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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Episcopal Haiku Bleg

Explaining your religious tradition, 17 syllables at a time

There’s a book out called Episcopal Haiku. Such as:

The choir rehearses.
A soprano fails to curb
her inner diva.

A summer Sunday.
Men forsake twelve apostles
for golf’s eighteen holes.

The haiku form is three lines: the first line is five syllables, the second is seven syllables, and the third is five syllables. 5/7/5

MyImages/Micha
MyImages/Micha

OK, team, let’s see some haiku from your own religious or philosophical tradition. Where are the Catholic haiku, the Evangelical haiku, the Mainline Protestant haiku, the Orthodox haiku, the Mormon haiku, the Pagan haiku, the Secular Humanist haiku, the Jewish haiku, the Muslim haiku, the Buddhist haiku, the Hindu haiku?

I would like to see Cosimanian Orthodox haiku, but I think he would reject the form entirely.

Remember, the key to doing this well is to make it as specific as you can to your own tradition. For example, here is an Orthodox haiku I just wrote:

As Palamas said:

‘Barlaam, you Scholastic fool,

Hesychasm rocks!’

Here’s the historical-theological reference. 

Have fun with this. Go!

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