Halloween
a young boy
in a skeleton suit
Chris/cricket
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray
October 30, 2026 at 08:00 JST
(Illustration by Mitsuaki Kojima)
thousand eyed eighteen arms race
--Jerome Berglund (New Orleans, Louisiana)
* * *
black slugs
on the jack-o-lantern’s rind...
all hallows eve
--Stewart C. Baker (Dallas, Oregon)
* * *
A wet night
the gecko groggy...
peers in pane
--Yutaka Kitajima (Joetsu, Niigata)
* * *
her face glowing
bright as a screen
love at first sight
--Barrie Levine (Wenham, Massachusetts)
* * *
am I AI
counting my fingers
to check
--Roberta Beach Jacobson (Indianola, Iowa)
* * *
AI--
my wife is perfect
but she’s boring
--Aljosa Vukovic (Sibenik, Croatia)
* * *
disbelief
the old bald man
in my mirror
--Tim Dwyer (Brooklyn, New York)
* * *
every morning
there are fewer illusions
bathroom mirror
--Levko Dovgan (Lviv, Ukraine)
* * *
lover leaving
a brief flare
in the Martian sky
--LeRoy Gorman (Napanee, Ontario)
* * *
missed the train
from every carriage, my gaze
back at me
--Alexander Groth (Berlin, Germany)
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FROM THE NOTEBOOK
------------------------------
ghostly fog
mountain without peaks
the distance
--Stoianka Boianova (Sofia, Bulgaria)
The haikuist sketched a headless image. Melissa Dennison hesitated before biting the head off a cookie in Bradford, England. Ivan Georgiev snipped. Jacek Margolak momentarily lost his head. Guliz Mutlu decapitated. Groth lowered his head.
autumn mist
a smiling
gingerbread man
* * *
deadheading--
autumn gets caught
in my rusty shears
* * *
first frost--
the garden shears
left in the parsley
* * *
mordant breath--
goldenrod’s bent head
before the inevitable
* * *
on the way home
the woman in front of me
crosses to the other side
Hifsa Ashraf traversed a mountain valley in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Mark Gilbert kept his head down writing a line in Nottingham, England. Joshua St. Claire trod carefully in York County, Pennsylvania.
Himalayan trail--
wading through the river
of white fog
* * *
mist turning into fog maybe gunshots
* * *
Susquehanna fog
crossing a bridge
into the next world
Adama Sissoko’s footsteps were tracked in Landvetter, Sweden.
stepping on wet leaves
autumn fog swallows the sound--
a moose passing by
Fog rolled in from the Pacific Ocean toward D.F. Tweney late last night in San Mateo, California. Robin Rich lives by the River Ouse where a watery death in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” was tragically re-enacted in the real world by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941).
moonlit mist
tonight the reservoir seems
to be full again
* * *
pocket full of stones so throw one to save Ophelia
The “Baahubali” Indian drama kept Masumi Orihara rubbing her temples for 225 minutes to see whether a demon might appear. Stephen J. DeGuire heeded a still small voice in Los Angeles, California.
on and on the screen
struggles for supremacy--
a migraine headache
* * *
inner voice
all these prescriptions
are poison
Ghoulish gardeners haunt Alan Maley’s backyard in Canterbury, England.
Ghosts in the garden,
Pruning the shades of roses,
Harvesting the dust
In Hirakata, Osaka, Kimiko Doi cooled down by reading a ghost story about rousing the king of the underworld. The mystery writer was awarded for excellence in the 36th Ito En Oi Ocha Shinhaiku Contest.
wind chimes
ring at the same time--
Enma opens his eyes
* * *
Cherry blossoms
no one at the police box
ringing phone
Isabella Kramer composed this haiku after she hung up the phone in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
wrong number
but oh, the voice...
autumn light
Town officials managing Shinotsuyama Reien cemetery in Tsukigata, Hokkaido, were shocked to find headstones had been knocked over. They marked prison laborers who died building roads in the northern frontier during the 19th century as a bulwark against Russian expansion from the Kuril Islands. Oishi gasped.
heroes
disrobe to monsters--
oh, the grief!
