invisible--the star of the Little Prince stargazing
--Tsanka Shishkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

a little girl
asks for a magic wand...
comet tail
--Ana Drobot (Bucharest, Romania)

* * *

the children squeal as
the dragonfly gleams and flits
time is fleeting too
--David Greenwood (St. Andrews, Scotland)

* * *

winter night
the watchman’s whistle
pierces the dark
--Govind Joshi (Dehradun, India)

* * *

arctic fox
trophy on the wall
a comet tails the night sky
--Florian Munteanu (Bucharest, Romania)

* * *

book inscription--
Christmas wishes
a century ago
--Chris Langer (Stephenville, Texas)

* * *

Frosty morn--
toy ceramic dog’s
silent bark
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

* * *

Still out on the porch
the uncovered rocking chairs
swinging in colder airs
--Horst Ludwig (Seattle, Washington)

* * *

who needs an alarm
when the bin-men do their rounds?
It’s heavy metal …
--Alan Maley (Canterbury, England)

* * *

the first frost--
longing for peace, but
the charm of death
--Junko Saeki (Tokyo)

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

the last rays
with an outer space toy
Jupiter’s moons
--Alan Summers (Wiltshire, England)

The haikuist never let go of his space toys, though he tried to keep watch over the night sky long after sunset. Dan C. Iulian’s son reluctantly gave up his old toys in Bucharest, Romania. Chen-ou Liu penned an elegy in Ajax, Ontario.

battlefront news--
my boy’s toy soldiers
surrender

* * *

death anniversary
her son’s toy soldiers and tanks
boxed in shadows

Shishkova will light a candle to celebrate the winter solstice tonight. This day marks the beginning of Christmas festivities, including: saying prayers, family gatherings, eating, drinking and reading poetry. Children dream of toys dancing on the beds.

holy lights
on the longest night
the returning sun

David Cox offered a prayer to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. While visiting the town of Benalmadena in southern Spain last month, a strange weather phenomenon wrought flash floods and dozens of deaths.

skyline, a grimace
her fullest, lightest words to
Virgen del Carmen

Alexander Groth returned to the family farm in Neuenkirchen, Germany. He likely saw Santa Claus heading toward a Christmas market.

our old farm
the scarecrow
still on guard

* * *

barren fields
in backlight shimmers
the hump of the old man

Emil Karla will likely get to bed late this Christmas Eve in Paris, France.

children’s toys
scattered around the room...
a silent home

As a little girl, Kimberly Kuchar dreamed of getting a Barbie toy car in Austin, Texas.

pink convertible
cruising underneath the stars
on her ceiling

Joshi chuckled “ho, ho, ho…” with the spirit of Santa Claus. Peggy Pilkey came up with the dopest-ever idea for Christmas presents in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

plaid jump suit
woodworking
in the winter workshop

* * *

Crimson seed pods dangle―
Oyama magnolia
Accessorized.

Melissa Dennison could have used traditional washi paper to wrap Christmas presents in Bradford, England. Washi is a durable handmade paper from mulberry shrubs--a process recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage.

a single persimmon
gift wrapped
in haiku

Entering a local discount store, David Cox heard a familiar sound of bells “finding it quite inescapable…” in Namba, Osaka’s famous entertainment district.

tilting at windmills…
foreign visitor hears
that jingle again

After returning from shopping in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, Archie G. Carlos buckled down to study for his exams.

her purse
after a grocery run
light snow

* * *

finals week
burning the midnight oil
with persimmons

C.X. Turner returned home empty-handed in Birmingham, England. Patrick Sweeney returned from playing ice hockey in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

empty basket--
winter’s breath lingers
through the aisle

* * *

cracking tendrils
of icy wet hair
hitch-hiking home from practice

Saeki said she was “much impressed” watching Japan’s national sport.

Last match of this year--
younger generation sumo
restrained and manly

Vessislava Savova and three of her buddies moved pawns around circles and crosses on a wooden board game in Sofia, Bulgaria. Leon Tefft got into a dispute while moving a token around a board filled with tiny houses and hotels in Greenville, South Carolina.

best friends
after the argument
we play Parcheesi

* * *

Monopoly--
arguing over
the made-up rules

Pippa Phillips was inspired by the Korean folktale for children, “The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon.” Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen-ou Liu sometimes selects haiku for translation to Mandarin Chinese.

Chuseok--
the tiger still can’t escape
the persimmon

* * *

reading alone...
the taste
of this persimmon

Fatma Zohra Habis treasured safety in Algiers, Algeria.

harvest moon
far from the war zone
children’s laughter

Mid-step on the pavement outside her home in Cordoba, Argentina, Julia Guzman said she felt compelled to pen this haiku during a moment “that has just happened.”

in the silent street
just a presence...
super full moon

Monica Kakkar absentmindedly turned a knob to erase a mechanical drawing tool while thinking of the monochrome landscape of Northern Virginia.

ecru etch-a-sketch…
embers of ephemera
halo the humdrum

Joanna Ashwell might be contemplating a moonshot.

moon dock
my window glass
speckled with stars

Finally becoming a Kung Fu master, Patrick Sweeney’s time was at hand: Saturday night I snatched the pebble from Master Kan’s hand

Francoise Maurice needed a nudge under the mistletoe in Draguignan, France.

pleading forgiveness
after a stormy night
do I kiss him

Philipps longed to be somewhere other than St. Louis, Missouri, at Christmastime.

fairy circle
wishing I
were never here

Roberta Beach Jacobson likely read Charles Dickens’ 1843 classic bedtime ghost story, “A Christmas Carol.”

retracing my steps
leaving a generous tip
for everybody

Angela Giordano hopes her family will reunite in time for Christmas.

distant son--
the intense desire
to see you again

Stephen J. DeGuire laments the consistent year-round temperatures in Los Angeles, California. Outside his urban environment the climate in coastal Southern California is warmer in winter and cooler in summer than other areas at the same latitude. To find snow, he would have to drive up a mountain.

each year in
the City of Angels
one season

Dennison felt a little off balance by the effects of season creep.

surprise
my first christmas card...
on the second of november

* * *

unsettled...
seeing daisies
flowering in november

In Nienhagen, Germany, Isabella Kramer dreamed of shopping at a Christmas market sprinkled with white powder.

North wind dreams
are blue you said
mine are full with Christmas snow

Carl Brennan peered through the door of a musty old wooden shack in New York state. Dennison shut her door.

Derelict cabin--
Bettie Page’s nude Christmas
through eons of mold

* * *

in the fridge
nothing
but a spot of mould

Valincia Richard watched playful stingrays and listened to Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles in Sunflower, Mississippi.

rays bouncing
across the sea
whistling turtles

Maley must have been dreaming of Tchaikovsky’s classical ballets “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker Suite.”

it’s mid-November,
on the river the cygnets
changing into swans …

* * *

fresh autumn nettles--
ballerinas who arrive
as the curtain falls…

Monica Kakkar huddled beside the light of a small clay lamp in Delhi, India.

just the two of us
in the dark after the din--
Diwali diya

Kimberly A. Horning dined alone in St Augustine, Florida.

checkout line
the lady ahead of me--wine
and one lamb chop

Joshua St. Claire finally penned a “Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!” from York County, Pennsylvania.

drooping eyelids
just a few more
haiku

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

Next year’s issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network will appear Jan. 3, 17 and 31. Readers are invited to send haiku about snowy mountains, snowflakes or snowbells in the new year 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.

* * *

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).