lend me your eyes owl to see my uncharted side
--Helga Stania (Ettiswil, Switzerland)

* * *

darkening umbra--
the parts of you
you hide from me
--Pippa Phillips (St. Louis, Missouri)

* * *

untethered spacewalk--
the astronaut floats free -- a
dandelion seed
--Rene Bohnen (Mossel Bay, South Africa)

* * *

lunar launch
international zip codes
assigned to the craters
--Liz Gibbs (Calgary, Alberta)

* * *

grandpa’s memories…
I grew up hunting
with the first full moon
--Goran Gatalica (Zagreb, Croatia)

* * *

In the moonlight
no difference between
oil and blood
--Sarah Davies (Bedford, England)

* * *

ripening grain--
the heady scent
of grandpa’s moonshine
--Rhoda Tripp (Allegan, Michigan)

* * *

Snow blanket lies
Over fallow prairie plains
Mouse burrows below
--Michele Rule (Okanagan Valley, British Columbia)

* * *

under a wolf moon
acknowledging ancestry--
howling dogs
--Lorraine Carey (Kerry, Ireland)

* * *

Red wine--
a fresh blot on my diary
night deepens
--Kiyoshi Fukuzawa (Tokyo)

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

wine by myself
the stains on the table
look like chimeras
--Marcellin Dallaire-Beaumont (Brussels, Belgium)

Reeling from the amazing news that he won a grand prize in the 76th Basho Memorial haiku contest, the haikuist likened the challenge to an illusory fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail. Here’s the winning haiku that was discerningly selected by Hidetake Kawaraji.

walking on and on
in the distance the summit
motionless

Lafcadio paused to look, listen and fully enjoy nightfall in Tennessee.

the moon reflected
in my cup of wine--
I drink the night

On a fine fall day, Satoru Kanematsu had his vision checked in Nagoya, but the optometrist suspected he was guessing at the images on the eyechart.

Eyesight test--
guessing all correct
clear autumn

When you finish reading this haiku by Patrick Sweeney you will be guessing at what he saw in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture.

even though
it isn’t
a falling star

At this time of year in North America and Europe, beavers thatch lodges with sticks and mud before lake and pond water freezes. Eurasian beavers were hunted to extinction in William Shakespeare’s 16th century England. But the preciously furred pond-dwellers were reintroduced and are now making a comeback. Anne-Marie McHarg shared this never seen before view from London.

Moonlight
Flooded
Unseen garden

Beavers are nocturnal animals that don’t hibernate, so they often labor in moonlight to build warm winter homes. Joan McNerney clutched a warm wool duvet in Ravena, New York. Keith Evetts’ eccentric cat in Cambridge brought breakfast in bed.

Covered by blankets
of sleep, we can slip beyond
the tyranny of time

* * *

urban dawn
the cat’s furry present
on the duvet

The Castor fiber species was recently recognized as a protected species native to England, meaning it is illegal to hurt them or disturb their dams and lodges on lakes and ponds. Robin Rich wonders if there’ll be enough ice this winter in Sussex, England.

after the drought
the lake where we skate
empty wine glass

Named for the large, flat-tailed rodent, the full beaver moon on Nov. 8 will eclipse. J.D. Nelson will be watching the night sky from the fringes of Boulder, Colorado.

full moon in two days--
the strange drone of the oil rig
out in Weld County

Three days after the full moon, Masumi Orihara anticipates she will still be glowing in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

eighteen-day-old moon
through a half-empty bottle
wine sparkling

Daipayan Nair participated in a bamboo dance at a village in Mizoram, India. In the moonlight, a half dozen men rhythmically clapped a pair of long bamboo staves by sliding them on the ground. Meanwhile, a group of female performers swayed like trees and raised their feet high in the air like birds to prevent themselves from being caught between the poles.

her young feet
in-between the clapping
of bamboo sticks

Mary Louise Kiernan listened intently to a change in the sounds that leaves made in Rock Tavern, New York.

Stark is summer’s end
in one light switch moment leaves
rustle then rattle

Phillips walked fearlessly. Stoianka Boianova’s imagination ran wild in Sofia, Bulgaria. Angela Giordano stood still in Avigliano, Italy.

moonlight
the freedom to walk
after dark

* * *

full moon night
a spotted leopard
jumps over the fence

* * *

among dry branches
the trapped light:
deer moon

Francoise Maurice swatted a mosquito in Draguignan, France.

evening full moon
it stings my ass
the little beast

Nelson heard a fish smack the surface of Waneka Lake in Lafayette, Colorado.

ripples on the lake
distort the moon’s reflection--
the splash of a fish

A relative of Joshua C. Frank was serenaded in the countryside, not far from Austin, Texas.

