pandemic moon ... alone with a cup of green tea
--Tsanka Shishkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

Hush
the calyx of a plum blossom
rubs against the moon
--Venelina Petkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

jade moon ...
a dragon’s talons carve
it full circle
--Veronika Zora Novak (Toronto, Canada)

* * *

green
from the plane
my city
--Guliz Mutlu (Ankara, Turkey)

* * *

A polar star
the green moon floats
along with the ice
--Angela Giordano (Avigliano, Italy)

* * *

landing in Portland
green greener greenery
a tattoo
--Marshall & Karen Hryciuksohne (Toronto, Ontario)

* * *

green heron
across the water
standing still
--Jane Beal (La Verne, California)

* * *

green lawn-mower
awaits the gardener--
nesting pigeons
--Neena Singh (Chandigarh, India)

* * *

On the water
reflections
on a green moon
--Anne-Marie McHarg (London, U.K.)

* * *

Rusted scythe
not inherited skill
dad’s green thumb
--Teiichi Suzuki (Osaka)

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

a big moon--
abandoned hoe
under the camellia
--Battini Mauro (Pisa, Italy)

These poems, above and below, reveal a haikuist thinking of his garden night and day.

afternoon at work--
a lizard looks on
my rake

In preparation for a Catholic funeral rite, Marilyn Humbert sketched the silhouette of a cemetery worker digging a one-meter hole below Sydney, Australia. Eyeing craters on the moon, Yuka Morizono wondered what others imagine they see. Anne-Marie McHarg dined alone in London. Satoru Kanematsu gazed at unglazed earthenware pottery. Elizabeth Gibbs surveyed a wide geographic area.

gravedigger--
bend of his spine
mirrors the moon

* * *

Super orange moon
I see a
rabbit reading, you

* * *

Adorned in rosy hues
the supper moon
radiates in full glory

* * *

Vacant-eyed
ancient clay figures
plagued by fear

* * *

year 2020
looking through her lens
a vision of pandemia

Kanematsu penned this chiller that was inspired by tonight’s full moon and Carl Brennan’s poetry about wolves and eagles invading New York. Even behind locked doors, Eric Kimura felt uneasy.

Wolves howling
in my friend’s poem
freezing night

* * *

Lurking on door knobs
unseen germs leap to ensnare
an unwitting host

Florin Golban has had enough in Bucharest, Romania: climbing on the roof the lilac branches punching the moon.

At the University of La Verne, Jane Beal prefers romantic stories such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. At North Carolina State University, Charlie Smith brandished green shamrocks. Slobodan Pupovac tended field crops in Zagreb.

past the waterfall
up the stairs
a wren flitting in the green shadows

* * *

white face-mask
four leaf adornment
St. Patrick’s Day

* * *

Sunrise
the reaper shakes the dew
from the clover

At Sollars Elementary School, 11-year-old Teniya Nelson and English teacher Kamalene Nelson, respectively, wrote haiku while walking outdoors in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture.

Spring greens
Sprout up through
Golden grasses

* * *

The cat’s meow
Silences the chirping
Deep in the brambles

Don Wentworth knows where the family pet has been rolling in Pittsburgh.

kitten
stinking of lilac
fooling no one

Ever since working from home became de rigueur in New York State, Priscilla Lignori isn’t surprised by what she sees out her bay windows facing Wallkill Avenue in Montgomery. John Hawkhead joined a new fashion trend in Bradford on Avon, U.K.

Waking up early
neighbor walks her retriever
in her pajamas

* * *

slowing down
I pull on fluffy slippers
with Nike logos

Eric Kimura teleworked from home in meditative Lanikai Beach, Hawaii. Junko Saeki contemplated how to escape from Tokyo during lockdown. Italian poet Carmela Marino made a vow. Missing Muscovite society, Natalia Kuznetsova has spent weeks in lockdown.

Middle of day stroll
bird songs in flowering trees
above silent streets

* * *

my Green Moon
a trip to Australia
for surprises

* * *

green moon ...
I’m going to write again
childhood diary

* * *

green moon
in my wild daydreams
confinement

Slobodan Pupovac trimmed weeds as high as his knees. On her knees, Refika Dedic dug deep into the rich loam of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Eugeniusz Zacharski unfolded poetry. Francis Attard spotted a butterfly. Agus Maulana Sunjaya caught his breath in Tangerang, Indonesia. Writing with figurative expression from Saudi Arabia, Bob Lucky can’t recall his grandfather ever being outspoken or rude.

spring eve
a new nuance of green
on rubber boots

* * *

planting roses
in the silence of the garden
butterflies

* * *

reading a haiku--
the spring butterfly
leaves its cocoon

* * *

a lacewing strays
among star-shaped wild phlox
green corn moon

* * *

a ladybug lands
on my garden spade
early summer

* * *

grandpa’s ‘shovel’--
he never called
a spade a spade

Serhiy Shpychenko trimmed his hedge in Kyiv, Ukraine. Unable to pay the mortgage, a neighbor nonetheless left behind a gift for John J. Dunphy in Alton, Illinois. Zdenka Mlinar applied a fresh undercoat of green paint over rusty rakes, and watering cans.

conscription point
bushes in the yard
align with secateurs

* * *

vine-ripened tomatoes
in the garden behind
a foreclosed house

* * *

garden tools
decorated with flowers--
school hour

Mark Gilbert peered into an apparently lifeless green pond in Nottingham, U.K. Dubravka Scukanec was encouraged to start gardening again in Zagreb.

the absence of wind
huddled frogspawn

* * *

I fixed your spade
SMS from my husband

Tsanka Shishkova admired the story of a little boy whose love for a vain and silly rose that began growing on an asteroid’s surface some time ago.

cleans weeds around the rose The Little Prince

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

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears June 19. Readers are invited to send haiku about rewilding 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).