A Personal Selection, November 2001
December 2012
A Personal Haiku Selection
James W. Hackett
The following haiku is singled out for its excruciating relevance and for the levels of consciousness suggested by its haiku moment:
talk of war
the comings and goings
of 'dees at the feeder
Carolyn Hall
"BEHOLD THE ONE IN ALL THINGS: IT IS THE SECOND THAT LEADS YOU ASTRAY."
Kabir
DRAGON'S FIRE
(excerpt from a poem)
by J. W. Hackett
So on and on goes the slaughter
between sons of the One
Self-same Spirit
All sacrificial victims
of chauvinist hubris:
those sovereign states of mind
we are urged to worship unto war
by thought-bound ideologues
who sanctify the notions
that each nation,
'race,' or faith
has of itself
Blind to how heaven's
all-embracing view
melds the myriad dream of life
into One,
zealots filled with damnation's
heady brews of hate
preach their litanies
of national pride
and religious prejudice
If only we could see earthfully
and realize the Eden
that NOW can be,
we would forswear
our bloody sanctification
of words and ideologies
and forsake forever
'the forbidden tree'
whose stolen fruits
we have maggotted
with every bias and bigotry
known to man
"ZEN IS THE UNSYMBOLIZATION OF THE WORLD." R. H. Blyth
Note : this article was first published in the World Haiku Review, November 2001, vol 1-3.