Slow Time

On the windowsill
A week’s faded carnations
Beyond, snowy fields

Favorite Basho Poems

I received some upsetting personal news and am not feeling creative today, so I thought you might enjoy some of my favorite haiku by Basho instead. The following were translated into English from Japanese by Sam Hamill:

You weren’t home when I came
even the plum blossoms were
in another yard

Between our two lives
there is also the life of
the cherry blossoms

Just one possession
in this lightly-lived life —
a gourd of rice

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Red Wagon

The rusted red wagon
Anchored by granddad on the porch
Once roamed the seas
With little boys battling Midway
And in royal gold filigree
Pulled Ms. Queen the border collie
On bumpy London cobblestones
It cradled the sod for mom’s petunias
And spilled with cloying sweetness —
A childhood Garden of Babylon.

Dandelions

A bed of dandelions
Has grown
By the back gate

Out of Time

The lavender blooms
On the edge of red autumn
A late arrival

Journey

My thoughts fill with sun and the memories of years past
And though I walk alone along the cherry lane
I shall not look among the new flowers with unease
If the trees renew themselves every year, so must I
My shadow a faithful companion on the journey

Ephemeral

On the wind, the scent of spring
A bed of littered sakura
The hawk strangles his prey;
Death beneath beauty

Magnolia

The magnolia blossoms with pink blushes
Nestled within petals of ivory
Recall to me the romantic notion
Of ladies with porcelain complexions
Coyly staring behind the languid twists
Of wrist to fan, and fan to the bright corners of
Lips amused distantly by their admirers