Mark Anderson is chief
editor of www.Tapsns.com. He writes very well and logically.
All our Haiku
Even if I now saw you
Only once,
I would long for you
Through worlds,
Worlds.
izumi shikibu
No different, really --
A summer moth's
Visible burning
And this body,
Transformed by love.
izumi shikibu
In this world
Love has no color --
Yet how deeply
My body
Is stained by yours.
izumi shikibu
Lying alone,
My black hair tangled,
Uncombed,
I long for the one
Who touched it first.
Izumi Shikibu
I like to wash,
By way of experiment,
The dust of this world
In the droplets of dew.
Basho
How many priests
How many morning glories
Have perished under the pine
Eternal as law?
Basho
Should I hold them in my hand,
They will disappear
In the warmth of my tears,
Icy strings of frost.
Basho
An ivy spray
Trained up over the wall
And a few bamboos
Inviting a tempest.
Basho
In the utter darkness
Of a moonless night,
A powerful wind embraces
The ancient cedar trees.
Basho
Orca Friends
The Orca are dying
They're dying so fast
I hope that this tragedy
Really won't last
But as I sit here
At home in my chair
I know that the Orca are dying out there.
Evan Anderson
A good world -
The dewdrops fall
By Ones, by twos.
Issa
The dragonfly,
Dressed in red,
Off to the festival.
Issa
Ducks bobbing on the water -
Are they also, tonight,
Hoping to get lucky?
Issa
Washing the saucepans -
The moon glows on her hands
in the shallow river.
Issa
Wake, butterfly -
It's late, we've miles
To go together.
Basho
Gulping June
Rains, swollen
Mogami River.
Basho
Where cuckoo
Vanishes -
An island.
Basho
June clouds,
At ease on
Arashiyama Peak.
Basho
Sparrow, spare
The horsefly
Dallying in flowers.
Basho
Seeking exalted T,
I fear mem'ry
let my password flee.
SNSer Barry Roach
Crossing the autumn moor --
I keep hearing
Someone behind me!
Buson
Harvest moon --
Called at his house,
He was digging potatoes.
Buson
Buying leeks
And walking home
Under the bare trees.
Buson
Not quite dark yet
And the starts shining
Above the withered fields.
Buson
Autumn moon --
A small boat
Drifting down the tide.
-- Issa
The evening clears --
On the pale sky
Row on row of autumn mountains.
-- Issa
Windy fall --
These are the scarlet flowers
She liked to pick.
-- Issa
The snail gets up
And goes to bed
With very little fuss.
-- Issa
A woman dozing --
The breath from her nostrils
Stirs a cool breeze.
Hino Sojo
Young green leaves
Mirrored in the crystal beads
Of my rosary.
Kawabata Bosha
What a cooling sight --
To see a young maid
Tying up her narrow sash.
Kubota Mantaro
Firefly lights
Link up as a chain of beads
Along the water's edge.
Kawabata Bosha
Like running images
In a kaleidascope
Humans grow old swiftly.
Nishimima Bakunan
A thunderbolt in the rainy season
Carried away
My dearest one.
Nozawa Setsuko
Firefly viewing -
Drunken steersman,
Drunken boat.
Basho
Melon
In morning dew,
mud-fresh.
Basho
Summer moon -
Clapping hands,
I herald dawn.
Basho
Dark night -
Plover crying
For its nest.
Basho
Sparrows in eves
Mice in ceiling -
Celestial music.
Basho
Sleeping willow -
Soul of
The Nightingale.
Basho
Over skylark's song
Noh cry
Of Pheasant.
Basho
The short night --
On the hairy caterpillar
Beads of dew.
Buson
The short night --
Broken, in the shallows,
A crescent moon.
Buson
Dawn --
Fish the cormorants haven't caught
Swimming in the shallows.
Buson
Light of the moon
Moves west, flowers' shadows
Creep eastward.
Buson
A bat flies
In moonlight
Above the plum blossoms.
Buson
Today I sniffed
Many dog butts. I celebrate
By kissing your face.
