Photo/Illutration(Illustration by Mitsuaki Kojima)

  • Photo/Illutration

spring patio at the hospital all the benches occupied
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)

* * *

palliative care
caring for this father
who never cared for me
--Louise Hopewell (Melbourne, Australia)

* * *

May sky shining blue
little kids run through the park
I miss my childhood
--Sarina Taniguchi (Kagoshima)

* * *

aurorae
in my eyes
birthday opals
--Christina Sng (Singapore)

* * *

aquamarine
a gift set in gold
passed down twice
--Mary L. Leopkey (Texada Island, British Columbia)

* * *

keepsakes
nice to have, but what matters
is etched on your heart
--Junko Saeki (Tokyo)

* * *

nesting season--
magpie carries off my ear
before I hear him
--Morgan Ophir (Sydney, Australia)

* * *

cockfighting--
a crescent moon
on the gamefowl
--Anthony Q. Rabang (Vigan, Philippines)

* * *

twilight of dawn
barn swallow hovering around
dressed paparazzi
--Bhawana Upadhyay (Bangkok, Thailand)

* * *

in the temple garden
blue hydrangeas are hiding
Buddha from the sun
--Ksenia Alessandra Petrova (Mexico City)

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FROM THE NOTEBOOK
--------------------------------

kachine spirits
dancing through the pueblo
ancestral dolls
--John Daleiden (Phoenix, Arizona)

The haikuist described a spiritual world of brightly garbed and masked humpbacked flute players, white cloud dancers and rain priests assisting villagers to burst dark clouds over the Sonoran Desert. Suffering knee pain while backpacking in the Nazca Desert, Peru, to see indigenous communities re-enact sun festival rituals, Jeremy Haworth “stopped in at a ramshackle roadside pharmacy” and took two “capsules with a glug of bottled water.”

sun tabs
the tour bus drifting
into technicolour

Today’s column is about dreamlike visions. As if awoken from a dream, Claire Ninham rubbed her unbelieving eyes. The haikuist described her usual sedentary lifestyle in North Yorkshire, England.

white winds…
emerging from shadows of half sleep
the traveler returns

* * *

alone, hunched
in the grey cloak of winter
a heron fishing

Amelia Cotter recently published a haiku about where she lives in ”Lines of Communication: a poetry anthology.”

Chicago
the delirium, ecstasy
of gray on gray on gray

Cognitive dissonance can arise when perceptions are based on limited, subjective or flawed data. Teiichi Suzuki was shaking when he awoke at home in Osaka. The haikuist’s neck was being strangled by a woven rush grass pillow.

improbable dream
spring haiku journey
with Basho

* * *

snow flurry
straw coat on my shoulders
fleeting illusion

Masumi Orihara felt extraordinarily warm while reading a deceased writer’s unpublished work.

warmth left behind
the unfinished manuscript
blooms in spring

Alan Summers kept a stiff upper lip during a brutal scorcher in Wiltshire, England. To describe such cruelly hot days, a new word in Japanese (kokushobi) was coined last month by the Japan Meteorological Agency.

best rictus grin
the ticking of heat
in forever wars

Mirages and heat shimmers are real optical illusions that appear in the late spring season when hazy air rises from a heated surface. Vasile Moldovan worried about getting sucked under quicksand. Suzuki didn’t foresee a waterborne disaster. Doc Sunday got down on his knees to peer into a sandpit in Hiroshima.

the caravan
following Fata Morgana
buried in sand

* * *

heat haze
unexpected tsunami
from Persian Gulf

* * *

old temple
antlions dig soil
bell tolling

Moldovan described the moment the haikuist realized that he saw something that contradicted with reality. John Daleiden’s haiku conjures up last month’s disrupted White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

paradoxically--
nobody is in a hurry
at the fast-food restaurant

* * *

from the stage
the magician flies away
awesome exit

Before our very eyes, Stephen J. DeGuire matter-of-factly described “a parent no longer in bodily form” in Los Angeles, California. To readers who find comfort, closure and a sense of continuity in keeping ashes at home, however, it might seem to erase a lifetime of memories. Alice Wanderer alluded to the importance of burials in Frankston, Australia.

memento
current vessel just
ash filled urn

* * *

the bowl he gave me
full of moss
my father has no grave

Padraig O’Morain looked twice in Dublin, Ireland.

is that my father
mowing hay
down the street?

