A bamboo sprout
Picked too soon-
It would bloom in glory
But for man
~Issa (trans: N Yuasa: The Year of My Life)
In the above haiku, Issa has written about imaginary blossoms. Yuasa notes that bamboo sprouts are harvested when they are young and soft and that they bear no flowers even if they are left to grow. After: “alternative facts” Before: “imaginary blossoms”
Many paths lead
from the foot of the mountain,
But at the peak
We all gaze at the
Single bright moon.
~Ikkyu Sojun
little snail
look! look!
at your shadow
~Issa, cited: Haiku of Kobayashi Issa
“me and my shadow…a good match”
I write, erase, rewrite,
erase again,
and then a poppy blooms
~Hokushi
Lost in Translation challenge for this Thursday is to show the effects of red next to black.
Purple butterflies
fly at night through my dreams.
Butterflies, tell me,
have you seen in my village
the falling flowers of the wisteria?
~Yosano Akiko*
Sleeping Enya submitted in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
Did you see in the shadowy woods
a branch grew, leaves came out
of a girl’s pliant extended arms
and quickly became a tree?
Did you see?
A youth stood by the tree,
took off his deep blue coat,
and in a moment became a dove?
(The telephone keeps ringing, ringing.
No one answers, nobody is there, today is Sunday)
… ~Shinkawa Kazue*
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
The autumn flowers
of my prayer bear
seeds of paradise
~Kin’ei
My gift to you…a Deer Park Dharmacast
https://soundcloud.com/deerparkdharmacast/2017-01-22-thay-phap-hai
Silently
time passes.
The only life I have
submits to its power.
~Hatsui Shizue
submitting this profile image in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge.
My old body:
a drop of dew grown
heavy at the leaf tip.
~Kiba
I have the delusion
that you are with me
as I walk through the fields
of flowers, under the moon.
~Yosano Akiko*
*cited:
Women of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
Sweet and sad
like love overwhelmed
with long sighs,
out of the depths of the willow
little by little
the moon appears.
~Yosano Akiko*
arboreal
I found myself drawn, not to this tree, but to the shadows playing upon its trunk. Image submitted in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge.
*cited:
Women Poets of Japan
K Rexroth & I Atsumi
a meditative journey 
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