Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens

Buoyant blog of septuagenarian (78) Kanadian poet and haikuist Chris Faiers/cricket. People's Poetry in the tradition of Milton Acorn, haiku/haibun, progressive politikal rants, engaged Buddhism and meditation, revitalizing of Callaghan's Rapids Conservation Area, memories of ZenRiver Gardens and Purdy Country LitFests (PurdyFests), events literary and politikal, and pics, amid swirling currents of earth magick and shamanism. Read in 119 countries last week - 43,329 readers in September.

Showing posts with label Mitsuaki Kojima. Show all posts

Monday, 3 August 2026

beach combing for summer haiku: David McMurray/ Asahi Haikuist Network

ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray

July 31, 2026 at 08:00 JST

Photo/Illutration (Illustration by Mitsuaki Kojima)

beach retirement chasing sand dollars
--Roberta Beach Jacobson (Indianola, Iowa)

* * *

in cracked desert soil
ghaf roots run deeper, searching
a promise of rain
--Natalia Danjon (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

* * *

tortoises flee
the south of France--
fire alarm
--Francoise Maurice (Draguignan, France)

* * *

beautiful
with all its spots…
a ladybug
--Seyed Edris Hosseini (Shiraz, Iran)

* * *

am I crazy
or is the world suspicious
razor clam
--Jerome Berglund (New Orleans, Louisiana)

* * *

children confused--
after arguing the two clowns
blow kisses to one another
--Vasile Moldovan (Bucharest, Romania)

* * *

summer party
waving wingless arms
on the roof
--Urszula Marciniak (Lodz, Poland)

* * *

cumulus cloud--
a whimsical wind aids
a rabbit’s leap
--Paul Callus (Safi, Malta)

* * *

leaping for the moon
swimmer’s waves
shock the sea
--Preeti Sharma (Delhi, India)

* * *

small riverside pool
crab, fish and water striders
biodiversity
--Doc Sunday (Hiroshima)

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

my fishing rod pen
floats on the surface--
no words bite today…
--Alan Maley (Canterbury, England)

The haikuist fished for haiku all day long. Mike Fainzilber caught a quiet moment in Tel Aviv, Israel. An American soccer fan, Ian Willey fished a warning from the Dotonbori Canal that had been issued in Osaka for its “record temperatures, raging fires, and rising sea levels.”

last boat out
the sounds
of silence

* * *

city river
floating with the current
a yellow card

Gordana Kurtovic was disappointed by an old friend in Osijek, Croatia. Tsanka Shishkova bathed in a scented pond in Sofia, Bulgaria. A peppery aroma twisted Pippa Phillips’ nose in Greensboro, North Carolina.

old face on a pond
reflects a long-time friendship--
yet an illusion

* * *

soft, airy scent
in the mid-morning
water lilies bloom

* * *

nasturtiums:
even if the victory
is Pyrrhic

In today’s column, haikuists explore unfamiliar and unknown waters. Noting that “nature never waits,” Junko Saeki advises those who worry about traveling away from Tokyo, to “relax, relax.”

off on an uncharted voyage,
your luck will hold, yet
tighten your guard

Waves keep approaching, noted Willey in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, so “it’s no use worrying about waves that’ve already collapsed.” He lets worries roll off like water on a duck’s back, admitting “age must be a factor,” but he’s always forgetting things.

wave after wave
how good I’ve become
at forgetting

Real writing stems from experience, especially lived experience. Returning home to Athens, Greece, after a trip to Japan, Foteini Georgakopoulou penned this vignette.

Fast-food elegy
An old woman smiling
At the screen, brides

Murasaki Sagano contemplated taking a trip to an unknown place over the horizon from Tokyo. Julie Ann Lebitania discovered that her eyes can see more vibrant colors than a camera lens in Sorsogon, Philippines.

Rainbow
the other end linked
to an unknown place

* * *

rainbow cloud
few screen taps capture
a white cloud

Kavita Ratna combined all the colors of a rainbow to shine a white light in Bangalore, India.

ultimate vibgyor
shimmering
white peacock

Eugeniusz Zacharski shared a haiku inspired by the novel “Ulysses” by James Joyce about real-life events taking place in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904.

Bloomsday competition--
the haiku
drowns

Originally constructed in 1594, the bridge mentioned in Sagano’s haiku spans the Sumida River. Nearby there is a statue of Matsuo Basho attired in travel clothes holding writing utensils (yatate) looking toward the narrow road to the deep north that he walked along in 1689.

ball-point pen
instead of ink and brush--
Senju Ohashi

Following a lived-experience, poets can write on scratchpads or iPads about that moment and experiment with the haiku form, its three lines, season words, syllables and poetics. Patrick Sweeney penned this all-in-one-breath poem in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

since Mack quit smoking
he swings and catches his keys
in the same nicotine-stained hand

Read aloud on one flowing line, rather than three, bird-watcher Yutaka Kitajima’s 17-syllable haiku sounds pleasantly rhythmical. Note its three consecutive rhyming /ul/ sounds (bulbul full); the three successive words with identical /e/ vowels (nectar, cherry, fresh); an elliptic pause (…); and alliteration (fresh foliage).

