After the Haiku of Yosa Buson

I describing this little book of poems, David said: “I've written poems "after" someone else's poems for decades. This is the first time, however, I've written an entire book of poems "after" another poet, another book.

I began writing these poems after a friend gave me his extra copy of COLLECTED HAIKU OF YOSA BUSON, translated by W. S. Merwin & Takako Lento (Copper Canyon Press, 2013). In fact my friend gave me this book on my birthday weekend (my 74th) and I've been obsessed with making my own poems from these translations ever since. (I don't read a word of Japanese.) I haven't been this obsessed by a book, and by making my own poems from that book, since I read Red Pine's new translation of THE COLLECTED SONGS OF COLD MOUNTAIN (Copper Canyon Press, 2000).

Here then is a trip around the year in northeastern Vermont inspired by Yosa Buson. It begins in Spring and proceeds to Spring again. I hope these short poems are as delightful and meaningful to you as writing them has been to me.”