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Saturday, 21 March 2026
Trump crumbling under Iran stress test: Daily Kos
Friday, 20 March 2026
Spring equinox haiku: David McMurray, Chris Faiers/cricket
spring sun
melting children's snow fort
tunnels
frogs croak
spring horniness
April Fools Day
Chris Faiers/cricket: from my collection ZenRiver: poems & haibun, Hidden Brook Press, 2008, and elsewhere
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray
March 20, 2026 at 08:00 JST
budding before spring like showing up early on your first day
--John Xavier (Burnaby, British Columbia)
* * *
vernal equinox--
meeting each other halfway
in search of peace
--Natalia Kuznetsova (Moscow, Russia)
* * *
Bombs explode
then cherry blossoms…
TV news
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)
* * *
cherry blossoms
the dream of peace
unfulfilled
--Christa Pandey (Austin, Texas)
* * *
Last day at work--
beside the cherry tree in bloom
I pause, quietly
--Sanjana Zorinc (Bjelovar, Croatia)
* * *
on the scale
of what I gave and what I got--
cherry blossoms in the wind
--Nicoletta Ignatti (Castellana Grotte, Italy)
* * *
cherry petals
your laughter drifts
through the open door
--Valincia Richard (Itta Bena, Mississippi)
* * *
spring gloaming
between cherry leaves
snapped kite strings
--Sheikha A. (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
* * *
cloudless sky
glasses half full
of cherry blossoms
--Mark Gilbert (Nottingham, U.K.)
* * *
fish and beer
the sleepy coastal town
wide awake at a hotel
--Amoolya Kamalnath (Karnataka, India)
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FROM THE NOTEBOOK
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crepuscular--
in the light of the last leaves
cherry blossoms
--David Cox (Bydgoszcz, Poland)
The haikuist noticed a tree shining brightly just before the sun went down. Murasaki Sagano wrapped herself in a pink-colored wool shawl to go for an evening stroll to view blossoms in cloudy Tokyo.
cashmere stole
which warmed her shoulders
my shoulders
Round white clouds close to the moon shone like silver, while those farther away appeared as dreamy soft as Tsanka Shishkova’s pink chiffon dress.
the perfect dress
on cherry-blossom night...
retro style party
Sagano marked the spring equinox, and start of a three-day holiday, by visiting her family grave.
mountain temple bells
whichever way--flowers
the vernal equinox
Lee Nash worried in Charente, France.
so many lives
hanging in the balance--
spring equinox
Melissa Dennison sailed.
light levels on an even keel spring equinox
Slicing an apple with a kitchen knife in Lodz, Poland, Urszula Marciniak precisely debated the equality of day and night.
March is ending
we share last year’s apple
cut in half
* * *
spring equinox
no more long nights
spent reading
Chen-ou Liu tossed and turned under skylight in Ajax, Ontario.
spring equinox
half asleep, half awake
to twilit skies
Doc Sunday traveled to Nagasaki to see Shimabara Castle. During cherry blossom season, red lanterns on the castle’s 250 cherry trees illuminate the night. On his way home he witnessed a heavenly sight.
On Omura Bay
looking back at the castle--
an angel’s ladder
Isabella Kramer sketched this scene in snowy North Germany.
abandoned castle
through broken windows
a song of early spring
Gilbert visited his hometown in the south of England. Luciana Moretto visited a castle estate near Treviso, Italy.
castle keep
looking down
on the town
* * *
fickle breeze
grazing donkeys--
the peace we need
In Los Angeles, California, Stephen J. DeGuire described the lingering fear of a mirror reflection of feeling, yet not seeing, a limb that had been removed.
twelve full hours
until dark turns light
phantom pain
Arvinder Kaur checked a damaged limb in Chandigarh, India.
the prayer
of a denuded branch
approaching spring
DeGuire will be able to walk steadily again at the autumn equinox.
balancing
in March
equilux
Capota Daniela Lacramioara felt relief in Galati, Romania. Isabella Kramer in Germany and Nicoletta Ignatti in Italy, respectively, described their giddy feelings.
the vernal equinox--
finally, perfection
compulsive obsession
* * *
butterflies in the belly--
Vernal equinox’s chance
for a new dance
* * *
vernal equinox--
butterflies in the stomach
at breakfast
Tony Williams matter-of-factly ate breakfast in Glasgow, Scotland.
my toast
neither burnt, nor pale
spring equinox
An avid birder, Yutaka Kitajima described “one of the best snapshots I took this winter in Joetsu, Niigata.”
