Practice: Writing haiku poems

This week we invite you into the magical and momentary world of haiku poetry writing! Haikus are short poems that traditionally focus on nature and the seasons. They aim to capture the essence of experience, the fleetingness of feelings and the beauty of briefness in just a handful of words.

So I’ve started with the wordplay already! If you’d like to join in the fun and write some haikus, then read on to learn how…

What is haiku?

Haiku developed as an art form in Japan, where it evolved from the practice of writing the first verse of much longer poem in a way that would capture the essence of the whole. Poets who could distil a richness of meaning into just a few words were much admired. In time, these short verses began to be written and read alone, and the art of haiku was born.

In the late 19th century, people began to write haikus in English. As Japanese is a very different language to English, they came up with a poetic structure to mimic the style of Japanese haikus. This structure uses three lines with 5–7–5 syllables for the first–second–third lines respectively.

To give an example of a haiku, this is the winner of the very first haiku contest in English in 1899 (!):

“The west wind whispered,
And touched the eyelids of spring:
Her eyes, Primroses.”

— R. M. Hansard

If you read this haiku and count the number of syllables on your fingers as you go, you’ll find out that it follows the 5–7–5 structure for the three lines. You might find this 5–7–5 structure helpful when you are writing your own haikus.

The most important thing, though, is that your haiku writing connects you more deeply to what you are experiencing and expressing about nature. A more “relaxed” style of haiku that doesn’t use such a strict structure might be more appealing to you. You’ll be happy to hear that many famous poets writing in English prefer to write haikus in this way.

Whatever the style, all haikus aim to convey a vivid image of one moment in time, capturing its beauty, fleetingness and essence.

Play around with both approaches and see what works for you!

“Nightfall,
Too dark to read the page
Too cold.”

— Jack Kerouac

How do I write a haiku?

Each person has their own approach to writing poetry, but here are some tips based on what works for me:

• Enjoy — Haiku writing is a process that can enrich your connection to nature. For me, this enjoying the experience of connecting and appreciating is the primary goal, not what gets written on the page.

• Experience – Good haikus are born from good experiences or at least rich ones. So spend time enjoying nature and you might find the haiku will come to you, instead of you having to chase it!

• Evoke — Haikus conjure up evocative imagery of colors, textures, forms and movement. Often I find these vivid elements come to me most clearly through mental imagery as I remember a beautiful experience in nature.

• Experiment — Don’t be afraid to experiment. No-one needs to see your haikus, unless you want them to. They’re very short so you can play around with many of them without getting caught in getting it “right” straight away.

• Essence — Haikus capture the essence of what you experience. They’re direct and immediate. So trust your instinct and your intuition, and see what comes!

Haiku writing as a regular practice

There are many rewarding ways to practice haiku writing. Here are some ideas:

• Writing a haiku each time you go for a walk in nature to capture the memory of what touched you the most;

• Writing a haiku at the end of the day to remember and bring to life what you appreciated or are most grateful for about the day;

• Picking a theme for your haikus each day or each week, such as “fleetingness”, “beauty”, “colour”, “animals”, “landscape”, or anything else that enthuses you.

Over time, a regular practice of haiku writing can gift you with a set of poetic gems threading together your experiences over the days and weeks, and reminding you of the good times.

Share your haikus

Good luck and we wish you many moments of connection and appreciation in your haiku writing. Enjoy exploring this practice.

And don’t forget, we’d love for you to share your haikus with us!

“Haikus are easy.
But sometimes they don’t make sense.
Refrigerator.”

---

Practice: Capturing autumn colour

Practice: Capturing autumn colour

Hello friends, we hope you’ve had a good week with plenty of time in nature. For this week’s practice, we invite you to look around you and capture some of the amazing colours on display as we journey deeper into autumn.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

— Albert Camus

How can I join in with this practice?

For me, autumn is one of the most beautiful and magical times of the year. The colours on the trees are changing, the air is becoming crisp, and the sun begins to cast long, dramatic shadows as its arc sinks lower day by day.

