Cheering on thousands of runners--winter sun
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

* * *

New Year’s Day
and here we are
again
--Keith Evetts (Thames Ditton, England)

* * *

soft hands--
a begging bowl
collecting rain
--Malcolm MacClancy (Greenore, Ireland)

* * *

my friend’s voices
in the distance--
the echoes of birds
--Julia Guzman (Cordoba, Argentina)

* * *

club ebony
B.B King’s voice
flows into the bayou
--Addison Johnson (Memphis, Tennessee)

* * *

a sudden snow shower
pricking the lake with pin-points--
in bright sunshine …
--Alan Maley (Canterbury, U.K.)

* * *

cold morning
the sound of the roller shutter
reveals the day
--Francoise Maurice (Draguignan France)

* * *

leafless
cherry sprigs
the winter break
--Apsara Dilrukshi Perera (Colombo, Sri Lanka)

* * *

first snow
remembering the boy
who wrote nothing
--Patrick Sweeney (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

* * *

First dream
something in the wind
revelation?
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)

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

who’s to be seated
at the end of the table?
first feast at new year’s
--Masumi Orihara (Atsugi, Kanagawa)

The haikuist recalled when her father sat down at a formal style family dinner, noting that in Japan “nowadays, the father’s power is gone.” Arvinder Kaur admires how “people in Japan kick off the new year by eating a warm bowl of soba noodles… symbolizing a literal break from the old year.”

soba noodles
the promise of love
on New Year’s Day

Richard Bailly opened a carefully sealed letter in Fargo, North Dakota.

in the mail
rejection card
hand-written

Kimberly A. Horning updated her list of mailing addresses in St. Augustine, Florida, noting how those who lost their jobs or retired also lost pristine views of the coastline. MacClancy had been hoping to get a New Year’s card, but got a pink slip instead. Teiichi Suzuki pulled on a dragon’s tail in his mailbox in Osaka.

moving--
to the canal
no ocean view

* * *

I lost my job
this morning at 10.39
two crows

* * *

New Year’s morning
hidden in the mailbox
zodiac dragon

John Zheng was delighted by the first violas, cool-season flowers with cheerful upturned faces, in Itta Bena, Mississippi.

barren land
johnny jump ups
here and there

Kanematsu rejoiced in the first sunrise of the year.

Brief sunshine
released hostages
back at home

Writing from Whitehorse, Yukon, Sandra St-Laurent suggested that “in the North, where physical darkness surrounds us… reminded me of those dealing with cognitive loss and Alzheimer’s whose identity shifts as memories leave them…” Her haiku hints at how music can bring joy to people dealing with dementia.

seniors’ wanderings
former rock band members haunt
the garage

Natalia Kuznetsova really appreciated a warm present she received in Moscow, Russia.

a surprise gift box
with a hot water bottle--
my know-all Santa

Rosemarie Schuldes hopes to hang a new calendar in Mattsee, Austria.

a shade lighter
without the almanac sheet
grandma’s kitchen wall

Murasaki Sagano began her year in Tokyo whimsically thinking of yesteryears.

Kimono
Of my youth
New Year in memories

Marciniak welcomed immigrants. Giuliana Ravaglia watched a strawman burn in Bologna, Italy, noting that “as a child it made me cry... I have never appreciated this tradition.” Goluba remained behind.

at the town square
New Year’s toasts are made
in two languages

* * *

old man’s bonfire--
the silent crying
of a little girl

* * *

Fewer remain
After he left his hometown
The lawn gnomes

Life goes on as usual for Marcellin Dallaire-Beaumont in Brussels, Belgium.

New Year
the garden fountain
flows flows

Archie Carlos lent a helping hand in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, to share Sadako Sasaki’s story of hope and peace.

New Year wishes
her arts class folding
1000 paper cranes

Limbach waved as “hundreds of cranes flew south over our house.” Standing on the beach near Pisa, Italy, Mauro Battini faced away from the Ligurian sea.

city of ruins--
hundreds of cranes flying
towards the new year

* * *

the dawn of the new year--
on the ancient sea
a cormorant

Wieslaw Karlinski watched the sunrise from Namyslow, Poland.

turn of the year
on the border bridge
wives with flowers

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The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Jan. 19. Readers are invited to send haiku for the Year of the Wood Dragon 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).