A brown-eared bulbul full of nectar ... cherry tree’s fresh foliage

Urszula Marciniak described a tiny, winged magical flower spirit in Lodz, Poland. In traditional folklore, faeries were believed to be fallen angels, demi-gods, or the ghostly spirits of humans. Mauro Battini was startled by a shattering mirror in Santa Croce, Italy.

a sprouting pea
on the windowsill
a fairy tale

* * *

frog on a water lily...
Frankenstein’s voice
breaks the moon

Doc Sunday visited Haji Dam that created the cherry-blossom-lined Lake Yachiyo in Hiroshima Prefecture. Peggy Pilkey paddled while “canoeing, for the last time, at a favorite lakeside lodge in Nova Scotia.”

No more war…
cherry blossom petal
boats in the river

* * *

J-stroking, we smile in passing--
her hijab snug
my sun hat floppy

Holidaying at Lake Stropu in Daugavpils, Latvia, David Cox watched tiny female flowers cluster into tall yellow spikes that will soon turn brown. This fall, those brown heads will pop open, releasing fluffy seeds.

dirty blonde
the cattails love
a side parting

Melissa Dennison soothed her hay fever with a cuppa in Bradford, England. Beata Czeszejko soothed her nerves in Warsaw, Poland.

pollen from the catkin golden whirls of tea

* * *

office lunch
green tea cools in
thickening silence

Promising a golden harvest, Masumi Orihara noticed tiny greenish-white flower spikelets on rice stalks in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture. Nectar from flowers is scarce amid the heat wave in Ochten, the Netherlands, but S.T. Hills saw bees drink watery sap and scrape resin from willows, birches, and maples to seal cracks in their hives.

hidden rice flowers
open for pollination
promising morning

* * *

fermented tree sap
uncontrollable vision
a stray honeybee

Sherry Reniker propped up tiny yellow flowers in Kent, Washington. This summer is going by quickly for Zoltan Pachnik in Kaposvar, Hungary.

staking
the tomatoes
kids at play

* * *

slicing through
this summer--
a ripe red tomato

Deep in thought, Laila Brahmbhatt nurtured a stress-free afternoon. Barbara Anna Gaiardoni rested peacefully in Verona, Italy.

French lilac blooms
I caress my white hair
under the summer sky

* * *

in the hammock
Neapolitan lucky horn
strictly red

Dennison felt fire. Sagano blushed.

sunset
over the empty diner
scent of rain

* * *

Sudden kiss
from a mystic woman
summer night drama

Christina Chin was careful not to scald herself in Kuching, Sarawak.

noodle stall
the hot sweet and sour
aroma of soup

Joshua St. Claire felt white-hot in York County, Pennsylvania.

sickbed
by 3:00AM
I turn incandescent

Mario Massimo Zontini imagined God’s hand reaching out to Parma, Italy.

after the rain
white brush strokes in the sky:
veiled clouds

Delighted by a sudden rainfall in drought-stricken Raleigh, North Carolina, Charlie Smith slid his hand down the smooth, slippery bark of a crape myrtle tree (sarusuberi).

summer storm…
monkey slide trees
rings of pink

Brahmbhatt ink-brushed curly seaweed, wavy ribbon algae, and branching corals in sharp, round, even, and strong, yet delicate sweeping lines.

sumi-e strokes
tracing the shape
of algae

Helga Stania lamented the loss of colors in a bone-white sea. Sanjana Zorinc hid under the shade in Bjelovar, Croatia.

red necklace...
once so colorful
coral reef

* * *

colourful umbrellas
above the promenade--
their shadows the same

By placing a single letter in brackets, T.D. Ginting conjured the summer duo of gelato and tanning lotion in Medan, Indonesia.

the porch, the sun...
dreaming
(n)ice cream

Wearing sunglasses under a parasol at Ostend resort in Belgium, Marie Derley focused on this summer’s bestsellers.

reading on the beach
the bloody scary cover
of the chubby girl

Dorota Czerwinska matter-of-factly described outdoor toys in Warsaw, Poland.

sandbox
between two tanks
a plastic soldier

Amir Kapetanovic harvested raw salt near Ston, Croatia.

a July shiver--
shining along the seashore
hills of salt

A.J. Johnson might have been imagining Utah’s Great Salt Lake, when a small grass shrimp moved in the salt marshes near Stephens City, Virginia. Kurtovic shared a memory.

no water added
a salt flats mirage
of brine shrimp

* * *

in my heart
the cry of the seagulls--
farewell to the sea

Catching freshwater memories, Richard Bailly reeled in top-water bait on a glassy lake in Fargo, North Dakota. Chris Meadows could hear root tubers stirring in the earth in Bethany Beach, Delaware. Mauro Battini heard whistling and a high-pitched hiss coming from a pot in Santa Croce, Italy.

