Best Basho Poems

this wind

how it changes direction -

my fickle mind


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Basho Inspired Haiku Contest

© 8th January 2022...

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Scrolls rolled at his feet
He sits, watching life unfold
His pen drips beauty...

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I find you in an old silent pond,
The imagery you've left will outlive all,
With nature,your immortal bond
You will stand like a kiri tree tall.

You, the gem of haiku,
Your name be echoed in Fuji's peak,
Mogami river shall chant your lines
Your praise be sung by the Cuckoo.
The...

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A morning spell 
freshly proposed  
comes quietly in 

yesterday's ambient air   
pushes out of the screen 
archaic puffs of stale   

what meanders out   
is the remnants of me  
before the crisis   

caught between  
hope...

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Dusk-gliding swallow, 
please spare my small friends
flitting among the flowers! 
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

A bee emerging
from deep within the peony's hairy recesses
flies off, sated
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

That dying cricket, 
how he goes on about his life! 
—Matsuo Basho translation...

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Matsuo Basho New Haiku Translations

Air ballet:
twin butterflies, twice white,
meet, match & mate
—Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Denied transformation
into a butterfly,
autumn worsens for the worm
—Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Dusk-gliding swallow,
please spare my small friends
flitting among the flowers!
—Matsuo Basho, loose...

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The first soft snow: 
leaves of the awed jonquil 
bow low
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

Come, investigate loneliness! 
a solitary leaf
clings to the Kiri tree
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

The cheerful-chirping cricket
contends gray autumn's gay, 
contemptuous of frost
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R....

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Basho wrote it like this...

in autumn moonlight
the worm digs so silently
into the chestnut


If I were Basho I might write it like this...


in the desert heat
coyotes scream so wildly
echo through the sage


both haiku - 5/7/5

(coyotes - pronounced ky-oats)...

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POEM BY BASHO

We were quiet now,
still breathing deeply from
the sexual exertions of our
late middle age, guided by
the music, gliding toward a
landing through the ambient
haze of unconditional love

The Japanese singer with the
black eyes and hair and the
rising sun mouth, lived her 
rhythm and blues through the...

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SAD

   newborn deer
   life is fragile
   it died





    08/01/2022
    HAIKU CONTEST inspired by BASHO
    Sponsored by: Damned I-Be...

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Spirit of Basho_
breathing in and out 
of gases
to haiku writers...

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BASHO
Three hundred years passed—
Basho's frog still goes kerplunk. 
He's still much with us. 

Three hundred years passed—
Basho's frog still goes kerplunk. 
Can you hear him yet?

Three hundred years passed—
Basho's frog still jumps— 
kerplunk. 
Can't you hear him now?

Basho could hear it. 
A frog, strangely eternal,
an...

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Heart’s Love Speech



My girl (archaic)
has my raincoat.

And I...
Well, I (adverb)...
have never been so -
Happy (pronoun)

to sit outside,
pondside,
in the rain (verb).
Just me and (subordinating conjunction) Basho (pronoun) (archaic).

Drenched,
smiling (preposition)...
I’ve all but - “Yauoooosh!” (interjection) jumped in....

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The E(n)dge


I leave damp mudprints 
there where I met the shore.

The dragonflies' dances,
the goslings scrammed,
and I for now (or 'lo, for once)
exhaled.  Edges do that.

A turtle somewhere spied me
not spying a frog; quick to leap.
And splash!  My eyes follow my ears.
A biped clown,...

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World's storm clouds unleashed
Wise owls rescue and protect - 
New dawn awakens

################
written 12 January 2022
HAIKU CONTEST inspired by 
BASHO only Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Damned I-Be...

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