HAIKU DIALOGUE – Music Around the World – To enlightenment and beyond or music and the spiritual path – long list

Music Around the World with Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt

Hi guys, it’s me again. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be immersing ourselves in music together. There is a variety of instruments, rhythms and melodies to explore around the globe. Ancient Chinese music is based on a five-tone system and the guqin had an almost religious significance. Waka and later the tanka are basically songs. The mother’s steady heartbeat calms the baby in the womb and can be compared to the rhythm of a drum. Music is the language that everyone can connect with, even without understanding the meaning of the words being sung. It speaks directly to our hearts. I would like to invite everyone to explore the world of music with me in these prompts.

Below is Deborah’s selection of poems on the topic To enlightenment and beyond or music and the spiritual path:

Music: Shakuhachi flute – Rodrigo Rodriguez – contemporary Japanese music

through the bamboo
through the cedars
the sounds of the winds

Mark Meyer
Mercer Island WA USA

 

zen flute—
the wood thrush
takes five

thomas david
United Kingdom

 

echoing through the notes stillness shakuhachi

Vaishnavi Ramaswamy
Chennai, India

 

our voices met
saying Mourner’s Kaddish
the breath of winter

Pamela Garry
Connecticut USA

 

across time
a mother’s lamentation
autumn wind

Alfred Booth
Lyon, France

 

crystal clear
in the deep snow
temple bell

Srinivasa Rao Sambangi
Hyderabad, India

 

nirvana –
the alap
of an ektara

(Ektara is a one stringed musical instrument used by folk singers.)

R. Suresh Babu
India

 

the master’s flute
draws me down the forest path
wind high in the trees

Kathleen Cain
Arvada, CO USA

 

hiking song
you learn
from the trees

Laurinda Lind
Sackets Harbor, NY, USA

 

bamboo breath —
the notes become
inner echoes

Elena Zouain
France

 

progressive liturgy
we sing the old words
in Christmas carols

Elizabeth Shack
Illinois, USA

 

UU church service
Enya’s lyrics in hymnal
I hear her sweet voice

Veronica Hosking
Avondale, AZ

 

still waters
the music & i
running deep

Curt Linderman
United States

 

a boatful of seekers
singing praises to Shiva
river temple

Rupa Anand
New Delhi, India

 

faces sway
with candle flames
kumbhaka

Kavita Ratna
India

 

birdsong
my heart
as light as feather again

Pegah Rahmati Nezhad
Tehran, Iran

 

the magic of the tones
discovering lost pieces
of my soul

Boryana Boteva
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

bansuri
cowbells drift
closer home

(Bansuri is an ancient side-blown bamboo flute originating from India.)

Daya Bhat
India

 

hand in hand
from your fingertips to mine
the jazz of raindrops

Arvinder Kaur
Chandigarh India

 

forged
in the breath of a dragon
shakuhachi voice

Rita Melissano
Rock Island, IL USA

 

first light–
forest deities awaken
to pena’s timbre

(Pena – It is a single stringed musical instrument of Manipur that holds a significant place in the religious and cultural traditions of the meiteis.)

Jagajit Salam
Imphal, India

 

not spiritual
yet still finding myself
humming kumbaya

Tracy Davidson
Warwickshire, UK

 

empty church
a hymn of light through
the stained glass

Ravi Kiran
India

 

the Salvation Army Band
pulls up in our cul-de-sac –
‘Little Drummer Boy’

Anne Curran
Hamilton, USA

 

back and forth
and pure vibration
snake charmer

Stephen J. DeGuire
Los Angeles, CA

 

went down to crossroads
i sold my soul
for rock and roll

Margie Gustafson
Lombard, IL USA

 

from a block away
the blast of the shofar
even I atone

Margaret Tau
New Bern, NC

 

shakuhachi notes –
at the foot of Mount Fuji
a monk meditates

Paul Callus
Ħal Safi, Malta

 

fiery Soca–
on the sleeping baby face
lights of fireworks

Krzysztof Kokot
Nowy Targ, Poland

 

wind in reeds
carried upwards
by flute music

Marion Clarke
Warrenpoint, N Ireland

 

the sky resting
on eagle’s wings—
graveside hymn

Kerry J Heckman
Seattle, WA

 

ever so gently
striking my heavy heart-
the temple bells

Nisha Raviprasad
India

 

a host of voices
gathered in one prayer
– the Maha mantra

Dejan Ivanovic
Lazarevac, Serbia

 

the way home…
his pan flute song
embracing the moon

Steliana Cristina Voicu
Ploiesti, Romania

 

my heart
thrumming with song
takes off…

Raji Vijayaraghavan
India

 

intoning-om-notes-cosmic-jazz-star-children

petro c. k.
Seattle, Washington

 

farandole of notes
to the moon –
feeling at home

farandola di note
fino alla luna –
sentirsi a casa

Giuliana Ravaglia
Bologna (Italy)