Bill Murray
A cold rain starting
And no hat --
So?
Basho
Hailstones
Glancing off the rocks
At Stony Pass.
Basho
Taking a nap,
Feet planted
Against a cool wall.
Basho
Under the image of Buddha
All these spring flowers
Seem a little tiresome.
Issa
The woodpecker --
Still drilling
As the sun goes down.
Issa
The moon tonight -
I even miss
Her grumbling.
Issa
My arm for a pillow,
I really like myself
Under the hazy moon.
Buson
In the white plum blossoms
Night to next day
Just turning.
Buson
I love my master.
Thus I perfume myself with
This long-dead fish.
Bill Murray
A Haiku
Readers' inference
Basho's wisdom
Don Brannon
Don't you think it's sad
Snow sometimes pays a visit
But it never stays.
Evan Anderson
Naked mole rat, through
Tunnels of obedience
Works the campus hive
James Plamondon
Pissing in the snow
Outside my door -
It makes a very straight hole.
Issa
New Year's morning:
The ducks on the pond
Quack and quack.
Issa
Winter warbler -
Long ago in Wang Wei's
Hedge also.
Buson, on his deathbed.
A gust of wind
Whitens
The water birds.
Buson
Cut the peony -
Nothing left
In the garden.
Buson
The she cat -
Grown thin
From love and barley.
Basho
Awake at night,
The lamp low,
The oil freezing.
Basho
Wrapping the rice cakes,
With one hand
She fingers back her hair.
Basho
First snow
Falling
On the half-finished bridge.
Basho
Winter rain --
The field stubble
Has blackened.
Basho
The winter storm
Hid in the bamboo grove
And quieted away.
Basho
On the cow shed
A hard winter rain;
Cock crowing.
Basho
A gust of wind
Whitens
The water birds.
Buson
The old calendar
Fills me with gratitude
Like a sutra.
Buson
Leaves some trout,
Knocks, goes on,
The evening gate.
Buson
The owner of the field
Goes to see how his scarecrow is
And comes back.
Buson
A day slow in going
Echoes
In the corners of Kyoto.
Buson
A flying squirrel
Chewing on a bird
In the withered fields.
Buson
Cover my head
Or my feet?
The winter quilt.
Buson
Kochira muke
Ware mo sabishiki
Aki no kure
Will you turn toward me?
I am lonely too,
This autumn evening.
Basho
Kareeda ni
karasu no tomari keri
aki no kure
On dead branches
Crows remain perched
At autumn's end.
Basho
Two rivers
Gentle friction
Several hundred million years --
Not much.
Mark Anderson
Heated spring air
In tiny waves
Of an inch or two -
Above wintery grass.
Basho
Fresh spring!
The world is only
Nine days old -
These fields and mountains!
Basho
Cold as it was
We felt secure
Sleeping together
In the same room.
Basho
Not a flaw there is
On the polished surface
Of the divine glass,
Chaste with flowers of snow.
Basho
As I stand alone
On the beach of Narumi,
I feel the expanse of the sea
That severs me so
From the ancient capital.
Basho
The voices of plovers
Invite me to stare
Into the darkness
Of the Starlit Promontory.
Basho
Struck by a
Raindrop, snail
Closes up.
Buson
In an old pond
A frog ages
While leaves fall.
Buson
On that great temple bell
Stopped from flight and sleeping
The small butterfly.
Buson
For the cuckoo I wait
Here in the capital
Beneath the vain skies of hoping.
Buson
Peony petals fell
Piling one upon another
In twos and threes.
Buson
Hey, sparrow!
Out of the way,
Horse is coming.
Issa
A hazy day --
Even the gods
Must feel listless.
Issa
Not very anxious
To bloom,
My plum tree.
Issa
The moon and the flowers,
Forty-nine years,
Walking around, wasting time.
Issa
One human being,
One fly,
In a large room.
Issa
Flopped on the fan,
The big cat
Sleeping.
Issa
She's put the child to sleep
And now she washes clothes
Under the summer moon.
