a hot day a wanderer turns into the forest
--Dorota Kasparewicz (Szczecin, Poland)

* * *

old postcard
our first meeting
in the shade of the pines
--Melissa Dennison (Bradford, U.K.)

* * *

first date--
the shadows of the trees
touch each other
--Marek Printer (Kielce, Poland)

* * *

Ancient Rome
umbrella pines
and ruins
--Marie Derley (Ath, Belgium)

* * *

by Teatro Grande
crowded under a stone pine
modern Pompeian
--Robin Rich (Salerno, Italy)

* * *

larch woods
a time fugue
of cooling
--Helga Stania (Ettiswil, Switzerland)

* * *

an oak
that always rattles for me
quiet today
--Marshall Hryciuk (Toronto, Ontario)

* * *

autumn horse chestnuts,
the sheen of old furniture,
mahogany smooth
--Alan Maley (Canterbury, England)

* * *

Hanging an ema--
the shadow of a cypress
on its kanji
--Julia Guzman (Cordoba, Argentina)

* * *

burning clouds
reflect in the glass
of Notre-Dame’s rebuilt spire
--Emil Karla (Paris, France)

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

Bending down low
Reaching for ridge top grass
Tree shaped by wind
--Eric Kimura (Aiea, Hawaii)

The haikuist sauntered past trees on a ridge top. Rafal Zabratynski contemplated in the Tatra Mountains, Poland.

mountain precipice
just perfect
for a bungee jump

Bob Friedland decoded messages of flags held at varying positions in Richmond, British Columbia. John Zheng waved a white flag in Itta Bena, Mississippi.

The green gingko fades
Sending out a semaphore
Signal of yellow

* * *

naptime...
war and games
cease firing

At the first sign of rain, Govind Joshi ran home to Dehradun, India. A.J. Anwar got side-swiped in Jakarta, Indonesia.

homecoming
the sound of rooftops
in the rain

* * *

pelting rain
sound of the first rounds
on galvalume roof

Kyle Sullivan battened down the hatches on the safest room in his house when Typhoon Usagi pummeled Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It was the first time that four typhoons had ever encircled and laid siege to the South China Sea so late in the season--Nov. 15.

fallen cocoons…
rain pounds the roof of a room
with no windows

Kuo Chi-Wei noticed a demure, yet resilient pink trellis blooming outside a window at the National Kaohsiung Normal University in Taiwan.

full of confidence
after the violent storm
Bougainvillea

Cows at this back, Philip Davison sauntered out to the sand flats off Dublin, Ireland.

After the downpour
this farmer sings to his cows
on cool tempered air

* * *

Resting tide waders
studding the expanse of strand
Theirs an ancient peace

Xenia Tran rolled a boulder to sit on at the start of a history lesson in Nairn, Scotland.

Ossian’s stone
in the shade of the tree
another story...

David Greenwood listened to a soliloquy on the campus at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

warm breeze
trees rustle while beneath
man and pipe commune

Realizing “man will never be god,” Junko Saeki was inspired to translate a haiku by the artist Anna e Renzo Foglietta in Domodossola, Italy.

bare birch
in the mantle of a beech tree
a bird’s nest

Richa Sharma may not have fully understood a conversation in Ghaziabad, India.

talking to
a scholar
oak’s shadow

Helga Stania drew a line of darkness in Ettiswil, Switzerland: carrying the autumn sun to the valley a dark butterfly

David Cox unraveled a secret at dusk.

umbrella tree--
the secrets wrapped
in the gloaming

Feeling physically lost somewhere in Seattle, Washington, the meaning of Horst Ludwig’s 5-7-5 syllables flows deeply into the foggy realm of the brain. Fog forms overnight during the late fall when the air cools near the ground and thickens until morning. Rosemarie Schuldes met an early riser in Mattsee, Austria. Charlie Smith surveyed the lay of the land in North Carolina.

