9 death haiku

I don't want to think now about the messy business of death and dying, about powers of attorney and sheltered housing, and still less about the even messier business of caring for someone you might be unwilling to let in.

But then I think how last night I listened to the death haiku that I would wish to have at my own funeral

How leisurely the cherry
blossoms bloom this year,
unhurried by their doom.*




*Death Haiku by Kin'u - Japanese Buddhist Monk who died on the second day of the third month, 1817 at the age of sixty-two. From Cherry Blossoms by Kono Michi: 9 Death Haiku.