bridal spirea blossom--breathe in breath breathe out

--Isabella Kramer (Nienhagen, Germany)

* * *

Just a cough
dog looks at his keeper
white dogwoods
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)

* * *

crowded train
holding in a sneeze
hay fever
--Doc Sunday (Hiroshima)

* * *

morning freshness--
perfection in abundance
clouds of breath
--Rose Mary Boehm (Lima, Peru)

* * *

Spring equinox--
so many lives
hanging in the balance
--Lee Nash (Poitou-Charentes, France)

* * *

COVID woe
deserted downtown
chilly rain
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

* * *

Knowing
the smallness of the globe--
COVID-19
--Teiichi Suzuki (Osaka)

* * *

origami
with every fold
a new me
--Vandana Parashar (Panchkula, India)

* * *

on gleaming ice
an artist captivates
golden Yuzu
--Taylor Jo Kelly (Cumbria, U.K.)

* * *

first crocuses
kneeling
on the wet snow
--Zornizta Harizanova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

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

after the dark--
when all seems lost
rebirth
--Rose Mary Boehm (Lima, Peru)

The haikuist celebrated the autumn equinox today, while the vernal equinox was feted to the north. During today’s solstice everyone equally shares daylight and darkness. Ian Willey’s been caught in a daily pattern; slumping one way or the other.

winter sky
herringbones
within herringbones

But at high noon today, when the sun shines directly overhead at the equator, nobody will cast a shadow. Tsanka Shishkova checked the time in Sofia, Bulgaria. Hope sprang eternal for Vandana Parashar. Vincenzo Adamo tried to keep up with his neighbor’s spring cleaning and gardening in Trapani, Italy.

equinox ...
on the clock tower
a new nest

* * *

vernal equinox ...
I spot new hair sprouting
after the chemo

* * *

equinox
spring is coming
house by house

Over the next 10 years, Natalia Kuznetsova hopes to discover a new sky in Moscow. Lauris Burns will double down on a late bloomer in Wilmington, North Carolina.

new shades of life
for the new decade ...
divorced

* * *

Love like spring blossoms
Worn and enchanting by fall
Was it worth the wait?

Eleven-year-old Daniel Jones and classmate Megumi Yurco at Sollars Elementary School in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, respectively, asked these questions.

Early plum
Where’s your
family?

* * *

Sparrows on a branch
is that the one
we saved?

How does the next haiku make you feel? Perhaps you’ll smile wryly while reading this haiku by Jay Friedenberg a psychology professor and president of the Haiku Society of America.

ice tea glass
a fly lands
on my lip marks

Natalia Rudychev smiled demurely in New York. Robin Rich pushed back a cuppa in Brighton, U.K. Twelve-year-old Blake Bernhard soaked his tea at Sollars. Bogdanka Stojanovski quickly sipped green tea in Novi Sad, Serbia. Muskaan Ahuja swooned in Chandigarh, India.

we share a smile
magnolia petal
drifts through the moon

* * *

camellia flower
dries on the bough
cooling cup of tea

* * *

deep winter
tea leaves
steeping in the cup

* * *

spring equinox
frogs hasten to the sun
my first teacup

* * *

white magnolia
I am pulled
Within

Jane Beal recently visited an aviary, penning this haiku during a birding walk.

at the waterfall
a man asks a woman
to marry him

While browsing in a store, Yutaka Kitajima wrote a curt one-line haiku in reply to this question: “Are you looking for anything in particular, sir?” Thickly clad--the browser short of sincere words. High school student Matthew Varriale studied haiku in a religion class with his teacher Sergio DeMiglio in Toronto.

My father provides
The grace to work towards goals
I won’t be tempted

Ramona Linke was unable to decide if it was raining or snowing in Germany. Roberta Beach Jacobson’s cats sat on the fence for 24 hours in Indianola, Iowa. Zelyko Funda faced a fifty-fifty chance in Varazdin, Croatia. Suraja Roychowdhury knows how to turn a weather report into a haiku in Lexington, Massachusetts.

sleet
napping in the armchair
Schrodinger’s cat

* * *

cats line up on fence
howling the night shift
--catbirds sing day shift

* * *

magnolia buds--
about to bloom--
or about to freeze?

* * *

weather report
the will it or won’t it
of snow

Masumi Orihara took advantage of the warming climate when he visited Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. When temperatures hovered around zero degrees, he tapped the trunks of betula trees to make syrup.

Earlier in March
in the land of the Sapmi
sapping birch

Maple syrup can be produced from local kaede maple trees in Yamanashi Prefecture, but Orihara prefers plum wine made from the fragrant trees at Soga Orchard in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Plum orchard
vying with pure white
capped Fuji

Having overlooked a woman’s affection, Mario Massimo Zontini missed the falling snow and blossoming of trees.

what she felt for me
I learn from a lady friend
now that she’s no more

* * *

the night snow
comes and goes--
unnoticed

* * *

not revealed
the fragrance of plum blossoms
until they scatter

Zdenka Mlinar paid homage in Croatia. Ana Drobot requited a soothing dream in Bucharest, Romania. Teiichi Suzuki went window shopping in Osaka.

