Take a Deep Breath: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace

A husband and wife (he's a psychologist, she's a poet) align meditation with haiku in this accessible if sometimes facile volume of poems and commentary. Spiritual knowledge, the Ryans maintain, comes from within: enlightenment is simply ""paying attention to just this, whatever it may be,"" and both haiku and meditation are designed to help a person ""see a particular moment with compassion."" Sylvia's 44 haiku are arranged by season and accompanied by suggestions for how to fully appreciate their meaning. ""Snapshots scattered/ in a drawer-/ the autumn wind"" should remind readers that ""nature won't let us stop life, capture it, hide it away"" and that ""we have to let go of the 'me' we've made an elaborate mental catalog of."" The authors' expertise and the power of their convictions are apparent throughout this volume, but the reflections that follow the haiku often meander and sometimes stumble.