Issa
That gorgeous kite
Rising
From the beggar's shack.
Issa
Let the cat look into your eyes tonight.
Enjoy: the universe is infinite.
Jules Hayon
Mogami River, yanking
The burning sky
Into the sea.
Basho
Flower under harvest
Sun - stranger
To bird, butterfly.
Basho
Peony -
The bee can't bear
To part.
Basho
Butterfly -
Wings curve into
White poppy.
Basho
Darkening waves -
Cry of wild ducks,
Faintly white.
Basho
Yellow rose petals
Thunder -
A waterfall.
Basho
Cold white azalea -
Lone nun
Under thatched roof.
Basho
Sparrows
In rape-field,
Blossom-viewing.
Basho
Napped half the day;
No one
Punished me!
Issa
Red morning sky,
Snail;
Are you glad of it?
Issa
Bats flitting here and there;
The woman across the street
Glances this way.
Buson
Misty grasses,
Quiet waters,
It's evening.
Buson
In the summer rain
The path
Has disappeared.
Buson
A dog barking
At a peddler:
Peach trees in bloom.
Buson
Very brief:
Gleam of blossoms in the treetops
On a moonlit night.
Basho
From all these trees,
In the salads, the soup, everywhere,
Cherry blossoms fall.
Basho
The dragonfly
Can't quite land
On that blade of grass.
Basho
Ichinaka wa
mono no nioi ya
natsu no tsuki
Around the town
the smells of things --
summer moon.
Boncho
Furin wa
Nara-de tokei no
Atsusa kana
The windchime silent
But the clock ticking -
Ah, the heat!
Yokoi Yayu (1702-83)
Yudachi ya
Kusaba o tsukamu
Mura suzume
Caught in a sudden shower
Huddling sparrows
Vie to get at the grass leaves.
Buson
Shizukasa ya
Iwa ni shimi-iru
Semi no koe
Calm and serene
The sound of a cicada
Penetrates the rock
Basho
Meimetsu no
Izure kanashiki
Hotaru kana
Flickering lights
Of fireflies
Forebode their short lives.
Kawabata Bosha
Iki toshite
Kururu Hiei to
Tsuri shinobu
Ferns hanging
Against Mt. Hiei
Blurred in the gathering twilight.
Hino Sojo
Oku-yama no
Ten o utsuro
Natsu hibari
Summer skylarks
Dart about the heavens
Above the deep mountains.
Iida Dakotsu
Suzushisa ya
Kane o hanaruru
Kane no koe.
Coolness!
The sound of the bell
Leaving the bell.
Buson
Asagao no
Hanada no awaki
Inochi oshi.
I love the rest of my life
Though it is transitory
Like a light azure morning glory.
Tomiyasu Fusei
Yudachi ya
Hadaka de norishi
Hadaka uma.
A sudden shower --
I am riding naked
On a naked horse.
Kobayashi Issa
Ochi-kochi ni
Taki no oto kiku
Wakaba kana.
Young leaves --
The sound of a waterfall
Heard from far and near.
Yosa Buson
Yagate shinu
Keshiki wa miezu
Semi no koe.
Cicadas singing --
No sign
Of dying soon.
Matsuo Basho
Atsukurushi
Midare-gokoro ya
Rai o kiku.
Oppressive heat --
My whirling mind
Listens to the peals of thunder.
Masaoka Shiki
(Summer)
Kogane sabi
Wakaba ni shinobu
Mukashi kana
The tarnished gold
And the fresh greenery
Bring back memories of bygone days.
Miura Chora
mi o nasabaya If only I could change ---
asayu no haru Spring morning and evening
Shohaku
kasamura ni Frightened by a thicket
kawazu kowagaru With a frog in it
yumagure Just at twilight
Boncho
byobyo to Boundlessly
ta no tsura no kaze no Over the surface of the paddies
wataruran A breeze wafts
Koroku
kadoguchi ni At the gate
nara no shita eda no Under the oak the shoots
shigeri kana So luxuriant.
