Stravaig #17
about two haiku in Scottish Centre for Geopoetics online journal, Stravaig
with update on building at Plum Village, France
Many thanks to the editors of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetic’s online journal Stravaig for publishing two of my haiku (p.69) in the November 2025 hope-filled issue that bridges East and West. The Centre's work is a refreshing turn to worlds that carry on despite human tragedy and I am grateful to be included in the community of artists drawing from this well.
Following are brief notes about my haiku, both of which feature flowers—soul medicine, as well as an update on rebuilding after a January 2025 fire in Purple Cloud (Lower Hamlet of Plum Village, France). Please enjoy Stravaig #17 and past issues of the journal along with the Centre's other offerings.
Haiku with sweet pea and crocus in Stravaig #17
The first haiku with sweet pea, originally written early summer 2020, is dedicated to Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who passed on January 22, 2022. The poem bears witness to the Inner Light and my experience training sweet pea to climb a structure that a friend built for the flowering vine in her garden. Spring 2020, my then ten-year-old son created a series of sweet pea drawings, including The Lamp (at right) and one with sweet pea climbing a microphone that won first place in an art contest that year.
The second haiku was also originally written years ago after a big snow storm one early April when I woke to find snow covering the front gate. Crocus, already in bloom that year, were buried. This haiku was revised during a workshop in one of my CIIS courses in 2024. Whereas when writing I was focused on an individual buried, when she read the poem, a classmate thought of future generations buried. The extreme weather event that early April is indeed part of a climate trend. Only recently have flowers had a regular chance to bloom as early as April around here just to be buried by snow. This year, their new leaves up by mid-January are not buried but frozen now and we experience a changed world.
The Lamp by Meg’s son (2020)
Update on building at Plum Village
On January 23, 2025, fire consumed the building, Purple Cloud in Lower Hamlet, where Thay stayed at Plum Village. Please see Fire Relief for a haiku inspired by the fire and a brief on the event. With many thanks to friends at Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, please also see this 2025 year-end message from monastics, and consider supporting global spiritual refuge: New Hamlet.
© 2026 Megan Hollingsworth | All Rights Reserved