John J. Han 45 Intégrité: A Faith and Learning Journal Vol. 21, No. 2 (Fall 2022): 45-46
“church bells…” and Two Other Poems John J. Han
(Two haiku) church bells…* the pack of gum I stole fifty years ago
reading Dante fire and ice mixed in a dream
(A tanka) the way to church—** I change lanes to pass a slow driver we exchange glances this holy morning * Previously published in Frogpond: The Journal of the Haiku Society of America, vol. 37, no. 2, Spring/Summer 2014, p. 40, and in Beyond the Grave: Contemporary Afterlife Haiku (ed. Robert Epstein), West Union, WV: Middle Island Press, 2015, p. 89. The poem was inspired by St. Augustine’s Confessions (written c. 397-c.400), in which the author regrets a pear-stealing incident: Fair were those pears, but not them did my wretched soul desire; for I had store of better, and those I gathered, only that I might steal. For, when gathered, I flung them away, my only feast therein being my own sin, which I was pleased to enjoy. For if aught of those pears came within my mouth, what sweetened it was the sin. (chapter 2) Translated by E. B. Pusey (Edward Bouverie) ** Previously published in cattails, May 2015, tanka page 4.