Shiki
machibito ireshi Letting in the awaited one
komikado no kagi Key to the side gate
Kyorai
doshin no Awakening faith
okori wa hana no At the time when blossoms
tsubomi toki Are just in the bud.
Kyorai
Before the light of dawn
A sari flutters
Like an omen.
Kimiko Itami (1925- )
Furin ga A wind chime
taiji no koeni Sounds like the voice
kikoetari Of an unborn child.
Kimi Higa (contemporary)
Skylark on moor --
Sweet song
Of non-attachment.
Basho
Scarecrow in the hillock
Paddy field --
How unaware! How useful!
Basho
A little girl under a peach tree,
Whose blossoms fall into the entrails
Of the earth.
Basho
Morning-glory trailing --
All day the gate -
bolt's fastened.
Basho
The stone is round
The stone I sit on
Arms folded.
Takajo Mitsuhashi (1899-1972)
The amorous cat
Licks at the bowl and quickly
Goes out to cry.
Shuson Kato (1905-1993)
The cat's food dish
The shell of an abalone ---
One-sided longing.
Shuwa (d. 1714)
The old cat
Even without a tail
In love's stance.
Hyakuri (d. 1705)
A butterfly falls
And all of a sudden puddles
Freeze over.
Onishi
Just like
Mom and Dad's pillows
The evening glows
Yasuyo Onishi (b. 1949)
Please get
Your hand out of the pocket --
It's goodbye.
Shinko Tokizane (b. 1929)
Over the driftwood
The things that pass all
Hit the light.
Nakamura
The bamboo cry
Awakening me -- is it morning
Or evening?
Sonoko Nakamura (b. 1913)
A cat's love
Can't even catch a mouse ---
How touching.
Kinpu (d. 1726)
In the middle of my back
I know today's heat
While weeding.
Ichiryu Saito
Tearing up the grass
Dogs get together
In a group and frolic.
Megumi Omura
Passing through the world
Indeed this is just
Sogi's rain shelter.
Basho
I stretch my back
And breathe in deeply --
A young-leaf breeze
Ryukan
Morning and evening
Someone waits at Matsushima!
One-sided love.
Basho
Frog pond --
A leaf falls in
Without a sound
Basho
A view of greenery,
A wild cuckoo,
The first bonito.
Yamaguchi Sodo (1642-1716)
Passing through the world
Indeed this is just
A shelter from the shower.
Sogi
Morning glory trailing --
All day the gate-
bolt's fastened.
Basho
Unknown spring --
Plum blossom
Behind the mirror.
Basho
Spring air --
Woven moon
And plum scent.
Basho
Wearing a sedge hat
A maiden looks in the mirror
Oblivious of picking tea leaves.
-- Kagami Shiko (1665-1731)
On the spring equinox
Clouds wander about
The entrance of a mountain temple.
-- Iida Dakotsu (1885-1962)
Meditating, a poet
Squats in the abyss
Of the ancient cherry blossoms.
Kadokawa Haruki (1942-)
Withered lotus leaves,
Some broken, some not,
Float on the spring water.
Nakamura Teijo
(1900-88)
Grasses are misty,
The waters silent --
A tranquil evening.
Buson
Double cherry blossoms
Flutter in the wind
One petal after another.
Shiki
In the morning breeze
Skylarks
Dance straight up in the sky.
Oshima Ryota
(1718-87)
In my deserted home villae
The old cherry tree
Now in bloom.
Issa
Spring rain --
A thrown-away letter
Windblown in the grove.
Issa
A spring day
A long line of footprints
On the sandy beach.
Masaoka Shiki
A night boat
Sails away
Illuminated by a wildfire.
Issa
A fallen camellia
On a rock
In the rapids.
Miura Yuzuru
Amidst the grassland
Sings a skylark
Free and disengaged from all things.
Basho
Butterfly in my hand --
As if it were a spirit
Unearthly, insubstantial.
Buson
At sunset
The sound of pheasant shootingl
Near the spring mountainside.
