“A certain scholar named Mr. Wang
Was laughing at my poems for being so clumsy.
‘Don’t you know you can’t have two accents here?
And this line has too many beats.
You don’t seem to understand meter at all
But toss in any word that comes to mind!’
I laugh too, Mr. Wang, when you make a poem,
Like a blind man trying to sing of the sun.”
Han Shan (translated by Burton Watson)

Verse comes unbidden,

But not without receiving

Warm invitations.

My name is Han-shan

In my imagination

Cold Mountain my home

(via Twitter / John Hicks)

Back Roads to Small Towns

Not what Basho had in mind

Riding 301

Today’s first haiku

Can not be recalled to mind

Dreamt of before waking