{"id":29,"date":"2009-09-08T13:00:34","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html"},"modified":"2009-09-08T13:00:34","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T13:00:34","slug":"kirtan-haiku-kirku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html","title":{"rendered":"Kirtan Haiku (Kirku?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/ganeshondash.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-left\" height=\"225\" alt=\"ganeshondash.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/84\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/ganeshondash-thumb-300x225-7664.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/a>This weekend in the midst of <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/chanting-around-the-clock--and-with-a-banjo.html\">all the chanting<\/a>&nbsp;at Omega Institute&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/eomega.org\/omega\/workshops\/da149d9d52307a7a75542962885b0ebe\/\">Ecstatic Chant Festival<\/a>, when I wasn&#8217;t dancing, I was writing. There&#8217;s something about kirtan that makes me scribble&#8211;it shakes up so much stuff (fears, joys, doubts, dreams, longings) that it must come out through booty-shaking, tears, words spoken and drawn. <\/p>\n<p>Here are a few haiku I wrote while harmoniums hummed, drums beat, voices soared. The formal organization of haiku (a 5\/7\/5 syllable structure) is beloved because it helps&nbsp;distill ideas&nbsp;into essence. Not unlike a deceptively simple chant or mantra. The best haiku take you on a complete, 17-syllable journey. And sometimes (ahem)&nbsp;they&#8217;re just fun to write and share!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kirtan Haiku (all untitled at the moment)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kirtan is a mop,<br \/>clearing the floor of being.<br \/>Naked feet kiss it.<\/p>\n<p>The floor is shaking.<br \/>Feet pounding out God&#8217;s sweet name,<br \/>the One twirls alive.<\/p>\n<p>My mind is a beast.<br \/>It tells me I am nothing<br \/>and I believe it<\/p>\n<p>I hear there&#8217;s a door.<br \/>The free party over there.<br \/>I&nbsp;hear them whoop, sing.<\/p>\n<p>Self-hate is ugly<br \/>Let&#8217;s get beautiful and bare.<br \/>Confess love all night.<\/p>\n<p>Can I open me?<br \/>Or must I wait for love?<br \/>Hold my hand to God.<\/p>\n<p>Please let this yearning<br \/>be of use to Divine Love.<br \/>Let this longing serve.<\/p>\n<p>What if suffering<br \/>was fuel to holy fire?<br \/>I&#8217;d more gladly burn.<\/p>\n<p>Give it up for Ram.<br \/>Go Ram, it&#8217;s your birthday.<br \/>You bring ancient joy.<\/p>\n<p>Sanskrit is sacred.<br \/>The way my toungue touches it<br \/>kisses open God.<\/p>\n<p>I am here to live.<br \/>Remember to dance, baby!<br \/>Let it all dance me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you haiku? If so, please share in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend in the midst of all the chanting&nbsp;at Omega Institute&#8217;s Ecstatic Chant Festival, when I wasn&#8217;t dancing, I was writing. There&#8217;s something about kirtan that makes me scribble&#8211;it shakes up so much stuff (fears, joys, doubts, dreams, longings) that it must come out through booty-shaking, tears, words spoken and drawn. Here are a few&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-valerie-reiss","category-holistic-living"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kirtan Haiku (Kirku?) - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kirtan Haiku (Kirku?) - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This weekend in the midst of all the chanting&nbsp;at Omega Institute&#8217;s Ecstatic Chant Festival, when I wasn&#8217;t dancing, I was writing. There&#8217;s something about kirtan that makes me scribble&#8211;it shakes up so much stuff (fears, joys, doubts, dreams, longings) that it must come out through booty-shaking, tears, words spoken and drawn. 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There&#8217;s something about kirtan that makes me scribble&#8211;it shakes up so much stuff (fears, joys, doubts, dreams, longings) that it must come out through booty-shaking, tears, words spoken and drawn. Here are a few&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2009-09-08T13:00:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/ganeshondash-thumb-300x225-7664.jpg"}],"author":"vreiss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html","name":"Kirtan Haiku (Kirku?) - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/ganeshondash-thumb-300x225-7664.jpg","datePublished":"2009-09-08T13:00:34+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-08T13:00:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/df896dd70b2001a7a331d7c0264dbd4d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/ganeshondash-thumb-300x225-7664.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/09\/ganeshondash-thumb-300x225-7664.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/09\/kirtan-haiku-kirku.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kirtan Haiku (Kirku?)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/df896dd70b2001a7a331d7c0264dbd4d","name":"vreiss","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/7e2\/7e2e836248d6127446bfae5802ee2a83x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/7e2\/7e2e836248d6127446bfae5802ee2a83x96.jpg","caption":"vreiss"},"description":"Valerie Reiss is Holistic Living Editor at Beliefnet. She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/vreiss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}