Please, don’t push or shove, take your turn.
Push comes to shove, yes
I’m in no rush, they’ll always be
— Another bus
Bashō no yōna, 2025
Fractured haiku, haiku’d, being and not being Matsuo Basho.
No Rush
Tag: Matsuo Basho
Figuring it out
I figured it out,
Just when I figured it out …
The tape ran out
— Bashō no yōna, December 2025
Partially puzzled
From the fractured haiku collection.
On the anniversary of Matsuo Bashō’s death,
November 28, 2025
partially puzzled,
and warily wondering
what Bashō would think…
The last line could be changed to say, “Would Bashō approve…” But sadly, he’s not here to say.
RIP: Matsuo Bashō, master of the haiku, who died surrounded by friends, November 28, 1694 (age 50 years), Osaka, Japan
After a meal
Let us join Matsuo Basho in Edo. The year is 1683. Perhaps we are at Basho’s humble thatched cottage. More likely we are at the home of a friend as Basho’s haiku suggest he was not much of a cook. Perhaps it is late in the year, a holiday, a sumptuous feast, then desert.
After a meal
watch TV, then nap
— Thanksgiving
A meal is not complete until desert is served. A sweet rice cake called kusa mochi qwrapped in mugwort leaves.
Pale green, hey —
an ear protruding from
the kusa mochi cake.青ざしや草餅の穂に出でつらん
aozashi ya kusa mochi no ho ni ide tsuran
— Matsuo Basho, 1683, age 40
青ざし (aozashi), pale green, the color of young plants or new leaves.
や (ya), used to convey emphasis.
草餅 (kusa mochi), a sweet Japanese rice cake made with mugwort (yomogi) leaves, a tall green herb. The mugwort is a digestive aide. Basho suffered stomach problems for much of his life.
に (ni), meaning “on”; 穂 (ho), literally “ear” as in the protruding spikes of the mugwort stalk.
出でつらん (ide tsuran), something that has “emerged” or “come forth.”
aozashi ya kusa mochi no ho ni ide tsuran
The Dao – Chapter One
Matsuo Bashō, the 17th-century Japanese haiku poet, didn’t directly write about Daoism. But he did dabble in Buddhism. And he traveled, one imagines, searching for the Way. He died, on November 28, 1694, on the way to the Grand Shrine in Ise, but got no further than Osaka. He was only 50.
Way beyond words, go —
All things arise from one source,
Travel and behold.
— The Dao, as One
Finding One’s Voice
Find your voice
Inspire others
— the Eighth Habit
Bashō no yōna, Thoughts on Matsuo Basho and habits
It is a line from Stephen R, Covey’s book The Eighth Habit, From Effectiveness to Greatness, published in 2004. Covey could have taken a page from the life of Matsuo Basho who, in searching for his voice, went from child, to page, to student, to teacher, to traveler, to Master, and student again, then finally, a Legend.
It was the last in a series of books about 7 Habits. The seven habits being: be proactive, have a plan, prioritize, think positive to win, be empathetic, i.e. learn to listen to understand, then and only then, speak, synergize from strength to strength, finally energize and synthesize, create.
More succinctly: practice, practice, practice, practice how you practice, practice with others, practice together, practice alone, practice to win.
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.)
Biwakō no / yo ya shamisen no / oto arare
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 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
Plum Rain
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.
Washing and Drying
When washing and drying are fun —
The mind churns
Jumbled, a washer mid-cycle
A mess
.
The mind tosses,
A dryer, half cycle,
Still wet
Bashō no yōna, with a little help from his daughter, November, 2024
A metaphor for how the mind works. About an idea half formed, about to become an epiphany. Eureka!
An idea half-formed,
About to become an Epiphany,
— Eureka!
Bashō no yōna, with a little help from his daughter, November, 2024
Thoughts on Washing and Drying
Matsuo Basho had no washer or dryer, just the river or the creek, just the branch and the wind. That way he was one with Nature. Are we losing it?
matsuo-basho-haiku 