Sleeping with Bashō

by David Trinidad

At the Yam Festival

What a delicious life!

When I cut a sweet

potato in half, I get

the harvest moon.

Stripped Branches

What’s left after the wind

blows every blossom

off the dog cherry—

a tree of wagging tails.

Surrender to the Beauty of Flowers

Be sure to wear

your flowered robe

when you come out

to view the blossoms.

Family History

The bamboo sprout

cares nothing

about the stalk

that produced him.

Wagging Tongues

Every red leaf

rustling

with gossip.

Lights Out

Unhappily,

the new moon

has been sent upstairs

before her bedtime.

Sayōnara

Like wild geese,

we’ll only be separated

by clouds, my dear,

dear friend.

House Call

How come the rich merchant

never sends a horse

to fetch the village poet?

Seeing Is Believing

I found god

in plum blossoms,

not the great blank sky

beyond them.

From Poetry, November 2023. Also from Sleeping with Bashō (Kenmore, New York: BlazeVOX [books], 2024). These poems offer creative riffs on Bashō’s haiku, derived from Jane Reichhold’s translations, as the author explains in the introduction to his book, which you can read, along with a preview of the poems, on the BlazeVOX website. For additional selections from the book, see the Plume Poetry website.       +