“The fact that Saigyo composed a poem that begins, “I shall be unhappy without loneliness,” shows that he made loneliness his master.”

Fresh spring! / The world is only Nine days old – / These fields and mountains!

Collecting all The rains of May The swift Mogami River.

Spring rain conveyed under the trees in drops.

The basis of art is change in the universe.

Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of things-mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, and humanity-and enjoy the falling blossoms and the scattering leaves.

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

The sea darkens And a wild duck s call Is faintly white.

Friends part forever wild geese lost in cloud.

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.

Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end – tonight’s moon.

Poverty’s child – he starts to grind the rice, and gazes at the moon.

Winter solitude- in a world of one colour the sound of the wind.

Come, see the true flowers of this pained world.

Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.

He who creates three to five haiku poems during a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who attains to completes ten is a master.

Why so scrawny, cat? Starving for fat fish or mice… Or backyard love?

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

It was like the beginning of life and laughter. It was the real meaning of the sun.

Start Shaky. Start unsure. Start scared. You are writing a brave beginning to this chapter.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

As you awaken to your divine nature, you’ll begin to appreciate beauty in everything you see, touch and experience.

And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?

Life is a miracle. Life is sacred. And when women carry life, we get to become the keepers of some of the Universe’s greatest secrets: beginnings.

Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.