A Rose Haiku

Vulnerable rose

unfurls petal by petal

hello waiting heart.

The Morning Glory!

The morning glory!

It has taken the well bucket.

I must ask elsewhere for water. 

~Chiyo-ni

This morning, sitting in the rocking chair on my little patio, I read for the first time about the beautiful Japanese poet Chiyo-ni. Born in 1703, just after the death of Basho, the master of the short poem known as haiku, it was a time when women were not allowed to be so many things, including poets. Though it was not so much against the law as against custom, and women poets were singularly dismissed or ignored. Still, Chiyo-ni wrote her first haiku at age seven, and by age seventeen, was widely admired throughout Japan. "The Morning Glory" is her most famous poem, about which D. T. Suzuki wrote, "Her mind was filled with the flower, the whole world turned into the flower, she was the flower itself." Today she is considered one of the greatest haiku masters ever.

Chiyo-ni lived a simple life dedicated to nature and with an emphasis on poetry not only as a way of life, but as a source of awakening, and though she studied with masters who had been students of Basho, she quickly found her own clear, unique voice. At age 52, she became a Buddhist nun, not to renounce the world, Jane Hirshfield writes, but as a way "to teach her heart to be like the clear water which flows night and day." In Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, Mirabai Starr writes of Chiyo-ni, "She observed the ordinary world with such loving attention that it could not resist revealing its hidden treasures.

Already, after just a few minutes reading about her, I'm completely in love. Something about this woman and her simple, quiet, gentle life, her love of and devotion to the natural world touches me deeply. And then Starr continues, speaking of "The Morning Glory, "In three quiet lines of verse, Chiyo-ni expresses the amplitude of feminine spirituality: finding the sacred in the ordinary and praising it with the fullness of her being." 

Suddenly, the rocking chair goes still. My head finds the back of it and my eyes close. Birds sing both far and near, an owl hoots, water pours into itself in the fountain. I let out a breath, as warm tears swim beneath my eyelids. 

Here is my heart's desire, one of my deepest longings for years now, so perfectly articulated. So simple, yet so profound. Finding the sacred in the ordinary and praising it with the fullness of her being. And that Starr pairs it with another long-held passion, feminine spirituality, is a masterstroke, obvious, of course, yet two pieces of the puzzle that I hadn't yet clicked firmly into place together. 

They say that when you set a course, the universe/life will show up in support. On my birthday three weeks ago, inspired by poet Ross Gay, I made a commitment to find one thing that delighted me each day and write a haiku about it, in spite of having almost no exposure or experience with them. The idea, to practice being more aware and clear eyed, more calm and centered, and to speak what moves me with as few words as possible. Though in those three weeks, only three haiku have been written.

Chiyo-ni and her life not only show me that I've been approaching this whole haiku thing backwards~ in my usual masculine sledgehammer fashion rather than the feminine way of graceful surrender~but even more important, she gifts validity and affirmation to my life now and for the past few years, when I have been drawn inescapably to the solitary, eschewing the outer world for the natural world and the inner realms. 

Precious Chiyo-ni

Wise venerable teacher

Glorious Morning!