A fresh leaf
on the frozen snow...
a white-eye
Korie Beth Brown rearranged a desktop in Los Angeles.
this table
that once held Grandma’s photos
now hold mine
Boryana Boteva described a separation in Sofia, Bulgaria.
their property
divided in two
spring equinox
Marie Derley locked up her love and threw away the key in Ath, Belgium. Giuliana Ravaglia “no longer waits for the postman” in Bologna, Italy. Julie Ann Lebitania reread a self-help magazine about embracing imperfection in Sorsogon, Philippines.
keepsake
his first I love you
on a key ring
* * *
faded handwriting--
marriage proposal
on a postcard
* * *
wrinkled blossoms
fragments from last spring
tucked between pages
Angela Giordano discovered the hidden beauty of a new friend in Avigliano, Italy.
the soft r
of the French friend--
Paris spring
Touring Rheingau, Germany, Rita Rosen’s riverboat hesitated for a while, allowing nosy swans to approach. After getting her feet wet, Mihaela Babusanu cozied up in Bacau, Romania.
early spring
swans already
in pairs on the Rhein
* * *
Valentine’s Day--
on the warm radiator
our paired socks
White Day celebrations on March 14 gave Mariola Grabowska another chance to pair up in Warsaw, Poland.
last Valentines Day--
all the socks in my drawer
mismatched
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The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear April 3 and 17. Readers are invited to send haiku about illusions or delusions on a postcard to David McMurray at the International University of Kagoshima, Sakanoue 8-34-1, Kagoshima, 891-0197, Japan, or e-mail to (mcmurray@fka.att.ne.jp).
* * *
David McMurray has been writing the Asahi Haikuist Network column since April 1995, first for the Asahi Evening News. He is on the editorial board of the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, columnist for the Haiku International Association, and is editor of Teaching Assistance, a column in The Language Teacher of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT).
McMurray is professor of intercultural studies at The International University of Kagoshima where he lectures on international haiku. At the Graduate School he supervises students who research haiku. He is a correspondent school teacher of Haiku in English for the Asahi Culture Center in Tokyo.
McMurray judges haiku contests organized by The International University of Kagoshima, Ito En Oi Ocha, Asahi Culture Center, Matsuyama City, Polish Haiku Association, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seinan Jo Gakuin University, and Only One Tree.
McMurray’s award-winning books include: “Teaching and Learning Haiku in English” (2022); “Only One Tree Haiku, Music & Metaphor” (2015); “Canada Project Collected Essays & Poems” Vols. 1-8 (2013); and “Haiku in English as a Japanese Language” (2003).
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Oscar Confidential: Judy Haiven
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There was a time at the Oscars when an actor who had just won would thank his film’s producer, director and then his mother. He might have joked, “hugs to mom – she’s watching tonight.” That homey apolitical stance shifted in 1973 when screen star Marlon Brando, in a stunning move, dispatched Indigenous rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather to the Oscar stage on his behalf to refuse his award for Best Actor in The Godfather. Littlefeather cited the reason for his rejection of the Oscar was “bad treatment of Indigenous people in America”.
In 2015, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite – was initiated by activist April Reign – protested that not one of 20 nominees that year was a person of colour.
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In 2016, when Black comedian Chris Rock emceed the Oscars, he opened by asking aloud, “Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist.” That same year only Dustin Hoffman refused to attend because of racism in America.
Don’t stop talking about Gaza
This year, the media noted only one outlier — Spanish actor Javier Bardem. He wore a “No to War” (No a la Guerra) button –and yelled “No to war and Free Palestine,” just before he announced the winner for Best International Feature.
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Also worth noting at this year’s Oscars, three films about Palestinians and Palestine were nominated yet not one won an award. The three are Palestine 36, All That’s Left of You, and The Voice of Hind Rajab.
