Issa was a prolific writer of both poetry and prose. He treated his subjects with humor, excelling particularly at affectionate portrayals of such creatures as fleas, frogs and sparrows. During his lifetime Issa wrote over 20,000 haiku. Close observations of nature and passing but meaningful personal incidents depict his feelings. In poems based on his own life Issa often used words of the daily conversations.
Existence is a continuous struggle to remain simply one foot high.
The Year of My Life was written during the relatively calm period in the poet's life. However, Issa's later years were filled with sorrows, when his wife and other children died and his property was destroyed by fire. Japan's most popular unrhymed poetic form. Haiku consist of 17 syllables arranged in three lines containing five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. Traditionally the haiku focused on the natural world, the fleeting moment, but then it became a vehicle to express a wide range of of attitudes about almost any subject.