Haiku poetry is both simple and evocative, largely due to Zen Buddhism. The now familiar 5-7-5 haiku verse developed in ancient Japan, and now, across language and culture, haiku remains a popular way for people to engaging with nature, the seasons, and the fleeting moments of life.

Poetry is one of the world's most enduring artforms. It predates writing, and we’re still compelled to express our deepest thoughts through verse. What does poetry have to do with spirituality and the sacred — whether its big, mystical experiences, or the small moments that nonetheless ring with truth?

Dr Toby Davidson is a poet and Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University. He is the author of Christian Mysticism and Australian Poetry, and editor of the Collected Poems of Francis Webb. His third collection of poems is called The Grand Reopening.

• Hear Francis Webb read from his Collected Poems
• The 2026 Francis Webb poetry reading Tickets, Saturday 29 August  •  2 PM - 4 PM | Eventbrite
• Toby Davidson in The Conversation: Australian poetry classics: Francis Webb, the 20th century’s ‘most unjustly neglected poet’, is our best kept literary secret

Dr Milad Milani is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Western Sydney University and co-founder of the Sufi Studies Network at Monash University. 

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• Rumi, Hafez and Sufi poetry in surprising places – ABC Listen
• Spiritual Classics: Rumi – ABC Listen
• The joy and anguish of the Psalms – ABC Listen
• Zeus' Law — Hospitality in Homer's Odyssey – ABC Listen

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Submit your own poem to the Middle of the Air poetry competition, partnering with Red Room Poetry.

Underneath all the sex and violence of Homer's Odyssey, hospitality shines as a key theme. So, what does "Zeus' Law", outlining the responsibilities of hosts towards guests and strangers, have to teach us today, as our own society debates difference?

GuestsDr Susan Lupack is an archaeologist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at the Macquarie University. She is co-editor the new Cambridge Guide to Homer.

Dr Ben Brown is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney 

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• Gods: from Ancient Greece to the Antipodes - ABC listen
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• Odysseus gets lost in translation: What separates Homer’s epic from Nolan’s blockbuster? - ABC Religion & Ethics
• Is Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey conservative, woke, or something else entirely? - ABC listen

Some people love crisp winter mornings and bracing ocean swims — one of those people is author Katherine May, who says there are winter periods in life too. In her book Wintering, Katherine writes about her own cold and fallow seasons, and says we shouldn't run from our winters because they contain seeds of transformation.

Guest

Katherine May is an internationally renowned writer and podcaster based in Kent, in the south east of England. Her work covers nature, spirituality, slow living and neurodivergence. Her bestselling books include Wintering: the power of rest and retreat in difficult times and Enchantment: Reawakening Wonder in an Exhausted Age.

Katherine is on Instagram and Substack. Her podcast is called The Clearing.

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• Joy and stillness under stress - ABC listen
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• The History of Emotion: Were feelings always felt this way? - ABC listen

Gardeners have cultivated — or dominated — the natural world for thousands of years. But as any green thumb will tell you, in the garden nature has an opinion about how things will go and you won't always get your way.

So, what does your garden say about you? And what does your garden say to you?

Guests

Georgina Reid is a landscape designer, gardener, writer and former editor of Wonderground — a print and online journal exploring questions of nature, culture and care.

Megumi Bennett has been practising bonsai and ikebana for over 5 decades. She is the founder of the Bonsai Society of Sydney inc and is also a member of Ikebana International. Megumi received the bonsai instructors qualification from the Nippon Bonsai Association, Japan in 2008. She is the first overseas person to receive this recognition. Her book is My Journey with Australian Native Fig Trees, Bonsai and Botanical Art (2025).

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• The surprising role of grass in shaping who we are
• The science and spirituality of soil
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With so much going on in the news and in the world right now, it's easy to feel overwhelmed, and even powerless. But how can the philosophy of a brilliant young Frenchwoman help us navigate through tragedy and troubles? Simone Weil wrestled with the question of how to live a moral life, and she gives us a remarkable vision of how to pay attention.

Would you say you're a good listener? Listening well to others, and being properly listened to yourself, is the baseline for genuine encounter with each other. There's a vulnerability and intimacy to listening when it's done properly, so how do we do it in a noisy, divided world?

How are our internal, spiritual lives shaped by the physical structure of our brains? Dr Iain McGilchrist is the author of two big books that have thrown into question our assumptions about knowledge and meaning and even our capacity to perceive the sacred.

‘The humpback whale is Theresa Ardler’s totem, and she went all the way to Rome to share Indigenous knowledge of the ocean with the Pope.

The word 'god' can bring many images to mind — perhaps a man with blue complexion and four arms, an old bearded man in the sky, or a woman seated on a lotus throne. Gods and goddesses have been visualised in all kinds of ways, through different times and societies. And when it comes to Hinduism, the deities can take on countless forms.