Margaret D. McGee

This just looks like a book about how to write haiku. Actually it's a book about mindfulness and learning to see the sacred in everyday life, using haiku as a means to pay attention. That said, the author does provide a good introduction to how to write haiku, covering the basics of the form, a brief history of haiku and related poetic forms, season words, and so on. But the focus of the book is on writing haiku as a spiritual practice, and here McGee shines. She provides exercises on simply observing the world around you, finding personal meaning in haiku's seasonal words, writing haiku in reaction to devotional reading, integrating haiku with lectio divina (a form of contemplative prayer based on reading) and art, and writing haiku with others to celebrate community. She takes an interfaith approach to the topic: she herself is Episcopalian and mentions writing haiku as part of her Biblical study, but she also describes writing a series of linked haiku with others that was read aloud during a Passover Seder.

If you only want to learn about writing haiku, there are excellent books out there that would probably be more along the lines of what you're looking for. But if you're interested in integrating writing haiku into your spiritual practice, try this book.… (mais)