Yasuhara Teishitsu <br />destroyed all but three <br /> <br />of his <br />3,000 <br />haiku <br /> <br />leaving us with less <br />than 30 of his words. <br /> <br />self critical <br />to a fault <br /> <br />leaves us the saying <br />of the unsayable. <br /> <br />******* <br /> <br />KORE WA KORE WA TO BAKARI HANA NO YOSHINO YAMA <br /> <br />“Ah! Ah! Ah! & “Ah! ” all <br />I can say...breath taken away <br />as Yoshino blossoms! <br /> <br />For Basho this was “the finest hokku ever written.” <br /> <br />Mt. Yoshino has four groves of 100,000 white mountain cherry trees and for three days in April the hill blossoms with an intenseness of white. To behold such a sight...and once beheld...to try to pour its wonder into words...how to say the unsayable! The original first line has an irregular six-syllable first line so I have made all my lines irregular as if broken by the beauty before them.<br /><br />Dónall Dempsey<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/this-one-blossoming/