It’s as though Hollywood said “been there, done that” before the ’26 awards night. Indeed in 2025 the critically-acclaimed Israeli-Palestinian film about Gaza –No Other Land—won Best Documentary Feature. Now after Israel has killed more than 73,000 in its war on Palestinians, and committed the war crime of genocide in Gaza, it is suffering a fade-out.
In 2026, the most talked about film that did not win was The Voice of Hind Rajab. The Voice of Hind Rajab is a drama created from a true story from Gaza City in January 2024. Six year-old Hind, a Palestinian girl, was in a car with her aunt, uncle and four cousins trying to escape Israel’s bombings. Stuck in a street with towers of concrete rubble everywhere, one of three Israeli tanks advanced on the car. The tank fired more than 335 bullets into the car killing the two adults and four children. Hind called emergency on a mobile phone as her last cousin, Layan age 15, lay dying next to her. The Palestinian Red Crescent managed to patch Hind into her mother’s phone. Hind begged for someone to rescue her; her last tearful words to her mother were “Don’t leave me alone, Mama. I am tired. I am thirsty. And I am wounded.”
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Though the Red Crescent sent an ambulance, the Israelis deliberately denied it “safe passage” which delayed help for hours. By then it was too late. What’s worse: when the ambulance finally arrived on the scene, the IDF shelled it murdering the two paramedics.
The world was shocked by little Hind’s death among all those others. The film garnered the production support of folks like Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonathan Glazer (he who won best international film for Zone of Interest and used his speech to condemn Israel), Spike Lee, and Michael Moore.
Last Sunday before the Academy Awards, I thought about The Voice of Hind Rajab (stream on Amazon Prime, or Apple TV). I thought about the similarities between Israel’s murders of Hind and her family in the car and news about Israel’s latest targeted killings.
On Sunday news broke that the Israeli forces deliberately shot and killed four members of the Bani Odeh family, the father, mother and two boys, age 5 and 7 in their car in the West Bank village of Tammun. All were killed by Israelis shooting bullets thru the windshield into the heads and faces of the family. The father, Ali Khaled, was shot in the left hand and chest too. Two other sons were injured, but alive. One, aged 11, was dragged injured out of the car, beaten and heard the soldiers say, “We killed dogs.” The family was driving home from Nablus 23 km away – after a shopping trip for clothes and toys to celebrate Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan this Thursday. They turned into their street. Witnesses said the gunmen were not in uniformand drove vehicles with Palestinian plates. Not only was it a totally unprovoked attack on the Palestinian family, but the Red Crescent said the Israelis had prevented ambulance crews from reaching the injured instead ordered them to leave.
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A family returns from shopping– Israel deems them “an immediate threat”
No one is holding their breath waiting for an investigation about these two “events” – or mass murders. Israel was happy to ignore the Rajab killings until an international calibre filmmaker Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania came on the scene, and, together with some big Hollywood names, produced a stunning film. On Sunday, Israel’s military and police said their forces opened fire on the Bani Odehs after believing the family in the car was “an immediate threat.” [Isn’t that always the excuse?] Apparently the incident is “under investigation.”
How does Israel spin this stuff? Now that world attention is diverted to Iran and the Gulf states Israel keeps up their genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The arms, weapons, ammunition, tanks, drones, quadcopters and more overwhelmingly come from the US. Canada ships more than $1 billion in ammunition and weapons each year to the US and much of it is sent on to Israel—so it can keep up a genocide over 2.5 years. We laughingly list the names of the US’s most steadfast allies at the UN the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and Mali …. But then we must stop. Surely one of the greatest US allies is still Canada — PM Carney’s new plan to boost production and sales of weapons will ensure an endless supply to the US –and then to Israel. Note that Canadian parliamentarians just overwhelmingly voted down a private members’ bill by NDPer Jenny Kwan to close the loophole that allows this to happen. Still, 15 brave Liberal MPs had the guts to vote against their to close the loophole.
Image at the top: A mosque, destroyed during Israel’s two-year genocidal war on Gaza, is surrounded by tents for displaced Palestinians, in Gaza City, February 15, 2026 [credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]
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