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Lectio + Haiku
In this corner of the courtyard, you can make your own poetic
response to the words of ancient and modern writers of the
Spirit.
A different poetic passage from the Bible or other sacred
writings is posted here each month. Using an approach based on
the monastic practice of lectio divina, we invite you to read
the text, give it your heartfelt attention, then respond by
writing a haiku.
If you like, you can email us your haiku to be posted here with
others. In that way, you take part in a running conversation
that has been ongoing since the ancient texts
were first composed.
If this is your first visit to Lectio + Haiku, please read
About Lectio Divina and Haiku.
Then join us in reading and responding to this month’s
text, following the steps
below..
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Haiku
At the crossroads of life
fountains of delight are seen
and wisdom takes a bow.
-- Margaret, Charing Cross, Canada
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fresher’s week
wandering from pub to pub
with an empty head
-- Kevin, Canterbury, U.K.
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Gate opens and
Soul slips through —
A new adventure!
-- Brad, Port Townsend
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oil
--stains the cross--
road
-- Margaret, In the Courtyard
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From
July 2007... |
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First-wrought, she still smiles
on the heights of Helen's son -
Hagia Sophia!
-- Brad, Port Townsend
When wisdom was new
and God's hands were still dirty,
together, they danced.
-- Greg, Seattle
Eight men unalike
Plumb God's word with hearts in link —
Wisdom comes to dance!
-- Brad, Port Townsend
Through the gates, so near,
so far, along the circling
path, she walks and waits.
-- Margaret, In the Courtyard
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Scripture
Proverbs 8:1-4; 22-31
Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
“To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
The LORD created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth--
when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world’s first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his
command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.
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Steps for responding
Click for a
printer-friendly version of the scripture above and steps
below.
Take a moment for silence, becoming aware of God’s
presence.
Slowly read the poem or passage, then read it again,
listening with both heart and mind.
Jot down a few words or phrases from the text that “rise
up” and carry energy for you at this moment.
Now put the passage aside and turn to the words you jotted down. Spend time with the memories,
feelings, and associations they carry to you.
Write a haiku that includes at least one of those words.
(It’s okay to use a different form of the word if it
works better in your haiku. For example, if the word
“sowing” is on your list, it’s okay to use “sow.”)
Return to the passage, read it one more time,
then read your haiku response.
Take another moment for silence in God’s presence.
Share your response
To join your haiku with others in the courtyard, fill in
this form.
Archives: Lectio + Haiku
June 2010 -- On a
Saturday in May, ten women came together at The Priory
Spirituality Center in Lacey, Washington, to write haiku
for spring and Pentecost. We used two different
take-offs of Psalm 150... Praise life! Praise life
in our small selves and praise it in the vast universe...
more...
May 2010 -- For the
lusty month of May, a portion of Solomon’s Song of
Songs. Song of Solomon 2: 8 – 17 The voice
of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the
mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a
gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind
our wall...
more...
April 2010 -- For the
month of Easter, a passage with the promise that after
famine comes abundance. Joel 2: 21 - 29 Do
not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has
done great things!...
more...
March 2010 -- Lent is a
season for coming to terms with who we really are. That
thought led me to one of my favorite passages from the
Apocrypha. Wisdom of Solomon 7: 1-6 I
also am mortal, like everyone else, a descendant of the
first-formed child of earth...
more...
February 2010 -- I
met with twelve others in the Leffler living room on the
campus of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle to write haiku
inspired by themes of the Epiphany season. The focus of
our inspiration was a poem by Jalaluddin Rumi. The
Dream That Must Be Interpreted. This place is a
dream. Only a sleeper considers it real...
more...
January 2010 -- For
the last days of the Christmas season and the first
weeks of Epiphany, a song of intimacy and awe.
Psalm 139 : 1 - 18 O LORD, you have searched me
and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise
up...
more...
December 2009 -- For
the month of Advent and Christmas, a song of remembrance
and hope. Psalm 126 : 1-6 When the Lord
restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who
dream...
more...
November 2009 -- An
excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” in Leaves
of Grass (1855). The little one sleeps in its
cradle, I lift the gauze and look a long time, and
silently brush away flies with my hand...
more...
October 2009 -- The voice
of Wisdom, present at Creation, speaks in this passage
taken from Ecclesiasticus, a book of the Apocrypha.
Ecclesiasticus 24 I came forth from beyond
this world, And I covered the earth like a mist. I had
my tent in the heights, And my throne in the clouds...
more...
September 2009 -- The
wisdom of a Taoist sage, as interpreted by a Trappist
monk. "The Need to Win" When an archer
shoots for nothing / He has all his skill. / If he
shoots for a brass buckle / He is already nervous...
more...
July/August 2009 -- Isaiah
42:16 I will lead the blind by a road they do not
know, by paths they have not known I will guide them...
more...
June 2009 -- Matthew
5:13-16 You are the salt of the earth; but if salt
has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?
It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and
trampled under foot...
more...
May 2009 -- This month’s
passage is taken from the Apocrypha. The Wisdom of
Solomon 7:15-22 "Solomon Prays for Wisdom"
May God grant me to speak with judgment, and to have
thoughts worthy of what I have received; for he is the
guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise...
more...
April 2009 -- A
prayer from the Haggadah. Dayeinu – For
that alone, we would have been grateful! How many
wonderful deeds did God perform for us! Had the
Compassionate one brought us out of Egypt and not split
the sea for us – Dayeinu...!
more...
March 2009 -- SONG OF
SOLOMON 3:1-5 “LOVE’S DREAM” Upon my bed at
night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but
found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer...
more...
More archives of
Lectio + Haiku...
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