Great Wall Haiku

for Basho

both sides
of the Great Wall ...
summer grass

Honorable Mention, 23rd Mainichi Haiku Contest, 2019

Note: The following haiku comes from a haibun in the Hiraizumi section, one of the climactic passages of Basho’s most-read travel journal, Narrow Road to the Interior (Oku no Hosomichi):

summer grass:

all that remains

of warriors' dreams

translated by David Landis Barnhill

Basho

For further discussion, see Poetic Musings: Summer Grass Haiku by Basho