Bashō, the hokku poet

Bashō, the hokku poet Bashō, the hokku poet of Japan, Wandered alone like a ragged cloud. He drifted aimlessly from place to place, Like a nameless riverlet of the Autumn field. Three centuries after his living days, His admirers and followers commemorate him, On this shore of the Pacific Ocean. Even though eighty-four thousand poems Were written in different languages, They cannot delineate the loneliness of pattering rain On an evening in Southern California.                                                 Nyogen Senzaki                                                 Commemoration of Bashō                                                 November 3, 1938                                                 Zen Temple, 727 1/1 E. First Street                                                                        Los Angeles From Eloquent Silence: Nyogen Senzaki's Gateless Gate and Other Previously Unpublished Teachings and Letters, Somerville, Massachusetts: Wisdom Publications, 2008, page 327, shown below, with the author’s calligraphy.