Who speaks the sound of an echo?
Who paints the image in a mirror?
Where are the spectacles in a dream?
Nowhere at all — that’s the nature of mind!
~Tree-Leaf Woman*
*cited:
Women in Praise of the Sacred
Ed: Jane Hirshfield
life’s passages … 60
poetry
life’s passages … 56
My abode is
in winter seclusion
on this white mountain in Echigo.
No trace of humans
coming or going.
~Ryokan*
*cited:
Sky Above, Great Wind
K Tanahashi
life’s passages … 55
Forgetfulness is the darkness,
mindfulness is the light. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
life’s passages … 54
What is in front of my eyes
changes into a scene of the past —
a winter shower!
~Buson (Y Sawa & E Shiffert, Haiku Master Buson)
life’s passages … 50
Not for stilts
but as a cane
bamboo serves me now,
I who call to mind
the games of childhood.
~Saigyo (B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
life’s passages … 49
sunset silhouette
leafless branches — in the sky
an ink-line drawing
life’s passages … 48
In the aging house,
crookedness of the door being straightened,
a spring-like winter day.
~Buson (Y Sawa & E Shiffert, Haiku Master Buson)
life’s passages … 44
The depth of the hearts
Of humankind cannot be known.
But in my birthplace
The plum blossoms smell the same
As in the years gone by.
~Ki no Tsurayuki*
*cited:
life’s passages … 42
the lantern blown out —
the sound of the wind
through the leaves ~Shiki*
*cited: J Hardy, Haiku Poetry Ancients & Modern
life’s passages … 41
If I should live long,
Then perhaps the present days
May be dear to me,
Just as past time filled with grief
Comes quietly back in thought.
~Fujiwara no Kiyosuke
life’s passages…39
his traveling hat
looking small…
mist ~Issa*
“his traveling hat.” The hat in question is a kasa: umbrella-hat. I picture Issa watching travelers departing in the early morning–perhaps from an inn. As their bodies blend in with the spring mist, all he can see now are the outlines of their umbrella-hats growing smaller and smaller. In this early haiku he shows that he has already mastered the art of using simple observation to suggest depths of meaning and feeling. Like Issa, we shall miss those who go before us, fading into nothing.
*cited: haikuguy.com
life’s passages … 38
Day by day, day by day, and day by day,
quietly in the company of children I live,
In my sleeves, tiny embroidered balls, two or three.
Useless, intoxicated, in this peaceful spring.~Ryokan*
*cited:
Sky Above, Great Wind
K Tanahashi
a meditative journey 
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