pizzicato of the rain new fiddleheads unfolding
--Keith Evetts (Thames Ditton, England)

* * *

baby sister
bites green sour plums
not even puckering
--Christina Chin (Kuching, Borneo)

* * *

Refreshed red:
begonias sparkle
in the rain
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

* * *

Minefield
rain of plum petals
over the ruins
--Tsanka Shishkova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

* * *

blowing dreams
under the lonely street lamp
rain falls
--Isabella Kramer (Nienhagen, Germany)

* * *

the used umbrella
waiting for the sky
to (d)rain
--T.D. Ginting (Murakami, Chiba)

* * *

sometimes
a crow grumbles
monochrome rain
--Alan Summers (Wiltshire, England)

* * *

at least tsuyu
brings something
to talk about
--John S. Gilbertson (Greenville, South Carolina)

* * *

chill wind
endless rain...
if it weren’t for daffodils
--Lysa Collins (White Rock, British Columbia)

* * *

Spring cleaning
one by one my windows
disappear
--Lee Nash (Poitou-Charentes, France)

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

Reviving
green topiary…
dinosaurs
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

The haikuist watched horticulturalists clip wet foliage and lush shrubs to recreate a fanciful swampland resembling prehistoric times when Tyrannosaurs and other carnivorous raptors roamed Japan. Ram Chandran lives along the green banks of the Vaigai river in Madurai, one of the oldest cities in India.

rainforest
it rains
green

Ken Sawitri roamed the rainforests of Blora, Indonesia, to find cocoons wrapped in withered teak tree leaves. Cooked fresh, the haikuist said Javanese “ungker” makes for “a delicious meal—served along with boiled rice—to celebrate the coming of the rainy season.”

starting to fold the story
into the glowing skin
a teak cocoon

Christina Chin munched on a sour-tasting fresh fruit salad.

a shaken branch
the thuds of green
mangos on the grass

Françoise Maurice uncovered a nest in Draguignan, France. Anne-Marie McHarg discovered a free-range farm in London.

first irises
under the feathers of the stork
two eggs

* * *

Hidden among branches
Clutch of eggs
Chicks squawking

Dana Clark-Millar cooked breakfast in Bend, Oregon.

one clank of the gate
the spring chickens run to watch
their eggs being poached

There was too much crunch in Roberta Beach Jacobson’s lunch in Indianola, Iowa. Masumi Orihara described an unforgettable dish of whisked eggs from an organic farm in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Sunday brunch
egg shell
in the omelette

* * *

fluffy omelette
inn’s signature recipe
organic yellow

No threat of rain in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture; Patrick Sweeney shouted “play ball!”

all of human history
when the umpire whisks
home plate

Goran Gatalica recalled growing up in the small town of Daruvar, Croatia.

Childhood…
my dad’s hunting clothes
in the spring rain

Slobodan Pupovac celebrated life in Zagreb, Croatia. Evetts celebrated his own birthday today by marveling at the audacity of Ukraine’s youth in clamoring for Russian soldiers to return home. Yutaka Kitajima transliterated a Ukrainian protest from a spunky elderly woman.

dancing in the rain
the father rejoices
in the birth of a son

* * *

spring rain
tap-dancing
on a tank

* * *

Return home!
sunflower seeds in
your pockets

Evetts wrote this proverbial truth to express his sentiments before blowing out the candles on his cake.

plum rain
how memories mellow
with the years

Angela Giordano needed some time before returning to Avigliano, Italy.

on the horizon
the storm a tear in darkness
the oars in the boat

Madhuri Pillai uncurled tea leaves during the rainy season in Melbourne, Australia.

tsuyu...
sipping tamaryokucha
a poem unravels

John S. Gilbertson thought he had paid too much for a fancy umbrella at a shop on West 57th in New York City.

expensive kasa
yet the last laugh is mine
Kyoto during tsuyu

Pippa Phillips shared this line of regret: greening penny my misspent youth.

Sherry Reniker offered a few scented coins in Kent, Washington. Shishkova’s coins were washed with tears. Susan Bonk Plumridge strummed an accompaniment in London, Ontario.

through the car window
the homeless man
hands one white rose

* * *

light rain
under the blossoming cherry
hobo with guitar

* * *

sparrow
an early morning song
joins the guitar

Gatalica grieved for an unknown soldier in Zagreb. Kanematsu was stirred by a sudden spring wind that rotated toy weathervanes standing at a cemetery for young loved ones.

a mass grave
hunting for his bones
the rest of my life

* * *

Kids’ gravestones--
soothing pinwheels turn
now and then

Angelo B. Ancheta sowed in Rizal, Philippines, when a new president was elected. Luciana Moretto repotted houseplants in Treviso, Italy.

scattered seeds
all over the backyard...
end of war

* * *

storm brewing
my gorgeous peace lily
viable seed

This May 26, Lee Nash might offer prayers in Poitou-Charentes, France, to celebrate Jesus Christ’s ascension to heaven.

Ascension
the unsent letters
in my head

Neo wrote a haiku to explain how hard he is working hard as a newly hired computer software programmer in a high-rise office building in Shenyang, China.

all through the night
the city is full of light
this is our life

Searching for a peaceful place, a tropical butterfly came in from the wilderness to rest for a while with Roberta Beach Jacobson. Gordana Vlasic felt a little uneasy with her roommate in Oroslavje, Croatia.

sharing
terrace greenery
with a morpho

* * *

gust of wind...
the spider in my room
looking for a place

Mirela Brailean turned to see someone watching her.

hunted hunter
feeling of being watched from behind
wolves’ eyes

Philmore Place may have seen sunrays descend on his hometown in Minsk, Belarus. Natalia Kuznetsova likely felt caged in Moscow, Russia. Dejan Ivanovic ascended an outdoor spiral staircase in Lazarevac, Serbia. Lakshmi Iyer admired a show of reptilian tenacity in Kerala, India.

path in the mountains
in a weave of shadows
I see tigers

* * *

another lockdown--
through my barred window
winter moonshine

* * *

green ivy
crawling heavenward
circular stairway

* * *

how often the chameleon
rolls off the green
spring canopy

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

The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear on June 3 and 17. You are invited to send a haiku about a postage stamp or your favorite courier 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 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 The International University of Kagoshima, 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: “Teaching and Learning Haiku in English” (2022); “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).