Issa gets all the space around here, but I also admire and enjoy
the haiku of the two other great classical Japanese haijin, Basho and Buson. As
the harvest moon wanes, I want to share an example of moon haiku from each of
them. (The first one presented here, from Buson, was the very first haiku that
I went around quoting to friends — to demonstrate just how wonderful haiku can be.)
by Yosa Buson (1716 – 1783)
Such a moon–
Even the thief
pauses to sing.
by Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694)
Harvest moon–
walking around the pond
all night long
and a non-lunar Basho bonus:
Year after year
on the monkey’s face
a monkey face
(translated by Robert Hass
from The Essential Haiku)
Catholic Church’s Index of prohibited books. And since politics are everywhere, I wonder how
being a libertarian squares with being a devout Catholic. Sincere inquiries from an apostate.
I wonder if Sun Microsystem’s president-blogger Jonathan Schwartz, or journalist David Kirkpatrick,
has found a way to figure out how many actual people “read” Jonathan’s site (they claim 35,000 a
day), or if we’re getting the usual bloated “hit” numbers.
Update: In response to our recent post, Dennis Kennedy was kind enough yesterday to email me a lengthy explanation for the decision not to include any items from ethicalEsq in a list of materials on alternative billing by lawyers that he and Tom Mighell, composed for the current edition of Law Practice Today, which focuses on alternative billing. I want to clarify that my reason for wanting this weblog to be included on the LPT link list is the different perspective it brings to the topic of alternative or value billing, as compared to the cheerleading found in virtually all other materials, which do not tend to deal with legal ethics or reducing legal fees. Although I did not find Dennis’ explanation to be fully satisfactory, I must note that the Trackback problem at Dennis’ site has been (more than) remedied — thanks, DMK!
haiku heavyweights
