Tramontana--the promise of cardamom in the mulled wine fragrance
--Isabella Kramer (Germany)

* * *

bemused standing near
our table and chalked menu
loves pouring red wine
--Michael Feil (Berwyn, Pennsylvania)

* * *

porch picnic
half empty wine glasses
equinox
--Charlie Smith (Osaka)

* * *

In utter silence
Wine red skies
Rippling seas
--Anne-Marie McHarg (London, England)

* * *

stormy night
a glass of wine...
she takes longer to forget
--Priti Khullar (Noida, India)

* * *

cider pub
FOR SALE
sign axed
--Helen Buckingham (Wells, England)

* * *

to be at one
with the universe
i sip cha
--ai li (Singapore)

* * *

over forefinger
and thumb--
ice cream’s last trickle
--David Cox (Beijing, China)

* * *

rocking the ship
a bottle of rum in the tight grip
of a sailor’s fist
--Slobodan Pupovac (Zagreb, Croatia)

* * *

Warm evening alone
out of Japanese whiskey
“Audition” streaming
--Carl Brennan (North Syracruse, New York)

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

child’s crib
the stains on the sheets
NOT red wine
--Mike Fainzilber (Rehovot, Israel)

The haikuist shared a haiku during “an awful week for my people.” Satoru Kanematsu shuddered at the news of the Israel-Gaza war. Murasaki Sagano flinched at the sound of firework missiles over Tokyo.

Sound of bombs--
a wounded girl holds
a torn doll

* * *

Fireworks
in autumn
bombs in another sky

Kimberly Kuchar poured new wine into old glasses in Austin, Texas, despite the biblical verse Matthew 9:17, “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish.” Her second haiku was penned in horror.

a cheap bottle
of blackberry merlot
Grandma’s crystal

* * *

red wine
splattered across the tile
a siren wails

Tsanka Shishkova hinted at destruction by juxtaposing two incompatible adjectives--bricks and crystal--in Sofia, Bulgaria.

brick-red wine
in crystal glasses
winter moon

Reminded of her wedding day, Masumi Orihara suggests young couples need to relax and laugh away insignificant matters such as which kind of wine to choose. Chen Xiaoou observed a bittersweet event in Kunming, China.

quarrel over
white or red wine
wedding jitters

* * *

heartbreak
too much wine at his
ex-girl’s wedding

Marcellin Dallaire-Beaumont attended a purification ritual offering sake at a shrine in Brussels, Belgium.

shinto sanctuary
the kimono-clad bride’s
very small steps

Marie Derley in Ath, Belgium, and Teiichi Suzuki in Osaka, respectively felt they didn’t quite fit in--so they shared their understanding of the idiom to tap a square peg into a round hole.

full moon
through the squares of the window
night geometries

* * *

The pattern
of a QR code payment--
autumn melancholy

Richard Bailly’s farm work is done, letting readers know it is time to fiddle on the hay mow in Fargo, North Dakota.

full harvest moon
crops in the silos
fall party mode

Murasaki Sagano was delighted to receive a guest who offered a gift wrapped in colorful fabric meant to be recycled.

Sudden visitor
unwrap furoshiki
bottle of Beaujolais nouveau

James Penha sang for a drop of Chilean red wine.

carmin de peumo
complex improvisation--
the bebop of wine

J.L. Huffman cheered adieu with a potent cocktail mix of an aperitif, sweet vermouth and gin in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

Negroni toast
glasses clink farewell
bittersweet

Rosemarie Schuldes decided to stick with an age-worthy Austrian wine with a cherry aroma.

wedding day
licking from your lips
old red wine

Angela Giordano selected an Italian: sip of wine...the girl’s cheeks turn red

Stephen J. DeGuire raised another bottle of wine made by Charles Shaw (nicknamed Chuck) which is sold for $1.99 a bottle at the Trader Joe’s grocery store chain in Los Angeles, California.

tales of woe
’round garbage can fires--
two-buck chuck

If it hadn’t looked so painful, Arvinder Kaur might have laughed out loud in Chandigarh, India.

stinging a drunkard
the buzz of the bee
more boisterous than ever

Suzuki passed the night away reading “The Catcher in the Rye” translated by Haruki Murakami.

