Tanabata night a galaxy of city lights between us
--Luminita Suse (Ottawa, Ontario)

* * *

planes cross the night sky,
bright with purpose, direction:
the stars are unmoved…
--Alan Maley (Canterbury, England)

* * *

Jetlag
between two jobs
no sunrise
--Elisabeth Guichard (Lyon, France)

* * *

celestial royal
the first star of the morning--
eternal moment
--Giuliana Ravaglia (Bologna, Italy)

* * *

flag of Europe
in the tumult of the gusts
some shooting stars
--Marie Derley (Ath, Belgium)

* * *

cool air to the void
high ceilings, open concept
fifth day of heatwave
--Brian Le Lay (New York City)

* * *

ninety degrees heat
the bride and groom sink
into the frosting
--Rhoda Tripp (Allegan, Michigan)

* * *

by the lake
a couple hand in hand
I still feel his kiss
--Nuri Rosegg (Oslo, Norway)

* * *

plunge pool
a first date froths
my bald spot
--Richard L. Matta (San Diego, California)

* * *

Paint aflame--
Gogh’s fallen in love
With sunshine
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)

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

Nothing moves
As stillness penetrates rock
Eagle on the wing
--Anne-Marie McHarg (London, U.K.)

Out for a walk, the haikuist might have heard a shrill cry on a hot day. Approaching the absolute tranquility of Risshaku-ji, a mountain temple in Yamagata, Matsuo Basho penned this poem in mid-July 1689: shizukasa ya iwa ni shimi iru semi no koe (piercing the silence penetrating the rocks the cicadas’ trilling).

Christina Chin juxtaposed the trilling of birds hunting insects in Kuching, Borneo.

cicadas
and bird songs
summer moon

Maley had a decision to make.

June evening cuckoo,
reminding us she’s still here--
but Africa calls…

Farah Ali decided to summer in Brighton, England. Slobodan Pupovac penned his haiku while sailing the Adriatic Sea.

cottage by the sea
rose scent mingles
with the gull’s cry

* * *

the gull’s cry--
the sail cuts
the blue of the sea

Mona Bedi was tempted to fly high in Delhi, India. Her grandfather sought silence at sunset.

blue skies
a soaring eagle
stirs my freedom

* * *

blue hour
grandpa soaks in a moment
of solitude

J.D. Nelson was simply amazed by a traveler’s story.

downtown grasshopper…
how’d you get so far away
from where you belong?

Haikuists and other heavenly lovers can celebrate Tanabata, the Star Festival on the seventh day of the seventh month. In a hokku composed in 1666, Basho recounted the Chinese legend about two dieties, Vega, the weaver star, and her sweetheart Altair, the cowherd star, who cross the Milky Way to meet each other once a year: tanabata no awanu kokoro ya uchuten

The Star Festival
even though hearts cannot meet
rainy ecstasy

Jerome Berglund’s eyes flashed in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

binary stars
in sprightly orbit--
pyrotechnics!

J.D. Nelson’s senses of sight and hearing were startled one after another in Denver, Colorado.

flashes of lightning
above the downtown skyline
bus cacophony

Teiichi Suzuki stretched back at a mountain lodge to count a million mysterious stars. Ali explored opposite worlds.

The hammock
dreaming in the air
an astronaut

* * *

summer cottage
the hammock sways
in sun and shadow

Eugeniusz Zacharski doesn’t expect the rain to stop for some time yet in Radom, Poland. Mario Massimo Zontini moves in tandem with summertime in Parma, Italy.

morning shower
a cloud above the ocean
awaiting its turn

* * *

summer in town
the pace of time is slower
my steps too

A professional dancer, Sanae Kagaya stretched as if planting rice seedlings on the eleventh day following the summer solstice.

half of my room
opening the mouth of its trunk
hangesho

Kanematsu beach-combed until sunset. Bonnie J. Scherer found a keepsake in Palmer, Alaska.

Sand castle
and moat made by kids--
setting sun

* * *

bringing home
a bit of wilderness
twig tinsel in my hair

Charlie Smith thanked his lucky stars in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Cutting the grass
first four-leaf clover--
Irish coffee

Masumi Orihara composed her haiku while camping for the first time.

marshmallows
roasting over a campfire
crackling stars

Anne-Marie McHarg led the “London Blind Ramblers” association on a soggy walk in the English countryside. Her group rested while having afternoon tea. Nalini de Silva lolled around the beach in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Wild poppies:
Tossing their heads
In summer breeze

* * *

flower bouquet
salt in a coconut shell
on a big chair

Zontini voted. Don Krieger took aim at election polls in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

polling station
the noise of my walking stick:
a young woman smiles

* * *

Participate in polls
Help politicians fashion the lies
you’re willing to believe

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Read the stars at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears July 19. Readers are invited to compose haiku related to this translation of a starting verse (hokku) penned by Matsuo Basho: piercing the silence penetrating the rocks the cicadas’ trilling. Mail your haiku 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).