PEACE HAIKU in today’s paper morn’ glories
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)
* * *
ice lemon tea
stirring war grief
in sugar
--Christina Chin (Kuching, Borneo)
* * *
unremembered
sunflowers along the train
in burnt rows
--Minko Tanev (Sofia, Bulgaria)
* * *
sitting on the beach
writing about bathers
an artist’s burden
--Alexander Groth (Neuenkirchen, Germany)
* * *
Paper plane--
the carelessness
they pray for...
--Elisabeth Guichard (Lyon, France)
* * *
heatwave in Gaza
the newborn children
turn blue
--Hifsa Ashraf (Rawalpindi, Pakistan)
* * *
fanning myself
with an old paper fan--
lost in time
--Leah Ann Sullivan (Nagoya)
* * *
scorched at noon
a co*ckroach slowly crosses
the empty street
--Foteini Georgakopoulou (Athens, Greece)
* * *
after falling
laburnum petals curl
hot asphalt
--Arvinder Kaur (Chandigarh India)
* * *
a moon wrapped in gauze.
The summer night a dark sea--
in the valley, mist…
--Alan Maley (Canterbury, England)
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FROM THE NOTEBOOK
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The ravages of war
spread out on the map
late summer
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)
The haikuist mourned the war dead and prayed for peace yesterday, the anniversary of Emperor Hirohito’s surrender. Masumi Orihara suggested the next haiku “echoes with the feeling of loss at the end.”
a piece missing
from the jigsaw puzzle
war’s-end anniversary
Today is the last of the four-day Obon festival honoring ancestral spirits. Kanematsu gathered papery bright orange-colored bell-shaped husks to display for the occasion. Peggy Pilkey recalled seeing Buddhist temple bell-shaped yellow flowers when she lived with family in Tokushima.
Mother’s soul
welcomed back at Bon
lantern plant
* * *
nodding blossoms--
creamy yellow--
kirengeshoma’s bonsho
John Hawkhead offered a prayer in Bradford on Avon, U.K. Stoianka Boianova felt the presence of her dear mother.
unpaid bill
I leave a thank-you note
at mum’s grave
* * *
firefly glowing
on the window at night
a greeting from mum
Carl Brennan inhaled an incense-like stick in North Syracuse, New York.
A whiff of smoke
from Dad’s brand of cigarette
his welcome ghost
Kaur wrote this line for a free-spirited acquaintance: wildflowers everywhere your disposition
Afterwards, the haikuist mourned in warm rain.
summer funeral
enclosing the first drizzle
with your grave
Having lived through air raids, Kanematsu can’t get the frightening sound of German fighter planes out of his head. Caught by a sudden heavy downpour in Osaka, Teiichi Suzuki fell to his knees when he finally found a safe shelter.
Mosquitoes:
micro Messerschmitts
buzzing raids
* * *
Hues of rainbow
apostles on the stained glass
sheltering in church
Barbara Anna Gaiardoni donated to her favorite players in Verona, Italy.
crowdfunding
classical music concert
in the cloister
Tanev sheltered in Sofia, Bulgaria.
deafening silence--
the song of cicadas
from underground
Archie G. Carlos heard screams at St. Louis Park, Minnesota, where “another class of graduating high school seniors were being recruited for somebody’s never-ending wars.”
17-year cicadas
a marine sergeant
on career day
Hussein Amuka wrote the next haiku at a memorial park in Nairobi, Kenya--the former location of the American Embassy that was truck-bombed in 1998. Stephen J. DeGuire waved adieu from Los Angeles, California.
a list of names
of the departed souls--
August 7th Park
* * *
those wounded
by arms say farewell…
in the rain
In Mattsee, Austria, Rosemarie Schuldes has turned a deaf ear to the never-ending war news from the frontlines of Ukraine. Capota Daniela Lacramioara still frets about living on the frontline in Galați, Romania. Kanematsu hoped the brave Ukrainians will keep fighting.
lazy day
whistling on a blade of grass
ignoring news of war
* * *
lights in the sky--
between me and war
only a river
* * *
Glaring sun--
only sunflowers
glaring back
Tsanka Shishkova pleaded for peace in Sofia, Bulgaria.
“Give peace a chance”
prayer and yearning for a life
without wars and tears
Maley suggested running through a painful experience in order to reach a goal.
nettles now chest-high,
an alleyway of barbed stings
we run the gauntlet...
Ian Willey, a longtime American expat teacher in Japan, used to look forward to early morning jogs, but “the summer has become something you have to survive. We just have to keep plugging on, remembering those who’ve fallen along the way.”
dying cicada
I’ll finish this run
for the both of us
When three-time Olympian Simone Biles won an all-around title, Julie Bloss Kelsey sensed it was a moment that would live long in her memory in Germantown, Maryland.
gold medal gymnast--
our dachshund leaps
from the sofa
A creative writer, Dina Towbin had her fill of verbs and superlatives by the time the Games ended and she clicked off her television on Aug. 11.
