CHERRY BLOSSOMS
Spring awakened
only nine days and look —
these fields and mountains
BASHO
Spring —
a hill without a name
veiled in morning fog
BASHO
Spring sun
in every pool of water —
lingering
ISSA
Flower petals
set the mountain in motion —
cherry blossoms
HOITSU
Spring passes —
the last reluctant
cherry blossoms
BUSON
Misty day —
they might be gossiping
horses in the field
ISSA
Not in a hurry
to blossom —
plum tree at my gate
ISSA
Where there are people
there are flies, and
there are Buddhas
ISSA
Foolishly, in the dark
he grabs a thorn
hunting fireflies
BASHO
A Japanese haiku is a microcosm composed of 17 syllables in 3 phrases 5-7-5. Within this limited verse haiku poets are able to express a great variety of feelings and thoughts at times catching the glimpse of eternity through the commonplace. Like the literary associations, the social context of haiku extends the richness of meaning of these brief poems. The strength of Haiku is their ability to suggest and evoke rather then merely to describe.
Zen’s insistence on enlightenment of the ordinary world at the present moment, right here, right now, has both mirrored and influences the haiku spirit. Every poem is located both in nature and time and offers not the idea of experience but the experience itself.
