Haiku

I spent this past weekend at the Benedictine Center at St. Paul Monastery, co-faciliating a vocation retreat for University of St. Thomas law students. The rooms in which we stayed there provided guests with a complimentary copy of a publication titled, Nuggest of Hope, which contains Haikus written by a Benedictine sister named Rose Alice Althoff, OSB.

I’ve always had something of a fascination with the Haiku form of poetry. There is something in the simplicity of the form, which invites conveyance of a simple truth, that appeals to me. You can’t be too fancy or complicated or try to convey too much in a 5-7-5 verse. Having found myself over the past month or so writing simple haiku’s during times when I should have been paying attention to something else (e.g. at a faculty meeting or a scholarly presentation), I availed myself of the generosity of the retreat center and took home their complimetary publication. As I’ve flipped through it, I pass over some of the verses very quickly, while others speak to me.

Here are a couple:

resting with the Lord
all is quiet and subdued
glorious feeling

hurts, pains, anxiousness
piercing one’s inner being
fresh seeds uprooted

moving air unseen
touching all things in its course
aftermaths observed

You can also find a collection of haikus on the wonderful gratefulness.org website here.

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