 

earworm
i can’t get you out of my head ~
minogue’s mystic midge bite

oorwurm
ik krijg je niet uit mijn hoofd ~
minogue’s mentale muggenbeet

Guido De Pelsmaeker
België

 

speaking softly
music replays
memories

Deborah Guenther Beachboard
Adna Valley Washington USA

 

bow your head
for a moment of silence —
conductor’s raised baton

Alan Harvey
Tacoma, WA

 

the mountain’s voice
echoes through generations…
sami songs

(The Sami people of Norway sing songs called joiks which whilst free of lyrics connect them with the innermost heart or essence of a being or a place. This is one of the oldest musical forms on our planet.)

Melissa Dennison
UK

 

tapping my foot
to the heartbeat
of the world

Sherri Moye-Dombrosky
United States

 

a yearning
in the music
at last she sleeps

Cindy Putnam Guentherman
Loves Park, IL USA

 

singing bowl
a long day slowly
fizzles away

Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
India

 

Zen flute
knowing without knowing
one note after another

Stephen A. Peters
Bellingham, WA

 

morning raga . . .
light enters
the sitar strings

Neena Singh
India

 

muggy night
playing kazoo
for the fireflies

Joseph P. Wechselberger
Browns Mills, NJ USA

 

morning mist lifting the shakuhachi’s first note

P. H. Fischer
Vancouver, Canada

 

standing waves
resonating
with the calm

(Standing waves create the audible notes within the flutes cavity.)

Mark Gilbert
UK

 

yoga retreat
building to a crescendo
our collective ohm

Jenn Ryan-Jauregui
Tucson, Arizona USA

 

no melody—
only the shape
of listening

Vijay Prasad
Patna, India

 

Zen flute –
each breath giving me
goosebumps

Caroline Ridley-Duff
UK

 

the flow
in stillness
music moves

Sudha Menon
Kerala, India

 

a gust of wind
the one perfect note
to emptiness

Arrigo Bassi
Switzerland

 

holding dusk
in the beat…
a gong’s note

Joanna Ashwell
UK

 

wildflower meadow
a little goatherd learns to play
the kaval

(The Bulgarian kaval, once made of a single piece of wood, is now constructed of three separate sections.)

Tsanka Shishkova
Sofia, Bulgaria

 

rising from the metro
Native American flute music—
the sunset path home

Jonathan English
Washington, DC

 

broken flute
my struggles to bend
with the wind

Patricia Hawkhead
UK

 

flute notes
the mountain shivers
under cloud shadows

John Hawkhead
UK

 

Life’s detours –
the hollows of a zen flute
shaping the rhythm

Santhoshi Valli
India

 

meditation
mockingbird melodies
enlighten my path

Debbie Sterling
Oregon, USA

 

midnight mass
we sing Christmas carols
in harmony

Jenny Shepherd
London, UK

 

Adhan –
at the temple doorway
footwear of all faiths

Dan C. Iulian
Romania

 

in dusky air
echoes of the doba rise –
cicadas hurry

(Doba is the large, traditional drum played in the namghars – community prayer houses – of Assam.)

Rashmi Buragohain
India

 

standing in the stream
she ripples flute notes
up to the stars

Ann Rawson
Scotland, UK

 

silent chapel
Arvo Part music
Da Pacem Domine

Luciana Moretto
Italy

 

Sufi Qawwali—
attuning to the heart
beats

Hifsa Ashraf
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

 

summer night
the rhythm of the flute
soothes my weary world

Swarna Bopali de Zoysa
Sri Lanka

 

meditation music …
a kitten’s purr slips
into incense

Samo Kreutz
Ljubljana, Slovenia

 

shakuhachi she delivers her tunes to the womb within

Lakshmi Iyer
India

 

mangala arathi
what of me burns away
with the camphor flame

Vidya Shankar
Chennai

 

my voice
ancient song of our mothers
rises again

Mary Beth Defer
Rocklin, CA

 

rush hour
I turn the noise
in music

Mirela Brailean
Iasi, Romania

 

notes from a zen flute
the autumn sounds
of emptying

Archie G. Carlos
Minnesota

 

finding meaning
in the heart of the forest
afternoon birdsong

Anthony Rabang
Philippines

 

flutes
flood the silent retreat—
cemetery walk

John S Green
Bellingham, Washington

 

