Haiku, Take Two

The welcoming cat:

"Come in, sit down, have a drink,

Fat feathered friends."

Issa, an 18th century Japanese Buddhist priest and haiku master, tinkered with his haikus all the time, so I feel free to do the same. There's something I didn't quite like about "plump patio pals", which was yesterday's revision of "fat patio birds." "Feathered friends" is a cliche, but I'm done here.  The photo shows my inspiration, Georgina the cat, taking a time-out from being inspirational. She was caught napping in our new garden window prior to the installation of the shelf and plants.

Issa, by the way, is no relation to Darrell Issa, Republican congressman from California. Issa, the poet, wrote with humor about everyday life--cherry trees, plum blossoms, rain, snow, cats, crickets, fireflies, frogs and fleas. If you want to read Issa's haiku (in translation), visit http://haikuguy.com/issa/. You can also hear selected haiku read in Japanese.

P.S. to "Changing Our Tuner."  The new piano tuner came yesterday and left without tuning the piano. He said that it didn't need tuning! This is amazing, since it's been nearly two years since the last tuning. He said we could call him this summer. While it's wonderful to encounter such honesty, I just hope the small dog poop we discovered today by the front door had nothing to do with his early departure. I suspected its presence yesterday, but couldn't find it.