lightning under my hand the old dog’s deep heave
--Neena Singh (Chandigarh, India)

* * *

lightning
blinking bulb troubles
study at night
--Amrutha Prabhu (Bengaluru, India)

* * *

lightning
mother lights
a candle
--Helga Stania (Ettiswil, Switzerland)

* * *

blackout
during next thunderbolt
the candle begins to flicker
--Claudia Brefeld (Bochum, Germany)

* * *

lightning...
I’ve never thought
so clearly
--Ana Drobot (Bucharest, Romania)

* * *

lightning...
how love came into my life
and left
--Arvinder Kaur (Chandigarh, India)

* * *

lightning...
the roar of the birds
across the sky
--Giuliana Ravaglia (Bologna, Italy)

* * *

reciting
inauguration day poem--
her lightning bolt
--Jeffrey Winke (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

* * *

bouquets in pink
morning, withered tomorrow
skin in wrinkles
--Elizabeth Marshall (Cyberjaya, Malaysia)

* * *

orange mask
I no longer care about
crow’s feet
--Priti Khullar (Noida, India)

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

working late--
my wife and luggage
already in the car
--Franjo Ordanic (Oroslavje, Croatia)

The haikuist heard a honking car horn. Not having ventured far from home because of travel restrictions, Yutaka Kitajima said he finally went for a “drive with a fellow traveler.” After an extended vacation, Lakshmi Iyer returned to cleaning chores in Kerala, India.

Shimmering
above the dashboard--
a cobweb

* * *

summer vacation
attic spiders weave
their spell

Lisbeth Ho in Salatiga, Indonesia, and Adjei Agyei-Baah in Kumasi, Ghana, respectively, enjoyed oceanside vacations.

at a thatched hut
sipping a welcome drink
lemon juice

* * *

holiday beach
a glint of orange sun
in my glass

Albertus Hariantono wrote two lines suggesting he wasn’t always watching where he placed his two feet in Malang, Indonesia.

jellyfish along the beach
her rainbow umbrella

While holidaying on the Ligurian sea near Savona, Italy, Daniela Misso was surprised by a spectacular view. Writing from Madison, Wisconsin, Rose Menyon Heflin is wary of the Devil’s triangle in the Atlantic Ocean. Zeljko Vojkovic witnessed a remarkable sight on Vis island in the Adriatic Sea. Sheila Riley vacationed in Hawaii, noting the islands are “struggling with the pandemic but still paradise-like.” T.D. Ginting referred to the movement and sound of magma prior to its eruption on the island of La Palma, Spain.

fluorescence
on the crests of waves
lightning flash

* * *

Traitorous night sky
Leading sailors all astray
Around Bermuda

* * *

dark night
a flash of lightning illuminated
the foam of the waves

* * *

sudden raindrop bursts
palm trees bending with the wind
awaiting rainbows

* * *

Lava flows--
the church bell tower
is (c)rumbling

While editing a haiku essay, Satoru Kanematsu heard the unmistakable high-pitched call of a bull-headed bird demarking its autumn feeding grounds where it hunts for amphibians and mammals to impale onto tree thorns. Writing from Tokyo, Sanae Kagaya refers to a demilitarized border across Cyprus.

A shrike shrieks
proofreader’s red pen
hesitates

* * *

mandarin oranges
emit the color of peace
in the buffer zone

Francoise Maurice floated on the moors of Draguignan, France. Minko Tanev may have seen heat lightning in Sofia, Bulgaria. Prabhu shared a seat with the moon.

mountain pastures
lingering in the half-light
the song of the sheep’s bell

* * *

bicycle bell
my father’s silhouette
passes the horizon

* * *

cycling beneath the moon…
my dress sweats
monsoon rain

A red sky in the morning is a sailor’s warning, suggests Paul Faust in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture. Lysa Collins shivered in British Columbia. Nudurupati Nagasri watched the moon sink in Hyderabad, India. Kaur stayed out late in Chandigarh, India.

pleasant morning breeze
slips away a bit past noon
storm warning lightning

* * *

storm swell--
the returning canoe
rights itself

* * *

On the backwater
an ever empty canoe
waning crescent moon

* * *

dark waters
rowing my boat
back to light

Marek Printer wrote a mystery haiku. Vandana Parashar closed her curtains in Panchkula, India. Madhuri Pillai in Melbourne, Australia, and Murasaki Sagano in Tokyo, respectively, read Agatha Christie.

lightning by lightning
the neighbor in the window
appears and disappears

* * *

dead of night
out there, the glowing
tip of a cigarette

* * *

setting the mood
to my murder mystery--
late night thunderstorm

* * *

Poirot keeps me
in suspense--
thunder too

The word spelled “tear” in this one-line haiku by Angela Giordano can imply different meanings: the lightning a tear to the deep night. Was the sky being ripped apart, or is a lonely woman weeping? When queried about the heteronym, the author suggested it implied a wound. Here’s another line of her personified poetry: the moon enters every night from the old roof without noise.

Stania imagined a dreadful sight: all around the moor huts disembodied from the moon’s white face.

Anne-Marie McHarg cringed at the scars on the sky. Roberta Beach Jacobson tenderly removed dark-striped fur-covered claws. Kanematsu panicked while watching black and white stripes. Menyon Heflin’s throbbing headache brought on rhythmic tears.

Threaded veins
Claw the darkened skies
Lightning strikes

* * *

nudging tabby paw
out of my water
glass
* * *
Dentist’s lounge
chasing angelfish
with my eyes

* * *

Horrible migraine
Such debilitating pain
Lightning strikes my brain

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

Enlightening poetry http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Oct. 29. Readers are invited to send haiku about sleeping waterfowl 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).