rock bass
under the dock
out of tuna

* * *

waiting
underground
elephant ears

* * *

at the fishmonger’s
the lobsters ask for help--
i hear voices

Joanna Ashwell plucked up her courage in Durham, England. “I don’t know about guys, but when I was growing up in Bolingbrook, Illinois,” girls pulled petals off flowers, recounted Wilda Morris. In Austin, Texas, Jeffrey L. Taylor interpreted Detective Joe Friday’s euphemism from the 1950s television series “Dragnet.”

summer breeze
a daisy petal
from you

* * *

he loves me
he loves me not--
the daisy petals lie

* * *

“Just the facts, ma’am”
polite way to say, in this heat,
Don’t you lie to me

Jacobson threw nickel silver for a lucky beachcomber to find.

my key tossed
toward the river…
mudlarkers

Slobodan Pupovac waded and Pachnik floated, respectively, in the Adriatic Sea.

I go in
up to my knees--
the blue sea

* * *

siesta
a seagull at the mercy
of ripples

Philip Davison lay on his back for a while in Dublin, Ireland.

afloat down river
to the waterfall
where a body takes flight

John Hawkhead said goodbye in Bradford on Avon, U.K.

end of times...
we dream of the moon
breaking up

Dina Towbin grieved in Brooklyn, New York.

eyes closed her lips licked
floating an opioid sea
to the great beyond

Originally published in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Cendrine Marrouat’s blog, this haiku encapsulates the idea of a wordless poem.

Waterfall--
Unnecessary
the words

Tony Williams punctuated this poem in Glasgow, Scotland.

adding a dash
of blue to the pond--
damselfly

Raj K. Bose’s neighbor lost everything to a storm in Honolulu, Hawaii. Minko Tanev reached for hope in Sofia, Bulgaria.

the floating debris
bulging eyes of golden koi…
the river took all

* * *

reflections--
in the summer river
a church with a cross

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reflect on haiku at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network will appear Aug. 7 and 21. Readers are invited to compose haiku related to water spirits or fairies. Please mail your haiku on a postcard to David McMurray at the International University of Kagoshima, Sakanoue 8-34-1, Kagoshima, 891-0197, Japan, or by 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, 14 July 2026

Summer Sounds: David McMurray/Asahi Haikuist Network

ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray

July 3, 2026 at 08:00 JST

Photo/Illutration (Illustration by Mitsuaki Kojima)

the tender heartthrob under a tortoiseshell
--Zoltan Pachnik (Kaposvar, Hungary)

* * *

Don’t move, stay still now;
there’s a caterpillar there
resting in your hair
--Ugur Olgar (Silifke, Turkey)

* * *

intervals
of the sound of sea--
dozing beneath the noon sun
--Christina Chin (Kuching, Malaysia)

* * *

the whisper
of a bicycle squeak
summer dusk
--Glenn G. Coats (Carolina Shores, North Carolina)

* * *

railyard conversation
seed heads whisper to
graffitied boxcars
--Kim Goldberg (Nanaimo, British Columbia)

* * *

a mockingbird
desperate for a date--
endless string of calls
--John Richard Stephens (Maui, Hawaii)

* * *

press conference
the loons are calling
on the White House lawn
--Mike Fainzilber (Tel Aviv, Israel)

* * *

Harsh times
even the best orchestra
failed to sing
--Junko Saeki (Tokyo)

* * *

empty carriages pulled by
an engine named Victory--
train tracks rattle
--Robin Rich (Brighton, England)

* * *

the last notes
of a piano
in the landfill
--Howard Lee Kilby (Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas)

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

Long-hemmed kimono
rustles on the temple floor
green maple trees
--Murasaki Sagano (Kyoto)

The haikuist found inner peace in the colorful sounds she perceived when a polished black floor reflected green (yuka-midori). So as not to destroy the tranquil atmosphere of Iwakura Jissoin temple, other floors are covered in tatami mats to silence noises such as shuffling feet and the flowing silk trains of ceremonial court dresses. Stania heard graceful tranquility.

close to silence--the silver wings of a dragonfly

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) composed hokku for a courtesan who offered a piece of white silk to write on at a teashop named Butterfly: ran no ka ya choo no tsubasa ni takimono su

the incense breathed
onto a butterfly’s wings
a fragrant orchid

Handling silk requires a gentle touch, noted Margaret Ponting in Victoria, Australia, and Tom Bierovic in DeLand, Florida, who respectively wove their poems on a universal theme.

trust
a silken thread
is broken

* * *

cobwebs
on the porch swing
broken promise

In today’s column, haikuists record a crescendo of summer sounds: splashing, dripping, rattling, whirring, whispering, whooping, shrieking, howling, shouting and silence. In Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, Yutaka Kitajima slurped sloshing liquid from a bottle listening to a “pocha-pocha” rhythmic sound.

