Seeds from a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey

Rather than provide a dry analytical discussion, Strand explains the ground rules and encourages the reader to try his/her hand at writing haikus. He also discusses how to turn haiku writing into an everyday spiritual practice.

My only complaint is that Strand did not include a larger number of classic haiku. But then again Strand never promised an anthology.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, especially a non-poet or non-writer, looking for a creative outlet or considering haiku. A better introduction cannot be found anywhere else.


A haiku a day helps you work, rest and play...   March 14, 2001
R. Griffiths
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book - much more accessible than some other introductions to haiku. Perhaps this is because it is fairly short, but I think more due to the author's writing style. Strand weaves his way between pearls of wisdom about writing, autobiographical snippets and pointers to haiku practice with fluidity and ease. I read half of this book in the bookstore where I found it - I just couldn't put it down. In fact one of the many factors that kept me reading was the author's self-revelation. With remarkable concision he tells us a great deal about his own spiritual journey, in and out of Zen monasticism, in and out of depression, without a single word of self-indulgence. If you want to know everything there is to know about haiku, this book is only the start. But if you want to know how to merge haiku with your everyday life in a meaningful way, this book is the *best* place to start.


No Struggle   August 29, 2007
Brian M. Donohue (BROOKLYN, NY USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The Library Journal review of this little book is amusing for its thorough distortion of the author's message. It mentions the "focus on the spiritual struggle." If I've read Strand's work correctly (and it is entirely possible I haven't), there is no struggle to spirituality. In fact, if it is a struggle, there is probably no spirit to it.

The same goes, of course, for poetry, which cannot arise from conflict. Certainly it can reflect it, but if the writer's heart is wrapped in knots of struggle, then he may indeed produce verse, but not poetry.

This, to me, is one of the more nourishing lessons of Zen, and of this book. Strand is an experienced, insightful, modest, and eloquent teacher: his work is about paying attention, hearing the song of life and singing back in one's own voice. Strand encourages that we each become a citizen of Nature rather than striving to be its master. This is what Lao Tzu called "entering the cosmic rhythm," becoming a dancer in the infinite instead of attempting to be the choreographer. Haiku, Strand teaches, provides an unusual opening in this respect: it is simple, songful, and easily learned, and can be done anywhere. I often write a few haiku during my commute on a subway train in New York City.

If we can practice what Strand describes for us in his pages, we can without effort live more vibrant--that is, poetic--lives. It is not a matter of struggle, only of presence and attention.


Engaging   February 2, 2002
Hortensia Anderson (nyc, ny, usa)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

While I don't subscribe to the 5-7-5 formula that Strand insists on, I find this book very instructive and inspiring. Strand invites the reader into nature as refuge, as spiritual path, and the writing of haiku as an expression of this experience. It has been a book that I turn to during those dry spells that we all fall into and it never fails to ignite the magic spark of "ordinary mind".