bidding farewell

Posted on Categories Poetry

tumbling to earth

an apple falls close to the tree

farewell and renewal

©️2018 Ontheland

falling to the ground

a flower closer to the root

bidding farewell

©Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

~

tears flow

falling to the ground

autumn leaves

©Chèvrefeuille

Chèvrefeuille posed an interesting challenge: “revise” the above haiku by the venerable Basho.  As I understand, a “revision” in this challenge means to express in different words some of the essence of the original haiku. It is thought that Basho wrote his poem when a special teacher died. He makes use of the Japanese proverb, “a flower goes back to its root”. I decided to allude to another saying: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. In the end, my appreciation grew—for both Basho’s and Chèvrefeuille’s haiku.

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Published by Janice

My name is Janice.  I started blogging as Ontheland when I moved from Toronto to a rural area near Kingston, Ontario in Canada.  Over time I have found myself writing poetry, mostly in Japanese forms, such as haiku and haibun.  One of my deepest interests is the natural world: the joy of it and how we can look after it better.

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