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Haiku and Non-Duality

Haiku writing is an introduction to interbeing, to a community effort that Buddhists might refer to as non-dualism. The author of the haiku is of secondary importance. A moment of insight into the nature of reality has been created, and it matters not whether it was you or I who brought it into existence.

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In the early years when Basho and Buson were writing, it was not uncommon for poets to gather at places known for cherished subjects—bamboo groves, streams, mountain lakes, etc., to share their haiku. One poet would write a line, then pass it to another, who would add the second line, and pass it to the third, who would usually add a juxtaposition to the first two lines.

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Sharing lines became accepted. It was not plagiarism to “borrow” a line. It was a sign of respect. Each haikuist might build on the work of another. A form of chain writing also developed where poets gathered to write haiku about an identical image. What variety that created! It became a form of “chain” haiku that is practiced to this day. Each poet contributes in a noncompetitive manner. All poets share the final product.

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Recently, I sent my friend Joseph Davidson a casual haiku:

One drop of water:

Numerous protozoans,

Swim in their Cosmos.

Truly delighted was I when Joseph linked into my verse:

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One drop of water,

Rain falling on small pond,

Music of the spheres.

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Truly astonished was I when Ron LePere unexpectedly added:

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One drop of water,

Another and another,

Making of a flood.

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Even more gratifying, the small haiku circle wasn’t finished linking. Angie Davidson completed the play verse with:

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Tug from gravity:

An atmospheric vapor,

Brings raindrops from the sky.

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Haiku is a form of friendship, of unity. This is collaboration, not competition, in its purest form. Through synergy it is a form that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. All are welcome to join.

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David McClintock lives in Liverpool, England. He believes the mundane can be poetic. For this observation alone, he is either an accomplished haikuist or a Sage . . . or both. Reminds me of J.P. Donleavy, one of my favorite novelists.

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Under grey sky, surface

Water of pond scooped up high—

Yellow-legged ducks skip.

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digger-bucket claws

a wall. bricks spill; rubbles scooped;

windows snag like rags.

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Sun shuttered down street,

breeze, single car, bird: red brick

wall shouts angry quote.

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David McClintock

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Hanoch Guy is a poet bilingual in English and Hebrew. He has authored six collections of poetry.

Himalayan salt shaker

By a salt sea shaker

Meeting of ocean and mountain

Hanoch Guy

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Joseph Davidson’s haiku are transcendent. He captures the true nature of the-thing-in-itself. Few can achieve that state of Being.

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Wings drying in the sun,

Terrestrial no more:

Cocoon turns to dust.

Exoskeleton,

Hundreds laid out in column:

Frog poop on driveway.

(Great juxtaposition! Our Zen friends will appreciate this verse.)

Joseph Davidson 

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Cynthia Sharp enjoys sipping a latte while reading BTS magazine. Her “yin and yang at rest” line in the first haiku is a description of a Taoist Immortal’s life.

slender curve of moon

in the cool descending night

yin and yang at rest

Previously published in Haiku Journal.

sunfish in the sky

clouds dipping like quick minnows

turning lavender

Previously published in Haiku Journal.

rhythms of womb time

spilled like sunlight incarnate

when Gaia dreamed earth

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Previously published in Three Line Poetry.

luminosity

exploding supernova

eternity blinks

Cynthia Sharp