Moonrise rice harvester on the homestretch
--Yutaka Kitajima (Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture)

* * *

on this moonless night
the grey cat waits patiently--
the sound of crickets
--J. D. Nelson (Lafayette, Colorado)

* * *

olive oil
just the right amount
of stardust
--Archie Carlos (St. Louis Park, Minnesota)

* * *

star gazing
a drizzle of garlic
in the olive oil
--Lori Kiefer (London, U.K.)

* * *

grandmother’s
slice of toasted bread…
a drizzle of olive oil
--Giuliana Ravaglia (Bologna, Italy)

* * *

ripening grain--
the aroma of homemade bread
fills the kitchen
--Rhoda Tripp (Allegan, Michigan)

* * *

Passing rain...
fried eggplants do match
chilled tofu
--Yutaka Kitajima (Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture)

* * *

fireflies
under an abandoned tractor
less and less daylight
--Pippa Phillips (St. Louis, Missouri)

* * *

Let them go!
the fireflies might turn
into stars
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

* * *

Through balloon flowers
a change in the wind...
a tender touch
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)

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

stars before the night
the pipistrelle’s dances
in the last sunlight
--Francoise Maurice (Draguignan, France)

The haikuist was delighted by tiny bats that rapidly twisted around in mid-flight to catch mosquitoes and small moths. She also gazed at stars from a pitch-black ecosystem. Dark-sky preserves are government-protected areas that reduce or eliminate light pollution to allow plants, wildlife and insects which rely on darkness to forage, breed and navigate. Sherry Reniker trekked the Olympic Peninsula, stopping to compose this haiku in Moclips, Washington, at the edge of the Quinault Indian Nation.

the sea writes
waves of light
galaxies in sand

After roasting marshmallows on a crackling fire at a lakeside campsite under the stars in Mont-Tremblant National Park in Quebec, Sean Erin McMurray put pen to paper.

Warm inside our tent
the timeless call of the loons
keeps us company

Christopher Calvin watched hazy bands of light spiral overhead in Kota Mojokerto, Indonesia.

redrawing
the milky way
fireflies

Slobodan Pupovac shadowboxed in Zagreb, Croatia. While listening to the folksong “Kawachi Ondo,” Teiichi Suzuki was mesmerized by the flowing hand movements of his neighbors in Osaka.

moonlight
shadows float across
the rippling wheat

* * *

Harvest festival
fingers of dancers waver
under the lanterns

Sunil Sharma applauded graceful dancers in Toronto, Ontario.

in sync
bending grains
--open-air ballet

Tsanka Shishkova danced on a forest floor of leaves in Sofia, Bulgaria.

harvest moon
first autumn leaves
in the sandals

When the stifling hot summer ended, Kitajima heard birds celebrating autumn in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture: A cool breeze the bulbul calling falsetto.

Amoolya Kamalnath rejoiced at the sound of her daughter in Pondicherry, India.

reaping rice--
my young daughter
orating

Angela Giordano relaxed by a river in Avigliano, Italy.

young women
with their legs in the water--
harvested rice

Samo Kreutz was surprised by the arrival of autumn in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

ripening grain...
how quickly we became
adults

Patrick Sweeney took aesthetic delight in nature’s artwork in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture.

soaking her brushes
blue spruce on the canvas
and in the air

Randall Herman paused to inspect a multitoned gray dusty boulder in Victoria, Texas. His haiku was inspired by Gerald Manley Hopkin’s poem “Pied Beauty,” penned in 1877 about dappled things, multicolored skies, brinded cows and stippled trout.

day moon…
each rock pied
with lichen

Mircea Moldovan penned this line in Jibou, Romania: red sun, without ever caring about the daymoon.

Helga Stania reeled in a surreal moment high in the skies of Ettiswil, Switzerland.

enjoying
mountains and blooms…
war seems afar

Vasile Moldovan knelt in prayer in Bucharest, Romania.

nearby icon
wreath of ripe wheat ears--
blessed abundance

Orihara swooned to a terrestrial movement in her garden in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture. Kanematsu felt faint after getting a COVID-19 booster shot into his arm.

earth round sun
moon round earth
shadow round sunflower

* * *

Bleak summer--
fourth vaccination
poignant prick

Mike Fainzilber squinted when salt was rubbed into his wounds in Rehovot, Israel.

sturgeon moon
jellyfish and sea spray
the last sting of summer

Marilyn Humbert settled in for the night in Sydney, Australia.

harvest sunset
flocks of galahs wheel
and settle to feed

Maurice’s picnic spot was so beautiful, she took a moment to drink it all in.

cold sake
in the reaped rice
wind ripples

Natalia Kuznetsova shouted a plea from Moscow, Russia.

sunlight rippling
in the wheat far and wide...
stop, warrior, think!

Pippa Phillips shared this unusual haiku to encourage readers to allow their subconscious to influence what it means.

night forest--
the owl locks it up
at sunrise

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Haikuists know what’s happening in your neighborhood. The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear Oct. 7 and 21. Readers are invited to send haiku about walking or jogging 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).