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Haikus

 

1.
New Year’s first snow -- ah --
just barely enough to tilt
the daffodil

2.
The first fallen snow
is barely enough to bend
the jonquil leaves

3.
Winter evening snow 
the uncompleted bridge is all 
an arch of whiteness

4.
Even that old horse
is something to see this
snow-covered morning

5.
Winter showers
even the monkey searches
for a raincoat

6.
Winter gusts
strop the crag
through a gap in the cedars

7.
Watching for snow,
the boozers’ faces –
a flash of lightning

8.
Ice in the night –
the water jar cracks,
waking me

9.
What luck!
The southern valley
Makes snow fragrant

10.
I'm a wanderer
so let that be my name-
the first winter rain

 

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(Considered the finest writer of Japanese haiku, Basho is the pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa (1644-94). He was born into a samurai family, among nobility. But he rejected that world and  became a wanderer; studying Zen, history, and classical Chinese poetry.)