soulmates under cherry blossoms--first kiss
--Tsanka Shishkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

his political clout
blooming at all costs
the oldest plum tree
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)

* * *

Here comes the sun
knitting since the solstice
with yellow yarn
--Archie G. Carlos (St. Louis Park, Minnesota)

* * *

The rising sun has
thread the canal bridge with an
under arch shimmer
--Philip Davison (Dublin, Ireland)

* * *

break of day
lifting the sky from the earth
the koolbardis song
--Margaret Ponting (Victoria, Australia)

* * *

a sharp shriek
heron’s stream landing
rippling spring
--Masumi Orihara (Atsugi, Kanagawa)

* * *

finding a phrase
the songbird practices
over and over
--Ken Cockburn (Edinburgh, Scotland)

* * *

Listening
to my friend’s confession--
a buzzard’s slow circle
--Tomislav Maretic (Zagreb, Croatia)

* * *

Wogan cavern…
the past hidden
in coves and corners
--David Cox (Pembroke, Wales)

* * *

on the year’s fulcrum
we teeter briefly, then plunge
into the unknown…
--Alan Maley (Canterbury, England)

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

all the words
for cherry blossom
my scattered thoughts
--Joanna Ashwell (Durham, England)

The haikuist was surprised to see cherry blossoms beginning to appear. Ed Bremson couldn’t believe his eyes in Raleigh, North Carolina.

so touching
the real and imagined
cherry blossoms...

In Tokyo, the first blooms were perfectly timed with the vernal equinox. Writing from Lexington, Massachusetts, Suraja Menon Roychowdhury received news from friends traveling in Japan.

just in time
for the cherry blossoms
old friends

The art of timing--rhythm and meter--is important for haiku. Season words, timeslip and flashback, too, can help our understanding of the “here and now” of a haiku moment. In today’s column, haikuists observe the importance of timing as a poetic device in the shortest form of poetry. Orihara observed a student pray and then randomly select a written prediction on whether it will come true, noting that “so many white paper slips made the tree blossom.”

entrance test season
fortune-telling paper slips
bloom on the shrine tree

Junko Saeki’s friends attended a graduation ceremony in Tokyo.

on the same campus
grandchild graduating, too
50 years after commencement

Satoru Kanematsu celebrated his birthday in view of blossoming plums in Nagoya.

Ninetieth spring…
old gnarled ume tree
in full bloom

Murasaki Sagano unfurled a handscroll of traditional Japanese stories with illustrations (emaki). Kyle Sullivan teared up reading a story in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Sakura path
picture scroll unrolled--
moving clouds

* * *

soaking up the flood…
pages ablur at the turn
of a story

Francis Attard marked the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He also nodded to the 30th anniversary of the Asahi Haikuist Network, noting “the column and the writing points tendered to the writer have helped with the dissemination of ideas in haikai verse.”

raw cry wrapped in mist
the three-year old invasion
voices a bird’s name

When “the seasons seem a little confused as to when to start or finish,” in Glasgow, Scotland, Tony Williams says he takes his cues from the birds … they know what’s going on!”

and there it is
the mildness of spring
in a sparrow’s song

In this haiku describing a moment of nothingness, Teiichi Suzuki suggested a way to live peacefully in the same world.

Love birds
living in still silence
of the lake

The flowers in Sofia, Bulgaria, didn’t seem sure when it was safe to bloom according to this haiku by Tsanka Shishkova.

in a forest glade
peonies among snowdrops
global warming

Wieslaw Karlinski knows days are lengthening in Namyslow, Poland. Ankit Raj Ojha took a few days off from teaching English at Government College Gharaunda in India.

the spring sun
out earlier and earlier
a roadside dog

* * *

dogs on campus
we leave food packets
vacation

Levine zipped through attendance at an elementary school in Wenham, Massachusetts.

empty desks
in the first-grade room
sniffle season

John Zheng noted a blip in the line of his creative writing students at Mississippi Valley State University. Jerome Berglund juxtaposed just two lines in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Optimistically, Wieslaw Karlinski suggested just one line in Namyslow, Poland.

