Originally called hokku, the familiar three-line verse began as the opening of a group improvisation called renga which evolved in Japan in the middle ages. Often creating spontaneously, one poet would speak the first three lines, another poet would add the next two, another the next three and so on until a longer composition had evolved. The poetry used in this collection was written by the most famous Japanese haiku masters, comprising their impressions of the world around them distilled into poetic "glimpses" - brief moments of casual acknowledgement, profound beauty, or gentle sadness. The steady references to the seasons, trees and flowers, the small creatures of nature, the intensity of human relationships, and those quiet moments spent in thoughtful reflection give us an impression of their world and their relationship to it. Contents include: Defeated in the Fray; Enviable Leaves; Over the Ruins; Behind Me the Moon and 23 more.