this depression trying to scale the dragon
--Susan Burch (Hagerstown, Maryland)

* * *

years of yearning
march in cloaks
graduation ceremony
--Radhika De Silva (Colombo, Sri Lanka)

* * *

pale crocuses
their coats undone
on a warm spring day
--Tony Williams (Glasgow, Scotland)

* * *

blackboard
all the words
in his white chalk
--Daniel Birnbaum (La Bouilladisse, France)

* * *

her prom corsage
in the compost bin
passing clouds
--John Pappas (Boston, Massachusetts)

* * *

Easter vacation
the highway congested
by teachers
--Pitt Buerken (Munster, Germany)

* * *

Easter dinner…
my aging neighbor prepares
his bowl of ramen
--Charlotte Digregorio (Winnetka, Illinois)

* * *

world of heroes…
a cockroach struggles
for the rest of its life
--Kyle Sullivan (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)

* * *

His Majesty digs deep
Strong roots of a tree
Spring into new life
--Anne-Marie McHarg (London, England)

* * *

the arrival of spring
everything I once knew
has grown old
--Dejan Ivanovic (Lazarevac, Serbia)

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

the last goodbye
in Cairo with three roommates
from the 60s
--Junko Saeki (Tokyo)

The haikuist and her classmates from America and Egypt thought they could change the world by sharing their poetry in the streets. The trio marched down Fifth Avenue in New York, participated in a Women’s Day Parade, supported civil rights movements and challenged immigration laws. The last time they hugged and kissed each other was on a graduation trip.

Noting that an “immaculate youth is priceless,” Masumi Orihara was moved to tears when she heard graduating students from the earthquake-hit Noto Peninsula promise to reconstruct their hometowns.

leaving school
in stricken homeland--
no more tears

Reminiscing about her school days in Saarbruecken, Germany, Eva Limbach said she “loves the scent of lilac in spring, but it’s a very short joy!”

well-thumbed schoolbooks
nobody taught me about
withering lilac

Writing from Zagreb, Croatia, Tomislav Maretic quoted a poetic line meaning the tears of things from Book I, line 462 of the “Aeneid” by Roman poet Virgil (70-19 B.C.).

lacrimae rerum--
the springs of our year
pass so quickly

White-haired Satoru Kanematsu celebrated a birthday and fondly recalled alumni from the high school he graduated from.

90th spring--
old white ume tree
in full bloom

* * *

White ume
back at my hometown
friends all gone

Teiichi Suzuki overheard the whispers of ageless “hina” dolls.

Forever
though my hair turns white
doll’s thick hair

Ivanovic commiserated with old friends. Liz Gibbs peered into a mirror made of ice in Calgary, Alberta.

the arrival of spring
toughness of the elderly
aching bones

* * *

spring thaw
her frozen face
wrinkled in a reflective pond

Alan Maley pondered love in Canterbury, U.K.

I have known you now
for almost 45 years--
still I don’t know you

Roberta Beach Jacobson witnessed a heavy conversation in Indianola, Iowa.

park bench
couples discuss life
or death

When family suddenly gathered to discuss a change from one stage to the next, Helga Stania teared up in Ettiswil, Switzerland.

the oak able
to talk about me--
cutover

Looking at himself in a mirror, Horst Ludwig admitted that he believed he is still the man “in the old photo--though that is hardly believable.”

First passport ... old
photo, visas certified
with official seals

Ed Bremson caught himself dozing off in Raleigh, North Carolina, while “thinking about an ocean cruise I went on once when I was very young.”

swarm of gulls,
a flying fish still
on the deck

Stephen J. DeGuire’s piercing eyes reeled in this haiku off the coast of Los Angeles, California.

black pupils
of fish, gulls and men--
trawler’s deck

The cost of renting in Toronto is sky-rocketing, but Marshall Hryciuk received a little mitigation. Tipping her glass in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Orihara cheered the touchdown of JAXA’s smart lander for investigating the moon.

landlord gifts us
Italian Sambuca
A-nise morning coffee

* * *

hazy moon
SLIM from the blue planet
probing ninja

Bailly offered flowers as a symbol of respect. Mario Massimo Zontini remembered an old lover in Parma, Italy.

her life force
on the launching pad
white tulips

* * *

Valentine’s
I buy some tulips
in memoriam

Mary Moreau’s (Sept. 3, 1960-Mar. 6, 2024) family and friends celebrated memories of her life in Kingston, Ontario.

eulogy over…
glasses of Apothic red
raised to the sunset

James Penha planted scented frangipani--its perpetually blooming pure white petals can be readily found hanging over graveyards and temples in Bali, Indonesia.

if you want to be
remembered beyond spring
plant perennials

Ludwig professed his devotion today, Good Friday.

Praying on the cross,
that odd guy from Nazareth...
What a believer!

Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta vacuumed around splayed feet at his house in Hyderabad, India.

spring cleaning...
with such courage, lizard
you could be a dragon

Nuri Rosegg was tempted to fashion a ring from a blossom in Oslo, Norway.

spring
cherry ruby--nature’s
engagement ring

Yuji Hayashi was expecting to see cherry blossoms at the annual graduation ceremony held by Seinan Jo Gakuin University.

Expected the coldest month
But little snow. Am I
a coal mine canary?

Stephen Toft watched a pink petal swirl around a champagne glass in Lancaster, England.

falling blossom
sommeliers debate
the taste

Christina Chin sipped cherry blossom tea in Kuching, Borneo.

breezy
old town teahouse
rain in cherry blossom

David Cox window-shopped.

snowflakes
on old Singapore…
the pink shopfronts

Justice Joseph Prah offered a helping hand in Accra, Ghana.

hundredth donation
urban doves share in
a child’s heart-shaped loaf

Jessica Allyson’s better half works from home in Ottawa, Ontario.

home office
heart-shaped cookie
in his hand

On his way to work in Mililani, Hawaii, Eric Kimura was reminded of the hospitality he received during a trip to Japan where the innkeepers “stand outside and bow as their guests leave.”

Year’s first full moon
Follows me down the road then
Sees me off to work

Rosegg shared an up-close-and-personal moment at her keyboard playing a piano duet composed by Robert Schumann in 1846.

a grand piano
four-hand romance--
love through music

Restless in Fargo, North Dakota, Richard Bailly can’t wait to be on the road again. Hiking in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, with a haikuists’ almanac in hand, Yutaka Kitajima observed the season words forecast for early March were spot on.

roots
yearning for spring
cabin fever

* * *

the bulbul
skims the ground…
insects awakening

By setting off on an adventure in Paris, France, Emil Karla created an allusion to Richard Hugo’s nostalgic poem from 1984, “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg.”

taking off
to accelerate my life--
long distance relationship

Inspired by Kobayashi Issa’s (1763-1828) hokku, kimi nakute makoto ni tada no sakura ka na (without you--the cherry blossoms are just blossoms), Mike Fainzilber set out to find love in Rehovot, Israel.

seeking someone
to turn blossoms
into cherry blossoms

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s always a Good Friday at https://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear April 5 and 19. Readers are invited to send haiku about greening spring 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).