Selected Haiku by Issa

Don’t worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually.


New Year’s Day—
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.


The snow is melting
and the village is flooded
with children.


Goes out,
comes back—
the love life of a cat.


Mosquito at my ear—
does he think
I’m deaf?


Under the evening moon
the snail
is stripped to the waist.


Even with insects—
some can sing,
some can’t.


All the time I pray to Buddha
I keep on
killing mosquitoes.


Napped half the day;
no one
punished me!

-- Robert Hass