Basho

Will you start a fire?

I'll show you something nice -

A huge snowball.

The master haiku Poet Matsuo Basho's ( Edo Period)poem was written by this image on my european art book.

I don't call myself a zen student anymore (dad looking in your direction), but i do still enjoy zen poems and my favorite has always been Basho. The teacher lived all alone in the hut and would listen to the wind blowing through the banana leaves. Some people who visited this teacher of poetry nickname him Basho ("banana plant) Hut. He he was happy to accept the nickname and used it for the rest of his life.

Here's a couple of favorites,

an ancient pond / a frog jumps in / the splash of water.

another year is gone / a traveler's shade on my head, / straw sandals at my feet

even a horse / arrests my eyes—on this / snowy morrow