The three line Haiku is an ancient Japanese poetic form that originated from  

the Tanka, a literary game in which one person wrote three lines and the other 

the last two. Basho is considered among the greatest Haiku poets and became  

a Zen Buddhist in his later years. Many later poets incorporated Basho’s 

passionate love for Zen philosophy into their Haiku. Haiku are full of allusions 

and double-meanings, but the reader is meant to co-create the poem by adding 

her own words. 

Parthenia M. Hicks, M. Div. is the Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, CA and Enlightenment Journal's  

poetry editor. Her most recent publications include Remembering: An Anthology of Poems and Sweet 

Obsession: The Art of Lynn Powers. 

Moonlight slanting 

Through all this long bamboo grove...
And nightingale song
Basho

Good morning, Sparrow...
Writing on my clean veranda
With your dewy feet
Shiki

Silent cherry-bloom...
Again with your old eloquence
Address my inner ear
Onitsura

POETRY: The Spirit of Haiku