Editorial Advice Poem by Chen-ou Liu

A Haibun for Basho

rejection notice
a sunflower bending
to the wind

"You will notice that we veer away from authorial comment, abstract language, and most importantly, from the imposition of human qualities on the natural world. Instead, we choose haiku that achieve resonance through the juxtaposition of disparate images, credibly present in the same place at the same time."

Sunlight slanting through the window on my coffee-stained desk. Reading Basho's death poem, I can't help but wonder: if he were alive today, would he be published at all?

rewriting haiku --
a scribble of swallows
over the moors