Writing Roundtable: Zen Aesthetics & Haiku
EN 170-01 (CRN 31071)
Spring 2025 - SH 422

All writing assignments are to be submitted by email to: rbrooks@millikin.edu

The easiest way is to copy and paste your work into the email. However, you may attach a Word Doc or RTF file. Please DO NOT send me PDF files of your work.

When writing a response to a haiku by any author, please use the following means of citation. Always type the entire haiku (DO NOT CHANGE CAPITAL LETTERS or WORD SPACING!). Then include the author and an abbreviation of the publication source. Here is an example:
 
on hands and knees
I follow a toad
down the parsley row
 
Jeff Ingram, Mayfly 59, 16

Send them to: rbrooks@millikin.edu

Course Assignments Schedule:

for 1/22
 
(1) Read the introduction to Zen Art for Meditation. Write an email to me about your plans to find a quiet place to relax and meditate on the paintings and haiku you read for this class.
 
(2) Read issue of MAYFLY 70 magazine (in class) and write (after class) about 1 of your favorite haiku.
 
Due midnight Wednesday 1/22: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 1/29
 
(3) Go to following Podcast and enjoy listening to it. After listening to it, write a response about your realizations or questions about a life of writing haiku.

https://www.haikuchronicles.com/podcasts/2012/e23-tea-talk-haiku-a-way-of-life

Also answer these questions in your reflection—how can haiku be a means of learning to notice, observe or be more aware of your surroundings? How is haiku an art of awareness? Is haiku a way of life? What is that way of life?

Here is a quote on a Zen approach to haiku:

Alan Watts noted that a good haiku was “a pebble thrown into the pool of the listener’s mind, evoking associations out of the richness of his own memory.” A moment “when we were aware of being alive in an unusually vivid way….the reader is invited to share in the mood which the poet implies…and the poem is successful to the degree that the reader shares the same poetic experience, which however is never explicitly stated. 

(4) Sit in your quiet place and write 3-5 first haiku attempts. These may come from ideas from the podcast or from favorite haiku in MAYFLY 70. You may want to find and start writing a haiku journal.
 
Due midnight Monday 1/27: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 2/05
 
(5) Read Chapter One of The Wordless Poem. Write an email to me about your responses to Amann’s explanation of how haiku is a Zen art. What questions do you have?
 
(6) Find another quiet place (or return to your previous one) and write 3-5 additional haiku attempts.

(7) Write a reader response to 1 favorite haiku from kukai 1 favorites
 
Due midnight Monday 2/03: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 2/12
 
(8) Read & meditate on Zen Art for Meditation, tenet 1 – everyday things. Write a response about 1 favorite haiku from this tenet.
 
(9) Read MAYFLY 72 and write about a favorite haiku that demonstrates writing about “everyday things”

(10) send me 2 variations or edit alternatives to haiku from haiku to edit 1

(11) write about 1 favorite haiku from kukai 2 favorites
 
(12) Write 3-5 haiku on everyday things from your recent life experiences.
 
Due midnight Monday 2/10: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 2/19
 
(13) Read ZEN ART tenet 2 – perceptions and write a response to a favorite haiku or artwork.
 
(14) Read “This Haiku of Ours” by Raymond Roseliep in the introduction and read COLLECTED ROSELIEP (pages 115-145)  and write about a favorite haiku that demonstrates writing about “perception”
 
(15) Write 3-5 haiku based on tenet 2 – perceptions

Due midnight Monday 2/17: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 2/26
 
(14) Read ZEN ART tenet 3 – everything exists in relation and write a response to a favorite haiku.
 
(15) Read Bare Necessities: Selected Haiku of Francine Banwarth (pages 1-60)  and write about a favorite haiku that demonstrates writing about “everything is in relation to other things”
 
(16) Write 3-5 haiku based on tenet 3 – everything exists in relation to other things.

(17) write about 1 favorite haiku from kukai 3 favorites
 
Due midnight Monday 2/24: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 3/05
 
(18) Read Chapter Two of The Wordless Poem. Write an email to me about your responses to Amann’s explanation of how haiku is a wordless poem. In what ways are haiku wordless?
 
(19) Read ZEN ART tenet 12 – words are not living and write a response to a favorite haiku.
 
(20) Read MAYFLY 78 and write about a favorite haiku that demonstrates the idea of being a wordless poem or just perceptions and images.
 
(21) Write 3-5 haiku based on going beyond words or how words are not enough.
 
Due midnight Monday 3/03: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 3/12
 
(21) Read Chapter Six of The Wordless Poem. Write an email to me about Amann’s emphasis on “selflessness” in haiku? Write about a favorite haiku example from this chapter by Amann.
 
