Gabriel Losenstock

Haiku: The Gentle Art of Disappearing

by haiku crossroads on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 12:27am

Gabriel Rosenstock is a major Irish poet, haiku writer, translator and author. He was born in Kilfinane, County Limerick in 1949. He currently resides in Dublin.

"The School of Arrogance hopes for a Western-style haiku, a haiku independent of its origins. It says we can forget about Taoist poetry, classical renku (linked verse), Zen Buddhism with its Chinese and Indian antecedents, koans (mind-boggling riddles), Pure Land Buddhism, Shinto, animism, superstition, folklore, custom, the signs, portents, moods and ritual associated with seasonal themes and events, the life and work of individual haiku masters, the sound of the shakuhachi (the bamboo flute), the temple bell, the endless layers of cultural and literary reference, the whole gamut of commonplace and esoteric symbolism and cosmology. As if the West could possibly live on its own!" —Gabriel Rosenstock

faint sunlight

injecting the veins

of a falling leaf

"In Haiku: The Gentle Art of Disappearing, a renowned Irish poet shows us how haiku may be used as a powerful tool for spiritual interpenetration. This implies that we divest ourselves of the ever-chattering mind, shed the voracious ego and enjoy momentary glimpses of unity with natural phenomena. In the companion volume, 'Haiku Enlightenment', he further explores these thoroughly delightful experiences and invites us to disappear! Haiku is dynamically focussed on the present, from season to season, from day to day, from hour to hour, from second to second. But how illusory, how fleeting is that present moment? How caught up is it with the past, with the future? Can we stop its flow? Are there more ways than one of experiencing its essence? If we experience a moment intensely enough, might we disappear? Surprises await those readers who may have considered haiku to be nothing more than an innocuous three-line poem. A renowned poet shares his experience of haiku and its potential to surprise us again and again into a sudden awakening and thus to a deeper sense of what it is to be truly alive. His remarkably refreshing insights have delighted confreres around the world." —Publisher's description

i súile an ghadhairleis

...an

fómhar

in the dog's eyes

too ...

autumn

jp 21-10-11