january’s frost
should I hold them in my hand,
they will disappear In the warmth of my tears,
icy strings of frost ~Basho*
a day in January
where I planted seeds
oh well!
morning frost~Issa**
Cited In:
*http://thegreenleaf.co.uk
**www.the haikuguy.com
leaf in infancy l
leaf in infancy ii
You can learn about the pine only from the pine, or about the bamboo only from bamboo. When you see an object, you must leave your subjective pre-occupation with yourself; otherwise you impose yourself on the object, and do not learn. The object and yourself must become one, and from that feeling of oneness issues your poetry. However well phrased it may be, if your feeling is not natural—if the object and our self are separate—then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit. ~ Basho*
On New Year’s Day
each thought a loneliness
as winter dusk descends ~Basho
Along my journey
through this transitory world,
new year’s housecleaning ~Basho
*cited in Issa’s The Year of My life. Trans: Nobuyuki Yuasa
Oh leaves, ask the wind which of you
Will be the first to fall. ~Soseki
Along this road
Is none but I
This autumn eve. ~ Basho
cited in Jonathan Clements, The Moon in the Pines
i like to wash,
the dust of this world
in the droplet of dew ~Basho
droplets forming
on the morning-glories
sitting still ~ Issa
the autumn wind
more white
than the rocks in the rocky mountains ~Basho*
*www.thegreenleaf.co.uk
a meditative journey 
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