Spring Haiku

Long conversations

beside blooming irises –

joys of life on the road

First day of spring

I keep thinking about

the end of autumn.

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April is national poetry month. I know very little about poems, but I find I like some haiku. Perhaps because they are short enough to memorize, but probably mostly because they remind me of Japan. Reese, that first one was written by Basho most likely on his trip to the garden/temple at Hiraizumi that the Koizumi's took us to that August you came to visit.

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I especially like the second one. And I find myself quoting it (in my head mostly) rather often.

For me, the first day of fall, winter, and spring, all had me thinking about the end of May rather than the end of autumn, but so much of my life is spent like that. The first day of something I should be enjoying, but my thoughts and hopes are stuck on the next thing I either look forward to (May) or dread (the end of autumn and another long winter). I think I read somewhere that this was Basho's way of dwelling on death, but I don't have to take it that way do I?

How about you? Do you have a favorite haiku or poem of any kind? Please share