Shellfish hide in the world--night of the moon
--Saoirse Casey (Dublin, Ireland)

* * *

invisible loon
gliding on a midnight lake
bright stars on its back
--Noga Shemer (Storrs, Connecticut)

* * *

evening breeze
on the rippled surface of the pond
a clash of stars
--Slobodan Pupovac (Zagreb, Croatia)

* * *

held equally
by the sea and the sky--
a fishing boat
--Tanja Trcek (Golnik, Slovenia)

* * *

swift breeze--
the origami boat
among the stars
--Ana Drobot (Bucharest, Romania)

* * *

camera aimed
at the herons’ nest
they’re in love he says
--Kathabela Wilson (Pasadena, California)

* * *

a hard sell
with a nearby
hawks nest
--Terrie Jacks (Ballwin, Missouri)

* * *

Hiking to the lake
Shirt sleeves rolled way back
Sun-kissed pink-tan skin
--Jennifer Gurney (Broomfield, Colorado)

* * *

oysters
the taste of the ocean lingers
longer than tan lines
--Anthony Q. Rabang (Santa Catalina, Philippines)

* * *

vanishing stars
from your ceiling
the mobile gone
--ai li (Singapore)

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

The Star Festival
crossing out a sad word
from my mind
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)

The haikuist celebrates Tanabata tonight, full of remorse and questions.

Cowherd star
did he propose to
weaver star

Tsanka Shishkova sang this line out loud in Sofia, Bulgaria: just lovers... dancing in the rain without an umbrella

Teiichi Suzuki is hoping the skies will clear overhead Osaka so that he can wish upon a star tonight. Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo celebrated her birthday tonight in Bombon, Philippines.

A long rain
Pinocchio remains
a wooden doll

* * *

still wishing
my candles blown out--
spring breeze

Writing from Bologna, Italy, Giuliana Ravaglia said she “feels part of the wonderful world of haiku!”

childhood backwards...
in the shade of the willow
one two three... star

While waiting for the sky to darken, Suzuki jiggled his favorite summer dessert. Satoru Kanematsu tippled his favorite alcoholic drink.

Coffee jelly
wiggles in the cup
against the spoon

* * *

plum liqueur--
her hometown accent
when relaxed

The haikuist ai li dined under the stars in London.

eating
under the stars
with a tea light

Carl Brennan comforted his pet at sundown in North Syracuse, New York.

Sunset; my cat basks
in the glow of perfect cat
his pillow, my hand

Hendrik Doeff was the first westerner known to have written a haiku. During his stay in Nagasaki from 1803 to 1817, the seaman penned this poem for a young woman. Maya Daneva penned her romantic haiku in The Netherlands.

lend me your arms,
fast as thunderbolts,
for a pillow on my journey

* * *

soft pine needles
my fingers touch
the spring

At dusk in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Masumi Orihara observed a young bird glide over a field in search of something to nibble on.

swishing past
her rosy earlobe
a summer swallow

Richard L. Matta composed this innuendo in San Diego, California.

butterflies
my first pass
goes unnoticed

Marcellin Dallaire-Beaumont felt the need to cool off in a swimming pool in Brussels, Belgium.

new season
the colours of their bikinis
makes me want to dive in

Vandana Parashar posed in Panchkula, India.

nudging
each other out of the selfie
spring clouds

Mariya Gusev kept a tally in Arlington, Virginia.

the endless mint patch--
things I’ve done to your body
I’ve done to myself

Curt Linderman traced a scar in Seattle, Washington.

pink cherry blossoms
still linger on his torso
where the shrapnel was

Lysa Collins was left feeling contemplative in White Rock, British Columbia. Tony Williams looked for answers overhead in Glasgow, Scotland.

I walk
among bare cherry trees…
ghost to ghost

* * *

looking to the stars…
no life left
in the plum

Masumi Orihara regrets that she didn’t respond to her father when he recounted old war stories in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

empty beer bottle
in the battlefield…
no one listens

It rained so hard in Treviso, Italy, that Luciana Moretto might have felt forced to drink it.

early summer
water cure
I wind down

Anne-Marie McHarg fathomed the meaning of nothingness in London. John Hawkhead strained to hear in Bradford on Avon, U.K.

Just being:
I am nothing--
In this world of beauty

* * *

waist high grasses
she whispers softly to me
something of nothing

Roberta Beach Jacobson recalled her grandmother’s gentleness in Indianola, Iowa. De la Cruz Arevalo admired a pristine view.

tallgrass prairie
softness
of gran’s shawl

* * *

balcony sunrise
the white orchids bob gently
untouched

Vandana Parashar felt beside herself in Panchkula, India. Murasaki Sagano tried to fathom the meaning of life.

forgetting
myself
lilac blooms

* * *

Water lilies
on the verge of tears
fragile mind

Eric Kimura felt ready to cry when a breeze blew back all his hard work Lanikai Beach, Hawaii. Yutaka Kitajima took a quick break in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture.

While raking up leaves,
Wind gods must smile each time
Sound of a wind-bell

* * *

A mad dash
for iced lollipops
time-out bell

T.D. Ginting returned home to Medan, North Sumatra.

familiar sound
from a bush warbler
flowing: senti(m)ent

Kanchan Chatterjee is homesick for Jamshedpur, India.

spring loneliness...
this morning breeze makes me want
to go home

Writing from Fargo, North Dakota, Richard Bailly recalled a southerly breeze. Setting sail from County Kerry, Ireland, Mike Gallagher split the North Atlantic Ocean.

sailor’s wind
crossing the bay
eucalyptus

* * *

silence
cutting through air and water
red sails

Justice Joseph Prah saw dragonflies every which way in Ghana, Accra. Nudurupati Nagasri eyed red flyers in Hyderabad, India. Aaron Ozment never tires of watching the swarm of green helicopters filmed in the Ride of the Valkyries scene of “Apocalypse Now.”

Spring breeze...
where ever the wind goes
a dragonfly goes

* * *

ruby wings take flight
guided by the summer breeze
red dragonfly soars

* * *

Dragonfly patrol
like hueys in the jungle
in an old movie

For a month or so, Kanematsu observed a yellow and black-striped caterpillar on a twig as it spun a cocoon, turned into a pale green chrysalis, and finally emerged as a black beauty.

Summer breeze--
swallowtails released
from their cage

Writing from Biddulph, England, Alan Peat recalled the day he remained behind.

sunlit beach
long enough for the sea
to leave us

Jack A. Pedziwiater doesn’t plan to take another step until sunset in Rzeszow, Poland. Mary L. Leopkey called to the stars overhead on Texada Island, British Columbia.

an evening breeze
anchored shadow
under my feet

* * *

pale day moon
waiting for darkness
to shine

Matsuo Basho perceived this hokku while he was standing on the western shores of Japan looking out upon an island in the night seas under the glow of the Milky Way: Araumi ya sado ni yokotau amanogawa

Stormy sea--
stretching out over Sado
heaven’s river

The master poet had paused on his journey through the north of Japan to hear the crashing sound of waves. Sado Island was known as a place of riches, where gold was mined. That night the Milky Way reached from horizon to horizon across the storms of the sea and human life, sparkling with a brightness purer than gold. Basho, the island, and everything on Earth and in heaven seemed to be alone, yet were together.

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The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears on July 21. Readers are invited to send haiku inspired by Matsuo Basho’s hokku: “Stormy sea--stretching out over Sado heaven’s river,” 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).