Seeds from a birch tree cover

Seeds from a birch tree

by Clark Strand

In the pages of Seeds from a Birch Tree, Clark Strand redefines haiku as a literary art in English, and explains how to use the practice of writing and reading haiku as a form of meditation and as a path to self-awareness. Throughout this remarkable book, Strand provides specific examples of great haiku and the spiritual qualities they contain, and includes a few simple exercises to help you get started in composing your own haiku. But Seeds from a Birch Tree is not only a book about writing haiku. It also follows Strand's passage from haiku novice to a place of understanding, both of haiku and of himself. Along the way, he shares his personal experiences as a Zen student, a Zen Buddhist monk, and a haiku teacher.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?