campus walk
everyone steps over
a fallen limb

* * *

equal time
season creeps

* * *

turn of the year--suddenly our glasses half full

Mauro Battini misses the migrants that have departed from Pisa, Italy. Orihara rejoiced when refugees were allowed back into their homeland.

all that space
left on the water--
flight of herons

* * *

homebound
cars packed with smiles--
hazy moon cease-fire

Justice Joseph Prah suggested a way to measure benevolence in Accra, Ghana. Marie Derley weighed the year in Ath, Belgium.

snowy mountain
on Buddha’s shoulder
a weight of good deeds

* * *

a new year
the weight
of a snowflake

Monica Kakkar juxtaposed circular edges in Himachal Pradesh, India. Manasa Reddy Chichili had no sustenance to sing aloud in Hyderabad, India.

rim of a hot spring--
Himalayan singing bowl
welcoming the sun

* * *

empty bowl
so many thoughts
singing in my heart

Slawa Sibiga takes one day at a time in Tychy, Poland: window of the hospice one more sunrise

Mariya Gusev hesitated to take the next step in Sterling, Virginia.

recovery walk
I don’t know how to enter
this unending day

Kanematsu wrote this haiku in response to his grandson’s question while they rubbed the frozen car windows frantically to get a better glimpse of a legendary spirit dressed in ghostly white robes. Ruth Esther Gilmore reached for an echo in Lower Saxony, Germany. Marie Derley patiently waited her turn in Ath, Belgium.

Probably…
that hitch-hiking girl
snow fairy

* * *

a crane’s ambit
between the snow dustings
our life echoes

* * *

waiting for the lift--
from inside a joyful song
to come down to earth

In Namyslow, Poland, Wieslaw Karlinski pondered the dilemma of the Garden of Eden. David Cox explored prehistory in Yerevan, Armenia.

anthropocene
or the year of the snake
that is the question

* * *

ghosts of summers past
when days in the park were warm
roar from Dinosaur Land

In Calgary, Alberta, Liz Gibbs commiserated with a tree longing to be fully dressed in green. Peggy Pilkey loves jewelry in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

shadows of bare branches
reflected on snow
yearning for spring attire

* * *

red buds--
encased in ice--
rubies on fingers of twig

Pippa Philips yearned to play again.

the inner lives
of my childhood toys--
lengthening days

In Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, Yutaka Kitajima was befuddled by a sudden, recurring image from his past.

another flashback--
incessant snow covers
yellowish roses…

Hla Yin Mon watched a mouse scurry around Yangon, Myanmar. Berglund made the most of his remaining power.

mountain top
a furry friend seeks
his last corner

* * *

frosting on the leaves
can get a lot done on
eleven percent battery

Tuyet Van Do squinted in Melbourne, Australia’s sunlight and listened to the spring wind.

sparkling
on the soft blush blossoms
dewdrops

* * *

children’s chatter
across the park
sakura breeze

Watching old films in Bradford, England, Melissa Dennison marveled at the last vestiges of glaciers.

snow
capped peaks...
becoming rarer and rarer

Wilda Morris kicked sand every which way while playing at Playa del Carmen in Mexico.

beach volleyball
the rearrangement
of sand

Maciej Falinski described the albedo effect of sunlight reflecting off snow in Poland.

sleepless night
dawn reflects off the snow
fills the room

In Milan, Italy, Paola Trevisson composed her debut haiku.

everything has changed
from the peaks down to the slopes
and yet, same whiteness

Lilia Racheva rested awhile before sunrise in Rousse, Bulgaria.

snowflakes,
in the darkness
gentle light

Angela Giordano climbed a ladder in Avigliano, Italy. Marcyn Del Clements held on steady in Claremont, California.

I paint green
the walls of the house
year of the snake

* * *

volunteer pine
pruned from the roof
still leans east

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

The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear April 4 and 18. Readers are invited to send haiku about a starting a new job or a new school 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).