A haiku can help you to do this.
What is a haiku?
In Japan, a haiku is a short poem in the present tense, typically with 17 syllables to a pattern of 5-7-5 that connects Human Nature to Universal Nature. A ‘haiku moment’ is when you stop what you are doing and observe those small but significant moments in your life or someone else’s. Such moments are often profound and provide valuable insight. In Buddhism, Thich Nhat Hahn (see web-site next week) calls this practice ‘being mindful’ or ‘being in the present moment.’ When you have finished contemplating you may be moved to write a Haiku of your own or attend one of our eco-therapy courses. Here you can re-gain that lost link with your true Nature in an even more down-to-earth way.You need not stick rigidly to the 5-7-5 format. Rules are only of use if they help.
Here are 10 sample haikus. They are extracted from The Iron Book of British Haiku and you may well be familiar with some of the situations. We have used the author’s original punctuation in terms of upper or lower case.
Son Rising
6 a.m. Over the barsOf your cot your face
Rises like the sun
***************
Here, on the fourth floor,
The vending machine works
Harder than I do.
David Jacobs
**************early morning stillness
i chop wood
between the echoes
Byron Jackson
**************Embers die
The chair where the friend sat
Fills with moonlight
Cicely Hill
**************In a bookstore
two flies settle
on a romance
Jackie Hardy
*************the snow melts
and slowly names reappear
on the war memorial
Michael Gunton
************In the village
the madman who knows nobody
is known to all
John Gonzalez
**********caught in a storm
wearing nothing waterproof
except mascara
Janice Fixter
***********first week of chemo
he shaves his head and buys
a jaunty cap
Dee Evetts
*************on the teacher’s apple –
small teeth marks
Frank Dullaghan
*****************Last Updated: 14/03/2007