‘the lord is my shepherd’
last goodbye
-dear friend

Margaret Mahony
Australia

 

frost-kissed jasmine
all the tones of Raas Leela
I can hear

Lakshman Bulusu
Princeton, NJ, USA

 

staying quiet
tense and taut for a touch
strings ethereal

Ashoka Weerakkody
Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

distant temple bells
I become nothing
to become everything

Padma Rajeswari
Mumbai, India

 

a shakuhachi flute
on the living room –
post card of Edo

Mircea Moldovan
România

 

cathartic effect
of mother’s chants
from the mists of childhood

Sudha Devi Nayak
Bhubaneswar India

 

crescendo of conchs . . .
mellowing my mantras
first light of the year

Monica Kakkar
India

 

temple breeze the changing tune of cymbals

Mona Bedi
New Delhi, India

 

ektara drone
the hoopoe’s crest slowly
opens the daylight

Sandip Chauhan
United States

 

church choir
lifting my soul to sing
I’ll Fly Away

Eavonka Ettinger
Long Beach, CA

 

beyond the crescendo
falling into an oboe’s
dulcet notes

Marilyn Humbert
Australia

 

taiko drumbeats
opening my heart
to earth’s rhythms

Annie Wilson
Shropshire, UK

 

ancient reverence
through a time-worn monk’s flute
today’s melody

Maxianne Berger
Outremont, Quebec

 

black mountain moth
……a shudder of wings
…………becomes
……………………music

Adele Evershed
Wilton, Connecticut

 

village to village
a song of bliss
barefoot faqir

Subir Ningthouja
Imphal, India

 

being…
the wind in the bamboo
flute

Sherry Reniker
USA

 

flute sounds –
my heart and the stars
tremble with beauty

Gordana Kurtović
Osijek, Croatia

 

chanting monks –
vowels vibrating
thru the cathedral

Dan Campbell
Virginia

 

church youth band
after several hymns
a Hendrix jam

Lee Hudspeth
United States

 

shakuhachi —
breath by breath
the winter moon

Orense Nicod
Paris, France

 

after the hymn
my mouth still open
to the light

Nalini Shetty
Mumbai, India

 

night by the fire pit—
the guitarist adjusting
to the river’s pace

Hynek Koziol
Czech Republic

 

in the mash pit
when Orpheus went electric
the rocks rioted

Ronald Scully
Burien WA

 

All Saints’ Day
an old hymnal’s pages
dog-eared

Richard Straw
Cary, North Carolina

 

now I’m floating
in streams of sound
shakuhachi

Seamus O’Connor
Ireland

 

evening service
the wind and i chant
the refrain

Jahnavi Gogoi
Ajax, Ontario, Canada

 

the rise and fall
………………..of dad’s voice
………………………………….Sabbath blessings

Bruce H Feingold
Berkeley, CA USA

 

autumn flute
someone playing
a familiar tune

Minal Sarosh
Ahmedabad, India

 

the echo
of the violin
– cherished blossoms

Katherine E Winnick
Brighton UK

 

ethereal sound
of the shakuhachi —
above the chatter

Tomislav Maretic
Croatia

 

holiday bell ringer
the clink of coins
in the bucket

Debbie Scheving
Bremerton WA USA

 

in the ripple
of a singing bowl
I surf to enlightenment

Tejendra Sherchan
Nepal

 

well-known chants
in front of the altar
a whiff of home

Eva Limbach
Germany

 

bodhisattva
the half-smile
of a jazz master

Cynthia Anderson
Yucca Valley, California

 

under the full moon
wind chime tinkles
my insomnia

Bhawana Rathore
India

 

tears well up
buried childhood hymns
quoted in a book

Christa Pandey
Austin, TX, USA

 

Requiem
the first time since childhood
I’ve been to church

Sean Murphy
North Beach, MD

 

the church choir chanting
in the candle-lit darkness …
regained peace

Natalia Kuznetsova
Russia

 

