Bashō

by Alfred H. Marks

Swoop!

Green, bug-eyed, wingless, conquering air,

earth-thrusting legs outstretched in triumph;

descending,

striking,

submerging in jade, groundless depths.

And above

the jet thrown high tumbles,

the shaken air composes to silence;

the rings of water spread, strike shore,

return colliding and subside.

From Hiroaki Sato’s One Hundred Frogs, New York: Inklings/Weatherhill, 1995, page 72.