Ocean Voices: Haiku that Healed my Heart

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A triple breakdown in relationships, work life, and health leaves Professor Denis Ladbrook teetering on the brink. Inspired by Carl Jung’s idea that the ocean symbolizes the unconscious–the great source of life, emotion, and soul–Denis chooses to leave the city for the seaside hamlet of Yanchep, an hour’s drive north of Perth, Western Australia.

Tiptoeing down a steep dune track to the water’s edge as dawn breaks each morning, Denis walks far along the beach, immersed in sounds of wind and waves. His sensations morph into words. Stumbling through emotional desolation and divorce, he trudges the ocean shore until he discovers the rhythm of the ancient Japanese poetic shape, haiku.

Among the book’s over two hundred haikus, Denis includes forty-eight written by medieval Japanese poets. Over the years, the healing energy of the ocean, the ritual beat of walking, and the literal writing of poems has enabled Denis to let go and flow with the tides. Raw emotions allying with capricious ocean moods give the collection its energy, changing brokenness to unity.