Fires in the Fall

I saw fires in the rice fields a few nights ago. It brought back memories of the days (before the anti-pollution laws) when the fall air was so thick with the smoke from the rice fields that you could hardly see - or breathe!

Somehow I rather miss those fires!

They remind me of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem:

AUTUMN FIRES

In other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes
The gray smoke towers.

Sing a song of season!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

On the page where I've written Stevenson's poem there's a haiku written in the margin that brings back more memories - very old (and bittersweet)...

It is deep autumn
My neighbor --
How does he live, I wonder.
- Basho