Verse comes unbidden,
But not without receiving
Warm invitations.
“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.”
Verse comes unbidden,
But not without receiving
Warm invitations.
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
