Bashō Variations

The following three poems are from The Bashō Variations, Toronto, Ontario: BookThug, 2007. “A Lewis Carroll Bashō” is “for Jean-Jacques Lecercle” and is from page 52. “Hamlet’s Bashō” is from pages 58–59. And “Elegy Written by a Country Duck Pond” is from page 61.

by Steve McCaffery

A Lewis Carroll Bashō

Alice through the Looking-Pond

where no word means the same thing twice

Hamlet’s Bashō

To

jump

or

not

to

jump,

that

is

the

ques

tion;

wheth

er

’tis

no

bler

that

a

frog

should

suf

fer

the

waves

and

ripples

of

out

rage

ous

wa

ter

or

take

its

legs

in

to

a

pond

of

troub

le

and

by

de

scend

ing

wet

them.

To

swim,

per

chance

to

drown,

aye

there’s

the

rub.

Elegy Written by a Country Duck Pond

The curfew

tolls the

knell of

parting day,

The lowing

herd wind

slowly o’er

the lea;

a bullfrog

by its

pond decides

to stay,

but jumps

into it

unexpectedly.