One Vine

i.

        A hundred different gourds
From the mind
Of one vine.

            --RH Blyth, History of Haiku, Volume One

        Autumn's bright moon

However far I walked, still afar off

        In an unknown sky.

            --RH Blyth, Haiku III:  Summer/Autumn

ii.

My hunter of butterflies

how far
has he wandered today

“Cuckoo!”
“Cuckoo!”
While I meditated
on that theme
day dawned

See! The gleam 
of my fishing line 
of the summer moon

I forgot that my lips 
were rouged, 
drinking 
of the clear spring water

            --Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi,

              Women Poets of Japan

iii.

skylark in the heavens . . .
what do you think
of the boundless sky?

whatever I pick up
is alive --
ebbing tide

without a voice
     the heron would disappear --
          morning snow

            --Gabriel Rosenstock, Poetry Chaikhana: 

               Sacred Poetry from Around the World


iv.

A green willow's quiet, wherever you plant it

Mistaking birds for leaves—lonely, a winter’s moon
           

             --Hirokai Sato

                From the Country of Eight Islands

            

v.

 

All round the rope a morning-glory clings
How can I break its beauty’s dainty spell?
I beg for water from a neighbor’s well.
            

            --Clara M. Walsh  

No autumn colors hint that side of the mountain:  

a one-sided love
            

            --Janice Brown

With no flowers
You are free as a willow
            

            --Faubion Bowers

The butterfly—
What are the dreams that make him
Flutter his wings?
            

            --Donald Keene

I sleep . . . I wake . . .
         How wide
The bed with none beside
            

            --Curtis Hidden Page  
                

                --Faubian Bowers

                  The Classic Tradition of Haiku