Haiku interventions
Lovers, Tower, Empress
Sublime ecstasy
To think about on crowned days
No exit from love.
*
Devil, Justice, World
The illogical
Sizes Justice up and sighs
Whose truth will prevail?
*
Force, Devil, Hanged Man
The force the binds you
Can’t be dealt with in suspense
Unhinge your habits.
*
Devil, Hanged Man, Hermit
Oppressed by hard bonds
Just look inwardly, they say
By the Devil’s might
*
I craft oracular haiku poems for people as part of my divination services. They always hit a nerve, mainly because I never receive a question for the haiku. I look at the images on my table, take a deep breath, and fire a shot. People are amazed. Even those who don’t get it, still get it – or so the few who don’t get it tell me.
The idea is to sit with the lines, the nature of the body and its perceptions, and the Zen of it. And by Zen what I mean is the spontaneous response to the words in relation to the image. How hot or cold is an emotion? How tall the lie? How infinite the love? We might as well cry about the art of mastering our failures.
‘There is no perfection in the world’ the virtue signalling righteous army would proclaim, making a case for how we might embrace our mistakes as cheaply as possible. But really, is it really so that there’s no perfection in the world? I strongly doubt the idea. For perfection exists. Haiku masters have proved it again and again, a perfect reason why we should all learn some Japanese, and thus keep busy with the wisdom and the art, instead of listening to well-intended nonsense, all delivered in the name of perpetuating the safest and the shallowest of thought. How grim such lives…
Today the Devil appeared three times in connection with my writing haiku poems for people. I took it as a sign. I heeded attention to my attachments and then discerned against my judgments and desires. The life of contemplation is boundless and free. No wonder that the Devil sighs, looking for his own true Justice, or another with the face of a woman to seduce. But to what gain?
§
The haiku book
I did write one such when I created the Arcades Tarot.
In this book I challenged myself to write three lines over six cards. This book has a voice of its own now, and you’re welcome to hear it.