Autumn is a unique and precious time of year to slow down and reconnect with the natural beauty around us, and that is exactly what this week’s practice helps you to do through the medium of autumn colour. So how does this practice work? Here’s some step-by-step guidance to get you on your way:

• First, gather whatever you’ll need to capture those beautiful colours — it might be a sketchpad and coloured pencils, some watercolours, a bag for collecting beautiful objects, or a camera (perhaps on your phone) for taking snaps (or indeed several of these!).

• Make your way mindfully and gently to a place where you like to enjoy nature — this might be your garden, a local park, or even a spot in your house where you can look out onto a natural space. Wherever it is, you can slow down a little to enjoy the journey — no need to hurry to get there.

When you arrive, take a few minutes to either sit or stand and feel your body, your feet on the ground, and the cool air on your skin. It might help to close your eyes to tune into the sensations fully.

• Now, begin to look around you and explore what’s there — What grabs your attention? Where do your eyes and your feet want to take you? Begin to slowly explore what’s around you, taking time to soak in the details of what’s around you — the leaves, the branches, the berries, the tiny objects on the ground, or whatever else draws you.

• Allow yourself to fully enter a space of wonder — if it helps, you can imagine yourself as a child playing in nature. What treasures can you see? Spend as long as you like amusing yourself this way! Capturing this wonder is precious already.

“All the wonders of life are already here. They’re calling you. If you can listen to them, you will be able to stop running.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

• When you feel ready, prepare whatever you brought with you to begin capturing some of this beauty for your own and other’s enjoyment later.

• Now, find the beauty that calls you and capture away! Start drawing, painting, collecting, photographing, or whatever else you have chosen to do. Engaging with how to really bring out the beauty in what you see creatively can be a rich and rewarding experience in itself.

• After you’ve finished capturing, take some moments to appreciate your experience. again to feel your feet on the ground and the air on your skin. Look at whatever you’ve created or see it in your mind’s eye. Experience those colours again and know that they are captured inside you as well as on the page, phone, or other medium.

Share the beauty you capture with others!

There are so many amazing forms and colors out there waiting to be captured — what will you find? We’d love for you to share your stories, photos, artwork, or anything else inspired by this week’s practice with us on Facebook or Instagram!

Remember to wrap up warm and wishing you much joy capturing the colours of autumn.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

— Lao Tzu

Practice: Finding a spot to sit and enjoy nature

Where do you like to go to enjoy nature? Where is that special place for you?

In your garden perhaps, or on your balcony? Or maybe down by the seafront, on the Downs, or in the woods?

Practice for this week: Sit spot

This week we invite you to explore the practice of connecting with nature at your favourite “sit spot”. And if you don’t have one yet, then don’t worry, there is plenty of time to try out alternatives and choose one!

“...when we ‘lose our mind’ and ‘come to our senses’ in the fullest possible way, the chattering, texting, e-mailing, twittering mind will eventually quiet down and almost silence itself. This is a sacred and connected silence... It's like a deep, still pond reflecting the stars of the night sky.”

Jon Young in “What the Robin Knows”

A sit spot is a place we can go to just to look, listen, sense and feel the natural rhythms of nature. Tuning into these rhythms can be a great way to relax our body and mind, and open ourselves to all the surprises and treasures that nature offers.

Choosing a sit spot

How do you find a sit spot? A sit spot is somewhere you feel comfortable, where you can be relatively undisturbed, and where you can watch nature unfold. This could be your garden, the beach, a bench in the park, or a chair by your window with a view of the trees and birds — or many other places besides. Feel free to explore different spots if you want to before choosing one.

Choosing a sit spot that is easy and quick to get to (ideally within 5–10 minutes of your house) is very helpful for when you want to revisit the same spot. The sit spot is somewhere you are invited to return to regularly as a place to connect to nature and drop any worries and business for a little while.

How to practice with a sit spot

So how do you practice with a sit spot? Here is some guidance:

• Go to your sit spot — aim to spend 5–10 minutes there at first. Once you feel more comfortable, you can try longer, but there’s no rush. Set a timer if you like so you can offer your full attention to what is here in front of you.

