Pearly star at a beautiful distance--the summer moon
--Masumi Orihara (Atsugi, Kanagawa)

* * *

in my dream
the tidally locked moon’s
darker side
--an’ya (Florence, Oregon)

* * *

two full moons after
the scent of summer
still on me
--Vandana Parashar (Panchkula, India)

* * *

A stray cat
catching up with me
evening walk
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

* * *

sultry heat--
the dog and I swear
the moon and cats
--Antonella Filippi (Turin, Italy)

* * *

full moon
the huge shadow
of the neighbour’s dog
--Claudia Brefeld (Bochum, Germany)

* * *

almost a moon ...
bathed in the heat
angelfish
--Goran Gatalica (Zagreb, Croatia)

* * *

shady side …
a monkey draws
perfect circles
--Hemapriya Chellappan (Pune, India)

* * *

self isolation--
moon in the attic window
watching over me
--Arvinder Kaur (Chandigarh, India)

* * *

finally socializing
the moon peers
into my room
--Slobodan Pupovac (Zagreb, Croatia)

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

Viewing the moon
on my own
balcony
--Dennis Woolbright (Kita-Kyushu)

The haikuist is a permanent resident and proud homeowner in Japan. When he traveled to Vietnam last spring, however, he had to wait until now for permission to re-enter his adopted country. After getting a negative COVID-19 test result, he said, “Now I am in quarantine in my condominium for 10 more days.”

Angela Giordano wrote this one-line haiku while laying on her back in bed in Avigliano, Italy: in the darkness of the room my soul and I remain naked. She passed a dark night exposed to the truth in life. Watching the milky white moon in the cool of the evening made Satoru Kanematsu think about the “Reclining Nude” painted by Tsuguharu Foujita in 1922.

New coolness
Foujita’s nude
milky white

After listening to a long talk, Neha R. Krishna lay awake in Mumbai, India.

this evening
you talk about
that moon

* * *

lying naked
the cloud of my thought
covers me

Murasaki Sagano wondered what secrets her flowers were trying to hide. Kanematsu gazed at a white cactus flower that rarely blooms and will wilt before dawn. Neev Mistry might have been under quarantine in Sayreville, New Jersey.

In the dark
something concealed
closed gentians

* * *

Audience
with Queen of the Night
in moonlight

* * *

midnight
our covert rendezvous
among gardenias

Arvinder Kaur felt dizzy in Chandigarh, India. Kanematsu took flight in Nagoya.

before mating
dragonflies go round and round
home quarantine ...

* * *

Flight of love
dragonfly tandem
on the breeze

Eleven-year-old Nigel McFadden cheered a flier near the air base in Misawa. Anne-Marie McHarg was mesmerized by a cooling breeze at Queen Mary University of London.

Fly, little dragonfly, fly
then sit and rest
your glimmering wings

* * *

A gentle wind
Catches the shimmering light
Across the lake

Eleonore Nickolay shared an anecdote from her summer job as a maid in a hotel on the southwest coast of France. Samo Kreutz knowingly winked at the wind in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Teiichi Suzuki fathoms the meaning of life.

the morning after
only the rose
knows their secret

* * *

friend’s secret
the first to know it
me and the autumn wind

* * *

Harvest moon--
Embryo dreaming
in the womb

Masumi Orihara says she keeps certain secrets to herself, and “when my time comes, I want them to be buried with me.” Melanie Vance went digging in the forest on a moonlit night. Ana Drobot’s friend tried to cheer her up.

secrets buried
in the flowering field
sunset symphony

* * *

moon rocks
glow at the bottom of white birch
truffles

* * *

rain clouds...
you offer me one more
truffle

Kanematsu enjoyed listening to several haiku that outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shared with former U.S. President Barack Obama and former EU President Herman Van Rompuy.

Sunset glow--
Premier who quit gives
his last speech

Mario Massimo Zontini mourned for a loved one in Parma, Italy. Murasaki Sagano was cheered by a ring around the moon above Tokyo. Tsanka Shishkova made a virtual wish from Sofia, Bulgaria.

Your wedding ring
I touch it sometimes--
the parting day

* * *

summer moon
lit him up
circle of heaven

* * *

social distance
under the shooting stars
tender hug

Luciana Moretto gazed moonward from her office in Treviso, Italy.

a meteorite fragment
on my desk
be elsewhere ... an idyll

Scott Hundahl called it a night in Sacramento, California. Eadbhard McGowan said goodnight from County Kerry, Ireland.

Puff seed. Red blossom
Flying. Floating. Begins and
ends moonlit Obon

* * *

look at the kind moon,
round like a crisp healthy bread
promising deep sleep

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

The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear Oct. 16 and 30. Readers are invited to send haiku about apples or persimmons 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).