Soda pops
from the shopping bag...
cooling sounds

Jack Kerouac referred to haiku as pops, including this one from his “Book of Haikus” (2003).

Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway

Julia Guzman was surprised by a cold-blooded caiman reptile rolling off a riverbank in Cordoba, Argentina.

the sound of paddle strokes--
a yacare stretches
in the sun

Melissa Dennison smiled contentedly at the noises coming from a government-financed community center in Bradford, England. Built 40 years ago, however, the well-used infrastructure needs replacing.

splashing pensioners
in the council pool
summer never ends

Witnessing a water accident in Tokyo, Junko Saeki knew enough “to throw a line and call for help.”

interpreter
at the scene of an accident
until doctors know what to do

Boryana Boteva penned this head-on collision in Sofia, Bulgaria.

your word
against mine--
crashing trains

Shannon Wallace got a call in Mississauga, Ontario.

in the voice message
a familiar breath
sighs

In Berne, Switzerland, Linus Blessing wears a keepsake associated with flowing water--the symbol of the Japanese goddess of eloquence, good fortune and knowledge.

my beloved’s medal
Benzaiten
hangs on my chest

Listening to a bird in Kielce, Poland, Marek Printer invoked Matsuo Basho’s 1689 ode: muzan ya na kabuto no shita no kirigirisu

How piteous--
beneath the warrior’s helmet
a crying cricket

* * *

heat waves--
goldfinch sings
from a pierced helmet

Joanna Ashwell cried for relief from the heat wave in Durham, England.

mopping my brow
when will this whirr
of AC end

Isabella Kramer had lullabies to sing in Nienhagen, Germany. Earl Livings drifted off listening to a lullaby in Melbourne, Australia. Raj K. Bose welcomed a new neighbor to Honolulu, Hawaii.

weeping willow
all these fairytales I never told you
unborn child

* * *

frogs in the pond
raindrops on glass…
insomnia music

* * *

summer evening breeze
neighbor’s lullaby sounding
just like my mom’s

Anthony Q. Rabang arranged percussion instruments in Santa Catalina, Philippines. In Beesenstedt, Germany, Ramona Linke moved her hands close to metal antennas that created an electromagnetic field controlling the pitch and volume of her musical composition.

convenience store
raindrops filling
empty soda cans

* * *

Theremin sound
once upon a time
in July

Mario Massimo Zontini returned to a dream in Parma, Italy. Timothy Daly pulled over to the side of the road, mesmerized by a graceful bird wading in tall reeds to perch on a log by the Misa river, Italy.

the first coffer
before the doves begin to coo--
I go back to bed

* * *

just traffic until
the heron pauses
my commute

As soon as C. Jean Downer finds the coin that slipped between the upholstery, she’ll race ring-billed gulls to the beach at White Rock, British Columbia.

dad’s favorite chair--
searching for one more dime
for the candy aisle

Carl Brennan licked his lips at a summer resort in New York state. Christina Chin put the top down.

Offkey ragtime
the ice cream truck rolls in
Finger Lakes fog

* * *

Beetle convertible
singing scouts songs
sunshine on my bonnet

Padraig O’Morain was sure he heard an animal sniffing around Dublin, Ireland. Florian Munteanu bought two dogs in Bucharest, Romania. P. Kimura replied to a knock at the door in Worthington, Massachusetts.

roses dip their heads
the dog that died
snuffles around the lawn

* * *

at a park--
a lost puppy nears
hot dog stand

* * *

Hello! Who is it?
Leaves unfurling on oak trees
woodpeckers knocking

Kitajima has been listening to the sound of a keepsake since his junior high school days in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture.

grandma’s gift
ticking sound round ’n’ round
windup watch

Matsuo Basho often received gifts, such as summer melons, from his disciples. In exchange, he instructed them on how to write poetry, sometimes imploring his disciples to resist copying: makuwa melon--do not be like me two halves of a melon (ware ni niru na futatsu ni wareshi makuwa uri). Elizabeth Moura described a hopeful moment in East Taunton, Massachusetts. Mona Bedi walked at high tide. Morgan Ophir meditated in Sydney, Australia.

mama’s day out
scratching lotto tickets
holding up the line

* * *

beach combing
finding hidden treasure
in the wrack line

* * *

stone garden
raking
the sound of straight lines

Traveling by locomotive, Subhash Roy Choudhury traversed the Mahanadi River on the way to Cuttack station, India. On a rainy trip to Ooty, India, Shalini Gupta sat in a “heritage steam locomotive with surreal views.”

train whistle--
the iron bridge thrums
rain plinks in the river

* * *

toy train chugs along
painted gouache cabbage farms
frosted window panes

Sandip Chauhan fished in Great Falls, Virginia.

rusted buoy bell
between the swells
a fisherman sings

Dennison sat down for a traditional fry-up breakfast. Patrick Sweeney tucked into some warm grub in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mark Manalang packed breakfast into a haversack while running away from busy Shinjuku, Tokyo. Bose had breakfast on a haiku hike.

