Zen Plums in Red Wheel Barrows

Moonlight slants through
The vast bamboo grove:
A cuckoo cries

Basho (17th C. Japan)


Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.


This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

William Carlos Williams (20th C. New Jersey)

Bamboo Haiku

Toad
Be so kind as to move to one side
And let me plant these bamboos

-- Chora

Bright droplets in the morning!
Sound of the dew
Dripping in the bamboo

-- Buson

A gust of winter wind
Rushing through the bamboo
And suddenly calm

-- Basho