November fog night...
Maybe I should ask someone
where I truly am

* * *

calling good morning
to a silhouette in fog
oh--Mr. Scarecrow

* * *

morning fog
spider webs became
lawn clouds

Mario Massimo Zontini was delighted by a sudden apparition in Parma, Italy.

fog in the fields
a row of mulberry trees
from out of nowhere

Zabratynski counted a lifetime of wishes.

tree rings
the three rings
of our caught stars

In Castellana Grotte, Italy Nicoletta Ignatti admired Masaoka Shiki’s (1867-1902) favorite tree.

ripe persimmons--
even thin branches
hold their weight

Masumi Orihara’s neighbor in Atsugi, Kanagawa, delivered a basketful of rich tangy-tasting fruit with translucent skins, humbly commenting “overripe” yet, these “persimmons are very sweet and juicy.”

a day’s work
hand-picked persimmons
polished one by one

Maley admired perfection. John Hamley favored a sapling in Marmora, Ontario.

autumn leaves, perfect
in the way their light fends off
the encroaching dark …

* * *

In her autumn gown
scantily dressed
young birch

Slobodan Pupovac felt himself sway in Zagreb, Croatia. Tejendra Sherchan methodically rehydrated in Kathmandu, Nepal.

southern wind
swaying pine tree shade
left to right

* * *

I drink water
in a pine tree’s full length
tilting my head

Nuri Rosegg lined up with other dancers ready to follow a choreographed pattern of steps to country music in Oslo, Norway.

after sunset
treetops line dance
the harvest moon

Mary L. Leopkey looked forward to arriving at her family’s seaside cabin in Texada Island, British Columbia. Francoise Maurice collected pine cones in Draguignan, France.

end of the dirt road
winding through woodlands
smell of the sea

* * *

heat wave
the song of cicadas
and pine cones

The bluish color of pine needles did little to console, respectively, Giuliana Ravaglia in Bologna, Italy, nor Satoru Kanematsu in Nagoya.

empty chair--
melancholy blues
at dusk

* * *

Autumn chill
Van Gogh’s self portrait
deep in blue

Stania contemplated in the shade.

pine shadow--
listen to the loom
of time

Although Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) advised going to the pine tree to write about the pine, Eugeniusz Zacharski noted the master stayed home to compose: basho ba o hashira ni kaken io no tsuki (A banana leaf hanging on the pillar--the moon over my hut).

autumn haiku
the banana tree rustles
in my head

R. Suresh Babu’s mind went blank in Thiruvalla, India.

air siren
the magic talisman
of an empty cartridge

Maurice and Maley, respectively, fended off nighttime marauders.

rising price
in my packet of semolina
more and more moths

* * *

it is night: a moth
plastered to my window pane--
entry is denied…

Junko Saeki worried about Japan’s cold-hearted society.

chilly morning--
for migrants
news of sex shop raids

Shishkova has flowed through life.

seasons come and go
on the way through woods and fields
a pregnant woman

Hiding outside a restaurant in Treviso, Italy, Luciana Moretto spied on lovers entering into a cohabitation affair. C.X. Turner disentangled herself.

linden tree…
interwoven with lots of mistletoe--
shade of agreement

* * *

summer hair
tangled in your web
for long enough

Refika Dedic suffered silently in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

dark night
only the eyes speak
about the escape

Giuliana Ravaglia lost her way in Bologna, Italy.

red maple--
lost in its shadows
pain from long ago

The American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019) escaped an abusive childhood by spending time in the woods nearby her house, admitting “I think it saved my life… I got saved by the beauty of the world.” Here are three lines from her poem, “I worried.”

Will the garden grow,
will the rivers flow in the right direction,
will the earth turn as it was taught

Shelli Jankowski-Smith threaded both support and tension in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

between two windows
a woman on her loom weaves
and unweaves birdsong

Zabratynski found relief.

stroll in the park
the shade of our oak cools
another hot crush

Margaret Ponting paid her respects in Mildura on the Murray River in Australia. An autumn wind chilled Ramona Linke in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

silky oaks
shelter pioneer families...
their lonely graveyard

* * *

at mother’s grave
the sound of autumn
in the lime trees

Upon hearing a death rattle, T.D. Ginting shuddered in the warm rain falling on Medan, North Sumatra.

a sprinkle...a drizzle
mother’s last breath--
mo(u)rning rain

Dorna Hainds contemplated how she hopes to end her days in Lapeer, Michigan.

pure-white hands...
my wish to die
alone in bed

Nuri Rosegg confided with family in Oslo, Norway. Stoianka Boianova remained silent in Sofia, Bulgaria.

rape in wartime
Granny’s experience
and mine

* * *

lunar silence
only our heartbeats
can be heard

Maley rocked back and forth, while Schuldes stood her ground.

dappled lemon light
under riverside willows--
a silent swan rocks...

* * *

a filigree crane
lets the storm pass through
steadfast

Maley watched her go.

slate-grey heron
lifts off from the dyke, silent,
merging with the dusk…

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

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears on Dec. 20. Readers are invited to send haiku about a song for springtime 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).