Arvinder Kaur’s dreams may have walked through the Morni Hills near Chandigarh, India.
moonlight spills
from an overturned helmet
barren land
Groth paid his last respects. A nagging thought made Sandra St-Laurent pause for a while in Whitehorse, Yukon. AJ Johnson peered at toe tips in Stephens City, Virginia.
funeral--
the devout silence
of autumn wind
* * *
rural corner store
amongst the bric-a-brac
a headstones’ catalogue
* * *
old churchyard
our black shoes line
his open grave
Japanese ghosts (yurei) lack legs or feet; their human images often taper off in wispy, floating forms. Writing from Coburg, Germany, Cornelia Rossberg observed an apparition lurking in the dark.
purple kimono
wandering through empty rooms
a shadow creature
Some Japanese ghosts wear a triangular white corpse-hat that covers the forehead and wraps around the back of the head. Orihara’s “friend suffered from a phobia for triangular shapes and could only eat round-shaped onigiri.” Boryana Boteva commiserated in Sofia, Bulgaria. Sheikha A. smiled in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
round rice balls--
hard time avoiding
triangles
* * *
telling difference
between a triangle and a ball
onigiri
* * *
little sea-sprite
her chubby fingers
grab an onigiri
Yosa Buson (1716-1784) wrote about mysterious foxes (kitsunebi) that lit ghostly blue fires in forests: Tomoshibi no kien to sureba kitsunebi you
Just as my lantern
is about to flicker out--
the fox-fire appears
Jack o’ lanterns lit up the streets for children walking around Mohammad Azim Khan’s neighborhood in Peshawar, Pakistan. Those who are without electricity know that even a small candle can dispel the fears that prowl in the darkness. Davidson penned haiku instead of sleeping. Subhash Roy Choudhury got bitten while resting at Cuttack railway station, India.
pumpkin pie
how delicious!
Halloween horror
* * *
snowed in with no power
what else is there to do
but sleep
* * *
railway platform--
newspaper covers
a bedbug
Raj K. Bose’s family won’t be shelling out, nor biting into, crisp apples in Honolulu, Hawaii. Sadly, Carl Brennan’s ginger-colored pet passed away. Christina Sng despaired in Singapore. Mario Massimo Zontini’s luck ran out in Parma, Italy. Brennan called out “trick or treat” to his new black cat in North Syracuse, New York.
Halloween night
Grandpa, grandson, Jack-o’-lantern
all missing some teeth
* * *
My feline son sleeps
on the dresser, in his urn...
flickering night-light
* * *
flawed
but my cat loved me
anyway
* * *
two embers
glowing in the dark:
the black cat
* * *
My young cat
strikes at undead leaves
the wind’s prank
Helga Stania strolled beside “a small forest lake in the Black Forest, Germany, set in somewhat eerie surroundings.” Rosemarie Schuldes knows how to make a child happy in Mattsee, Austria.
Schluchtsee--
a small hand
slips into mine
* * *
aunt emma’s smile
her goody bag
with gummy bears
The popular TV show “South Park” created a monstrous ManBearPig animated character as a metaphor for a nonexistent threat raging uncontrollably as climate chaos. Patricia Carragon checked in from Brooklyn, New York. Laurinda Lind matched fire and water in Sackets Harbor, New York.
reality check--
Prince Charming
is not the bear
* * *
paperback meet-cute
dragon and water nymph
talk about steamy
Noting “the true essence of romance can only be savored,” Giuliana Ravaglia nurtured love in Bologna, Italy. Foteini Georgakopoulou seethed in Athens, Greece. Joshua Gage pulsated in Cleveland, Ohio.
his bare mouth
on the heart...
cherry blossom
* * *
something struggling to get out
of the mark your teeth left
on my chest
* * *
late winter
the thump of his pulse
between her fangs
Equipped for a Halloween romantasy, Travis Park cast a magical spell in Noblesville, Indiana. Samurai-costumed children clash plastic scabbards and shout, “Watch where you’re going!” Urszula Marciniak’s fight or flight response triggered in Lodz, Poland.
borrowed wand
still warm
from her hand
* * *
rustling leaves at dusk
should I look back or
start running?
