Making a Poem by Quoting Issa

by David Budbill

I am old enough for frosty hair.

The years add wrinkles to my face.

Life is brief; desire infinite.

I, too, am made of dust.

This world of dew

is only the world of dew—

and yet . . .

Oh! and yet . . .

From While We’ve Still Got Feet, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 2005, page 135. In the same book, David Budbill includes the following poem, titled “Green Mountain Woodchuck Landscape Haiku”: “Dirt roads, power lines, / chicken coop, dead cars, trailer— / mountains all around.”