Jisei, or
death poetry, is not poetry about death, precisely, but a sort of
farewell poem to life. It was somewhat of a
tradition in
China (right up to the
20th century, see
Qiu Jin), but reached its
refinement in
Japan and
Japanese Zen. Most were written in the
tanka form, though some were just the length of the opening part of a tanka (
haiku). Some were written nearly at the
moment of death, though probably far fewer than were later related that way.
Naturally,
impermanence is a theme,
mono no aware and
bittersweetness, but sometimes the poems seem to
smile: one I'll paraphrase as "Ah! A beautiful, sunny
autumn day. There's a nice time to die!" For these reasons, reading such poetry is often a part of
Zen study.
Any good collection of Japanese poetry will include several death poems, and there is also a book devoted to the topic. The range of poems is so wide I'm just going to pick two to include here.
Plum blossoms falling
I look up: The sky,
a crisp, clear moon.
-- Baiko
Frost on grass:
a fleeting form
that is/is not.
-- Zaishiki
for John Locke, who didn't introduce me to jisei, but made me see its sometime smiles