Escaped the nets,
escaped the ropes—
moon on the water.
This is one of my favourite haiku by Buson. Can everything in the world simply be commodified and possessed? What is it in your own small life that you truly value most?
It reminds me of this story about the Zen monk and poet Ryōkan:
One evening a thief visited Ryokan’s hut at the base of the mountain only to discover there was nothing to steal. Ryokan returned and caught him. “You have come a long way to visit me,” he told the prowler, “and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.” The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away. Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. “Poor fellow,” he mused, “I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon.”
~ ~ ~
Robert Hass (editor), The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson and Issa, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1994, pg. 116.
[...] In this moment, the world and all the things in it cease to be a means to an end (see also this poem by Buson). The world is seen in its [...]