To Basho the road was not just a literary or religious metaphor. He was a traveller, walking the open road on journeys the length and breadth of Japan. In the twentieth century another Zen Buddhist haiku poet followed in his footsteps. And still deeper - The green mountains. The road is a palpably real experience to Santoka and Basho, as well as a metaphor for one's chosen life-path.
Haiku imagery is always first and foremost a real observation.
It never merely illustrates an idea. It is not simile. The poems that have the most resonance and power, however, are those that are observations which have a symbolic after-taste. All rights reserved.