps a parent, sibling, or close friend lives life vigorously, maybe “to the full” or “fullest” though we don’t know if that’s a positive or a negative. It feels ambiguous.

Usually we’d expect someone to beat a disease or other adversity, this person has beaten life into death. Or is it someone that is an alcoholic and is turning things around?

So much depends on a red wheelbarrow sometimes.

Alan Harvey:

Paul Callus’ haiku begins with the joyful declaration of “addicted to life” and ends with “intoxication”. Usually, intoxication is associated with the consumption of alcohol. This makes me return to the addicted to life which suggests thrill seekers where moderation isn’t an option. The desire to take all that life has to offer can lead to addiction in many forms for the addictive personality. This leads me into a conundrum with this verse. Has an addiction to life led to a drinking problem?

Tabling that for now and turning to line 2 we have “a superhero beats”. Superheroes are well-known to us due to movies from the Marvel Universe. A superhero is an almost mythical being who shows great courage in the face of adversity. This superhero is fighting and winning against intoxication from line 3. This reinforces my belief that this haiku is about alcoholism.

The alcoholic can be the life of the party, the jovial and entertaining center of attention. But a dependency on alcohol can ruin lives. Overcoming adversity makes a hero. And while not as widely admired as an archetypical hero, anyone able to overcome addiction should be considered a hero.

I choose to read this as a celebration of life when a person can beat their addiction. Callus has written a positive message about a difficult subject without preaching or overwhelming the reader. Well Done!

Radhamani Sarma:

A meaningful senryu in tune with the contemporary scenario, where excessive drinking and similar negative habits ruin a person’s life. Healthy homemade food and exercise—these suffice for health. Life is meant for living and loving. These days frequent hospitalizations from substance abuse have become part and parcel of our way of living.

“Addicted to life—” there is much embedded in this line. The superhero might be pledged to a full life of happiness and inward contentment. It can be interpreted thus: the hero is not addicted to alcohol or drugs, he is addicted to life, healthy food, physical exercise, music and celestial arts—all transport him to a world of peace and bring him joy. In those words “addicted to life” there is a reversal of tone: possibly so far, fully drunk, regular visitor to bar and alcoholic, now he sees a change in himself.

So far, and for so long he was a superhero, overconfident, self-willed. For him temporary pleasure was his addiction. Now the scenario changes, all due to his experience of pain and tediousness. Now his determination, his willpower, his own mindset all tune him for a vow to turn his life around. Good counsel from friends and relatives, medications—all were in vain. His own sufferings, pangs of regret that life is almost gone… at least he is alive now, God the Supreme has been kind for having bestowed longevity and there is still life in him. His determination is the driving force to beat his intoxication, to live in a better way.

To quote Pierre de Coubertin, “the day when a sportsman stops thinking above all else of the happiness in his own effort and the intoxication of the power and physical balance he derives from it, the day when he lets considerations of vanity or interest take over, on this day his ideal will die.” Franz Kafka offered a different way of looking at intoxication: “My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication—it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness—it is all that I have—and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well.” The interpretation lies in the outlook of the reader.

Amoolya Kamalnath:

A plain and simple analysis would be that the person (superhero to the poet), may be the speaker himself or it could be his dad or another near and dear one) is more interested in life and in living than his intoxication with alcohol, so he puts in an earnest effort to becoming sober, hence reinforcing the poet’s belief in the person being referred to here as a superhero that the person was, is and will always remain a/his superhero.

The person has an addiction to life itself, then why or how did he get into alcoholism to the extent of intoxication? Did the person go through too many trials and tribulations in his life? It is such joy that he wants to live his life to the fullest in spite of all his past issues, intoxication or life’s ordeals.

This gives a really positive and hopeful outlook to the subject of addiction/intoxication. As it is said, “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

Sean Murphy—a problem that can’t be punched away:

This senryu hinges on the word “superhero”; it is intriguing and dramatic, inviting the reader into the heightened emotional reality of a comic book. It also invites two distinct readings of the poem, the interplay between which is key to its depth.

