Sleepwalking In Eden

rude little haiku

rings a bell inside the soul

it's time to wake up!

We live in the Garden of Eden, but don’t know it. Mental chatter blocks direct experience of the present moment. We fail to see the majestic beauty radiating constantly from this sacred universe. And we fail to feel the love, bliss, and emotional richness emanating from within.

Great haiku poets, like Basho (1644–1694), have a knack for haiku judo — the juxtaposition of ideas or images in a way that brings mental chatter to a sudden stop. We momentarily awaken to our true nature, which exists prior to thought. Intense feelings of awe, wonder, beauty, and oneness may enter consciousness. So may feelings related to our exile from paradise — spiritual longing, loneliness, and wistful melancholy at the transitory nature of existence.

Good haiku are more difficult to write than one might think. A haiku poet is lucky to write a few truly powerful haiku in a lifetime. Remembering the words of my grandmother — that even a blind chicken catches a bug once in a while — I keep pecking.