these are poems that were either written by poets who declared this their "death poem" or poems that were written to
commemorate and honor a haijin who has passed away...
On a journey, ill:
my dream goes wandering
over withered fields
- Basho ( 1645-1694 )
Of late the nights
are dawning
plum-blossom white
- Buson ( 1715-1783)
Now it reveals its hidden side
and now the other- thus it falls
an autumn leaf
- Ryokan ( 1746-1831 )
end of a long day
the old bartender's feet
take the floorboards home
- Jerry Kilbride ( 1930-2005)
in the old schoolbook
red leaves, waxed and pressed
by these wrinkled hands
- Helen Dalton
( 1901-2004 )