Running ahead in Sofia, Bulgaria, Stoianka Boianova conjured the drinking toast, “here’s mud in your eye.” Vasile Moldovan saw double in Bucharest, Romania.
muddy river…
among the waves,
the eye of a water spirit
* * *
the neighborhood pub--
I came on a single road but
return on two paths
With a puff, Sheikha hid in Dubai. Emil Karla raised his eyebrows in Paris. Zdenka Mlinar’s green eyes smiled in Zagreb, Croatia.
snuffed candle
the glint of
a warrior’s sword
* * *
I see those eyes
see something, I don’t...
mirror fright
* * *
from the deep whirlpool
peeks a green beard
river secrets
In Christina Chin’s neighborhood in Sarawak, Borneo, “each family owns an acre of land and two big ponds.” Tracy Davidson warned children from playing too near to water in Warwickshire, England. Ivan Georgiev gasped at the green facemask he saw in Gottingen, Germany. Green hair tickled Groth.
Approaching--
the stillness of ponds
fear of monsters
* * *
unbridled
kelpies lurk
by the loch
* * *
mud therapy
the dazzling smile
of a marsh fairy
* * *
her hair
seagrass
in the current
Identifying as a fairy-writer, rather than a ghostwriter, Jackie Chou left her wings at home in a closet before stepping up to a counter at the Department of Labor in Pico Rivera, California.
unemployed
I proclaim myself
as a fairy
Kitajima heard scratching sounds. A phantom kissed James Penha in Bali, Indonesia. Ugur Olgar gulped in Silifke, Turkey.
Cicada’s death cry
from where a parent bulbul
perches nonchalant
* * *
faint whiskers whisper
when spectral lips engage
with mine
* * *
Female mantis--
how many mates
has she eaten
The bespectacled Mary Oishi is Albuquerque’s Poet Laureate in New Mexico. Kavita Ratna suggested distortion depends on our eyes, point of view, or camera viewfinder. Thorsten Neuhaus raised the possibility of cognitive impairment in Cologne, Germany.
monkey with hat
no--fire hydrant
new glasses coming
* * *
scratched lens
foul streaks
on every face...
* * *
dementia
the blurred spots
on a ladybug
Tsanka Shishkova wore hunter’s infrared illuminators in Sofia, Bulgaria.
sleepy hedgehog
in front of a pile of moss
night vision goggles
Sheikha feared a witch who had “become envious… especially of hair if it is long, thick and beautiful” at Sea View beach in Karachi, Pakistan. Joanna Ashwell’s magic twig besom couldn’t sweep Barnard Castle, England. Tejendra Sherchan cleaned up Kathmandu, Nepal.
night boat ride
tightening the scarf
over hair
* * *
outsmarting
each broom stroke
kitchen beetle
* * *
empty cobweb
a spider lands on top of
the midges
Francoise Maurice’s “nights are sometimes difficult,” and she passes time in Draguignan, France, “counting sheep whilst the eclipse casts streaks of light onto the pavement.” Marshall Hryciuk described the darker side of Toronto, Ontario.
hospital windows
the shadows of clouds
darker and darker
* * *
Cheques Cashed windows
all boarded up
gulls fluff from the dumpster
Sanjana Zorinc was saved by a solid plank of wood in her Bjelovar neighborhood in Croatia.
unbearable heat--
beneath the oak mural
we find shade
The 2026 science fiction film “The End of Oak Street” carried an unsuspecting community away through time-warping wormholes to fend off dinosaurs in a prehistoric tropical climate. Florian Munteanu’s haiku transformed gruesomely with a hoot from an owl at a park in Arizona with painted desert badlands, dinosaur fossils and 200-million-year-old petrified wood. T.D. Ginting praised laborers unearthing fossils in Medan, Indonesia.
owl’s quiet flight…
through dark haunted
petrified woodland
* * *
digging and risking lives--
the petrified wood
sculpt(ur)ed, sold out
Murasaki Sagano inhaled deeply in the western woodlands of Paris. Marie Derley kept to the shadows in Ath, Belgium. Writing from Verona, Italy, Barbara Anna Gaiardoni believes “the comforting presence of light, spirits, and water fairies” can help fearful earthquake victims step out from the dark.
poets
stroll in illusions
Bois de Boulogne
* * *
the bats
zigzag through the clouds
my secret thoughts
* * *
lurk not
in the shadows
water fairy
Mariola Grabowska lost her way in Warsaw, Poland. Neena Singh’s grandson pointed to a mermaid in rain-fed Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh, India. Stories of Japanese monsters (yokai) pulling children underwater to eat may have worried Tim Chamberlain in Tokyo.
dark very early
the familiar path
once here...once here...
