Imagine, it's the early 1900s in Japan. You peer through a bamboo forest to a clearing where a group of Reiki practitioners, lit by a full moon, sit serenely with their hands raised in gasshō meditation. As you come closer you realise they are reciting rythmnic words. It is waka—traditional Japanese poetry that carries the spiritual essence of their practice, their culture and their imperial heritage. Poetry? You ask yourself. What does poetry have to do with Reiki?