Hackett Memorial, August 2009

James W. Hackett 80th Birthday Tribute

James W. Hackett, Honorary President of the World Haiku Club, has become eighty this month. On Thursday 6 August 2009, to be exact.

Considering the enormous contribution he has made to the development of world haiku, we decided to have a special feature in this issue of World Haiku Review to celebrate his birthday and his achievements by publishing tribute haiku written by those who admire, respect and love him and learn from him. They also chose one haiku by James that they love most, a very difficult exercise for them and a mental torture for some!

An Empty Snail Shell

In the year 1994 I published a little bilingual book called 30 Zen-Haiku/ J. W. Hackett to coincide with the visit of Jim and Pat Hackett to Ireland. The cover had the following haiku on it:

The pursued beetle

just led the other into

an empty snail shell

My Irish translation contained the word poigheachán. Yes, we have one word in Irish for an empty snail shell! What I love about this haiku is that it is practically meaningless. It is an intense interpenetrative observation of one of those millions of little events that happen all the time and appear to be random, without any great purpose or design. School children and university students are constantly being brainwashed and told to believe that there is a design, a meaning to everything - but, of course, it's all an empty snail shell really.

Hackett was right to call his own great collection Zen Haiku because, it seems to me, this beetle-haiku of his (and many, many others) is pure Zen. Zen is a form of seeing: it is seeing with the heart, with the uncluttered mind, it is seeing the beautiful mystery of emptiness. It is seeing form in emptiness and emptiness in form.

During the course of many conversations with JW on his Irish trip to Dublin and Connemara, I can't recall now whether or not he had told me that Shunryu Suzuki's great book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind was on his shelves. I have a feeling he has studied that particular text. The author says: 'The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, and to let things go as they go.' And this is what JW has done, beautifully, in the beetle-haiku.

I remember looking at a photo of JW in his Hawaiian garden and saying to myself, 'Hmm, looks like his mind is fairly empty!' School children are punished for being empty-headed when they should be praised! Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind says: 'If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything: it is open to everything.' This is so. And JW has shown himself to be ready for anything. That's what it takes to be a Master, this readiness, this emptiness, this awareness. His mind, at eighty, is the beginner's mind.

As a haijin of timeless stature, JW has everything. He has everything in the Zen Mind sense: 'You already have everything in your own pure quality. If you understand this ultimate fact, there is no fear.' By discovering his own pure quality, JW has given pure haiku to the world. We must all learn from him and be humbly grateful.

(Gabriel Rosenstock, Ireland)

a bitter morning

surely, of all j. w's immortal haiku the one that will stand out is that written in his backyard in san francisco,

sitting with his friend ray mondini, and observing

a bitter morning

sparrows sitting together

without any necks

as I understand it (Patricia or he could verify) he sent it off in the j.a.l. competition and won the first international haiku contest ... (and international recognition) ... a trip to japan ... ... and in effect an historic bridge between the venerable Japanese tradition and the west ...

gassho

gary gach, usa

sparrows sitting together

Greetings from Finnish summer!

This is one of my favourites:

A bitter morning

sparrows sitting together

without any necks

because it is simple - in a good sense - and above all it is a good example of keen perception, an invaluable quality for a haiku poet. At a riverside cafe in Joensuu I love watching sparrows. They are curiously hopping around or bathing in tiny holes they have dug in the sand.

Best wishes,

Riitta Rossilahti, Finland

Searching on the wind

I consider this poem one of the best haiku written by James W. Hackett:

Searching on the wind,

the hawk's cry...

is the shape of its beak.

Ion Codrescu, Romania

Time after time

My favourite by James W. Hackett is:

Time after time

caterpillar climbs this broken stem,

then probes beyond.

(In: The Haiku Anthology, Edited by Cor van den Heuvel.)

Hans Jongman

somewhere in the dark

somewhere in the dark

a mountain spring rippling

the cosmos beyond

Tiong Chunghoo

this bitter morning

all my promises become

a mouthful of fog

cheers & beers

Ross Clark, Australia

old dog old master

pacing each other

When I was awarded Third Prize in a 1996? Contest (either HSA's Henderson or in Timepieces - my records have become tangled) and the judge was James Hackett, I was most thrilled by the fact that this icon of the haiku world had been the judge.

favorites of work by James Hackett:

A bitter morning

sparrows sitting together

without any necks

That old teapot

the way it leaves an enso

upon everything

Peggy Heinrich

Tribute Haiku

chinese wedding

sizzling through the night

two red candles

by Tiong Chunghoo

each drop of the icicle

takes with it

the moonlight

by Ion Codrescu, Romania

quiet afternoon-

the thump of a magnolia

on the car roof

purple half-moon

-new songs

from the neighbor's guitar

Spring break -

a jacaranda undresses

on the street corner

longer days

-the weight

of a watermelon

spring morning-

contrails compete

among the walnut leaves

by Devika Menon

cliff walk

his voice

carried by the wind

September hike

under a traveling sun

leaves wave in the wind

on the beach road

moving inch by inch

thick fog

meadow ramble

surrounded by the hum

of bees

by Peggy Heinrich honouring James W. Hackett

To celebrate with you

I lift my invisible cup

and drink to your health

on the roof

I spread black plastic sheets

before the rain comes

mimosa trees

remind me of the Islands

on a summer day

My friend, Omar

and I will drive to Austin, Texas

this weekend

Omar collects editions

of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

there is an exibit in Austin, Texas

Can I visit the Zen Center there?

I like to touch into my Buddha Nature

every so often

In yoga class today

we all felt comfortable

in the corpse pose

at the closing,

eanine sang in French

"La Marseillaise"

Frances said a prayer

and we said our first names

this way and that way

We held hands

in a circle and felt peace

and plenty

When I am no more

let there be someone who says

"Now, let's have some tea."

by Howard Lee Kilby, USA

scratching his ribs

the old dog flips a flea

into outer space

Gary Gach

my haiku for James W. Hackett is:

flying to the sky

on the truth way-

philosopher

and one selected of his work:

the eagle lofts away,

lifting his pray with wings

that stir the sea

by alexandra flora, Romania

Here is my haiku for Mr. Hackett's birthday:

mountain sunrise --

the yesterday's quarrel

forgotten

by Valeria Simonova-Cecon

Haiga Tribute on Page 2