Long lines forming at the evacuation site--steaming hot dishes

--Masumi Orihara (Atsugi, Kanagawa)

* * *

Heralding the cold,

the fox, gazing at snowflakes,

calls to the moonlight

--Sally A. Fox (California)

* * *

turtle reading group

our shells

thickening

--Patrick Sweeney (Misawa, Aomori)

* * *

Spanish mackerel

in indigenous cuisine

“heritage,” I’m told

--Fractled (New York)

* * *

between two floorboards

a curled red leaf

overheard tete-a-tete

--Jenna Le (New York)

* * *

banging at the keys

designing a website

I miss trees

--Mark Gilbert (Nottingham, U.K.)

* * *

Electrocuted

by a heater in the winter dawn

Modern Prometheus

--Taofeek Ayeyemi (Lagos, Nigeria)

* * *

Deer hunt at nightfall

tapestry the price of gold

hangs in the hallway

--Francis Attard (Marsa, Malta)

* * *

draining the glass

night after night

waning moon

--Kristen Lindquist (Camden, Maine)

* * *

Pause

in the conversation--

first snow

--Pere Risteski (North Macedonia)

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

FROM THE NOTEBOOK

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

day moon

ascends the temple dome

a sari flaps

--Christina Chin (Kuching, Malaysia)

The haikuist watched the wind roll the moon up a golden vault. Rising to the scent of cut blue delphinium spires, Marshall Hryciuk admired a curved white eyelash over Toronto.

new crescent

to the east before dawn

morning larkspur

In Zagreb today, Zdenka Mlinar observed children leaving shoes outside their doors to welcome the return of a third-century saint who sold all his possessions and gave his money to the poor.

only flip flop thongs

on the feet of immigrants--

St. Nicola’s day

In wintry Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Hifsa Ashraf realizes that bare-limbed trees often convey a sense of loss and coming horror. Helen Buckingham observed the moon climb the side of a bare tree. She may have been at a Christmas market in the United Kingdom where the warm, spicy aroma of mulled cider filled the air. Jenna Le admired a tree in New York.

haunted night

the polythene bags rustle

on a bare tree

* * *

scaling

the apple tree

cider moon

* * *

a nude girl

wearing elbow-length gloves

tree half-stripped of bark

From her vantage in Toronto, while drinking red wine made from black grapes, Veronika Zora Novak remarked how the colored autumn leaves suited the moon. Ruminating in Bangalore, India, A. Sethuramiah believes there might be a darker history to reveal about winemakers.

shiraz ...

the taste of autumn colours

become the moon

* * *

behind the sparkle

untold story of

crushed grapes

Helga Stania viewed a Picasso painting of a family brushed in cold bluish colors suggestive of a winter night. In his 20s, the painter had been depressed over the suicide of a close friend. Paul Geiger pondered life. Marek Kozubek climbed toward heaven. Satoru Kanematsu was inspired by Pope Francis’ first visit to Japan.

exhibition

regarding my father’s face

regarding “La Vie”

* * *

the ego of Dr. Frankenstein

his creature searches

for its soul

* * *

mountain path--

closer and closer to heaven

my prayer

* * *

Pope’s prayer

at Hiroshima:

no-nuke world

Surrounded by avocado, mangoes and macadamia trees, Barbara A. Taylor reported from her Mountain Top home in New South Wales. On the perimeter of those well-trimmed and watered orchards, however, “the rainforest national parks are burning up,” she said. “The sky is white, the air smoky … and there are strong winds that can carry embers for 30 km. The world seems to be burning up.”

easy to swallow

the stiffness of alcohol

after a hard day

Teiichi Suzuki recalled being overwhelmed by the red color of Shuri Castle before it burned to the ground.

Shuri Castle

dyed in scarlet--

a sense of loss

Goran Gatalica tried to console a friend’s heart and soul in Zagreb, Croatia. Angela Giordano’s mother knew how to keep her family warm in Italy. Ken Sawitri’s mother wrapped fermented rice in her palms in Blora, Indonesia.

hanging moon--

my friend’s loneliness

in dark whiskey

* * *

baked lasagna--

the scent of mother’s

wool sweater

* * *

Stirring embers

sweet-smelling sky

... rice in the bamboo tubes

Francis Attard burnished dark circles in this one-liner shipped from Malta: crates of persimmons knots show in ash wood. Angela Giordano tasted Italian sunshine. Neelam Dadhwal savored two fleeting days in India.

ripe persimmons

small yellow suns

hang from each branch

* * *

sweet limes--

after the weekend she plans

another destination

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

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Dec. 20. You are warmly invited to send haiku about snow, 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 featuring graduate students 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 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: "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).