ROADS To The INTERIOR by W. Hans Miller – Poetry, Philosophical, Haiku

Roads to the Interior by W. Hans Miller is a journey through the interior of the mind, seeking to find answers, peace, and insight.

This book is inspired by, and dedicated to, the works of Matsuo Basho, the father of haiku and other spiritual writings. Haiku usually has a fixed pattern of three lines with a 5/7/5 syllable pattern – often referencing nature or reflecting on life – but the haikus within this book don’t always follow that tradition.  Rather, Roads to the Interior turns the haiku’s reflective questions on the mind itself.

Each of this book’s three sections is filled with raw emotion, existential musings, and careful contemplation. Recurrent readings of this collection will allow readers to absorb yet more truths and insights.

Different poems make reference to many thinkers, writers, and literary characters.

“Part I – Wide Roads to the Interior”, considers struggle and longing. “Each Newborn Bubble” shares these truths: “Even Siddhartha had bad days.  A dear friend tells me to persevere: don’t search for spring’s source, care for each newborn bubble.” In “Penance” the speaker says, “I’ll speak no more of my predicament, always fearing my words will mean less than they say. I’m taller now but wiser when I was seven…”

“Part II – Narrow Roads to the Interior”, reflects on the existential.

Poems such as “Longing to Trust the World” and “Nothing is the Answer” pull readers into this shift. “Paradise Lost” is shaped much like a cocoon, taking the reader from dust to revelation and then dust again. These poems draw on other authors such as (T.S. Elliot and Walt Whitman, and even the protagonist of Albert Camus’ “The Stranger”, through such lines as, “Mersault found a truth. A truth that brought light falling upon that which already lit his gentle indifference to the world. His death testimony cause peace and calm to warp their arms around an unfinished circle on his brow.”

The final section, “Your Brain’s Secret Interior Life: Seven Poems”, comes with an epilogue of the author’s journey through the complexity of the human mind. These last poems provide thoughtful considerations in the pursuit of understanding the Road to the Interior that each one of us must walk.