I can't sleep…
Year’s end,
all corners
of this floating world, swept.
— Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), “Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter.” Translated by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto
Notes:
How lonely it is:
A winter world full of rain,
Rain raining on rain.
— Richard Wright, from “Haiku: The Last Poems of an American Icon”
Photo: DK. Daybreak. October 30, 2020. 6:37 am. Today’s Forecast: Rain. And more rain. 40° F, feels like 31 ° F. Wind Gusts up to 33 mph. Cove Island Park, Stamford CT
And come the dawn,
how slow and easy the Sun-beams
Long legs of a great crab,
move through the sea of mist.
~ Takarai Kikaku (1661-1707), Haiku in Mad in Translation by Robin D. Gill
Photo: 6:06 am. 60° F. Low tide. Weed Ave Stamford, CT.
First blossoms.
Seeing them extends my life seventy-five more years.
~Matsuo Bashō, “haiku 96”, from “Reading Basho with My Ten Year Old” in Paris Review, April 29, 2020
Notes:
Fallen leaves
fall on each other—
rain beats on the rain.
~ Kyōtai, from Haiku: An Anthology of Japanese Poems
Notes: Haiku via soracities. Photo: Rain and Coffee