Common Thread Coaching

Haiku is a Japanese poetic art form that consists of a three-line poem with 5-7-5 syllables respectively. A haiku is traditionally about nature, and is about a present moment written down as it occurred, without emotion or intellectual interpretation.

To write a haiku, a person must pay attention to the natural world; the snow on the fence, the cat licking itself on the back step. It is a subtle way of focusing in on the everyday details of life. This attention and focus can also be used in other areas of life; attention and focus are essential to changing old thoughts and behaviors to new ways of thinking and being in the world.

The following three examples show how haiku, with its demand of attention and focus, have helped strengthen these attributes, and perhaps even been a factor in creating a new and positive behavior—poetry acting hand in hand with the brain’s ability to adapt and inform changes in thought and behavior patterns.

One client’s goal of a new career that is creatively gratifying includes “valuing creativity on my own, i.e. ‘I will be molding the value of my experience around creativity…not on how clean my house is.” When she was given the assignment of writing at least one haiku a day about the natural world around her, she found she “…could go on and on with the writing…it makes me pay attention, pushes me beyond limits…to translate senses into words…like grappling with something and being meditative at the same time.” Just recently she described the writing of haiku as an “invitation to grateful, open presence” that reverberates in her daily life.

sunlight on cherry tree
catching raindrops on blossoms—
how transitory

the rain comes down hard
brushing aside new blossoms -
seems their time is up

spring light over town
stillness, sharp lines from shadows—
day is beginning

full white blossom balls
fading memory of snow—
thank heavens for Spring

petals in the air
how is wind invisible?
another mystery

Another client, an artist, struggles with the feeling of “not enough time… housework gobbles up precious artist time.” With a large and active family, the ongoing housework had become a major interruption and resentment, and she wanted to change the vexation into a more enjoyable acceptance of its necessity, until such time as she can afford some help.

Her assignment was to write at least one haiku a day while doing housework. Over the last two weeks, she has inexplicably changed her housecleaning routine from doing one chore throughout the house (i.e. vacuuming) then on to the next chore (making beds), etc. —with the house never getting fully cleaned—to doing one room completely, then going on to the next room. “This method gives me a feeling of completion; it’s so nice…I don’t feel pressured, or so drained.”

washing line, laundry
pink pyjamas in dew light
sun deepens shadow

hedges know the way
follow them, you will find me
gifts live within them

rays of dawn sunlight
invisible to the eye
until birds fly by

fluffs of dust flutter
sliding across dull floorboards
unmoved, broom, mop rest

silence undisturbed
frost awaits sunlight to melt
look, daffodils shine

complete is my task
how sweet this sensation is
blossoms, do you see?

A third client uses haiku as a “refocus” tool when she becomes bogged down by too many old, habitual thoughts and/or negative thoughts about her environment. Haiku allows her to practice “being here [in the moment],” and helps her disconnect from spiraling thoughts. She also enjoys the spontaneity of “noticing something” and writing it down immediately. Her assignment was to write haiku about her environment during the entirety of her day.

the Texas twilight
hovers purple over night
above bluebonnet earth

bamboo in the breeze
dazzled with shadow and sun
sways dreamily … rests

bright blossom opens
from a spine covered cactus
like an umbrella

San Antonio
mist upon wild rosemary
chicken for dinner

I paint my own mouth
to match a child’s bursting lips
pulse and desire

rain weighted tree limbs
showered with lightening
then beacons of sun