I sit and watch the evening moon rise

on full-moon night

behind a tree like a yellow bloom

or a cool fire-balloon

moving slowly up the night air

to pay homage to the Sacred Hair

Relic of Buddha in paradise.

There’s the Old Man pounding rice

 and beside him the Hare,

So no Basho loneliness for me there

but a quiet joy

in the brightening sky

as the moon climbs higher

and it is time to retire.

I get up early from a short night’s rest

to greet the moon now in the west

at its fairest

less than an hour before it sets.

The morning moon breathes

So much tranquility and peace

yet brings a light touch of the sense

of our own evanescence.

Too soon

we leave to itself the morning moon.
 
 

                                                                                          Win Pe