Hallelujah
in the church
the refugees’ choir

Mariangela Canzi
Italy

 

breathed into being shakuhachi

Lorraine A Padden
San Diego, CA

 

swaying bamboo
the rustling
accompanies the shamisen

wanda amos
Australia

 

raising me an octave
the hum
of the singing bowl

Sangita Kalarickal
Minnesota, USA

 

cappella
from a stairwell
Ave Maria

madeleine kavanagh
United States

 

campground creek
a bamboo flute warbling
through lucid dream

John Zheng
Mississippi USA

 

after the rain
frog voices drift
into mantra

Kristian Abe Dalao
Rizal, Philippines

 

mountain cave
a stream’s rhythm
soothes the darkness

Geetha Ravichandran
India

 

end-of-year offering
the roll call of ancestors
in the oracle’s song

Sonam Chhoki
Bhutan

 

chanting sutras
wind
through the bamboo

Bryan Rickert
Belleville, Illinois

 

earth magic
faint whispers
of ancient chants

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

 

ancient bones
the hollow song
of a cave-drawn bird

Anne Fox
Broomes Island, MD USA

 

new age
meditating to
Kitaro

Nancy Brady
Huron, Ohio

 

hearing its music
in my bones ––
shakuhachi

Sheila Sondik
Bellingham, WA

 

midnight service
the tintinnabulation
of winter stars

Lev Hart
Calgary, Canada

 

shakuhachi notes
a bamboo grove
sighs in the wind

AJ Johnson
Stephens City, VA USA

 

autumn moonlight
a tranquil flute
through clouds

Omarion Anderson
Greenwood, MS

 

searching for you…
how hills turn into clouds

Sharon Ferrante
Florida, USA

 

hospice
music from a distant room
changes keys

Gary Evans
Stanwood, Washington

 

qur’anic recitations—
a halo of tranquility
on my mother’s grave

Fatma Zohra Habis
Algeria

 

sound of the rain…
if only it would carry me
towards you

suono della pioggia……
se solo mi portasse
verso di te

Angiola Inglese
Italia

 

Milky Way
a flautist’s tune flows
from the troupe’s tent

Milan Rajkumar
Imphal, India

 

echoes of heartbeats…
the temple bell settles
into hell’s Hall

Marilyn Ward
Lincolnshire UK

 

temple bell…
I shed myself
and enter

Nitu Yumnam
UAE

 

her prayer
and the fairy wren
call and response

Lori Kiefer
UK

 

komorebi warmth
rippling on my closed eyes…
soft echoes of gongs

Goda Virginija Bendoraitienė
Lithuania

 

a faint path
for those that hear it
wind in the reeds

Andrew Pineo
Exeter NH USA

 

guiding my canoe
through autumn fog
calls of a loon

Margaret Anderson
Vancouver, BC

 

in the space
between two notes –
a butterfly

Ivan Georgiev
Germany

 

an eagle soars
over the mountain —
no noise

Daniela Misso
Italy

Join us next week for Deborah’s commentary on additional poems…

Bios:

Guest Editor Deborah Karl-Brandt lives in Sinzig, Germany, with her husband, two rabbits and numerous books. After her PhD studies in Scandinavian languages and literatures, she works as a freelance author and poet. Her poems have appeared in magazines like Prune Juice, Kingfisher, First Frost, Frogpond, Failed Haiku and Tsuridoro. If she is not outside for a long stroll or to do some birdwatching, she explores Chinese and Japanese novels.

Assistant Editor Lafcadio, a former teacher, now works from home writing, editing and proofreading study guides for nursing textbooks. She lives in Tennessee. She has written poetry for a long time but a couple of years ago fell in love with Japanese micropoetry and hasn’t looked back. Lafcadio has been published in a number of journals and anthologies. She writes under the nom de plume of Lafcadio because nom de plume is so fun to say. You can read her poems on Twitter (X) @lafcadiopoetry or BlueSky @lafcadiobsky.

Assistant Editor Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, I Am, was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook Alone, I Am Not, was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.

Lori Zajkowski is the Post Manager for Haiku Dialogue. She lives in New York City and enjoys reading and writing haiku.

Managing Editor Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She served as Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada for ten years, and her debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019). Find her at: kjmunro1560.wordpress.com.

Portrait by Laurel Parry

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Haiku Dialogue offers a triweekly prompt for practicing your haiku. Posts appear each Wednesday with a prompt or a selection of poems from a previous week.