Buson
With the cherry blossoms gone
The temple is glimpsed
Through twigs and branches.
Buson
In the spring sea
Waves undulating and undulating
All day long.
Buson
He walked the golden beach
On surf-reflecting sand
As his prints filled behind him
Bill Murray
Frog pond ---
A leaf falls in
Without a sound.
Basho
In my hut this spring,
There is nothing --
There is everything!
Sodo
A view of greenery,
A wild cuckoo,
The first bonito.
Yamaguchi Sodo
1642-1716
No, no, not even the cherry blooms,
Can equal the moon of tonight.
Nishiyama Soin
1605-1682
My span of years
Today appears
A morning-glory's hour.
Moritake
Green willows
Paint eyebrows on the face
Of the cliff.
Moritake
A fallen blossom
Returning to the bough, I thought --
But no, a butterfly.
Arakida Moritake
1472-1549
The spring sea rising
And falling, rising
And falling all day.
Buson
That snail --
One long horn, one short,
What's on his mind?
Buson
Tears
For the wild geese of Sosho;
A hazy moon.
Buson
Lighting one candle
With another candle --
Spring evening.
Buson
Coming back --
So many pathways
Through the spring grass.
Buson
Napped half the day;
No one
punished me!
Issa
Blossoms at night,
And the faces of people
Moved by music.
Issa
Even with insects --
Some can sing,
Some can't.
Issa
Don't know about the people
But all the scarecrows
Are crooked.
Issa, on approaching his village
Full moon;
My ramshackle hut
Is what it is.
Issa
What good luck!
Bitten by
This year's mosquitoes, too.
Issa
No bridge
And the sun going down --
Spring currents.
Buson
By moonlight
The blossoming plum
Is a tree in winter.
Buson
Having reddened the plum blossoms,
The sunset attacks
Oaks and pines.
Buson
Plum blossoms here and there --
It's good to go north,
good to go south.
Buson
From sprouts
They flourish into twin leaves --
The persimmon seeds.
Fumikuni
White dew --
One drop
On each thorn.
Buson
In spring rain
A pretty girl
yawning.
Issa
Face of the spring moon --
About twelve years old,
I'd say.
Issa
The spring day
Lingers
In the pools.
Issa
The world of dew
Is the world of dew
And yet, and yet --
Issa
The two plum trees --
I love their blooming!
One early, one later.
Buson
Spring!
A nameless hill
in the haze.
Basho
Spring rain
Leaking through the roof,
Dripping from the wasps' nest.
Basho
Visiting the graves,
The old dog
Leads the way.
Issa
From the end of the nose
Of the Buddha on the moor
Hang icicles.
Issa
Even considered
In the most favorable light
He looks cold.
Issa
Not yet become a Buddha,
This ancient pine tree,
Dreaming.
Issa
Deer licking
First frost
From each other's coats.
Issa
They end their flight
One by one --
Crows at dusk.
Buson
Blow of an ax,
Pine scent,
The winter woods.
Buson
By a singular stroke
Of luck, I saw
A solitary hawk circling
Above the promontory of Irago.
Basho
Only half the way I came
To the ancient capital,
And above my head
Clouds heavy with snow.
Basho
In the sun
Of a cold winter day,
My shadow had frozen stiff
On horseback.
Basho
Coolness --
The sound of the bell
As it leaves the bell.
Buson
The winter leeks
Have been washed white --
How cold it is!
Basho
If only noiseless they would go
The herons flying by
Were but a line of snow
Across the sky.
Yamazaki Sokan (1464 - 1552)
Everything that was
Has vanished from my aged heart
Leaving not a trace
Iio Sogi
Snow yet remaining
The mountain slopes are misty --
An evening in spring
Iio Sogi (1421 - 1502)
Here,
I'm here --
the snow falling.
Issa
Moon, plum blossoms,
this, that,
and the day goes.
Issa
The snow is melting
and the village is flooded
with children.
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827)
Going home
the horse stumbles
in the winter wind.
Yosa Buson (1716-83)
Tethered horse;
snow
in both stirrups.
