Pine/Flowers

so many petunias
and only one pine—
porch light flicks on


This photo reminds me of the elderly widow we met one recent night. As we walked by with our dogs, we stopped to praise her petunias. Her name is Mary and she told us that she was in her 90s but still loved to garden. She was very proud of these petunias that she said grew from only six plants.

It also recalls Bashō's famous quote,“Learn of the pine from the pine; learn of the bamboo from the bamboo.” At some level I understand what the great haiku artist was saying, go to nature and truly experience it, then you can write about it. But it's still a very hard task in this modern world that is so full of noise and distractions. And we (or at least I) are so much less willing to give ourselves the time it takes to really be in nature: to learn about the pine from the pine, the stars from the stars, and the sunflower from the sunflower bending so gracefully down toward the earth after fighting for months to rise above it.

Learn from the Pine Tree

Bashō, considered to be one of the masters of this form, was influenced by the Chinese poets of the T’ang Dynasty (7th to 9th centuries) especially Tu Fu, Li Po, and Po chü-i. He believed that haiku came from a deep observation of nature. What Bashō advised his followers to “Learn of the pine from the pine; learn of the bamboo from the bamboo.”

images by photoeverywhere.co.uk

only July
hedge leaves yellowing--
smell of skunk

Who the heck was Bashō?

trumpet vines
cover a railroad fence
silence of no train


In 17th century Japan, Matsuo Bashō was a teacher of renga who made his living by traveling around Japan teaching people this art. Renga is a linked poem that is composed by two or more people, usually three who alternately add each verse. It was highly competitive. Each new verse had to be related to the previous one as well as take the poem in an interesting new direction. Renga often consisted of 100 verses and could even be as long as a 1000.

Renga started out as a court art but by Bashō's time it had become popular with everyone, including the middle class. Bashō popularized the hokku or starting verse, a three line verse that introduced the renga. A famous poem by Bashō is

old pond--
frog leaps in
water's sound

As you can see from this, Bashō wrote about the natural world but with a sense of humor. He began a series of journeys during which he also introduced another literary form, the haibun, which is a mixture of haiku and prose. He wrote The Narrow Road to the Interior in this form about his travels. Travel in those days in Japan was extremely dangerous and the poet did not expect to survive his travels. Yet he went anyway. The pull of the road or the mountain path.

By the way, the poet was originally named Matsuo Kinsaku. After his followers planted a banana tree next to his simple hut, he renamed himself Bashō after this kind of tree.