The first reading interprets the word “superhero” as figurative, an epithet conferred upon its subject in hyperbolic reference to the strength and willpower they’ve demonstrated in beating addiction. (Note that when I say this is hyperbole, I don’t intend to downplay the impressiveness of the feat — beating addiction is often one of the most difficult things a person can do — only to emphasize the word’s rhetorical effect and to contrast this reading with the latter one.) This reading is wholly uplifting, a recognition and commendation of the subject’s struggle and ultimate victory against a horribly destructive and potentially life-threatening condition, and a celebration of the life they’re now able to lead.

On the other hand, a more literal reading of the word — an actual superhero, with powers and a costume and a secret identity — brings the poem fully into the realm of fiction and fantasy. This interpretation lends the poem some subtle humor in its word choice and structure — “Intoxication” would be a decent name for a supervillain of the week with a drug/poison gimmick. However, it also introduces a certain tension to the poem that moves it away from being entirely positive and inspirational.

Superhero stories are typically built around external conflict: a villain must be defeated, or a disaster averted; even the more grounded conflicts typically take the form of interpersonal melodrama. Addiction is not a subject matter that appears frequently in superhero stories, in large part because it’s a problem that can’t be punched away. The superhero, in this sense, is a rather poor metaphor for addiction recovery; the slow, uneven, largely internal and mostly banal process of quitting an intoxicant doesn’t map onto the flashy and exciting stories we most often find in comic pages. Seen in this light, the poem reads as ironic, perhaps bitterly so; it describes a superhero beating addiction with the same ease and simplicity as any other weekly problem, which to someone in the midst of recovery, likely feel insulting or disheartening. The first line, especially, now reads as a hollow platitude, utterly divorced from the struggle of beating addiction. Ironically, the feat becomes less heroic when performed by a superhero.

Ultimately, these divergent readings stem from a single question: What does “superhero” mean? Is a superhero an object of escapist fantasy, a wholly fictional concept better suited to entertaining than conveying truth? Or can superheroes be real, in a sense, an archetype of strength and courage that we can strive to become?

Author Paul Callus:

I believe this haiku/senryu was inspired by Haiku Dialogue guest editor Deborah Karl-Brandt’s prompt “intoxication”. I had previously written about intoxication in relation to the effects of alcohol or drugs, and also treated it metaphorically, such as being drunk on love. In this case I chose to write about a positive aspect of the topic. It refers to the strength and willpower to overcome substance abuse. An ex-student of mine once sought my help to break free from addiction. He followed my advice and successfully went on a drug rehabilitation programme. In my eyes he will always be a ‘superhero’ who beat drugs and instead became ‘addicted’ to a happier lifestyle.

Thanks to all who sent commentaries. As the contributor of the commentary reckoned best this week, Sean Murphy has chosen next week’s poem, which you’ll find below. We invite you to write a commentary to it. It may be short, to a maximum of 500 words (succinctness will be valued);  academic, your personal response, spontaneous, or idiosyncratic. As long as it focuses on the verse presented, and with respect for the poet, all genuine reader reaction, criticism, and pertinent discussion is of value.   Out-takes are kept in the THF Archives.  Best of all, the chosen commentary’s author gets to pick the next poem.

Anyone can participate. Simply use the re:Virals commentary form below to enter your commentary on the new week’s poem (“Your text”) by the following Tuesday midnight, Eastern US Time Zone, and then press Submit to send your entry. The Submit button will not be available until Name, Email, and Place of Residence fields are filled in. We look forward to seeing your commentary and finding out about your favourite poems. Please note that commentaries must be your own personal work.

Poem for commentary:

     
sunny morning
the smell of coffee among
balcony flowers
— Slobodan Pupovać
  The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXVIII, Number 2, June 2026

Footnote:

Paul Callus is a retired teacher who lives in Malta, Europe. He has been active in the literary field for around 50 years. He writes poetry, short stories, and lyrics for songs, mostly in English, Maltese, and Italian. His work has been published in various anthologies, journals and online sites. He is an active member in several international poetry groups. He is also a translator and proofreader.

re:Virals is co-hosted by Shawn Blair, Melissa Dennison, Susan Yavaniski, and Keith Evetts (managing editor).

Comments: further discussion is invited below. Comments will close after a week when this post is archived.

THF strives to maintain a safe and friendly environment for our readers and site participants. Participation in our offerings assumes respectful and appropriate behavior of all parties. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, for any reason, at any time.

If you see something you feel may violate our Code of Conduct, please report it to the appropriate moderator (the host of this post) or the President here.