I have first followed my heart.
Haiku thrives today as a living poetry in many languages around the world. It is out of the joy of discovery that I embrace my voice within it, and the possibilities beyond haiku’s established forms.
Because there are many concepts at work in writing contemporary haiku, it appears to me a total integration of all schools of thought on the subject is unlikely. Over the course of my body of work emphasis shifted from one concept to another, and culminated in a practice of blind writing. In that format I recorded images, feelings, or questions as a prelude to a blind reply later. Thus some of the work, incomplete as haiku, stands as true to my experience in a poetic short form.
Within that work I sensed a perspective beyond my own. And in the course of the daily work I began to feel a sense of urgency in its message. For me, this was an opportunity to open again to connection, and to lessons that have opened me to experiences as universal as the spirit of compassion that they portray.
I was feeling a presence in the landscape around me; the spirit of stones, of trees, and water. I felt the pain left behind from war, slavery, and displacement, and I began to actively engage with it, to release what was held there.
I had began on a path that would also include healing myself, and what was revealed to me was beyond my imagination.
Now the sense of connection I feel on meeting others through this work is sustaining in light of the hours spent in solitude in its making. In our humble gallery, and in sharing this work, I often find myself in conversation with people from all over the world who share their own stories of connection.
I now think that this is the true nature of this path, and know at heart that it is Compassion that is its fruit and purpose.
I hope that the work opens you to the beauty that is everywhere around you. That it opens your heart to the voices present in all things, honoring your place in the spectrum of life.
It is my honor to share this Work, this Path, and this Age with you.
