Matsuo Bashō

Hello. My name is Matsuo Bashō, and I am a poet. I was born in a beautiful country called Japan a long, long time ago, in the year 1644. Ever since I was a little boy, I loved looking at the world around me. I loved to see the bright moon in the night sky. I also loved the quiet ponds and the little green frogs that hop nearby.

I do not write long stories. I write very short poems called haiku. A haiku is like a tiny picture made of words. With just a few words, I can tell you about a frog jumping into a pond with a 'plop.'. I can also write about a cherry blossom petal floating on the wind. Around the year 1680, many people liked my poems. I even started teaching others how to see the world and write their own tiny poems.

To find new things to write about, I went on long walking adventures. I walked all over Japan. I would walk for many days, sleeping in new places and meeting new friends. In 1689, I took my most famous journey to the north. Seeing tall mountains and hearing the quiet sounds of nature gave me so many ideas for my haiku.

I lived to be 50 years old, and I filled my life with walking and writing. Today, children and grown-ups all over the world still read my tiny haiku poems. They help people slow down and look closely. My poems help them see the big wonders hiding in small moments, like a single drop of morning dew on a leaf.