Neil Fleischmann

DteSpcuoemnboaerfla sg5doc,r o2meeumftfd020g  · 

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I wrote 3 haiku last night in Bananagram letters. They were each inspired by a page in the book Rumi's Reflection Journal. This raises a question for me.

If my haiku is inspired by an idea from elsewhere, do I have to give credit? I know the answer is probably yes. Somehow I rationalize that I get the credit for the poem because I've done the feat of fitting the idea I read into haiku form.

I had a bit of a wake up call recently when I casually asked a dear friend of mine if I needed to give him credit for the haiku I made out of his longer poem. He felt strongly, I felt, that I needed to give him credit. So what I did is put it on hold. I've been doing that with a lot of poems that I write based on other books, like ones that were done based on The Pull of the Stars, or adapted from The Gentle Weapon or from Tehillim.

One of the most commented on and liked poems in my published haiku book is an idea based on a statement of the Chofetz Chayim (as reported by Irving Bunim and then adapted by Charles Wengrov in Ethics From Sinai). I read this idea forty plus years ago and was touched by it. Other than the book I got it from I have never heard or seen anyone share this idea. So I felt that the haiku based on it is mine. And yet. I feel some (not enough to do any thing about it yet) guilt over not giving credit to where the idea behind the haiku originated.

Without any further ado (if you want more ado, you'll have to go elsewhere -which is me adapting an old Robert Klein line) here are the three poems I composed last night,. These haiku are adapted from a journal that adapted the words from an adapted translation of Rumi:

G-d made opposites

so that we can learn to fly

with two wings not one

(Inspired by Rumi's Reflection Journal, page336: "G-d turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.")

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When fires flicker

all over the world, light them

with your inner spark

(Inspired by Rumi's Reflection Journal, page 191: "Do not worry if all the candles in the world flicker and die. We have the spark that starts the fire.")

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We fly in the sky

and in order to stay high

we must find our wings

(Inspired by Rumi's Reflection Journal, page 250: "The sky where we live is no place to lose your wings, so LOVE LOVE LOVE."

 I share what matters

to me deep inside of me

just because it does

I like creating

but being in the spotlight

is awkward for me

I have mixed feelings

about my post that's been shared

100+ times

I've had a few days

of fifteen minutes of fame

that suddenly came

I just scrolled through the

one hundred and forty six

reshares of my post

When you climb up high

ask why you are going there

before you fall down

I mourn the loss of

Rabbi Abraham Twerski

who inspired me

A great movie star

helped a rabbi graduate

from medical school

My zen-tangle art

received high praise from some friends

and I like it too

My art class teacher,

I feel. didn't really see,

not my art, not me

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 Mopiness mops me,

though I try to grab the mop

and set it aside.

Sometimes it's a break

that I need, but resist,

that would really help.

My negative thoughts

like to test positively

and pretend they're good.

Jack and Jill fell down,

but they managed to get up

- at least I hope so.

I have to be me,

but try to be your version

- not sure that will work

What's a safe distance?

How close will still be okay?

I've long wondered.