From crape myrtle to the old folk house cafe... iced coffee
--Yutaka Kitajima (Joestu, Niigata)

* * *

Red hibiscus
topped the crowd of green leaves
the one-day queen
--Kiyoshi Fukuzawa (Tokyo)

* * *

Givenchy!
ah, eau de toilette
young conceit
--Masumi Orihara (Atsugi, Kanagawa)

* * *

White flags
along the clothesline--
jasmine fragrance
--Elisabeth Guichard (Lyon, France)

* * *

on the Bosphorus
sailing into Asia Minor
feeling young again
--Liz Gibbs (Calgary, Alberta)

* * *

a sudden breeze
bells take me back
to where I have never been
--Padraig O’Morain (Dublin, Ireland)

* * *

Asian Market
the homeless woman’s
soprano aria
--Erin Castaldi (Mays Landing, New Jersey)

* * *

mango harvest...
Asian koel’s koo
amplifies
--Nudurupati Nagasri (Hyderabad, India)

* * *

Ayutthaya temples--
the sound of past ages
absorbed by silence
--Marek Kozubek (Bangkok, Thailand)

* * *

an unexpected
ceiling fan in the gutter--
the sound of crickets
--J.D. Nelson (Lafayette, Colorado)

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

from the mixing bowl
smiling at me--
a double yolk egg
--Aki Yoshida (Sapporo)

The haikuist started a lucky day. Mario Massimo Zontini might have misread his morning horoscope in Parma, Italy.

Hot summer morning
bad news in the newspaper--
a woman smiles at me

Murasaki Sagano recalled when her mother spent a little extra from the family budget to make a lunch memorable in Tokyo. Satoru Kanematsu visited Nagoya Castle.

A boiled egg
on a primary school outing
lilies of the valley

* * *

School outing
kids seize the donjon
with hushed cheers

C.X. Turner thanked her lucky stars in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

celebrating
all the small wins
forget-me-nots

Mio Sekiguchi was thrust into the limelight during her creative writing class at Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo.

for the first time in a while
I’m in the spotlight
brightening up from the dark

Megumi Okuda was a finalist in an English haiku contest at Seinan Jo Gakuin University in Kita-Kyushu.

The ashen sky hides
the golden moon over dark clouds
I miss the twinkling

Haikuists flocked home to watch yesterday’s full moon from open windows, balconies and patios. Ashoka Weerakkody plotted a flight trajectory to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Julia Guzman flew home as fast as she could to Cordoba, Argentina. Simona Brinzaru arrived safely in Bucharest, Romania.

almost home--
a flock of geese
fly away

* * *

longest day
vectoring over Indian Ocean
flying west

* * *

the frog’s song
in the deep night
I’m home again

Guzman’s heart pumped in sync with a throbbing red-colored moon. Her haiku suggests that the moon has a warm and yielding heart at its core. This idea concurs with laser beam experiments revealing how gravitational tugs from Earth move the moon’s surface in and out.

blood moon--
in the silent night
my heart beating

Sagano was enchanted by the eyes and long fingers of dance performers. Archie Carlos eyed his favorite dessert from the Philippines.

Bali dance
vibration of gamelans
to my fingers

* * *

halo-halo
a taste of the rainbow
on a hot day

Melanie Vance wrote this one-liner while gazing at the far horizon from under her bedspread in Dallas: ma’s bluebonnet blanket the color of Texas sky and sea.

Kanematsu took note of a horizontal band of blue over a band of yellow, so he dedicated his haiku to the enduring Ukraine flag. Nani Mariani whirled around Melbourne, Australia. Sagano found a moment of respite in Tokyo. In pale sunlight, Luminita Suse ironed summer clothes for a haiku that was originally printed in the “Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology.”

Sunflowers
under a blue sky
missing peace

* * *

Birds scatter
blown by a whirlwind
sunflowers bloom

* * *

Sunflowers
grief out of mind
for the time being

* * *

gently pressing
the sunflower yukata
winter sun

The haikuist petro c.k. scored a slam dunk in Seattle, Washington.

evening sun
above basketball court
hang time

Judith Gorgone adopted some respectful manners from her time living in Kobe.

back home in the States--
sealing the deal on a new car
we bow

Kanematsu was bothered by tiny gelatinous deposits floating across his field of vision. His nearsightedness was also tested by the tessellations drawn by Maurits Cornelius Escher (1898-1972).

Lone twilight--
phantom mosquitoes
in my eyes

* * *

Spring twilight
turning into fish
Escher’s birds

Tzetzka Ilieva got down on her hands and knees on the longest day of the year in Marietta, Georgia.

not long enough
to find a four-leaf clover--
solstice day

Bona M. Santos cleaned around her neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. Christina Chin watched an inherited home recolor in Kuching, Borneo.

clearing debris
in my orbit--
year of the tiger

* * *

house painting
the workers assemble
bamboo scaffolding

Brinzaru shielded her eyes. Florin Golban looked out from his balcony.

the sleet, or
the death of sakura petals?
the same brightness

* * *

Orion and I
on the balcony
winter sky

Orihara reminds readers that “the term Far East Asia is a Western perspective, viewed from the universe it’s nothing but a dot on the blue planet.”

just a dot
from the spaceship
Far East Asia

Lee Nash relaxed on the patio at home in Poitou-Charentes, France: apero I set off the windchimes.

Robin Rich might have fallen asleep on the side of a hill in Sussex, England.

the side of a hill
flowering camamilla
steam from a tea flask

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

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears on July 29. Readers are invited to send haiku about vegetable oils--sunflower, olive or coconut--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 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).