Haiku’d, something less than 5-7-5.
.
Let’s all agree.
If you live in a shell
You can’t see what you spot
.
Oh — ladybug, ladybug
Asleep on a leaf
When do you eat?
.
The dew is still wet
The aphids will wait
Breakfast is 24-7
.
An orange shell
And black spots
That’s some defense
August 2025
On the Flatirons Trail near Boulder, Colorado where one has time to wonder.
“There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs.”
— Thomas Sowell, economic, social and political theorist
Variations on Thomas Sowell’s quote as it relates to political and economic policy making and their unpleasant unintended consequences. The solution depends upon the problem and the problems are many.
No true solutions —
Each choice gives and takes back,
Balance in all things
.
No one solution —
The Way flows like a river
Unseen ever changing
.
A true solution
Depends upon the problem
And our problems are too many
Take energy policy for example, oil and gas, coal, wind and solar, uranium, each presents its own challenges.
Like a new car with lane assist:
In all things, balance —
Straight, curving, ever changing
Sticking to the way.
Composed on the trail to the Flatirons outside Boulder, Colorado and far from the madding crowds, where one has time to think and ponder how one keeps on the path.
On Gardening
Haiku’d. A weed is often a flower out of place. A blossom is only pretty until it fades. Nature makes its own choices, and so do I.
I love to garden
But I hate to make
— Sophie’s choice
Bashō no yōna, Late Summer 2025
Haiku’d, messing with Matsuo Basho’s form (5-7-5), making up the rules. How Dao…
Some random thoughts on gardening.
If it’s true that April is the cruelest month (The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot, 1922), then August is the hottest month when gardeners struggle to water. And throughout the season the gardener knows some seeds grow, some plants thrive, some need a little help.
So do I.
A poet getting old becomes like an old dog. Not lazy just waiting for the right time.
.
Intense activity
Sandwiched in between periods of
Deep slumber
Am I watching you
Watching me – you wondering
What the fuck!
.
Am I watching you
watching me, wondering both —
what everything means?
Haiku’d, messing with Matsuo Basho.
Dreams of Zhuangzi. A Grass Skipper to kids, if you wish to be formal, Mr. Atalopedes, simply, a butterfly resting this morning on a Brown-eyed Susan.
By the summer of 1694, Basho was not feeling well and he knew the end was near. As if to sum up his life, he wrote this haiku.
making my way in life,
in a small rice patch,
back and forth
.
世を旅に代かく小田の行戻り
yo o tabi ni shiro kaku oda no yuki modori
— Matsuo Basho, late summer, 1694
As you like it:
traveling this world,
a lifetime working a rice patch,
back and forth
— Bashō no yōna, Thoughts on Basho while walking, Summer 2025
| 世を旅に | Yo o tabi ni | making my way in life, |
| 代かく小田の | shiro kaku oda no | in a small rice patch |
| 行戻り | yuki modori | back and forth |
Back and forth,
Sowing and reaping,
Seeking answers never found.
— Bashō no yōna, Thoughts on the Dao, 2025
Japan’s rainy season is called “tsuyu” 梅雨. It occurs in June and July. Because the plum ripens at this time, the rainy season is also”meiyu” 梅雨. Basho is refering to the fact that sometimes the plums collect mildew and turn sour. The Ume fruit, or plum, is a popular summer fruit. and the riper it gets, the more sour.
Written in Kyoto, in the 7th year of the Kanbun era (1667), when the artist was 24 years old.
Ah, the sound of rain falling —
to the ears, it sounds sour
as it rains, the plum ripens降る音や耳も酸うなる梅の雨
Furu oto ya mimi mo san unaru ume no ame
— the poet who one day become Matsuo Basho, 1667
The poet, then known as Tosei 桃青, meaning green peach.
Travel
Matsuo Basho traveled extensively. And Bashō no yōna likes to travel, but why?
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
— Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, Chapter LXI (61)
Why do we travel?
In the hopes to see others,
As others see us.The wife’s in London
Like ants, tourists swarm the streets,
— ‘Tis time to come home.
Matsuo Basho (1644-1690) did not invent the travelogue in Japan. He did, however, popularize it with the publication of Oku no Hosomichi, a Journey into Japan’s northern interior. His other journeys also became books weaving together observations about what he saw and haiku.
“Days and months are travelers of eternity. So are the years that pass by. Those who steer a boat across the sea, or drive a horse over the earth till they succumb to the weight of years, spend every minute of their lives traveling. There are a great number of ancients who died on the road. I myself have been tempted for a long time by the cloud-moving wind — filled with a strong desire to wander.”
Matsuo Basho, Oku no Hosomichi, the summer of 1689
In other words, travel becomes a voyage of wonder and self-discovery.
What about Alice? Where March Hare says to Alice, “You should say what you mean.” To which she replies, “I do, at least I mean what I say, that’s the same thing you know.” The Mad Hatter counters,
“Why, you might just as well say,
that I see what I eat,
is the same thing as
I eat what I see”!”.
Words matter, they do —
and it’s fun playing with them,
’til meaning gets lost
Let’s be honest
Let’s be real
We are lucky just to be
— Bashō no yōna, 2025
One who traveled as much as Matsuo Basho must have thought about the Tao de Ching, the Dao, the Way. The ways included the Nakasendo Way connecting Edo and Kyoto, the coastal route, called the Tokaido Way that would have taken Basho near his home. Then too there was the shorter Koshu Kaido, that was an alternative of the Nakasendo Way. Then too, Basho and a friend Sora made their own way through Japan’s northern interior and along both coasts. This was the famous Oku no Hosomichi, the book that made Basho famous.
Basho wrote the book, part travelogue, part haiku about his five month journey in the spring and summer of 1689. He spent the next five years editing it until his death in 1694. It was not published until 1702.
It is easier to write
Than edit,
Harder still to publish.
In the blink of an eye,
from here to there
and back again
Yamadera
July 13th, 1689
On May 27th, 1689, Matsuo Basho and his companion Kawai Sora set off on a journey north into Japan interior, then to the coast at Matsushima, and back again across the interior to Sakata, from there south and west along the coast to Osaka.
By July 13th, two months in, the pair had past Matsushima, and reached Yamadera (it translates simply to “mountain temple”) and its mountain Buddhist retreat Risshakuji. To reach the top, Basho must climb the 1,015 stone steps to Okunoin Temple. The noisy village was far behind. The mountain air was clear. His lungs were struggling to keep up. Then, as he gazed out on the valley …
Tranquility …,
then, the cicada’s speaks
deep within the rocks
shizukasa ya . iwa ni shimiiru . semi no koe
閑けさや 岩にしみいる 蝉の声
— Matsuo Basho, Oku no Hosomichi, July 1689
shizukasa (閑けさ), tranquility, a state of peace and tranquility. This is often translated as “silence.” Take a walk along a creek or on a trail that leads up a mountain side. Then, half way there, when it is utterly quiet, you decide.
It is strange, to think that no matter how hard one thinks, one will never know what the cicada thinks. And that, one supposes, is the point of it.
Don’t try so hard.
Risshakuji is known as a Zen Buddhist retreat. Zen focuses on meditation as the key to understanding nature, and awakening one’s inner wisdom. I would say stress, but stress has too many contradictory connotations. In Zen, one must stay calm, relax.
matsuo-basho-haiku 