Today, today too
somehow getting by these days, still
living in a haze
~Issa*
*cited:
The Spring of my Life
Trans: S Hamill
life’s passages … 11
poetry
monochrome monday
in earth and sky
no grain of dust
snow on the foothills
~Chirin
life’s passages … 10
I remember the days
When dandelions
Entrusted with wishes
Danced above summer fields
life’s passages … 9
Morning and evening
I gazed at
incense smoke –
drifting,
remembering…
life’s passages … 8
simply for all this
as if there was nothing else
early spring sunlight*
*unknown
life’s passages … 7
Though we are parted,
I feel the sounds
of pine trees swaying
with the summer breeze …
on Casper Mountain Peak
life’s passages … 5
Does that bird
think of past times
as it flies, singing
over the shade in the spring…
of weeping willows? ~unknown
life’s passages … 4
See and realize
that this world
is not permanent.
Neither late nor early flowers
will remain.
~Ryokan*
*cited:
Sky Above, Great Wind
Trans: K Tanahashi
life’s passages … 3
Spring has its hundred colors,
Autumn its moon,
Summer has its cooling breezes,
Winter its snow.
If you allow no idle concerns
to weight on your heart,
Your whole life will be one
Perennial good season.*
*cited: The Golden Age of Zen, p. 286
life’s passages … 2
Through the years
I’ve become used to sorrow,
There was not one spring
I didn’t leave behind
the flowers.
~Izumi Shikibu*
*cited:
The Ink Dark Moon
Trans: J Hirshfield & M Aratani
life’s passages … 1
Morning haze
jewels of rain, falling
in a dream
tuesday morning with yosano akiko
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*
*cited: K Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi
a meditative journey 
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