The Haiku Foundation Forums

Al,

Very nice haiku. One association I have is water as the source of life. There’s an interesting and complex interplay: inanimate stone, the face of the Buddha, and life-giving water. And the water not just on the statue, but filling and saturating the air.

I don’t want to over analyze it – I enjoyed it in a straightforward way, too!

Thanks for sharing –

David     

Don and Vida - Thanks for the feedback; I appreciate it!

David

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

Hi Al and Seaview,

Al - I really enjoyed your poem.

Seaview - What struck me about your poem is that the comfort went both ways. You, too, were comforted by your father's hand.

David

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?

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