Ocean Voices: Haiku That Healed My Heart

By Denis Albert Ladbrook

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 almost three hundred haikus, Denis includes thirty-two written by medieval Japanese poets. Over the year, the healing energy of the ocean, the ritual beat of walking, and actually writing the poems enabled Denis to let go and flow with the tides. Raw emotions allying with capricious ocean moods give the collection its energy, transforming brokenness to wholeness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Dec 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504305167

Denis Albert Ladbrook

Denis Albert Ladbrook grew up in Sydney and Zimbabwe, earned his PhD in Wisconsin, and currently lives in Perth, Australia. A divorced father of three, he has addressed audiences on six continents and published fifty articles.

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Copyright © 2017 Denis Albert Ladbrook.

Artwork by Robyn Varpins

and photographs by Bob

Turner and Abigail Lewis

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