Haiku Poetry

Poems by Basho:

To a prospective student: 

            Don’t imitate me;                                                         Winter garden,

it’s as boring                                                                    the moon thinned to a thread,

            as the two halves of a melon.                                     insects singing.

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             The dragonfly                                                            You could turn this way,

can’t quite land                                                            I’m also lonely

            on that blade of grass.                                                this autumn evening.

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          Lightning flash—                                                        A field of cotton—

what I thought were faces                                            As if the moon       

are plumes of pampas grass.                                      had flowered.

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Coolness:                                                                    His death poem:    

the clean lines                                                                        Sick on a journey,

            of the wild pine.                                                My dreams wander

*******************************                                                     The withered fields.

Poems by Issa:

    New Year’s Day—   

            The toad!  It looks like

it could belch

            a cloud.

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      Evening moon—

they visit the graves

            and cool off.

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            Not yet become a Buddha,

this ancient pine tree,

            dreaming.

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            She’s put the child to sleep

and now she washes clothes

            under the summer moon.

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(about a portrait of himself):  

            Even considered

in the most favorable light,

            he looks cold.

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            Napping at midday

I hear the song of rice planters

            and feel ashamed of myself.

            The crow

walks along there

            as if it were tilling the field.

            The old dog—

listening for the songs

            of the earthworms?

            The holes in the wall

play the flute

            this autumn evening.

Mother I never knew,

every time I see the ocean,

            every time—

What good luck!

bitten by          

this year’s mosquitoes too.

 everything is in blossom!

        I feel about average.

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   The snow is melting

and the village is flooded

with children.

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             Don’t worry, spiders,

I keep house

            casually.

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Mosquito at my ear—

does it think

I’m deaf?

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            Deer licking

first frost

            from each other’s coats.

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            Moon, plum blossoms,

this, that,

            And the day goes.

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            What a strange thing!

to be alive

            beneath cherry blossoms.

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            Under my house                                                    All the time I pray to Buddha

an inchworm                                                                I keep on

measuring the joists.                                                killing mosquitoes.

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            In this world                                                                Having slept, the cat gets up,

we walk on the roof of hell,                                        yawns, goes out

            gazing at flowers.                                                        to make love.

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