12 Short And Sweet Quotes From Haikus

question mark

the length of silence

after a loon’s call

Joyce Clement, Birds Punctuate the Days

love between us is

speech and breath. loving you is

a long river running.

Sonia Sanchez, Haiku [for you]

The light of a candle

  is transferred to another candle—

spring twilight.

Yosa Buson, The light of a candle

The bottoms of my shoes

are clean

From walking in the rain

Jack Kerouac, The bottoms of my shoes

The calm,

Cool face of the river

Asked me for a kiss.

Langston Hughes, Suicide’s Note

Among heart-shaped leaves

the white fish gleams, red tail.

Soft lotuses sleep.

Jennifer Wong, Koi

All the time I pray to Buddha

I keep on

killing mosquitoes.

Kobayashi Issa, all the time i pray to Buddha

In Kyoto,

hearing the cuckoo,

I long for Kyoto.

Matsuo Basho, In Kyoto…

Hammering a dent out of a bucket

a woodpecker

answers from the woods

Gary Snyder, A Dent in a Bucket

If not for the cat,

And the scarcity of cheese,

I could be content.

Jack Prelutsky, If Not for the Cat

Over the wintry

forest, winds howl in rage

with no leaves to blow.

Natsume Soseki