Hail

Lake Biwa at night
plucking the shamisen
the pounding hail
— Matsuo Basho, Fall, 1684

Lake Biwa / at night, the three string shamisen / sounding (like) the sound of hail
琵琶湖の / 夜や三味線の / 音あられ
Biwakō no / yo ya shamisen no / oto arare

Did he like it?

In the first year of the Jōkyō (1684), on the journey of Nozarashi Kiko, in Ogaki, near the waters of Lake Biwa, at a gathering at Nyogyō’s house, Nyogyō was invited to play a Japanese shamisen. (Background Source: Yamanashi-ken)

(Shamisen 三味線, a three string instrument that sounds something like a banjo.)

琵琶湖の / 夜や三味線の / 音あられ
Biwakō no / yo ya shamisen no / oto arare

Do you?

Rocky Mountain High. From the fractured haiku collection.

I did,

I do every damn day.

Do you?

At St Mary’s Glacier, off I-70, past Idaho Springs, five miles or so up Fall River Road, at 10.000 feet and climbing. The doing is going somewhere new.

October 2025

Shigure!

Shigure!
be it rain or drizzle,
it’s bordering on freezing.
— Bashō no yōna, September 2025

In late autumn of the second year of Genroku, September 1690, Basho’s disciples (蕉門 shomon) gathered at an inn or tea house (亭 te) in Iga Ueno. As everyone waited for the hot tea, they shuffled their feet and rubbed their hands in the chilly inn, Basho remarked:

to everyone and even the inn,
the Autumn drizzle
is freezing

人々を . しぐれよ宿は . 寒くとも
Hitobito wo . Shigureyo yado wa . Samuku tomo
— Matsuo Basho, September 1690

Note. Basho had been gone from Edo now for a year. He had completed the long journey into the northern interior (Oku no Hosomichi) in the summer of 1689. He was now spending time traveling around editing his magnum opus, which would not be published until after his death.

The famous Mariko teahouse by Utagawa Hiroshige, Wikipedia

Solutions

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.

Gardening

zinnias

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.

life’s journey

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 nimaking my way in life,
代かく小田のshiro kaku oda no in a small rice patch
行戻りyuki modoriback and forth

Back and forth,
Sowing and reaping,
Seeking answers never found.
— Bashō no yōna, Thoughts on the Dao, 2025