From Basho: “When composing a verse let there not be a hair’s breath separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy.”
Tag Archives: haiku
Quote of the day 07/12/25
From Basho: “Sitting quietly, doing nothing;Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”
Quote of the day 07/11/25
From Basho: “Real poetry is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.”
Quote of the day 07/10/25
From Basho: “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.”
Quote of the day 05/13/25
From Kikaku: The beggar! He has heaven and earth For his summer clothes.
Quote of the day 05/11/25
From R.H. Blyth: “Poetry is not iambic tetrameter or what not; it is reality conveyed to us in words, or rather through words, no, in spite of words, and when ‘we see into the life of things,’ we know that our life is reality, our life is poetry, and that these three are and alwaysContinue reading “Quote of the day 05/11/25”
Quote of the day 05/10/25
From Ryokan: You say my poems are poetry? They are not. Yet if you understand they are not,- Then you see the poetry of them!
Quote of the day 04/15/25
From Rikeiho: Desiring to possess the moon, A monk one ladled it out with the water into a vessel, But, reaching the temple with it, found That when he poured the water out, the moon was gone.
Quote of the day 03/30/25
From Basho: “Ah, hanging bridge! Ivy-ropes Entwine existence!”
Quote of the day 01/22/25
From R.H. Blyth: “A haiku is not a poem, it is not literature; it is a hand beckoning, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature.”