Lucien Stryk

Basho, one of the greatest of Japanese poets and the master of haiku, was also a Buddhist monk and a life-long traveller. His poems combine 'karumi', or lightness of touch, with the Zen ideal of oneness with creation. Each poem evokes the natural world - the cherry blossom, the leaping frog, the summer moon or the winter snow - suggesting the smallness of human life in comparison to the vastness and drama of nature. Basho himself enjoyed solitude and a life free from possessions, and his haiku are the work of an observant eye and a meditative mind, uncluttered by materialism and alive to the beauty of the world around him.

Haiku of Basho

On Love and Barley

Jeremy Wang

oops at this point i’m cheating a little to hit 100

a clean and simple collection of wonderful poetry! i admit that probably one third of the haiku here are beyond my ability to understand, mostly because of insufficient cultural knowledge. another third consists of lighthearted-feeling haiku that seem like they could have been dashed off in a couple hours. again, probably my own lack of understanding, but that’s how it be!

the remaining third, though: what luscious poetry! such surprising and beautiful moments captured in pure simplicity. basho has a master’s feel for the hiding the unexpected in the third line. if only i could read it in the original japanese and feel the rhythms of his poetry.

On Love and Barley Haiku of Basho

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