Photo/Illutration(Illustration by Mitsuaki Kojima)

  • Photo/Illutration

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).

* * *

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).