Haiku has had a long and varied history in Japan before it was brought into English in the 1950s. In Japan it has enjoyed both the height of a path to spiritual awakening and the accessibility of a practice in cultivating presence in a Zen mind.
These poems strive to capture ordinary moments of awareness that also speak to our highest selves, often through metaphor and symbol. Within the span of a breath we seek to capture the spirit of transience, and the bounty present in simplicity, celebrating and resonating with our purpose in experiencing “this“.
high summer–– / breathless / the cricket song
An homage to abundance, the time of high summer speaks to the fullness of the hours, days, and the season that is the peak of the year’s longest days. Along with the second image, the constant song of crickets, together creates a third image of endless bounty, each image amplifying the other.
Inherent in haiku are references to nested circles, cycles, and seasons. The limited but unbounded form of the ceramic bowl is both a reference to this tenet of the genre and acknowledgment of our continuous capacity for learning, that even within the common sound of crickets there is greatness yet to be discovered.
Part of the wonder of these small poems is that they seem to grow with us. Layers of meaning appear with the passing of years, and revisiting the poems we see our own awakening reflected in their spare words and simple images.
Recently it was discovered that a recording of field crickets slowed down in the studio sounds remarkably like a choir. This testament to the abundant bliss that surrounds us is the spirit behind this poem. Copy and paste the link below to hear this amazing recording by Jim Wilson and David Carson or click on the play button if the link is embedded on your screen. In this remarkable recording there is one track with a cricket singing at normal rate, and the other is a recording of a field of crickets slowed down to the frequency of human voices. These are indeed days of miracle and wonder.
