Milky Way rocks round the masthead
--Keith Evetts (Thames Ditton, U.K.)

* * *

Raindrop
on a cosmos flower
one thousand words
--Tsanka Shishkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

Way back then
until death, I will love
cosmos in the wind
--Noma Minako (Matsuyama)

* * *

cosmos sway
weightless four minutes
manned spaceflight
--Masumi Orihara (Atsugi, Kanagawa)

* * *

now and then
in the field of lavender
the echo of the wind
--Francoise Maurice (Draguignan, France)

* * *

bamboo forest
where we met last time
old flute songs
--Hifsa Ashraf (Rawalpindi, Pakistan)

* * *

tranquil lake
an unknown carp passing
the glimpse of eternity
--Ken Sawitri (Blora, Indonesia)

* * *

shrimp boats
headed home
dancing sails
--Richard Bailly (Fargo, North Dakota)

* * *

waves of wheat--
taste of the sea
in her kiss
--Olivier-Gabriel Humbert (Les Avenieres, France)

* * *

A rush of orange zest in the
lingering rainy chill
Return me to winter soonest
--Sara P. Dias (Cape Town, South Africa)

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

Perseids
I still believe
in love
--Tsanka Shishkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

The haikuist was swept away by a meteor shower. Teiichi Suzuki’s house lies under a path airplanes take from Kansai International Airport. Douglas J. Lanzo penned his haiku with the flourish of a lawyer’s quill at home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Scattered
from the galaxy
the lights of night flights

* * *

pin pricks of glowing silk
strand the moonless night
Milky Way

Eva Limbach stood outside to admire stars over Saarbrucken, Germany. Mark Thomas Manalang spent a star-spangled evening in Baguio, Philippines. In Cordoba, Argentina, Julia Guzman learned how the cosmos blooms for as far as the eye can see. Satoru Kanematsu has no need for a watch; he has afternoon-blooming flowers and reliable delivery in Nagoya. Mirela Brailean watched reflections of star-shaped flowers fold their blooms at dusk in Iasi, Romania.

cosmic void
on my skin a lingering
mosquito bite

* * *

World in my fingers
Universe in a flower
Cosmos in her eyes

* * *

cosmos in bloom--
mother describes them
in sign language

* * *

Paperboys
footsteps approaching
four o’clocks

* * *

water lilies in bloom--
stars from the old pond
return to the sky

German poets Pitt Buerken from Munster and Claudia Brefeld from Bochum, respectively, exclaimed as if they were explorers in the Amazon.

at length!
the river issues
into the sea

* * *

Amazon fires--
my thoughts flee
to the Milky Way

Kristen Lindquist may have felt her throat burn a bit on the way down as she knocked back a shooter in Camden, Maine. In addition to its vitamins and sour taste, Suzuki thinks citrus acid can sterilize fresh fish and oysters in Osaka. Zdenka Mlinar cleansed in Zagreb, Croatia.

tequila shots
bonfire sparks swirl up
among stars

* * *

Squeezing a lemon
on the sliced raw tuna
savor of the sea

* * *

anti-vaccine
the kitchen breathes the colors
and smells of citrus

Helga Stania drank white wine in Ettiswil, Switzerland: illuminated by the waning moon chilled Riesling.

Dizzy from crossing Konigssee lake in an electric boat, Horst Ludwig penned this poem at St. Bartholomew’s, Bavaria. Devoshruti Mandal works from home in Varanasi, India. Lucy Whitehead went for a refreshing stroll in Southend on Sea, U.K. Giuliana Ravaglia enjoyed a gentle evening breeze in Bologna, Italy.

drifting--what’s moving
the boat, the high stone wall...
Sunday morning bell

* * *

seaside stroll...
on a work table
blue lagoon

* * *

pouring limoncello
by the Grand Canal
a painter painting sunlight

* * *

evening on the pier:
the sails rest
on the shoreline

Rp Verlaine set out from New York harbor planning to sail by the stars. Writing from Thames Ditton, U.K., Evetts sailed island to island, star to star. Brailean eyed the Black Sea. Ljiljana Dobra traveled far from Sibenik, Croatia.

the seagulls above
follow as we sail
without a map

* * *

joining the dots
on the horizon
me and my sailboat

* * *

sickle moon--
on the horizon
a sailboat

* * *

wait for me
I walk through the constellations
to infinity

Michael Feil lamented how grandchildren in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, lost the chance to make childhood memories during the pandemic. As the sun dipped below the horizon, Patrick Sweeney offered a bedside invocation. Orihara worried when her mother “kept saying she was ready for her final moment.” When “her long wait and sudden departure” finally came, it left an indelible impression on the haikuist. Brailean reflected on what more she could have possibly said to her mother.

empty porch swing waits
many stories for sharing
grandpa reads the news

* * *

green twilight
a prayer for a friend who says
it won’t do any good

* * *

too long
waiting for it--too sudden
chilly ending

* * *

mom’s birthday--
the gentle glittering of a star
at my window

Barrie Levine carted away summer memories from Wenham, Massachusetts. Ana Drobot departed from Bucharest, Romania. Another summer ended for Kanematsu.

closing the cottage:
packing the wind chimes
with the wind

* * *

leaving my hometown...
the stars will be waiting
for my return

* * *

No more cars
in the parking lot
dragonflies

Ashraf wondered what might happen next in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. John Daleiden learned how to survive in the Sonoran desert.

child custody day
rolling down the alley
a tumbleweed

* * *

desert hike--
in its shade, I drink
from a Saguaro

Cupping her palms, Stania is in control of life in Ettiswil, Switzerland. Having traveled far from his home in Fukuoka, Yuji Hayashi spotted his destination while stopping for a drink. Veronika Zora celebrated her birthday today in Toronto, Canada.

mountain lake
a sip
from my hollow hand

* * *

A peek at Mount Aso
tracing the riverhead
water in my hands

* * *

glass of lemonade…stirring the mystic cry
of a loon

Limbach waved to migrating birds. John Hawkhead adjusted his line of sight from Bradford on Avon, England. Stephen J. DeGuire peered through dangling skeletons in Los Angeles. Robin Rich applied a wider angle of view.

high in the sky
above endless fields of wheat
southbound cranes

* * *

harvest moon
along the ancient ridgeline
turbines thresh the stars

* * *

between stars
on sand dollar chimes
harvest moon

* * *

between the high rises
the full moon looms large
alien neighbours

Manalang recalled a special person who left him to go overseas and never returned. Kanematsu cherished a dramatic finish.

Night at the tarmac
The summer wind lost its warmth
When she said goodbye

* * *

Finale:
smaller and clearer
morn’ glories

Roberta Beach Jacobson left this one line on a sour note in Indianola, Iowa: warm lemonade no tip. Levine relaxed with a warm cup of tea in Wenham, Massachusetts. Salil Chaturvedi bid adieu in Goa, India. Orihara regrets not having the chance to say goodbye during COVID-19 in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture. Albertus Hariantono swallowed bitterly in Malang, Indonesia.

warming
in pekoe
a lemon wedge softens

* * *

Final goodbye--
the ice melts
in her lemonade

* * *

Green tea
bitterly iced
restrained adieu

* * *

spilled trash
in front of the house
my iced green tea

Elancharan Gunasekaran never left Singapore: missing the last train a conversation with shadows.

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

The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear Oct. 15 and 29. Readers are invited to send haiku about burning farmer’s fields or scarecrows 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).