73. Issa

American novelist J.D. Salinger includes one of Issa’s 20,000 haiku in his 1961 book, “Franny and Zooey.”

O snail
Climb Mount Fuji,
But slowly, slowly

Haiku is one of the more structured yet approachable forms of poetry.

Haiku consists of 17 “on,” roughly equivalent to syllables in English, arranged in a 5-7-5 “on” structure, and normally written as one vertical line. Traditionally, the poems are characterized by their close reference to nature; the specific reference to a season, either directly or using a seasonal symbol such as snow, falling leaves, migrating birds or flowers; and by the intentional vagueness of meaning.

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According to haiku historian R.H. Blyth, Issa’s poems reflected his focus on simple aspects of nature. The snail was the focus of 54 poems, the toad 15; about 200 poems focused on frogs, more than 200 on fireflies, 150 on mosquitoes, 100 on fleas, and the cicada got about 90 poems.

big field
my New Year’s walk
follows holes made by canes

/ Frank Daniels, The Tennessean