Matsuo Basho
How lonely it is
To look at the moon
Hearing in a temple
Eavesdrops pattering.
Soha
In the days
Of the ancient gods,
A mere seedling
This pine must have been.
Tosei
Swift the moon
Across the sky,
Treetops below
Dripping with rain.
Tosei
A wild sea-
In the distance,
Over Sado,
The Milky Way.
Basho
Wild goose, wild goose,
At what age
Did you make your first journey?
Issa
( 1763-1827 )
The long, long river
A single line
On the snowy plain.
Boncho
Traveling at Light Speed
We stand still
Forever our souls searching
Steve Waite
The leafless cherry,
Old as a toothless woman,
Blooms in flowers,
Mindful of its youth.
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
Night deepens
With the sound
Of a calling deer,
And I hear
My own one-sided love.
Ono no Kamachi (834-?)
The moon is the guide,
Come this way to my house,
So saying, invites
The host of a wayside inn.
Matsuo Basho (1644-94)
Breaking the silence
Of an ancient pond,
A frog jumped into the water -
A deep resonance.
Matsuo Basho (1644-94)
I passed by the beach
At Tago and saw
The snow falling, pure white,
High on the peak of Fuji.
Yamabe No Akahito
( 8th Century )
In the Bay of Sumi
The waves crowd on the beach.
Even in the night
By the corridors of dreams,
I come to you secretly.
Fujiwara No Toshiyuki
( 880-907 )
I wish I were close
To you as the wet skirt of
A salt girl to her body.
I think of you always.
Yamabe No Akahito
( 8TH Century )
Out in the marsh reeds
A bird cries out in sorrow,
As though it had recalled
Something better forgotten.
Ki No Tsurayuki
( 882-946 )
I can feel the loneliness
Grow in my mountain village
When the flowers and the eyes
Of men have both gone away.
Minamoto No Muneyuki
( 10th Century )
No, the human heart
Is unknowable.
But in my birthplace
The flowers still smell
The same as always.
Ki No Tsurayuki
(882-946)
Like a wave crest
Escaped and frozen,
One white egret
Guards the harbor mouth.
The Emperor Uda
( 9th Century )
I send you a box
Of glowing pearls.
Wear them with irises
And orange blossoms.
Otomo No Yakamochi
(718-785)
From the dream where we made love
my laughter called me back
and I searched all around me
my eyes full of tears.
Anonymous Geisha song
The hair ornament of the sun
has sunk
into the legendary sea.
Mitsuhashi Takajo
(1899-1972)
When I pour sake
for the man I love
even before he drinks up
I blush like a cherry blossom
Anonymous Geisha song
O flower garment!
When I take it off,
various strings coil around me.
Sugita Hisajo
(1890-1946)
Towards the starry sky,
apples go flooding
from the pile.
Hashimoto Takako
(1899-1963)
I got up and opened the shoji
and looked out on the full moon night
but there was nothing there
but a cuckoo crying to himself.
Anonymous Geisha Song
On the road through the clouds
Is there a short cut
To the summer moon?
Den Sute-Jo
(1633-1698)
My hunter of dragonflies,
How far
has he wandered today?
Fukuda Chiyo-Ni
(1703-1775)
My heart is like the sun,
drowned in darkness,
soaked with rain,
beaten by the winds.
Yosano Akiko
(1878-1942)
I do not consider myself worth counting,
but sometimes even for me
Heaven and Earth are too small.
Kujo Takeko
(1887-1928)
From the North send a message
on the wings of the wild geese,
written again and again
by their flight across the clouds.
Murasaki Shikibu
(974-1031)
It would have been better that I slept
the whole night through
without waiting for him,
than to have watched
until the setting of the moon.
Akazome Emon
(?-1027)
A snowy morning
Everywhere II,II,II (two,two,two)
The tracks of clogs.
Den Sute-Jo
(1633-1698)
I have the delusion
that you are with me
as I walk through the fields
of flowers, under the moon.
Yosano Akiko
(1878-1942)