eyes closed--revealing the secret of a rose
--Christof Blumentrath (Borken, Germany)

* * *

in the window box
a pair of nesting doves
spring’s first flower
--Sue Colpitts (Peterborough, Ontario)

* * *

rain at the window--
I ask my mother
how long it will last
--Shelley Krause (Princeton, New Jersey)

* * *

spiraling
the lilac--then gone!
orange butterfly
--Amy Losak (Teaneck, New Jersey)

* * *

Mimosa blossoms
in a world where I’m told
not to touch my face
--Patrick Sweeney (Misawa, Aomori)

* * *

shuttered storefronts
the peonies
still open for business
--Jay Friedenberg (Riverdale, New York)

* * *

summertime
in the moonlight
lilies bloom
--Tsanka Shishkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

day spa
I relearn my
subtle curves
--Vandana Parashar (Panchkula, India)

* * *

face in the sun--
licking mint chocolate chip
off a wooden spoon
--Meik Blottenberger (Hanover, New Hampshire)

* * *

a cloth on his face ...
the meat seller takes
a midday nap
--Kanchan Chatterjee (Jamshedpur, India)

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

taking
a bow
dying rose
--Tiffany Shaw-Diaz (Centerville, Ohio)

The haikuist called it a night. Sharon Rose de la Rama created a cozy space in Annaka, Gunma Prefecture.

A warm summer afternoon
Nostalgia, plans, and daydreams
Scattered books all around me

Angela Giordano strolled through an empty Piazza in Venice. A former social, public and religious hub, it used to draw in crowds of people eager to see and to be seen.

San Marco square--
a group of pigeons
fills the void

Writing from home in Melbourne, Madhuri Pillai says her flowers went with the flow, but she lost a favorite.

old home
I let the wisteria
have its way

* * *

neighbour’s envy
the blue hydrangea
dies on me

Satoru Kanematsu shuddered while peering over a garden fence in Nagoya to see what his neighbor was growing. Prijono Tjiptoherijanto counted black hearses in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Faceless plague:
grimacing in bloom
black pansies

* * *

early morning
four more coffins
arrive at the cemetery

Taofeek Ayeyemi stitched in time in Lagos, Nigeria. Safe indoors, Pitt Buerken watched his grass being cut in Munster, Germany.

memorial eve ...
reweaving the fabric
of pa’s cushion

* * *

we call it Fritz
the robotic lawn mower
at its daily work

Alegria Imperial emerged from self-isolation in Vancouver, noting how tree leaves gently moved in the breeze over empty streets “yet, not even a sparrow or a chickadee came by, least of all, a blue jay with its shimmering coat of blue.” Neal Woolery thinks about the new way of life in Nebraska.

under pink canopies
we stroll 6ft away
from our smiles

* * *

quarantine evening
one robin per tree
contemplating

In Calgary, Liz Gibbs found shade under the swaying branches of a large, older tree connected to its seedlings. Read her haiku aloud to experience its soothing alliteration on the third line. Sally A. Fox penned a short story with the title, “The Crow and the Squirrel.” Your tongue will lie on the bottom of your mouth when you start to vocalize each line.

young sapling
under canopy of elders
mother willow whispers lullaby

* * *

A loud black crow caws;
A squirrel scrambles up a tree;
A young pinecone thuds!

Closing his eyes in Jamshedpur, India, Kanchan Chatterjee became aware of his breathing. A tempting scent, however, may have kept him from fully entering a dreamlike state. Breathless, Kanematsu was no match for a young bubble-blower.

Meditation--
with each breath the aroma
of mango blossoms

* * *

Soap bubbles--
can’t blow them so well
as grandson

Minal Sarosh wasn’t so happy with the flowers she received in Ahmedabad, India. Guliz Mutlu asks where have all the flowers gone.

online birthday
all the virtual bouquets
look the same

* * *

flower thief
the wind blows
barely barely

Capota Daniela Lacramioara in Romania and Eva Limbach in Germany, respectively, closed their eyes and inhaled.

after she left--
just the scent of wisteria
at the door

* * *

Covid lockdown
the lingering scent
of elder bush

Staying home in Teaneck, New Jersey, Amy Losak suggested an imaginative tour around the house. Marta Chocilowska missed the arrival of redbirds in Warsaw. Kanematsu nervously watched the news. Kiyoshi Fukuzawa enjoyed watching a TV documentary filmed at major airports around the world.

adventure
the little girl’s
new red shoes

* * *

Quarantine
I listen to cardinal’s song
on YouTube

* * *

COVID news:
colored the world map
all in red

* * *

Airport piano--
stillness, then “encore”
floods the Heathrow

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

The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear July 17 and 31. Readers are invited to send haiku about places vulnerable to drought, or conversely to rising water levels, 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).