Star-filled, full-moon night
Frogs and crickets make music
For one little girl

Vandana Parashar is looking forward to watching Bollywood reruns in Panchkula, India.

ripening grain...
the farmer’s wife makes space
for a new TV

Rehabilitating in a Tokyo hospital, Junko Saeki appreciated a lovely place card on her meal table.

A card on Sports Day
The kitchen staff showed they care…
luncheon for patients

Horsetail ferns grow throughout the state of Illinois where Charlotte Digregorio recently went hiking. Herbal tisanes are believed to reduce anxiety and stress and calm the mind.

after his death
backpacking alone…
horsetails don’t heal my hurt

Wine production started early this year. The European grape harvest that usually begins in mid-September took place in mid-August because of a severe drought. In Varazdin, Croatia, Zelyko Funda wrote about an old crooner who starred in many films.

starless night
a drunkard fills the darkness
with Frank Sinatra

Corine Timmer cheered with a special cocktail and this one line in Faro, Portugal: sunshine in my glass of Chablis a pink petal.

Beaujolais Nouveau Day will be celebrated as usual on the third Thursday of November. Olivier-Gabriel Humbert sketched a tricolor haiku in Les Avenieres, France. Nelson blended the yellow of a waning crescent moon on a saturated purple background with smoky shades of gray.

reaping red rice--
under the sunset
a blue tree frog

* * *

the yellow crescent
sets in twilight’s purple sky--
exhaust from a truck

Mario Massimo Zontini’s feathered friend stayed longer this fall, not wanting to leave Parma, Italy.

Autumn dusk--
in the grey-purple light
a late heron

Archie Carlos celebrated his first day in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Chiang Mai temple
ending at a night market
some rice wine

Keith Evetts visited Denby’s vineyards in the Surrey Hills, England.

autumn 2022
the grapes trodden
by peasants’ feet

Irrigation techniques learned from French and California growers have enabled Washington State farmers to grow delicious grapes, but petro c. k. seems concerned by how the grapes are crushed and fermented to make wine.

the wine walks
in my mouth
with dirty feet

Draining her glass of what’s considered an outlandish wine to drink in the village of Prosecco, Italy, Luciana Moretto felt a chill wind blow.

just a draught
of white Zinfandel
California dreaming

Daniela Misso viewed stands of white-barked trees on the Cimino Mountains in the province of Viterbo, Italy.

beech trees
through a glass of wine...
dusk

Giordano commented on the recent election of Giorgia Meloni as Italy’s first female prime minister.

Italy moves to the right
women protest in
fall headwinds

Stephen J. DeGuire worked up a thirst for homemade wine by trimming and weeding his lawn in Los Angeles, California, hopefully for the last time this autumn.

bottle of
dandelion plonk--
yard clippings

Margaret Coats watched a traditional harvest in California. Orihara prayed for the well-being of traditional farmers in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Scythe sharp as a sword
cuts bundles hung for drying…
Home-grown rice to hone

* * *

Not for a rifle
but for growing grain
hands on a scythe

When the full moon finally sank below the horizon in Jibou, Romania, Mircea Moldovan hesitated to continue hunting in the pitch dark.

moonset
in the corn field
boar tracks

After Mikhail Gorbachev’s death on Aug. 30 this year, Marie Derley recalled the port-wine stain birthmark on his forehead and the Russian word meaning transparency.

a spot of wine--
from Gorbachev I learned
the word glasnost

Natalia Kuznetsova can’t wash out a yesteryear memory in Moscow, Russia.

red wine stain
on the white tablecloth...
snowbound battlefields

At a wine bar in the Netherlands, Maya Daneva checked the legs, sniffed the bouquet, swished the aroma and concluded they weren’t sweet enough for her.

wine tasting
this bitter finish…
first date

Rob Scott had one last drink to end his night in Melbourne, Australia.

nightcap--
the moon floats
in the last of the red

A spotlight reached into Mary L. Leopkey’s room in Texada Island, British Columbia.

elliptical moon
fills every corner
of the room

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The 12th Setouchi-Matsuyama International Photo-Haiku Contest supported by The Asahi Shimbun offers readers the chance to win a prize for taking photos and writing haiku about the sea. Enter online until Jan. 11: (https://matsuyamahaiku.jp/contest/free_eng/).

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The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears on Nov. 18. Readers are invited to send haiku related to snow 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).