Thursday, September 27, 2012

Haiku: Sudden Shower


Motionless
in a crevice of an old wall - 
a pregnant spider

(Shiki)

Heat in waves - 
in the stones
angry reverberations

(Kyotai)

Sudden shower
and rising from the heat,
the broken-down horse

(Kito)

Lightning!
fleeing up the wall,
the legs of a spider

(Kicho)

Sudden shower - 
clutching the blades of grass
a flock of sparrows

(Buson)

Down a paulownia tree
the rain comes trickling
across a cicada's belly

(Baishitsu)

The tree frog
riding the plantain leaf
sways

(Kikaku)

"It's much too long a day,"
opening its mouth
a crow

(Issa)

The above haiku are excerpted from a book by Stephen Addss, Fumiko Yamamoto & Akira Yamamoto. For a review of this fabulous collection of poetry, click here: Review: Haiku, An Anthology of Japanese Poems.

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