Tea or coffee. For Matsuo Basho, the morning drink was tea. For me it’s coffee.

Brown beans in a bag,
Ground down very fine,
Each drip divine

The smell, the steam,
The sip as I first lift the cup,
A religious rite
— Bashō no yōna, 2025

It is tea time.

Matsuo Basho on drinking tea, or should we say “cha.” This haiku was written in 1691 at Shozui-ji Temple in Katata on Lake Biwa. The eccentric poet and Buddhist monk Ikkyu Sojun (1394–1481) trained here. Nearby deep green fields of tea blanket the fields.

朝茶飲む僧静かなり菊の花
Asa cha nomu sō shizukanari kiku no hana

While I drink my morning tea,
The silent monk is serene,
As a chrysanthemum in bloom.
Matsuo Basho, 1691, age 44

A bonus Spring haiku. One written by Issa, first published in 1794.

茶の煙柳と共にそよぐ也
cha no kemuri yanagi to tomo ni soyogu nari

the steam of tea,
the willow tree together sway
as one