This book is a guided tour through the work of Japanese haiku master Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), gathering together in one text his most effective and evocative verses. After an introduction to Issa's poetry and life, the translator, David G. Lanoue, presents 1,210 haiku culled from his on-line archive of 10,000. Lanoue writes, "Issa is a poet who speaks to our common humanity in a way that is so honest, so contemporary, his verses might have been written this morning. Bashô is the most revered of the haiku poets of Old Japan, but Issa is the most loved."