white rose
for the last farewell
of a dear poetess

* * *

vernal equinox--
we can finally dream
at the same time

* * *

vernal equinox--
window mannequin wearing
reversible coat

Images outside Alan Summers’ window in Wiltshire, England, had all the makings of a painting by Rene Magritte (1898-1967). Pitt Buerken’s pet explored beyond the norm in Munster, Germany. John Daleiden won’t let his precious play in the Sonoran Desert. Melanie Vance turned on the outdoor spotlights in Dallas, Texas.

the cat is in love
night becomes Magritte
with a bowler hat

* * *

our tom loves
the Minka next door, but
the other queens, too

* * *

Golda, inside
the glass patio door--
outside, a Tom lurks

* * *

my cat’s dance
with neighbor’s dalmatian
Polka Dot

Ljiljana Dobra’s tom danced all week in Croatia. Adjei Agyei-Baah’s pet stands pat in New Zealand. In Indonesia, Ken Sawitri’s clock squeezed air in and out its whistle. Ezio Infantino perfected a foreign language.

missing cat
came back skinny
after a love dance

* * *

aquarium
the cat pats
a motionless fish

* * *

cat yowling ...
the wooden cuckoo bird strikes
a quick two-note call

* * *

joyful bells ...
my first haiku
in Spanish

Stefano d’Andrea Sanremo’s tom stole the limelight. Boehm admired gold. Mlinar sheened green. Meghan Elizabeth Jones was tickled pink. Eva Limbach rolled over.

cat in love
the missing light
is in his eyes

* * *

butterfly wings--
shimm’ring gardens of remembrance
gold-flecked eyes

* * *

long grooming
of a green-eyed kitten--
dog’s barking

* * *

under bedcovers
curious kitten
tickles our bellies

* * *

vernal equinox
I move to the other side
of my bed

Thais Fernandes rescued cats in Sao Paulo. Bernadeth Ticar wove colors in Iloilo, Philippines. Claire Vogel Camargo curled up in Austin, Texas. Daniela Misso mailed a picture-perfect postcard from Terni, the Italian city of love. Tomislav Sjekloca took it easy.

whatever breeds,
she’s known to love cats
released from a cage

* * *

nice colors in spring
meow I hear their faithful love
white fur entwined hearts

* * *

Valentine’s Day
side by side with tails entwined
two cats purring

* * *

San Valentino--
the tails of two cats
make a heart

* * *

Valentine’s day
together alone
neutered cat and me

Daleiden watched warily in Phoenix. Yutaka Kitajima’s favorite shrub turned out to be impotent. Angela Giordano waited in the shade.

three neutered cats
prance behind the glass door--
paramours’ parade

* * *

Nandina--
no berries atop
spring magic

* * *

dry plum tree
in grandpa’s garden--
your absence

Murasaki Sagano acknowledged “I’ve learned from my father many things.”

“To see the world”
his habit of saying
winter day trip

Whimsically spinning a spherical model of Earth, Satoru Kanematsu wondered if he’d ever travel outside Japan. Perhaps with that thought in mind, he fell deeply asleep.

The globe turns
pushed by fingertips
nearing spring

* * *

The next world
closer than I thought
sunbathing

Ramona Linke religiously observed the 40-day Christian season of reflection in preparation for Easter.

lent
among the pines
stilled breath

Despite mountain climbing for hours in Lhasa, Tibet, Orihara was struck by the realization that he couldn’t reach the top. In Faro, Portugal Corine Timmer didn’t wish in vain. Neelam Dadhwal’s horse paused for a moment along a trekking path while sauntering uphill toward Zakir Hussain Rose garden outside Chandigarh, India. In 1684, Matsuo Basho composed: michinobe no mukuge wa uma ni kuwarekeri.

Never nearing
the snow-capped mountains
trekking trail

* * *

a yellow crocus
pushes through the snow--
I whistle a tune

* * *

magnolia shade--
me and a bulbul
in a light gig

* * *

roadside rose
of Sharon ... eaten
by my horse

Concomitant with the spread of COVID-19, teleworking from home has blossomed. Don Wentworth reflected on the news in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that Japanese cultural events and baseball camps have been curtailed. Fans likely didn’t see the homer Stephen J. DeGuire wrote about in Los Angeles.

manga festival
in a row of doll faces
a mirror

* * *

spring training--
the boys of summer
going yard

Haikuists seem to be staying at home rather than walking in parks. Kanematsu packed and put away decorations that had been on display. Madhuri Pillai felt a sudden pull at her heartstrings while housecleaning in Melbourne. Lee Nash left early in Poitou-Charentes, France. Rosemarie Schuldes quietly called it a day in Mattsee, Austria.

Hina dolls
put back in the box
“till next spring”

* * *

clearing the cupboard
my daughter’s cabbage patch doll--
a tug in my heart

* * *

five o’clock
I pack up
the first spring sun

* * *

sunset
on empty rows of chairs
and all those melodies

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

Put haiku on your bucket list of things to do at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. An Asahi Haikuist Special column appears March 27 to share the results of the Matsuyama Photo Haiku Contest supported by The Asahi Shimbun. The next regular issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network will be published April 3 and 17. Readers are invited to send haiku about herbal tea or hanami 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).