On the begging road (an added revision).
sitting in the grass — plain rice, plain rice
kusa ni suwari meshi bakari no meshi
1938–1939 · Yuda · Fūraikyo hut
Sōmokutō · Cold and Alone (Kokan)
Wake to this poem.
Santōka Alarm is an iOS app that wakes you each morning with a single poem.
Set a poem you love as your alarm.
iOS 26+
On the road of mendicant begging, he sits in the grass and eats plain rice with nothing on it. He offers up a meal of bare white rice — no dishes, no soup — in just these few words. A form pared down to the bone, which is itself the very shape of his life.