Haiku of Care: Empathy and Compassion in Haiku Poetry
Haiku of Care: Empathy and Compassion in Haiku Poetry
by Randy Brooks
In an essay, “A Careful Poetics: Caring Imagination, Caring Habits, and Haiku” Ce Rosenow and Maurice Hamington argue that “haiku supports the development of care capacities because it engages a caring imagination, helps people develop caring knowledge, and potentially encourages caring behavior.” Their claim builds on the social nature of haiku. Within the haiku community, writers and readers share experiences and feelings that nurture the development of a caring imagination. As they summarize, “Readers approach each poem with the expectation that they will share something of the speaker’s experience. Writers approach each poem as an opportunity to share their experiences and those of others with the reader. The belief that such shared experience has value is always already part of conveying the haiku moment.” (49)
In addition to writing about their own experiences, haiku readers often “develop caring knowledge of others by increasing the capacity for empathy.” (64) Haiku often is an “assessable poetic means of sharing another person’s experience. To understand the haiku, readers must take pause to inhabit a reality that is not their own and imaginatively experiment with shades of feelings perhaps unfamiliar to them.” (64)
I have taught a college-level course on the art of reading and writing haiku for several years. I have observed how students respond to haiku with caring concern and write about their own efforts or struggles with caring for others or themselves. In this essay, I will examine the ways I have seen students engage in a caring imagination through the art of haiku.
