The heart of Issa: my "Cup-of-tea" (Part One)
Animal Rights Poetry By Heidi Stephenson From All-Creatures.org

caged bird –
watching the butterfly
with envy

sow stares through crate bars
remembers ancient woodlands
(when her will was free)

 

first snowfall –
soon to be boiled
the playful pig

male calf born today!
(he’ll be shot through mouth tomorrow)
human milk snatchers

 

the year ends –
how long will that turtle
hang there?

badger slumped on verge
bullets pepper his soft chest
victim of sick lies

 

the sold pony
looks back at mother…
autumn rain

pregnant Dartmoor mare
sent to Italy for ‘meat’
summer’s post-card girl

 

boars and bears
are my neighbours
winter seclusion

storm pounds the glass pane...
lambs clinging to oaks in fields
(heart sinks like granite)

 

which one of those
tame cranes
will the arrow hit?

panicked vixen stalls…
they will rip apart her cubs!
bystander turns sab

 

she cries and attacks
the human goblins...
mother sparrow

looking shameful
to the pufferfish
people’s faces

thicket bees
in the next life don’t
be like me

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Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) known by his pen name Issa (“Cup-of-tea”) was one of Japan’s four great haiku masters. His compassion and empathy for our fellow beings was legendary. These verses in English translation, which I have interspersed with my own, are from Professor David G. Lanoue’s 2014 book: Issa and the Meaning of Animals: A Buddhist Poet’s Perspective.

©Heidi Stephenson, January 2018