Out of a life lived in the tradition of medeival pilgrimage, with little or no constraints excepting his life as a professional poet and a teacher, Basho refashioned the Japanese art of haiku. He studied the Chinese literature of the day, and his work exhibited a plainness and a depth for which he is noted. He studied Zen and became a lay monk, retreating during the last years of his life more and more into the circle of his students and his meditation.

A crow

has settled on a bare branch-

autumn evening

The crane's legs

have gotten shorter

in the spring rain.

 

 

First day of spring-

I keep thinking about

the end of autumn.

 

 

As for the hibiscus

on the roadside-

my horse ate it.

 

-Basho

Poetry Magazine