sip of chamomile how gently stars drop
--Tiffany Shaw Diaz (Centerville, Ohio)

* * *

Cold air and grey skies
Hot chocolate beckons me
Warms my heart and soul
--Dina Towbin (Lima, Peru)

* * *

Spring birdsongs
bubbles floating up
in the pond
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

* * *

tree roots seek the sky
what was hidden now appears
all things sing of life
--Honey Novick (Toronto, Ontario)

* * *

Longtime buds
together on Belsize Drive
peach and apple trees
--Sergio DeMiglio (Toronto, Canada)

* * *

plum trees in bloom
in empty parks
the language of the crows
--Venelina Petkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

Self-control
spring soliloquies
kept indoors
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)

* * *

slow dance
red pink petals and spring winds
i live for this
--Elancharan Gunasekaran (Singapore)

* * *

a woman without a dog ...
yet, blooming sakura
is not alone
--Tsanka Shishkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

slight breeze--
the scent of almond trees
fills the valley
--Angela Giordano (Avigliano, Italy)

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

Snug against south wall
the first dandelion
waits for love
--John Hamley (Marmora, Ontario)

It took a long time for spring to reach the haikuist’s front door. Lorraine A. Padden made a wish. Time passed slowly during Taofeek Ayeyemi’s childhood in Lagos, Nigeria. In the midst of the new coronavirus crisis in Tokyo, Kazuo Takayanagi moved at a snail’s pace.

dropping her dolly
to pluck the dandelions
and blow tufts away

* * *

unfolding a letter--
kids counting the fowl prints
in the mud

* * *

gardening during my stay home
a snail
taking it slow and easy

How are you enjoying humankind’s newfound relationship with time? This week’s column provides a fascinating look at the perception of time during COVID-19. Haikuists from a dozen countries around the world share stories about how they passed a moment of their time this week. While some haikuists seemed happy to be spending more time alone or with family, others wrote in frustration. Sheila K. Barksdale reported that “lockdown restrictions have been loosened somewhat in England” and she felt lucky to have a small garden in Gotherington where “neighbours all have low fences so we can still chat over the fence.” Facing a trying time in Wells, U.K., Helen Buckingham had just enough energy to hand in a pithy haiku.

stricken bee
the neighbor phones her son who mostly knows
what possums do

* * *

paw by paw
goin’ nowhere
slow

Introduced from India, yellow flowers have brightened Kyoto neighborhoods since 1925. According to a passage in Motojiro Kajii’s short story “Lemon” translated by Robert Ulmer as: “Among these tottering houses, with their moldering earthen walls which wind and rain would soon return to the soil, the vigor of life could be glimpsed only in the vegetation, in the occasional shock of a blossoming sunflower or canna.” Singh faced a lockdown in India. Amy Losak couldn’t see the goldfinch for the brilliant bush in Teaneck, New Jersey.

upturned faces
of sunflowers in a row--
humans in masks

* * *

forsythia bush
chirping
yellow

The fear of coronavirus infection urged Neena Singh to send haiku from Chandigarh, India, to this column again, she said, “It’s been a long break ... as I lost my friend Angelee Deodhar (1947-2018) who had motivated me to pen haiku.”

Spring bounty--
rose blooms welcome
bees, butterflies

Lakshmi Iyer penned this one line of poetry while her day floated by in the southern Indian state of Kerala: in its aroma, lazy butterfly takes off.

Masumi Orihara listened peacefully. Angela Giordano gently pulled her satin drawstring. Satoru Kanematsu was lulled to sleep by a mantra. Daniela Misso took shelter at a garden in Umbria, Italy.

Drone bees
sutra chant at the
wisteria arbor

* * *

under the wisteria--
I untie the purple ribbon
to please you

* * *

High noon beat:
buzzing bumble bees
come and go

* * *

wisteria scent
between moon shadows …
a pergola

In confinement, haikuists have undertaken new activities, such as making dolls, gardening or placing their hands together in prayer. John Daleiden learned from the Pueblo peoples about the bean-planting season in the Sonoran Desert. Pat Davis remembered when time moved to a slower beat in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Refika Dedic dreamt of a heaven on earth in Bosnia and Hercegovina. In this time of coronavirus, Meghan Elizabeth Jones’ life has never been slower in Calgary, Alberta.

Katsina dolls--
brightly clothed images
of The People

* * *

in the time
of grandfather’s garden ...
the rhythm of these tools

* * *

In a garden of dreams
with scented flowers
the hoe and I

* * *

always indoors
life slowed in fear
empty hands

Artur Lewandowski misses the long peaceful afternoons in Sieradz, Poland, when people gathered in front of a small chapel to pray and sing to the Virgin Mary. Teiichi Suzuki kept social distancing in mind when going for a walk in Osaka.

assembly ban
only a nightingale sings for Mary
in the wayside shrine

* * *

Gathering
in the cluster of
wisteria

Aileen Cassinetto, the San Mateo Poet Laureate, worked with a group of writers including Garry Gay who composed the next haiku to evoke the historic formal gardens of Filoli in Northern California, which closed due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Satoru Kanematsu remains confined at home. The first poem shared a way forward, the second a sense of frustration. They reflect how the COVID-19 crisis doubles down on the writers’ perception of passing time.

daffodil garden
a path into the sunshine
with a bumblebee

* * *

COVID rain
a cancelled meeting
haikuists

Venelina Petkova is a jurist for the 16th World Haiku Contest for Children, organized by JAL Foundation. Used to multi-tasking, John Zheng taught college classes online at Itta Bena, Mississippi.

through a mask
I articulate
the coming of spring

* * *

Hanami--
a long look
out the window

Because haikuists focus on the present moment, they can keenly observe and record the impact of social distancing on our changing perceptions of time. Lysa Collins observed subtle changes taking place when the community of White Rock, British Columbia, closed its roads and waterfront promenade. Jones looked the other way.

silent street--
old man with the empty bowl
begins to cough

* * *

while we wait
another cup of tea
ignoring a cough

Helga Stania entertained at her apartment in Ettiswil, Switzerland. Paul Faust was delighted he stayed on the veranda in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture. Tiffany Shaw-Diaz swooned sniffing Jasminum officinale, commonly called poet’s jasmine, in Centerville, Ohio, where it can be seen growing on house decks. Lilia Racheva regretted having stayed outdoors too long in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Hanami
on the balcony
the old couple

* * *

unexpected sight
miniature blossoms bloom
bonsai on the porch

* * *

taking a few
extra breaths
fully bloomed jasmine

* * *

careless whisper,
under the old sour cherry--
family reunion

Neither Vandana Parashar in Panchkula, India, nor Benedetta Cardone in Massa, Italy, respectively, were ready to face a long evening of confinement.

rain clouds
the child in me refuses
to hurry home

* * *

too soon to walk back--
afternoon roaming
in the streets

Unable to catch a ride, Lothar M. Kirsch happily extended his time away from work in Meerbusch, Germany.

After the holidays
Succeeding
Not getting the train

In case you’ve lost track of time, today is Friday--the day we publish haiku to help you get through the day at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear June 5 and June 19. Readers are invited to send haiku about dancing up a storm or a climate strike 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).