* * *
monsoon dusk--
a tail swishes
across the water
* * *
small boy
swims like a
sardine
Watching Disney’s “The Pirate Fairy” at home in Safi, Malta, Paul Callus sided with the calming efforts of a fairy wearing a flowing silver-blue dress trying to mediate conflicts raised by hot-tempered Tinker Bell. Zelykko Funda’s puppet got left behind in Varazdin, Croatia.
going with the flow
shrouded in silver mist
a babbling brook
* * *
a fairy doll…
not nice enough
to play with
Singh caught an “incredible sight during a flag lowering ceremony” on the border between Amritsar, India, and Lahore, Pakistan. In Brighton, England, Robin Rich bemoaned an elusive peace.
Beating Retreat--
on the soldier’s rifle
a firefly glows
* * *
a walk in the wood
breaks dry branches
doves tumble
Terrie Jacks peered through smoke at a dinner guest in Ballwin, Missouri. Wiktor Szafirski shivered in autumn breeze in Podkarpacie, Poland. On the 20th Halloween anniversary of his father’s death, Ian Willey’s family dog Kody got spooked, her fur bristling. Keith Evetts won’t give up the ghost anytime soon in Thames Ditton, England.
evening shadows
a stranger appears
barbeque illusions
* * *
wind among branches--
the shadow on the house wall
moves away
* * *
wintry draft
the dog won’t enter
Dad’s study
* * *
complimenting me
on the loaf cut nice and square
my father’s ghost
Laila Brahmbhatt played in New York. Dwyer held his breath. Berglund huddled.
hide and seek
shadow lengthens
behind the guitar
* * *
snooker final
cuing it
like a dream
* * *
autumn twilight
makes it easy
to keep closer
How did Azi Kuder respond in Gdynia, Poland? The haikuist Merlin is a fan of “dandelions, even when they burst like a ghost.”
dandelion fluff
his sudden
proposal
* * *
as wishes burst
like dandelions, you
hugged me
Wondering “is this just junk or a precious reminder,” Atsuko Nozaki sorted cardboard boxes in Ayabe, Kyoto, after her mother-in-law passed away. Moldovan lamented “the shutting down of the only nuclear power plant in Romania.”
formal clothes
handkerchief like new--
mom’s spirit
* * *
End of the story…
the spirit of the waters
left us poor, Danube
Getting ready to set his clock back an hour before bed on Nov. 1 in Seattle, Washington, Horst Ludwig recalled taking school excursions “so we would learn more by seeing more.” Louise Carson in St-Lazare, Quebec, worries war will continue all through winter. Stephen J. DeGuire no longer sets an alarm in Los Angeles, California. Carragon has an autumn appetite.
A 1,000-year oak--
saw one as a first grader
Daylight Savings Time
* * *
daylight saving
one less hour
of war
* * *
side effects…
Dali stops time by
melting clocks
* * *
the day’s end
comes earlier--
so does dinner
Weeding in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Archie G. Carlos yanked on shade-loving plantain lily American varieties such as Patriot, Let’s Twist Again and Mini Skirt.
autumn ballot--
pulling out
hostas
Beach Jacobson woke up from a nightmare about Nov. 3 midterm elections. Scott Reid got junk mail in Monte Rio, California. Kitajima got discombobulated. Jacek Margolak knows the aftermath of polling.
turning on us
voting machines
* * *
leaf flyers
in mailbox
vote scarecrow
* * *
Snow whiteout...
stumbling all the way
to the polls
* * *
election poster--
the smile remains
after the rain
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Write what you’re afraid to say at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear Nov. 6 and 20. Readers are invited to send haiku related to winter ghosts or monster storms on a postcard to David McMurray at the International University of Kagoshima, Sakanoue 8-34-1, Kagoshima, 891-0197, Japan, or by e-mail (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).
