BLOGFORCE Summer Fun: The Haiku

Summer Fun continues with the Acts8 BLOGFORCE!  We’re doing some lighter subjects this summer, which started with the last month.

This week’s challenge: Write a haiku about the Episcopal Church.

To quote :

Haiku ( haikai verse)   (no separate plural form) is a very short form of  typically characterised by three qualities:

  • The essence of haiku is “cutting” (kiru). This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a (“cutting word”) between them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of separation and colors the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are related.
  • Traditional haiku consist of 17  (also known as ), in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively.
  •  (seasonal reference), usually drawn from a , an extensive but defined list of such words.

We’re not gonna insist on a particularly deep kiru, or that you use a kigo, but we do insist on a 5-7-5 pattern, whether your poem is sublime or doggerel.  Like this:

Via Media,
It sometimes gets so messy.
Ah, the liturgy.

The Rev. David Simmons, ObJN
Acts8 BLOGFORCE Wing Commander


How do I participate in the Blogforce?

You can send your haiku to [email protected] and it will be posted to our roundup next Monday, or post it in the comments.  If you want to put it on your own blog:

1. Paste the code you can find at the bottom of your post – note that it is code so you will probably need to switch to HTML view in your blog editor. It should look like this on your blog when posted or previewed:

2. Send the permanent link and the haiku to [email protected].  This should be done by no later than 5PM Central Time on Sunday.  On Monday, the haiku will be re-posted with links.  At that point, the provided code will point to the round-up page instead of here.

The editorial board of Acts8 reserves the right to decline submissions that are deemed offensive or do not uphold the Guiding Principles.


Look during the week for more information on our next Acts8 tweetchat, which is scheduled for August 11th at 9PM EDT using #acts8tc

17 thoughts on “BLOGFORCE Summer Fun: The Haiku”

  1. Over on my blog (), I’ve posted my first impressions of the Episcopal Church as a college student in a suite of three haiku. Here they are:

    All these books, I thought.
    I don’t really understand.
    Next week, I’ll come back.

    A few drops of water
    Trickling across my forehead.
    Now baptized, I wept.

    Six months a Christian,
    Hands on my forehead, confirmed.
    I still don’t know why.

  2. We’re starting a late summer candlelight Compline in my parish, my haiku in honor of the new service:

    Compline on the lawn
    Evening Lull, and afterglow
    Wakes the night-time soul

    1. I love this. My church has a chapel that opens to the garden and on nice days we have the birds and insects accompanying us at the Wednesday evening service.

  3. The second line may be redundant, but I’m telling myself it’s for emphasis. Herewith:

    So much to offer
    Here and now: this time, this place
    Ancient paths made new.

  4. Old and new haiku (I’ve got lots of them)–and some are what I call “snarku.”

    Dine at thanksgiving’s
    table—Eucharist feeds us
    till we want no more.

    Our meager gifts laid
    on God’s kitchen table will
    become abundance.

    Unbidden, Jesus
    goes to the fringes, meets us
    in messy places.

    God, your garden’s full
    of weeds; glad your angels aren’t
    using Round-Up–yet.

    Yes! Dangly earrings;
    high heels; marching shoes headed
    upward to Zion!

    Ignore the legend:
    Henry the Eighth was NOT our
    founder and chief saint!

    “And also with you”–
    programmed response; be careful
    what you respond to.

  5. I am so impressed with these! I will just give my first impression of The Episcopal Church when I entered at age 21:

    Questions encouraged
    Doubts are even expected
    Is this really Church?

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