Alexander Groth nodded conspiratorially at a whodunnit show in Berlin, Germany.

mystery dinner
the corpse
winks at me

Horst Ludwig can’t watch television without mourning a beautiful young Siamese cat that got killed running under a car.

No thinking can fill
the void in my memory
cat food commercial

Discharged from hospital, Saeki had thought her calico had been permanently locked up in an animal shelter run by volunteers. The haikuist felt stiff, but wanted friends to know that she’s still “alive and kicking.”

the first day of spring--
emancipated and looking for me
the black cat came back

* * *

freshly washed plums
on a bamboo basket tray
draining away

Charlie Smith organized this year’s Mu Sigma Rho association’s haiku contest for statisticians. Over 100 haiku related to statistics and probability were entered, including this prize winner by Eduard Tara, a mathematician who resides in Iasi, Romania.

collecting data
still counting the graves covered
with forget-me-nots

Elena Naumova at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, received a winner’s certificate for this haiku.

Lone spike on the chart--
truth or typo hides beneath
silence holds its breath

Carol Keig at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California, submitted this noteworthy homage to the classical random walk of probability.

The drunkard pauses.
His next step will be random,
his end predicted.

Tara also won for this haiku that was commended by contest judge Larry Lesser, a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at El Paso, for its 5-7-5 syllables and nod to positive random variables that shape our natural environment.

the abandoned eaves
lognormal distribution
of the icicles

Writing this haiku with her left hand, Preeti Sharma swirled counterclockwise in Delhi, India.

asymmetrical snails
coiling under
symmetrical foliage

Guliz Mutlu believes that a small key can open big doors in Ankara, Turkey.

citrine sunrise
the keyring jingles
forgotten doors

Marshall Hryciuk, who lives “down the road a ways” from Pearson International airport in Toronto, Ontario, noted “when the wind’s strong from the west or north, the planes come in right over top of our rented home; often after 1 a.m. with all their air traffic problems.”

shadow of a jumbo
a little too wide
for our side-street

Sagano looked down a street in her Tokyo neighborhood with shock and disbelief at what was happening during the peak cherry blossom season.

the elderly watch
sakura cut down on this street--
another sky

Tim Dwyer never reclaimed what he left behind in Bangor, Northern Ireland.

in my wallet
a left luggage ticket
ten years old

David Cox was “grateful for terra firma,” after being rerouted from Latvia to Beijing by way of Istanbul and Hong Kong; a surreal experience he “cannot yet fathom with words.”

transit lounge
I am everywhere
and nowhere

Imaginative haikuists believe in delulu, things that are not real. Dragons are mythical beasts, yet Alan Maley was sure he smelled something burning in Canterbury, England.

dragons are extinct,
except the ones that visit
us in our nightmares…

The square brackets in this concrete poem resemble the slot on the toaster where Barrie Levine lost bread crusts in Wenham, Massachusetts.

in the toaster
[somewhere]
burnt ends

Delulu haikuists choose to share personal beliefs they feel are more important than reality. Writing from Michigan, Dorna Hainds had “no idea if hydrangeas have any type of smell” but wanted to share “poetic ideas inspired by images or feelings.” Richard Bailly observed how the warming planet pushes plants to find more temperate places to live.

blue hydrangeas
its scent with endless summer blues
after closing hours

* * *

hydrangeas
north of safe zone
endless summer

Nicoletta Ignatti couldn’t believe her eyes when confronted by a stunning visual display of cascading flower clusters in Castellana Grotte, Italy.

wisteria pergola…
stepping into the shade
of a trompe l’oeil

Suzuki thought he heard fiddlehead ferns unfurl.

hallucination
the whisper of sprouting greens
in the woods

Rabang followed a line of blossoming purple in Manila, Philippines.

early sunrise unfurling her orchid tattoos

As if offering a peach early in the morning, Morgan Ophir calmly held out his hand and took a step backward. T.D. Ginting extended his arm, closed one eye and raised a pencil in Medan, Indonesia.

