ON New Year’s Day,
each thought a loneliness as
autumn dusk descends
[S.H.]
NEW Year’s first snow—ah—
just barely enough to tilt
the daffodil
[S.H.]
BETWEEN our two lives
there is also the life of
the cherry blossom
[S.H.]
UNDER full blossom—
a spirited monk and
a flirtatious wife
[S.H.]
WITHIN the skylark’s song—
the distinct rhythm of
the pheasant’s cry
[S.H.]
KANNON’S tiled temple
roof floats far away in clouds
of cherry blossoms
[S.H.]
HOW very noble!
One who finds no satori
in the lightning flash
[S.H.]
UNLOADING its freight,
spilling new rainwater,
the camellia bends
[S.H.]
ON a bare branch,
a solitary crow—
autumn evening
[S.H.]
THE housecat’s lover
visits her frequently
through the burnt-out oven
[S.H.]
AT the ancient pond
a frog plunges into
the sound of water
[S.H.]
FOR those who proclaim
they’ve grown weary of children,
there are no flowers
[S.H.]
NOW I see her face,
the old woman, abandoned,
the moon her only companion
[S.H.]
NOTHING in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die
[S.H.]
DELIGHT, then sorrow
afterward—aboard the
cormorant fishing boat
[S.H.]
NOW a cuckoo’s song
carries the haiku master
right out of this world
[S.H.]
A TRAPPED octopus—
one night of dreaming
with the summer moon
[S.H.]
THE bee emerging
from deep within the peony
departs reluctantly
[S.H.]
I SLEPT at a temple—
and now with such seriousness
I watch the moon
[S.H.]
UNDER bright moonlight,
the Four Gates and the Four Sects
are only one!
[S.H.]
DRINKING sake
brings on insomnia—
it snowed all night
[S.H.]
A WHITE chrysanthemum—
and to meet the viewer’s eye,
not a mote of dust.
[S.H.]
EVEN the whitefish
opens black eyes to the law
of Buddha’s net
[S.H.]
On a Portrait of Hotei, God of Good Fortune
HOW much I desire!
Inside my little satchel,
the moon, and flowers
[S.H.]
TREMBLE, oh my grave—
in time my cries will be
only this autumn wind
[S.H.]