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Many people in the haiku world were saddened by the death of John Crook after a long and brave struggle with cancer. John spent his last weeks in the Katharine House Hospice near where he lived in Oxfordshire. His wife Celia, son Simon and daughter Elly were close by him.

Ironically, it was cancer that led John to rediscover haiku ‘on-line’ whilst recovering at home from treatment two years ago. He had first discovered haiku in the 1960’s during teacher training and went on to introduce haiku into the primary schools where he taught. More recently, John lectured in mathematics at Warwick University. One of his long-term interests was photography and when I visited him about a month before he died he showed me some of his work taken with a digital camera. In particular, I was struck by a close-up of a crushed coca-cola can lying in frosty grass. In the same casual and relaxed way that John approached haiku, he had elevated a piece of litter to an art form. During that same meeting, we talked about many things (although mainly haiku, of course) and I was deeply touched by John’s attitude to his impending death: he was truly accepting of it. He was able to bring the lightness of karumi, not only to his haiku, but also to his life and to his death.

The recent BHS conference in Winford was dedicated to John’s memory in a small ceremony. A candle was lit and Martin Lucas, David Platt and Alison Williams read some of his haiku while a singing bowl was struck between each poem. As the bowl’s resonance faded away, wooden clappers were struck to be followed by a period of silence:-

without him
only birdsong
and the ticking of the clock

Haiku by John Crook

the beachcomber
picking shells to keep
and shells to throw

*

the armchairs are still
in the place where we once sat
and spoke of haiku

(Winford Manor 2001)
For John Crook
whom I once met - briefly but rewardingly
in April 2000

Bamboo Shoot