before the yellow crane
repulsing the monkey
morning tai chi

* * *

the sketcher’s thumb
measuring
the statu(r)e; sunny day

Paul Callus wore a stone reputed to keep its wearer clear-headed in Safi, Malta.

amethyst--
in a mountain hermitage
a monk seeks clarity

Colors clashed in Zelyko Funda’s fanciful haiku in Varazdin, Croatia. Stoianka Boianova shared her perspective from Sofia, Bulgaria.

lush garden
butterfly on a rose...
far too much

* * *

on my hand
a white butterfly--
bigger than a cloud

In a Scrabble boardgame there is only one Z tile, but there are two blank tiles that Rosemarie Schuldes could use to interlock her two words with multiple Zs.

crossword puzzle
year of the horse
Lipizzaner

Springtime strawberry hunting is tapering off, but Kim Goldberg wore rose-colored sunglasses in hopes of buying a basket in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Raj K. Bose composed a homograph in Honolulu, Hawaii.

farmer’s market
pink toenails in line
for strawberries

* * *

outdoor Sunday brunch
preaching during jam and bread
treetop cardinal

Before starting to read, Schuldes held her breath for a moment in Mattsee, Austria.

family chronicle
mouldy smell
of the weighty tome

Truth relies on objective facts or deeper, hidden logical structures. In the light of day, Rob Scott was well aware someone wasn’t telling the whole truth in Melbourne, Australia. Minko Tanev saw the future in Sofia, Bulgaria. Orihara gazed as far as she could from Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

day moon--
her first
white lie

* * *

crystal sphere--
gazing in surprise
at the daytime moon

* * *

a blue earth
beyond the moon
illusionary storm of blossoms

Ivan Georgiev plans to sally up to a bar this weekend to order his favorite drink in Gottingen, Germany.

not so blue moon
a seasoned bartender
shaking it gently

Shannon Wallace fluffed up goose down in Mississauga, Ontario.

smothering nudity
moonlight on fluffed pillow

Marietta McGregor felt the moon’s pull in Canberra, Australia. Sheikha A. observed the moon overhead Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Joanna Ashwell took off her socks in Durham, England.

old farmer’s almanac
forecasts by the moon
for earth’s gardens

* * *

moonscope--
the sky with all its stars
a giant blue screen

* * *

low waterline
I dip my toes
on the moon

Having observed two moons overhead Tokyo this month, Tim Chamberlain also shared this haiku on the Bluesky social media platform.

raking waves--
a monk
moonwalking

Doc Sunday cut through Hiroshima Peace Park while listening on his earphones to Johnnie Ray’s 1956 hit song “Just Walking in the Rain.” Out for a morning jog in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, Ian Willey was struck by the thought of “how much beauty there is out there despite all the madness.” Running for cover, Bose looked back over his shoulder at “a surreal scene of ghosts playing to my handicap.”

soft spring rain
pink petal carpet
just walkin’

* * *

despite everything--
cherry blossoms
and the moon

* * *

sudden hail
bouncing all over
the empty golf course

Out for a drive in Kuching, Borneo, Christina Chin looked back on her good luck and safety. In Zagreb, Croatia, Katica Badovinac might have chanted “mirror, mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all?” Mario Massimo Zontini admired an ephemeral beauty in Parma, Italy.

rearview mirror--
red thread tassels
tied to a jade gourd

* * *

mirror--
perfect beauty goes
into imperfect old age

* * *

what else, but
Japanese magnolia
a short-lived beauty

John Dewey (1859-1952) wrote leftist-leaning poetry and books that may have influenced Robin Rich in Brighton, England, to implore “the end of democracy will be the dressing of propaganda in education’s gowns.”

only right
turns for the sheep
broken spectacles

A.D. MacDonald’s office has been digitally transformed in New Brunswick, so he hopes to have more time to pick and boil wild haw berries with lemon and sugar to make a mouthwatering jelly.

The AI speaks
From my cubicle. I dream
Of hawthorn bushels

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The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network will appear June 5 and 19. Readers are invited to compose haiku related to whether they think they bring the rain or the sunshine when traveling. Send haiku 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).

* * *

haiku-mug
David McMurray

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).

(Illustration by Mitsuaki Kojima)

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