Written for:  Carpe Diem #1528 – Shasei

“The word “shasei” has not yet been invented at the time of Basho, but the idea was there according to what Basho tells his disciples:”

[…] Matsuo Basho advises his disciples: “Learn from the Pine!”To do that you must leave behind you all subjective prejudice. Otherwise you will force your own self onto the object and can learn nothing from it. Your poem will well-up of its own accord when you and the object become one, when you dive deep enough into the object, to discover something of its hidden glimmer. […]

An example of “shasei”, a haiku by Shiki:

Come spring as of old.
When such revenues of rice.
Braced this castle town!

© Masaoka Shiki

“Though this technique is often given Shiki’s term Shasei (sketch from life) or Shajitsu (reality), it has been in use since the beginning of poetry in the Orient. The poetic principle is “to depict the thing just as it is”.”

An example of a shasei haiku by Jane Reichhold:

evening
waves come into the cove
one at a time

© Jane Reichhold

a rainy day
the autumn world
of a border town

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

at sunrise
wandering over the hazy heath
the cry of an owl

© Chèvrefeuille (out host)

Here is my attempt:

tossing leaves
collage of Autumn colors
a wild wind

http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.com/