tight trousers...
sitting down the sound
of buttons popping

* * *

the whole neighborhood knows
what the downy woodpecker’s
knocking out for breakfast

* * *

Dawn rush to the park
racks with warm onigiri
“Just grab everything”

* * *

Morning hike
crunching a cereal bar--
branch under fallen leaves

Vishal Prabhu hopes young birds will return as large ornamental peacocks with shiny blue-emerald feathers by next autumn in dusty Pune, India. Neena Singh unfurled an umbrella when she heard an echoing scream in Chandigarh, India. David Cox knelt at Battambang, Cambodia.

retreating pea-chicks
scattered by a dog…
summer day

* * *

summer rain
the peacock calls
a lost queen

* * *

observation--
two peacock feathers
at the altar

Allen David Simon visited the hills in Kerala, India, to see a blue-purple flower that blooms once every 12 years, only to wither as soon as it spread its spores.

Neelakurinji bloom--
twelve years in the making
a spiel, soft wilting

Marie Derley felt at home while visiting Doha.

visiting Qatar
I think I hear the song
of European swans

Japanese summers have lengthened by about three weeks over the 42 years from 1982 to 2023, according to researchers at Mie University who meticulously measured the start and ending dates of the four seasons. A.J. Johnson noted when a cicada went quiet in Stephens City, Virginia. Tejendra Sherchan traded blood for saliva in Kathmandu, Nepal. Stephen J. DeGuire didn’t need to slap a gnat in Los Angeles, California. Dorota Czerwinska had sticky fingers in Warsaw, Poland.

shrieking
all summer long
mirage jets

* * *

a mosquito bite
its venom drives me mad
all day long

* * *

mosquito
AHA! moment caught
in amber

* * *

on each side
buzzing wasps
sweet buns

Corine Timmer wrote from Faro, Portugal.

au naturel--
spring
in our union

Protected from the fiery sun by a massive tree in Cuttack, India, Choudhury penned his impression of the moment a ceasefire agreement was broken. Soumya Mukherjee bartered at a wet bazaar in Kolkata, India. Christina Chin traded up in Sarawak, Borneo.

silence shatters--
a dolphin gasp
chinar shades alone

* * *

monsoon sale
in five cents
the Buddha

* * *

down at the store
for a pound of flour--
choc chip ice cream

Amid all the noise this summer, T.D. Ginting kicked back and plugged in earphones to listen to “Star Wars” scores in Medan, Indonesia.

rare quietive
holiday, jukebox, pizza...
I’m watching five co(s)mic wars

War sounds made John Daleiden’s temperature rise in the normally serene Sonoran Desert, near Phoenix, Arizona.

all that noise
all that sound--
delusional rage

Brandon Favre knows “dark and stormy skies bring more thunder than rain in the Sonoran Desert,” near his home in Tempe, Arizona.

monsoon clouds come
and go
parched saguaros

Johnson listened to the wind whip up sand.

desert playa
a dust devil twirls
alkali salt

Originally shared by the spoken word, and then Japanese written on paper, haiku became international as it transcended the performative form with multi-languages including sign and gestures as well as digital representations. This poem by Stoianka Boianova in Sofia, Bulgaria, points the way toward the creation of universal haiku in three or more dimensions. Mona Bedi’s haiku pivots on whether the listener is with her in Delhi, India, or in the heavens above.

secret conversation
between us--
the universe listens

* * *

scattered stars
I drown in your
galactic presence

Hinano Nagamine searched for answers in Kagoshima. Ponting felt deceived.

Summer night breeze
questions drifting through my brain
sleep slips away

* * *

lost in a maze
of questions
the lie

As if hearing nails on a chalkboard, Archie G. Carlos cringed in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Versailles deal signing
the scratch of his sharpie
in a hollow hall

Looking forward to the Fourth of July holiday, M.R. Pelletier celebrated the length and breadth of America.

Yuma thunderstorms
eyeing the umbrella
I brought from Portland

Martina Agata Matijevic puffed on a seed head in Vidovci, Croatia.

dandelion fluff... his voice softens

Ashwell counted myriad shades of yellow.

more dandelions
than marigolds
a rampant border

John Hawkhead tended a cemetery plot in Bradford on Avon, England.

grass borders filled
with hymns of rain
planting a stone

Reciting in Wiltshire, England, Alan Summers read aloud this haiku at an interval of three whole tones between C and F sharp musical notes, noting the sequence in the rock band Black Sabbath’s heavy metal music.

any last requests
for the DJ in the sky
an extra tritone riff

Richard Bailly cocked an ear in Fargo, North Dakota. Nature masked unwanted sounds for Stania. Tsanka Shishkova intermittently watched football and the world news in Sofia, Bulgaria.

difficulty
hearing truth
white noise

* * *

Sunday walk--frogs drown out the cellphone conversations

* * *

World Cup
the roar of wars
silences the joy

American expat Ian Willey awoke early to watch two televised events from Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, noting “in those moments, to your ears, the birds stop chirping and start singing, and even the traffic takes on a triumphant hum.”

subdued sunrise
our team settles
for the tie

* * *

open window
how the world sounds
when your team wins

Choudhury will mark the July 14 anniversary of the 1789 Storming of the Bastille in France.