Twirl, leap, fly on high,
Sparkles in the air, sweat glistens
Stick the landing
John Daleiden was weather-beaten in the Sonoran desert, Arizona. Robin Rich was flabbergasted by a call in Brighton, England.
hot, hot, hot, hot, hot
day after day season creep
hot, hot, hot, hot, hot
* * *
‘ring ring ring ring ring’
they pick up the telephone
“flag is upside down”
Charlie Smith still has the air-conditioning on full blast in Raleigh, North Carolina.
all windows shut
three rabbits on driveway
dog’s nose knows
Ivan Georgiev exhausted all his energy by cheering the winning team in Goettingen, Germany. Viewing the Olympics in Mattsee, Austria, Rosemarie Schuldes juxtaposed different kinds of competition. In Lodz, Poland, Urszula Marciniak remarked on the aftermath of the shooting events.
after the football final
a wet mouse hears
the growth of grass
* * *
hostile countries
but friendly athletes
all in one selfie
* * *
the race routes
from the Summer Olympics
straight to the trenches
Anna Goluba said that she was inspired to write a poem describing not only the present situation in Warsaw, Poland--reflections piercing the water surface of the pond--but also the parallel worlds piercing each other beyond time.
Stillness
Our reflections in the pond
Before we came there
Mauro Battini knew he was being watched in Pisa, Italy.
olympic games--
the neighbor watches me struggle
against time
In Bucharest, Romania, Ana Drobot came to the realization that war is rooted in mythology. Isabella Kramer read a bedtime story in picturesque Nienhagen, Germany.
in childhood--
the Olympics are wars
between gods
* * *
war children
the right
to fairy tales
Kathabela Wilson heard a “deadening roar” while staying in a hotel across from Nijo castle. Despite the hammering, she found “the sound of cicadas … is exciting in its definite excessive, unstoppable, nature.” The haikuist was shaken again when she returned home to Pasadena, California.
construction crew
all night in Kyoto
cicadas
* * *
constant barrage
fireworks...
heard but not seen
Angela Giordano was thankful for some noise in Avigliano, Italy.
the cicadas
they break the silence
that persists among us
A foreboding red sky at night lit Boianova’s eyes.
heaven and earth
ablaze in fiery poppies
sunset before storm
Dennis Frohlich saw fiery skies to the north of Fargo, North Dakota. Boianova looked down from high above.
white, smoky sky
the sun a hazy, orange ball
Canadian wild fires
* * *
burning forest
fires and smoke
visible from space
Far from the raging wildfires in Jasper National Park, Chris Hanlon said he enjoyed a “perfect summer day here on the Sherlock Holmes patio, downtown” in Edmonton, Alberta.
Cherry dying
Dry limbs removed
Finishing as bonsai
Hla Yin Mon cooled down with mint-flavored grass jelly in Yangon, Myanmar.
Chinese mesona--
fighting this lingering heat
with black magic
Natalia Kuznetsova paused at the broken-down gate of an overgrown cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
cicadas’ chorus
in the abandoned graveyard
shattered solitude
A fragrant green moon attracted Ramona Linke in Beesenstedt, Germany.
Wyrt Moon
the lingering scent
of lavender
Maley likely won’t alter his daily routine because of the global stock market crashing prior to an upcoming Aug. 26 summer bank holiday in the United Kingdom.
it’s Bank holiday
but the world goes on spinning,
buying and selling…
Yutaka Kitajima inhaled each time a long swelling wave crested while rolling steadily toward him on the shore in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture.
A brief lull
ahead of rollers...
cicadas
Mona Bedi paused for a moment in Delhi, India, allowing interlopers to butt in.
after the lull
in our conversation
cicadas
Mario Massimo Zontini experienced season creep, an irregular change in the length of the seasons in Parma, Italy.
silent trees--
the cicadas are late
this summer
Boianova took note of how the years have changed his neighborhood in Sofia, Bulgaria.
dear native home
foreign children are playing
by the old pear tree
Kelsey remembers when roller skating was cool.
days of roller skates--
the Olympic time trials
in my front yard
Succumbing to incessant nagging in Ajax, Ontario, Chen-ou Liu suggested that throughout life one will always have regrets.
my wife’s should’ve list
growing long ... and longer
cicada summer
Feeling the weight of a hot summer in Mattsee, Austria, Rosemarie Schuldes suggested it is best to focus on what you can control to avoid unnecessary stress and anxiety.
cicadas between rocks
nagging wife
stoic husband
DeGuire shares two passions.
devotion
to both jazz and God--
a love supreme
Keith Evetts would like to scare the devil out of the rock band-loving dog owner living next door in Thames Ditton, U.K.
praying my neighbour
gets endless music in heaven
heat haze
* * *
heatwave
the yapping terrier
next door
Kanematsu acknowledged the fear of loud booming sounds from the skies.
Thunderclap--
back to the classroom
dash pupils
Eva Limbach wished the rain would end soon in Saarbrucken, Germany, where “it has been raining for weeks.”
summer rain...
once again, I scroll through
my spam folder
Elaine Parker Adams was hit by a perfect storm in Houston, Texas.
Houston hurricane
power fails, no air cooler
cruel heat fills night
Summering at home in Odense, Denmark, Mikael Kales dropped a needle into the opening groove of a spinning vinyl record by The Lovin’ Spoonful and hummed: “Hot town, summer in the city back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.” Drobot kept moving to the beat in the heat.
pigeons
bob and weave
hot town
* * *
summer in the city--
walking endlessly
towards an oasis
Opening the door to his new residence in Shenzhen, China, David Cox instinctively turned in the direction of a sacred mosque in Mecca to which Muslims turn at prayer.
knowing the
direction to follow--
qibla
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War poetry never fades at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Aug. 30. Readers are invited to send haiku about a shade tree 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).