Reading Salinger
red wine and cheese on rye bread
my own private night

Olivier-Gabriel Humbert loves the cuisine from all around Les Avenieres, France.

mom’s recipe
in half a page
a whole country

McHarg encountered moonlight by the sea.

Fingers intertwined
moonlight spills our flask of wine
wine-red rippling seas

Zdenka Mlinar felt at ease in Zagreb, Croatia.

Full Moon
in the maturity of his hands
autumn love

Cox couldn’t resist playing a traditional childhood game of conkers in Beijing, China.

horse chestnuts--
autumn finally
conquers all

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo picked up a midnight snack in Bombon, Philippines.

cheshire moon
the bearded vendor
with no veneer

Marcelllin Dallaire-Beaumont’s date refreshed in Brussels, Belgium.

her panda head
that can’t smile
beauty mask

Justice Joseph Prah removed his mask in Accra, Ghana.

moon festival
a masquerade unmasked
by another’s dance

Orihara attended an open-air theater on the cliffs of Cornwall, England. Hifsa Ashraf heard from an orchestra in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

actors exposed
to the moon and the sea
Minack theater

* * *

autumn symphony
a swirl of leaves
around the old trunk

Murasaki Sagano made a toast followed by a promise to the stars.

Autumn stars
another glass of red wine
toast alone

* * *

Not to speak
of his faith and love
autumn light

Mellow yellow light can be blended with a blue tint to create green but entropy doesn’t work the other way, noted Eugeniusz Zacharski in Radom, Poland. “It’s easy to mix colors…but only nature can separate them.”

Indian summer
the blue from the ginkgo tree
flies back to the sky

Kanematsu loved the 1665 oil painting, “Girl With a Pearl Earring.”

Autumn sky--
lapis lazuli
Vermeer loved

Sherry Reniker was mindful of Indian summer in East Hill Kent, Washington.

soft cream clouds
over blackberries
spoiled in the brambles

Richard L. Matta spun along with the dark red wine’s heady bouquet and dry taste in San Diego, California.

soft bluebird kews…
the scent of blueberry
in swirling syrah

* * *

lingering tannin…
a spiral staircase
to the wine cellar

Francoise Maurice drowned an irritable state of mind in Draguignan, France.

a green fly
in my glass of red wine
my bad mood too

Marshall Hryciuk likely went hiking in Toronto, Ontario, with a field guidebook in one hand and a haiku almanac in the other.

yellow eyes
in long grass
a butterfly named wood nymph

Junko Saeki embarrassingly spilled her drink during a social hour after a workshop.

dripping red wine
on my white sweater
nice guy at the haiku workshop

Archie Carlos mixed drinks in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

from red wine
to coconut water
Koh Samui

Andrew Neuman may have been tempted to go for a stroll in Naka-meguro Park, Tokyo.

Golden autumn moon
Hangs low over the city
Humid nights, can’t sleep

Weathering a long drought and now endless rain in Spain, Eva Limbach penned this line: looking for a place to stay--me and the moon

Buckingham likely wished she had gone home sooner.

hung over
a different pub
day moon

David Greenwood dreamed of an addictive coffee shop that captured his heart when he visited friends in Monzen-Nakacho, an old downtown district of Tokyo.

scent of Ko:hi:kan
coffee magic remembered
just before waking

Kanematsu stayed up all night long to admire the ephemeral sight and scent of a blooming Dutchman’s pipe cactus flower.

Withering
the queen of the night
in sunshine

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The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear on Dec. 1, 15 and 29. Readers are invited to send haiku related to the end of the year 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).