French revolution--
the domestic help changes
an election poster

Christopher Calvin’s haiku expressed his “great concern about the political turmoil taking place” in Kota Mojokerto, Indonesia.

summer streets darken
shouts thrown, gases fired, then crash
tears roll heavy

Chen-ou Liu turned off summer in Ajax, Ontario.

war news on mute
lily petals curl inward
early July

Beata Czeszejko quietly closed the front door behind her in Warsaw, Poland.

moving out--taking a magpie feather with me

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read what you hesitate to do at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear July 17 and 31. Readers are invited to respond to Matsuo Basho’s hokku: How piteous--beneath the warrior’s helmet a crying cricket, 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.

* * *

Friday, 19 June 2026

Flowering of summer haiku: Asahi Haikuist Network/ David McMurray

the flower

of this old tree

a treehouse

Chris Faiers/cricket

I recognize many haikuist's names here from summers long long ago . . . LeRoy Gorman, Marshal Hryciuk, Marianne Berger, Randy Brooks . . . still observing, still writing.

ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray

June 19, 2026 at 08:00 JST

Photo/Illutration (Illustration by Mitsuaki Kojima)

waiting for your love Haleakala silversword
--Tejendra Sherchan (Kathmandu, Nepal)

* * *

unrequited love
biscuits in a blue box
from the sky in June
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)

* * *

This new day opens
with some of us wrong-footed
while Druids count nights
--Philip Davison (Dublin, Ireland)

* * *

subway platform
the poverty of a singer
elongating…
--Nicholas Klacsanzky (Seattle, Washington)

* * *

bus station madonna
pregnant alone eating beans
mouth pricks red
--Guliz Mutlu (Ankara, Turkey)

* * *

Cowering alone
in the corner of the nest
a swallow chick
--Yutaka Kitajima (Joetsu, Niigata)

* * *

pushing her way past
all acceptable conduct--
spring’s flooded river
--Becka Chester (Santa Barbara, California)

* * *

cliche
women waiting
at the window
--Barbara Anna Gaiardoni (Verona, Italy)

* * *

play the game
or slay the dungeon
master
--Jerome Berglund (New Orleans, Louisiana)

* * *

lover leaving
a brief flare
in the Martian sky
--LeRoy Gorman (Napanee, Ontario)

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

The wedding highlight...
lumber-carrier chants
dispel the spring blues
--Yutaka Kitajima (Joetsu, Niigata)

The haikuist belted out a worker’s song (kiyari). He first heard it as a boy at a summer festival in the timber-rich mountains near his hometown. Since his generation, it seems people are waiting to marry later in life. In Split, Croatia, Dunja Pezelj read a Chinese classic about making changes.

I Ching courtship
From the balcony smiles
a blue tulip

Rosemarie Schuldes waited all night long for a magical moment in Mattsee, Austria. Preeti Sharma attended a wedding in Delhi, India.

ascending
morning mist
lifting a bride’s veil

* * *

long-awaited
garland
made of marigold

Angela Giordano heard wedding bells in Avigliano, Italy.

once in a lifetime--deluded about eternal love

Patrick Sweeney taught tectonic theory to bright grade 6 elementary school students in Aomori Prefecture. His haiku juxtaposes that act of drifting apart with a legal term recognized by divorce courts as grounds for separation.

irreconcilable differences
have nothing to do
with continental drift

Yoko Arimoto, Jason Ray and Rose Smith, respectively, chaperoned students visiting Kagoshima Ikueikan High School from Nacogdoches, Texas.

Raindrops
became diamonds
from America

* * *

Blended together
town and university
stirs friendship

* * *

young college students
across the sea, yet the same
the same buzz is here

Leon Tefft was mesmerized by a cloudy swirl in an ice-cold glass of water with a sugar cube and silver spoon resting on its rim.

absinthe drip
the fortune teller waits
for silence

Slowing down to listen to a rhythmic rainfall in Camano, Washington, David Cox couldn’t quite catch a clandestine whisper. Water droplets percolating lines of raked sand resembled moonlight on the sea at the silver pavilion in Kyoto, according to Charles Smith.

