Stopping to Smell Flowers with Basho

One of the joys
of travel -- rare
talk about an iris.

Matsuo Basho

I have discovered the writings of Matsuo Basho, the original haiku master, and oh, what joy!

Who could imagine, that in 2009, a gal in Minneapolis would be reading these teeny poems penned by an dude who lived in Japan during the 1600s?

But Basho was not just any dude. He was a dude after my own soul -- he was a traveler.

He packed up all his belongings and hit the road, walking across all of Japan. More than once! And his haiku chronicle his journey.

I especially like this haiku about the iris. He's right. Travel has the power to pull you outside of yourself. Because you're not at home, following convention, travel gives you permission to stare at a flower, talk about it, take its picture and smell it with utter abandon.

Here's a flower picture I snapped in Bangkok. Not an iris, but the purple color reminded me of one...