(22) Read ZEN ART tenets 4 – the self – and write a response to 1 favorite haiku or artwork.
 
(23) Read BARE NECESSITES and write about a favorite haiku that demonstrates writing about “selflessness” or how “the self is not separate from the universe”
 
(24) Write 3-5 haiku where it is NOT ALL ABOUT ME (selflessness) or write about being the “universal self”
 
Due midnight Monday 3/10: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 3/19 – Spring Break (no class)

EXTRA CREDIT - write 3-10 spring break haiku

Extra Credit Opportunities:

10 points - listen to a HAIKU TALK podcast by Ben Gaa - write a response paragraph and haiku in response

https://www.youtube.com/@HaikuTalk

You may earn up to 50 extra credit points (10 for each podcast response)

for 3/26
 
(25) Read ZEN ART tenets 5 – collaborating with nature & 6 – no ego – and write a response to 2 favorite haiku or artworks from these tenets.
 
(26) Read BARE NECESSITES about a favorite haiku that demonstrates collaborating with nature or being “egoless” in nature
 
(27) Go for a walk and write 3-5 haiku on being in nature or collaborating with nature. Avoid letting yourself be the center of the haiku . . . become the background of your haiku.
 
Due midnight Monday 3/24: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 4/2

(28) write about a favorite haiku from KUKAI 07
 
(29) Read Zen Art for Meditation, tenet 7 – true insight – and write about a favorite haiku example.
 
(30) Read Chapter Four of The Wordless Poem. Write an email to me about Amann’s emphasis on “nothing special” in haiku? Write about a favorite haiku example from this chapter by Amann.
 
(31) Write 3-5 open topic haiku in response to these chapters on insight from nothing special – everyday things noticed and enjoyed fully.
 
Due midnight Monday 3/31: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 4/09
 
(32) Read ZEN ART tenets 8 – emptiness and write a response to a favorite haiku or artwork.
 
(33) Read MAYFLY 64  about a favorite haiku that demonstrates the emptiness of not bringing assumptions, just being in the moment.
 
(34) Write 3-5 haiku from your readings or the artwork from tenet 8 – emptiness
 
Due midnight Monday 4/7: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 4/16
 
(35) Read ZEN ART tenets 9 – thinking versus acting and write a response to a favorite haiku or artwork.
 
(36) Read BARE NECESSITES about a favorite haiku that demonstrates thinking versus acting or just doing.
 
(37) Write 3-5 haiku from your readings or the artwork from tenet 9 – thinking versus acting
 
Due midnight Monday 4/14: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 4/23
 
(38) Read ZEN ART tenet 10 – the unknown and write a response to a favorite haiku from this section.
 
(39) Read Chapter Seven of The Wordless Poem. Write an email to me about Amann’s emphasis on “oneness” in haiku? Write about a favorite haiku example from this chapter by Amann.
 
(40) Write 3-5 haiku on the mysteries of the unknown and the feeling of “oneness” with things that are bigger or larger than yourself.
 
Due midnight Monday 4/21: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 4/30
 
(41) Read ZEN ART tenets 11 – the present moment and write a response to a favorite haiku or artwork. Why are haiku written in present tense?
 
(42) Read BARE NECESSITES about a favorite haiku that demonstrates being present in the moment.
 
(43) Write 3-5 haiku from your readings or the artwork from tenet 11 – being present in the moment
 
Due midnight Monday 4/28: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 5/07
 
(44) Read School’s Out by Randy Brooks and write about 3 haiku and how they illustrate a Zen aesthetic tenet.
 
(45) Write 3 haiku in response to favorites from Randy Brooks
 
Due midnight Monday 5/05: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

for 5/14 – Final Public Reading – invite friends!

(46) Create a collection of your best haiku into a booklet. Give it a title and write an introduction on the art of writing haiku.

Final Exam - A Public Haiku Reading

12:00 - 1:50 pm
May 16, 2025

SH422
 
(47) Go for a walk or find a place to sit and observe what is happening around you. Meditate or quietly sit and notice what's going on. Let yourself observe and connect to your own feelings, memories, or thoughts arising from this place and time. And just write. Send me a reflection about your time & place and send some of the resulting haiku from being there.
 
(48 What was 1 or 2 of your favorite haiku you have written this semester?  Why are these your favorites?
 
(49) Also write about what you have learned about yourself through this course from Zen aesthetics and meditation. How will this course help as you develop a life of meaning and value? What have you learned about writing haiku from this course?
 
Due midnight Thursday 5/15: EMAIL your assignments to me at: rbrooks@millikin.edu

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