...first autumn morning
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.
the wind chills
one sleeve...
autumn rain
ISSA
from the roof's overhang three drops... first autumn morning
ISSA
rain is over-- on the post a splendid mushroom
ISSA
no one travels along this way but I, this autumn evening
BASHO
before the white chrysanthemum
the scissors hesitate
a moment
BUSON
my eyes,
having observed everything,
returned to the white chrysanthemum
BUSON
