WRITING ALONG THE HAIKU PATH

Meeting together four times a year at Mercy Center from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Saturday, October 2, 2010 (Autumn)
Saturday, January 8, 2011 (Winter)

Do you enjoy reading or writing poetry? Do you find yourself drawn to contemplation in nature? Have you ever read haiku and felt an interest in learning about this form of poetic expression? If you would like to learn more about haiku and especially haiku as a contemplative practice, join the Four Seasons Haiku Kai. This group was founded in 1999 by Father Thomas Hand, S.J. ("Hando"). We meet on a Saturday four times a year – once every season.

At each meeting, we share our own haiku, as well as classic and modern haiku, and work together on projects such as a recently published collection of haiku by Four Seasons members. Ask for Seasons of Haiku at the Mercy Center bookstore.

LEARN MORE

If you would like to read about our approach to haiku, we have compiled a guide in an easy-to-print PDF document form. Please click the link below to read or download the guide.

The Haiku Path: An Introduction

You may also call Barbara Campitelli at (650) 578-1459 for more information about the group.

The haiku path we pursue is an extension of our meditative or contemplative practice. A haiku poet seeks union with nature, an experience of non-duality, from which the haiku poem arises naturally. Contemplate even ordinary things and events closely. Let yourself become one with that which you contemplate; then express your experience in three short lines.

the puddles on the pavement
carry the moon, the stars
and cherry blossoms
Hando

Hando was the Japanese name of Fr. Thomas Hand, S.J., who studied haiku during his 29 years in Japan. Fr. Hand taught the writing of haiku in English, both in Japan and the United States, for many years. He led the Mercy Center Haiku Kai (haiku group) until his passing in 2005.