pretending to be friends summer raindrops

--Eva Limbach (Saarbrucken, Germany)

* * *

raindrops running down

the trunks where we carved our names

school reunion

--Mike Gallagher (Ireland)

* * *

school friends’ reunion

the missing long plaits

of the girls

--Minal Sarosh (Ahmedabad, India)

* * *

in the morning light

the new school uniform

nods against the wind

--Momoka Nabae (Sapporo)

* * *

parched land

a refugee child jumps

from patch to patch

--Hifsa Ashraf (Rawalpindi, Pakistan)

* * *

smiles and waves

as we clock out

Friday at five

--Roberta Beach Jacobson (Indianola, Iowa)

* * *

end of the season

a half-eaten dandelion

in a duckling’s beak

--Reka Nyitrai (Bucharest, Romania)

* * *

crow’s cry

disappears into the sunset--

let’s go home

--Nanami Yokokawa (Sapporo)

* * *

summer’s end

the mosquitos leave

my room

--Slobodan Pupovac (Zagreb, Croatia)

* * *

late summer song

appearing in my flashlight

a katydid

--John Zheng (Itta Bena, Mississippi)

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

FROM THE NOTEBOOK

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

Kodak film

faintly shows my red-hot moods

long lost summer

--Ashoka Weerakkody (Colombo, Sri Lanka)

The haikuist recalls having fiery relations with friends. Satoru Kanematsu remembers an old flame who could turn the sky blue. Patrick Sweeney’s heart was covered in blue. Yutaka Kitajima adores dainty little bright blue flowers that bloom until mid-autumn in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture.

Hydrangeas:

“L’amour est bleu” still

in my heart

* * *

Hard to get to hydrangea

the center of my chest

pale blue

* * *

Anabels

exchanging smiles, the

summer sky

In Dallas, Melanie Vance received a greeting card with a lavender-blue hydrangea stamp. Jorge Alberto Giallorenzi recalls a once familiar tune by a blue-winged friend in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mario Massimo Zontini looks as far as the eye can see from Parma, Italy.

the last shochu-mimai

at our post office

Kyoto’s ajisai

* * *

Friend’s day

The song of the kingfisher

in my ears

* * *

golden hay-bales

and beyond the sunburnt fields

pale blue mountains

Elancharan Gunasekaran peered through a blue pane in Singapore. Ed Bremson squinted skyward in Raleigh, North Carolina.

summer outing

sea aquarium

this sinking feeling

* * *

in a good mood

father takes us to watch

chimney swifts go to roost

Goran Gatalica maintains good relations with his neighbors in Croatia. John McManus snips them in England.

a life-long friendship

I mow the grass

far away from anthill

* * * after weeding

I delete a few

Facebook friends

Ever so quietly, Richa Sharma put her book away.

evening breeze

bookmarking the ghost tale

with the door’s creak

Mike Gallagher chuckles about it now, but still vividly recalls the prickly sensation of fear when dared to do something by his classmates in Ireland. Being careful not to overly spice the curry, Kanematsu was a little disappointed with the bland result. Paul Geiger lives in earthquake prone California.

up to devilment

schoolboy pranksters

locked in our oaths

* * *

Thunder rolls

curry for grandkids

not so hot

* * *

summer ends

the kids’ disappointment

cracked swimming pool

Doc Sunday is set to celebrate the last time he’s going to cut the grass this year in Hiroshima.

beers in fridge

Indian summer

lawn mowing

John Zheng drove from his home in Mississippi all the way to a national park in Colorado to witness cicadas emerge after a 17-year hiatus. Kiyoshi Fukuzawa stayed home. Kanematsu entertained company. Masumi Orihara applauded the repeat of a piece as if it had been demanded by an appreciative audience.

Mesa Verde overlook--

attracted by the clicking

of magicicadas

* * *

Crickets sing ...

tonight’s audience

I’m alone

* * *

Harvest moon

a cat on the porch

tonight’s guest

* * *

Rustling

the heat weary forest

syncopating cicadae

Kanematsu stayed cool listening in stereo. As if hearing an extra piece added at the end of a concert, Angela Giordano celebrated the carrying of a statue of La Madonna from the sanctuary to the town, a festival heralding summer’s end.

Cool duet:

across the alley

two wind-bells

* * *

the band rejoices--

behind the procession

the song of the faithful

Alan Summers remembers his mother and her love of flowers, and her final garden in Wiltshire, England.

glitter in the fire

a vase shines gold

wind in the pines

The Setouchi-Matsuyama Photo-Haiku Contest, supported by The Asahi Shimbun, has opened for its ninth season. There are six prizes and it’s free to enter. Readers are invited to submit an original photo and a haiku online now (http://matsuyamahaiku.jp/contest/free_eng/entry/).

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Oct. 18. Readers are welcome to send haiku about wine 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 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).