Saturday, April 11, 2015

The Butterfly's Shadow

As ancient as lichen and as new as spring! 
This is a California native iris in bloom during our ginko at Tilden Botanical Gardens.
Lichen are very slow growing and hardly change in appearance from year to year,
while the iris renews itself every spring.
   
on the manuscript
the shadow of a butterfly
finishes the poem

Nick Virgilio
(1928-1989)

Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku, Turtle Light Press, 2012, page 68.

Nick Virgilio was a pioneer of English language haiku, who began writing haiku many years before the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society was founded. He spent most of his life in Camden, New Jersey,
but we were all aware of his famous "lily" haiku, and of his work.

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