Spring rain…
the tulips guard
their secrets

* * *

Ginkaku-ji
moss absorbing the sounds
of wet tourists

Lee Nash’s gated property in Poitou-Charentes, France, is in dire need of repairs.

paint peeling
from the mansion gates
windfall apples

Eva Limbach in Saarbrucken, Germany, and Jacek Margolak in Kielce, Poland, respectively, waited for paint to dry.

freshly painted
the tiny spot
no one notices

* * *

a hair--
caught
in fresh paint

Maxianne Berger waited for the sun to shine in Outremont, Quebec.

purse umbrella
ready to become
a parasol

Deborah A. Bennett got soaked in Carbondale, Illinois. Mutlu prayed she would be on time for the bus.

missing every bus
on the way to work--
summer rain

* * *

bus station clock
stops at 11:11
every prayer gets stuck

Laila Brahmbhatt froze, while waiting at Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenue Subway Station in Brooklyn, New York.

frost warning
she waits at the empty station
with the tick of the clock

Anna Goluba waited ominously in Warsaw, Poland.

Blind date
Wall clock ticks
Louder and louder

When storm clouds gathered over Tempe, Arizona, Brandon Favre felt giddy about getting some rain in the desert. The haikuist soon realized that he was just imagining the feeling of rain on his skin.

dark clouds thunder
across desert skies
Schrodinger’s raindrop

Floods dampened Nash’s spirits who reported “the wildlife is disoriented, but help is at hand...”

Saintes outing
goldfish swimming
in the car park

Stuck in traffic, Raj K. Bose may have misspoken because he was more hungry than angry, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Flooded road
slows down traffic…
child’s paper boat

* * *

dinner date
both arrive late
stomachs growling

* * *

coffee dripping...
should have held my breath
dark thunderclouds

Padraig O’Morain had felt sure of himself in Dublin, Ireland.

in my mind’s eye
a row of beehives
where none have ever been

Lori Kiefer was anxious to get through the main gates on Royal Hospital Road for the Chelsea Flower Show in London, England.

flower show--
waiting in line
the bees and I

Antonio Mangiameli held onto the summer solstice in Lentini, Italy.

high noon--
the kite’s shadow
hangs by a thread

Tsanka Shishkova held her prince charming’s gift of florescence in Sofia, Bulgaria. Jacek Margolak walked by fluorescence in Kielce, Poland.

midnight date
silhouette of flying Pegasus
on the flower moon

* * *

midnight rain...
the blue light from the shop
soaks into the street

Stoianka Boianova arrived at Sofia Central in Bulgaria.

railway station--
my heart beats wildly
before the train stops

Perhaps Randy Brooks hadn’t planned to go, but he seriously felt in need of prayer at a cemetery in Taylorville, Illinois.

fresh cut bleeding hearts
in a fast-food cup
her grave visitor

Zoltan Pachnik waited for a bite in Kaposvar, Hungary. Justice Joseph Prah blew smoke rings in Accra, Ghana.

the first fish
smaller than smelt
spring waters

* * *

seashore harvest
calling tune after tune
an old man puffs a pipe

Subhash Roy Choudhury waited in line for street food at an “overcrowded evening food stall” selling savory fried dumplings with potato and pea curry in Cuttack, India.

Iran, Israel, U.S.
dahibara aloodum
street fight continues

Dieting, Alexander Groth had been looking forward to a little more to eat today in Berlin, Germany. To relieve stress, Bennett ran in circles.

cheat day
the disappointed look
of my cat

* * *

hunted by the cat
the cat tail surrenders--
summer night

Sandra St-Laurent stocked up on supplies for a long break in Whitehorse, Yukon.

last day of school
raiding for our summer’s loot
the local depanneur

Patrick Sweeney envied an antelope’s lyre-shaped horns at an expensive zoo in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

a nyala staring straight through me and my nine-dollar pretzel

Sagano waited to see the masterstroke of an artisan glazing grilled rice crackers at a Ginza department store.

once, twice, thrice
soy sauce brushed senbei
smell of rain

Hifsa Ashraf welcomed the scent of rain in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. An earthy aroma caused Jacek Margolak to shed tears in Kielce, Poland.

preparing bed
for the wild rose cuttings
petrichor

* * *

packing bags
first heavy raindrops
on the itinerary

Rob Scott waited for the sky to clear in Melbourne, Australia.

high fly ball
a passing cyclist
slows to a halt

After she lost her father, Soumya Mukherjee revealed that “for a long time, I used to see (or imagine, I still don’t know) a firefly sit on my mosquito net every night” at her childhood home in Tribeni, a small town in West Bengal, India.

Father’s Day
I still see a firefly
stuck in the mosquito net

Herb Tate watched fathers and sons plant potatoes on family farms with south-facing steep inclines on the warm and sunny island of Jersey, U.K. It took a lot of work, but he noted that this crop of Jersey Royals will get into “shops and supermarkets long before other new potatoes.”

cotil ploughing--
the veins that stretch
from him to me

Jennifer Gurney recalled a childhood memory in Broomfield, Colorado. Viv Frawley lined up in Seattle, Washington.

Saturday morning
walking through the woods with dad
Egg McMuffins

* * *

in constant
need of kintsugi
broken shake machine

Maley was inspired by a statue of Matsuo Basho standing while leaning on a bamboo walking stick in Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture. The father of haiku recorded in his diary “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” (Oku no Hosomichi) that he was there on June 29, 1689.

