For today’s “Carpe Diem Utabukuro” I’m going to reflect upon one of the most wonderful haiku poets – Issa.
Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶) was a Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest of the Jodo Shin… but we don’t need an introduction is Kobayashi Issa who we have seen often at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
These are some of my favourite haiku by Issa:
The moon tonight —
I even miss
her grumbling.
In this world
we walk on the roof of hell,
gazing at flowers.
A cuckoo sings
to me, to the mountain,
to me, to the mountain.
Blossoms at night,
and the faces of people
moved by music.
© Kobayashi Issa
@)–>–>—
the swallows
chattering at sunrise
– terrible gossips
this hot summer
welcoming rain drops
at midnight
goldfish
thinking it’s in the ocean
swims freely
swatting at mosquitoes
conveniently forgetting
thou shalt not kill
© G.s.k. ‘15
For more haiku by Issa please click this LINK
Bastet and Sekhmet's Library 
Ha..almost tongue-in-cheek there, nice mirror with Issa’s
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A fine compliment … he’s such a fine artist it’s hard to follow him … I really enjoy his work and wish I had his talent when it comes to the a-ha phrase!
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I love these Issa haiku. Ha… a few of us are getting a bit biblical…thou shalt not kill except for the mosquitoes:)
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That last haiku was inspired from Issa’s:
All the time I pray to Buddha
I keep on
killing mosquitoes.
😉
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Lovely Cara, so much of Issa in your reflections and suits you so well:)
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Thanks Oliana … glad you think so!
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Love all of this–especially the goldfish in yours; and Issa’s 2nd stanza–walking on the roof of hell definitely resonates for me.
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That was my first choice and then I decided to just go for a total Issa post … I would have written something like this for that haiku:
fields of poppies
each bloom another soldier
in Flanders …
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Oh my, each one made me say wow!
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🙂 I’m very pleased about that!
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Wonderful! Loving the video — and you’ve captured Issa so nicely. Joyful! 🙂
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Thanks Jen … reading the other posts I see everyone chose a single haiku … I got carried away … it like with potato chips hard to stop with just one!
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Once you pop, you can’t stop? (Pringles … LOL!!!)
But hey — who can choose just *one* Issa haiku? Understood completely 😉
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🙂 Cool, I’d never heard a Pringles commercial – I think mine came from an old Lays potato chip commercial [bet you can’t eat just one] 😉
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Yes — that was Lays!
Of course, here in “Peeay” it’s UTZ country …. so don’t tell on me 😉
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Ah … believe it or not I saw the first Lays potato chip commercial when I lived in New Jersey way back in 1962 or 1963 … what things stick with us from our youth.
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I can believe it … remembering commercials vividly from when I was little… Like the Red Lobster commercial with a row of actors doing high kicks, singing “we’ve got crab legs”!
While wearing crab legs.Weird, man. Weird. olO
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Geez … I think that would have stuck to my memory for sure …if nothing else with a sort of a nightmare quality!
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Some time I’ll have to tell you about the Easter Bunny commercial. I can’t hear “here comes Peter Cottontail” without getting the heebie jeebies … 😉
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Oooooo … maybe it’s on YouTube … I’ve seen some really weird commercials there …
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Local church here …. I was scarred … scarred for life! 😛
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Oh my ….
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Grumbling moon and gossiping swallows.. perfect!
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🙂
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