Quietude

<p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)>Having been introduced to haiku as a spiritual practice by a Trappist Monk the author learned to experience life in intimate moments of observation thought and reflection. These often Zen moments present a vantage point from which to navigate life at one's own pace and according to one's own priorities. Haiku beyond being another form of poetry can become a way of life.</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)> </span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><em style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)>Silence is spoken here. Those words are found on small desk plates scattered throughout the refectory at the Abbey of Gethsemani where Kenny Faught's haiku journey begins. From a place of deep and sacred silence Kenny's haikus come forth. Good haikus look easy. But the good-ness of them only comes with time and prayerful attention and quiet seeing. From the real place of the Abbey Kenny Faught takes us on a pilgrimage to even more reality - dogs cornbread family leaves and the seen and unseen worlds of Spirit. And the final blessing of this book is that Kenny invites the reader to take up the task of attending and seeing and putting words down given the time it takes to find them.</em><span style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)>  -The Rt. Reverend Brian Lee Cole Bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><em style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)>Kenny Faught sees life in haiku. Like a sculptor-scholar tooling a block he introduces the form with an introduction and two appendices. Then it is a memoir in haiku other poems and photographs a humble paean to what the poet has loved: home sycamores God monasticism other poets the woods Zen. Life itself. He'll have you seeing your own life in moments of three lines counting syllables.</em><span style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)> -Jon M. Sweeney author of My Life in Seventeen Books (Monkfish) and Thomas Merton (St. Martin's)</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><em style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)>Brief moments are here caught in vivid words - brief three liners which make the world seem larger.</em><span style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)> -Brother Paul Quenon Abbey of Gethsemani author </span><em style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)>of Where Time Its Silence Keeps</em><span style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)> and co-author of </span><em style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)>The Art of Pausing</em></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><strong style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)>Dr. Kenny Faught</strong><span style=color: rgba(39 83 23 1)> is a retired pastor college professor and counselor. A graduate of Cumberland College (B.A. in Religion/Philosophy) and The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (Masters and Doctorate) he has also done post-doctoral studies at Duke Divinity School. He enjoys reading preaching sauntering in the woods and playing classical guitar. He and his wife Chrissy are members of The Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Knoxville Tennessee.</span></p><p></p>