Before embarking on yet another journey, less than a year after returning from his last, Matsuo Basho sold his house. In The Narrow Road to the Deep North he wrote, "Upon the threshold of my old home, however, I wrote a linked verse of eight pieces and hung it on the wooden pillar." In 17th century Japan it seems that everyone went about writing and reciting haiku.
was it everyone
or just a self-selecting few
like folk singers, rappers, or monks
these poets animating
the mundane with bright
little blossoms of words
along the northbound river
flocks of leaves collect
whispering of winter
old shakuhachi woman
sits among the grasses and the crickets,
soaking in the last autumn sun
back home, men hoist motors
onto their backs and blow leaves
into piles on the streets
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