• Make yourself comfortable, and put your phone on silent or turn it off if you can

• Check in with yourself — How does your body feel? What emotions are you feeling? How is your mind right now? Just take a moment to say hello to yourself — no need to change anything.

• Tune into your senses. Close your eyes to begin. Feel the weight of your body on the seat or ground, and the air on your skin. Listen to the sounds around you — the rustling of the leaves in the trees, the birds chirping, the waves rolling in and out. What can you can smell? — the musty earth, the salty air, or wood smoke perhaps? Now open your eyes and explore the colours and forms around you — take in the tiny details right next to you, and then the sights far away.

• Get curious about the world around you. What can you see? What can you hear? What is making that sound? Are there any birds? Is the wind blowing? Where is the sun? Take time to recognise the plants, the animals, the rhythms, the movements of the world around you.

• Towards the end of your time, take a moment to feel into what you have received. You might like to draw, write a poem, or gather a few eye-catching objects to deepen your connection to your sit spot and to give you a reminder of your experience to take home.

• Finally, acknowledge and thank your sit spot — by pausing to enjoy it for a few more moments, by offering water to a plant or tree, or leaving a bit of food for the animals — whatever feels right to you.

We wish you many delightful and healing moments at your sit spot!

You might also find it helpful to listen to this podcast by the Inner Pathways to Sustainability project, which explains the sit spot practice and includes a guided practice that you can listen to when you’re there.

Don’t forget to share your experience with a friend or with the Grow community online on Facebook or Instagram — post your drawing, poem, a photo, or simply a few words about your sit spot experience! We would love to hear how it was for you.

Walkout of Lockdown!

With the imposition of a new National Lockdown on 5th November we’ve been considering how best to respond.

Whilst most of our services are still suspended or restricted, we all know how important it is to keep connected with nature and what a balm it can be to help us through these difficult times. Under the current government guidelines, charities and groups providing support can still continue in person and so we intend to carry on supporting people to get outside over the coming month with our Reconnect sessions. For more info visit our Reconnect sessions on our What We Offer page.

And if you can’t make our groups then we’re really delighted to welcome Doran, our guest blogger who is going to take over our social media pages for the next month to bring some nature connection to you. Doran has been one of our valued volunteers with Grow since last March and has developed his own practices and ways of connecting with nature. Each week he is going to share details and inspiration for a new practice you can try via the blog on our website, through Facebook, and on Instagram. We’d love you to practice along with us and to share any photos or pieces of creativity that they lead you to. Gently and with the guidance of nature we’ll get through this together

Reconnect with us

Each one of us will have had our own unique experience of lockdown. For some it has been a time for pause and reflection, time to slow down. For others it’s been a lonely old time and for still others who have working to keep all our key services going it’s probably been a hectic and stressful time.

For myself, I’ve been very grateful for the chance to stop and take stock. Grow life this year was looking very busy in March with Artists Open Houses, Natural Wellbeing courses booked every month, digital storytelling workshops and of course our core, most special programme - the Season.

As we went into lockdown, we stayed connected with the Season that had already started via Zoom and like the rest of the world we wondered if Zooming was the way forward. However whilst this may have become a new word in most of our vocabularies, we took the decision that real connection - with nature and with others - was what we were all about.

So as we all start emerging like buds after a long hibernation, we’ve decided that real connection is what we need to continue doing. Obviously meeting in large groups is still not an option for us, so instead we’re going to dip out toes gently in the water and start running some small groups for shorter times and over a shorter period…but more of them, thanks to some wonderful recent funding from Brighton District Nurses Association Trust.

If you would relish the chance to reconnect with nature and with others then join us for our Reconnect Sessions. 3-4 hour sessions once a week for 4 weeks in safe, supported (and suitably distanced but always connected) groups.

We’ll travel together to some beautiful spaces around and outside of the city, spend time in nature and just enjoy the beauty that has been growing all around us while we’ve been locked down.

And some day we’ll start doing all those other wonderful things again together…but slowly…and when the time is right.

It’s a glorious summer out there right now…..come and join us. To register your interest visit our website http://www.growingwellbeing.org.uk/reconnect and fill in the online form