Basho sits waiting
for the frog to take the plunge--
the plop still echoes

Randy Brooks sat on a stone lost in thought in Taylorville, Illinois. Perhaps he crouched with a hand to the chin and right elbow to the left knee in the way Auguste Rodin cast “The Poet” (now called “The Thinker”) in 1884.

glacier field stone
behind the barn
think on it

Alan Maley awaits the summer solstice; June 21 is the longest day of the year where he lives in Canterbury, England. Helga Stania’s soul flows in Ettiswil, Switzerland. Eugeniusz Zacharski left Darlowo, Poland.

the lake sleeps, silent
in a duvet of dawn mist,
waiting for the sun…

* * *

a long look
at the waterfall
the flow of silence

* * *

summer solstice--
departure
in full bloom

Marshall Hryciuk wondered why caterpillars and blossoms were taking so long to climb his neighbor’s tree in Toronto, Ontario. Nicoletta Ignatti has been seeing flowers since the Ides of March in Castellana Grotte, Italy. Mauro Battini heard woodcutters approaching Santa Croce Sull’Arno, Italy. Mick Mc Gann Jones waited to see which deer would run to Caragh Lake, Ireland.

so, where did that horde
of dusky emperors
disappear to?

* * *

seeing trees blossom
where none exist
tulips red and yellow

* * *

deer’s bellowing--
the trees in the woods
marked in red

* * *

twilight encounter
four sika does
staring match

What was it that Stania saw in Ettiswil, Switzerland?

March wind…
white petals in the air
snow or butterflies

* * *

spring dew
I see the blue butterfly
which isn’t one

Deirdre Hines read correspondence in Letterkenny, Ireland. Ashoka Weerakkody got a delivery note in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

cabbage white
on a purple leaf--
butterfly letter

* * *

candled but unlit
ready for pickup
birthday cake

Sagano composed a haiku on Fortnum & Masons kraft paper. She also replied to Yosa Buson’s (1716-1784) ink-brushed letters on washi paper at a temple in Kyoto where the master poet and artist was buried. Spring rain filled Lilia Racheva’s haiku with exciting contemplative emotions.

running up the steps
to Konpuku-ji temple
fallen peony petals

* * *

temple,
the rain draws layers
of history

Doc Sunday can’t wait to travel along the Setouchi Shimanami Kaido scenic route from Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, to one of the world’s largest suspension bridges that stretches across the Seto Inland Sea.

carrier ship
marine spring light haze
giant bridge

Shishkova could forward poste restante (waiting mail) to an abandoned post office on the Seto Inland Sea islet at Mitoyo, Kagoshima Prefecture. That Missing Post Office has become a sanctuary for undeliverable letters and a place for people who are not yet ready to deliver a final goodbye to the lost or dead. Govind Joshi sang from the heart in Dehradun, India.

unreceived letters
around a collapsing house
forget-me-nots

* * *

swallow nests
around the crumbling house
family gathering

* * *

mother’s eye surgery
nurses in the waiting room
listen to her folk songs

Natalia Kuznetsova’s compatriots left pastures to fallow in Moscow, Russia.

spring in the war zone
waiting hopefully for peace
farmers’ unplowed fields

Wieslaw Karlinski and Marek Printer, respectively, found hope in the rewilding of Poland.

sometime after…
in the enemy tank
a finch nest

* * *

tank wreck
someone stuck forget-me-nots
into the barrel

Alan Summers noted how “birdsong can never be totally eradicated” in Wiltshire, England.

despite
the tear gas a birdsong
so blue

Sanjana Zorinc didn’t have time to point, nor did Silvana Medac have time to measure growth spurts, respectively, in Bjelovar, Croatia.

just as I see it
the wind carries it off--
a white butterfly

* * *

youthful laughter...
the future takes root
with a pine sapling

Mario Massimo Zontini had no time to prepare for a visitor in Parma, Italy. Frawley frowned. Pitt Buerken used a laptop to check in with his boss in Munster, Germany.

hospital:
the sunset enters my room
unannounced

* * *

the scars
after stent surgery
golden arches

* * *

fast food
a man working
on his waistline

Maley and Jackie Chou, respectively, took all the time in the world to order fast food.

McDonald’s at dawn:
plastic tables and cold light--
just two customers…

* * *

eternal yellow
of the golden arches logo
a long day

Charlie Smith in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Louise Carson in St-Lazare, Quebec, respectively, take one day at a time.

pink sunset
beneath wisteria
pastel illusion

* * *

retirement condo
view
of the setting sun

Ian Willey found an answer in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture.

asked if I believe
in an afterlife--
a cicada’s husk

Tom Bierovic need wait no longer in DeLand, Florida.

haiku anthology--
still looking
for my name

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Read what you’re just waiting to do at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear July 3, 17 and 31. Readers are dared to try composing a haiku juxtaposing truth with deceit, honesty against deception, or reality to delusion, 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).

* * *