April 18, 2025 at 08:00 JST
(Illustration by Mitsuaki Kojima)
not responsible for His crucifixion the Cross
--Tejendra Sherchan (Kathmandu, Nepal)
* * *
Spring wedding...
uncle’s speech surprise
“hallelujah”
--Yutaka Kitajima (Joetsu, Niigata)
* * *
firm, rising moorland--
sun rising over
St. Raphael’s church
--David Cox (Huccaby, England)
* * *
Circle of
stained glass light
heals a spring thought
--Murasaki Sagano (Tokyo)
* * *
Easter dinner…
my aging neighbor prepares
his bowl of ramen
--Charlotte Digregorio (Winnetka, Illinois)
* * *
the joy of spring
in my mother’s garden
Easter colors
--Zdenka Mlinar (Zagreb, Croatia)
* * *
Rabbits in the field,
Cherry blossoms catch the breeze--
Nature’s song unfolds
--Kristjaan Panneman (Kampen, The Netherlands)
* * *
blooming cherries
at the field hospital--
Easter morning
--Natalia Kuznetsova (Moscow, Russia)
* * *
Gentle spring breeze
silent water lilies sway
worries float away
--Claudia Yang (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
* * *
trumpet flowers bloom…
a first haiku class
all in English
--Natasha Kilian (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
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FROM THE NOTEBOOK
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Good news of Easter
going out on a ginko
they can be believed
--Horst Ludwig (Seattle, Washington)
The haikuist suggested going on a walk (ginko) outdoors to find inspiration, “walk out far into the regreening nature again to hear the Easter bells from a church left far behind in the distance.” Catherine Urquhart’s haiku circle in Edinburgh “went on a ginko to Duddingston Loch…there was a Canada Goose by the loch making really loud and assertive noises. There was a definite rhythm there though.”
loch in spring
the punk song
of a Canada Goose
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Charlie Smith noted an ornament in his garden was put to good use. Jennifer Smyth-Davey will have to replace a claypot in Newcastle, Australia. Carl Brennan was upset in North Syracuse, New York.
plastic owl
baby woodpeckers’
new nest
* * *
two cats smirk across
the pieces of a garden urn
yes, bonnie and clyde
* * *
My cat sniffs out
a nest of wee refugees
liberal squealing
Ian Willey attended his youngest son’s entrance ceremony at a junior high school in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture. His haiku captures the sense of evanescence, of youth, joy, struggles and life.
Commencement--
blossoms drifting
on the pool
Having fully enjoyed 90 spring seasons so far, Satoru Kanematsu is optimistic about this one, too.
Something good
likely to happen
spring has come
Today is Good Friday, a day of prayer, fasting and walking in a procession for Christian believers. Terrie Jacks sang a hymn in Ballwin, Missouri. Entering a Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral on the island of Majorca, Spain, Cox praised--with no pun intended--the colorful altar and Jesus Christ’s crown that were designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1903.
spring service
Carolina wrens join
the church choir
* * *
cathedral--
nine stained glass windows
not gaudy
Emil Karla rhythmically counted coins, one by one, in Paris, France.
sakura season
the first chiffchaff
cashing in
Cox slipped on ice while viewing a neoclassical Nativity Cathedral at Chisinau, Moldova.
head over heels--
a new patch has me
kissing the ground
After being patched up in hospital, Mel Goldberg is healing in Ajijic, Mexico.
the pink forgetting
pain of surgery
cherry blossoms
Alexander Groth prayed for an everlasting peace in Berlin, Germany.
ceasefire
crossed sticks scattered
on the playground
Richard L. Matta whispered his prayer in San Diego, California. Eleonore Nickolay lay on her back to dream under falling blossoms in Vaires sur Marne, France.
cherry blossom sky
wishing only petals
showered Ukraine
* * *
hanami
a better world
is possible
Patrick Sweeney jotted down this punchline in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: my dead brother came all this way to tell me a joke
Brennan sought solace from string music by an Austrian composer. Junaid Ahmed Ahangar shivered in Srinagar, Kashmir. Robin Rich suggested hibernating snakes will rise from the ground and slither under closed doors when warmer spring winds blow through Brighton, England.
A window opens
into the village snow squall
Haydn’s “Sun Quartets”
* * *
lost count of snowfalls
my neighbor left his gate open
and i feel cold in my room
* * *
knock on the
wooden front door
snake draught excluder
Sanjana Zorinc felt overwhelmed by conflicting emotions in Bjelovar, Croatia.
a funeral procession
barely holding back laughter--
the trumpeter’s off-key
Wandering southwest Wales, Cox warily entered a cave where archaeologists had discovered ancient human bones and artifacts. In Draguignan, France, travelers can enjoy “winederings” a visit to a vineyard with a cellar for aging wine, however, Francoise Maurice’s haiku refers to the prehistoric Lascaux caves.
mud gives up the ghost
at the last hurdle
dragon coastline
* * *
evil spirit--
beneath the cave paintings
a remnant of embers
Sweeney’s next haiku is about a burial site where the bones of the deceased were left in their natural positions and stored after a period of decomposition, rather than being placed in a jumbled state.
articulated ossuaries
he used the word ‘inevitable’ twice
in the same sentence
Artur Lewandowski’s visit in Sieradz, Poland, brings to mind the story in the New Testament about a large stone being rolled in front of the entrance to Jesus’ tomb to seal it on Good Friday, and the stone was later rolled away, signifying his resurrection by Easter Sunday.
childhood home
even the big stone
disappeared
Trying to make sense of the world news from his roost in Rehovot, Israel, Mike Fainzilber commented on the rise and fall of the Make America Great Again movement.
MAGA spring
a tariff wall
for penguins
Anne-Marie McHarg observed the moon from her perch in London, England. Zoe Mahfouz witnessed an amazing horizon in London, England. Florian Munteanu spied Mars from Bucharest, Romania.
Between tree tops
Whisper of the eclipse
A shadow of itself
* * *
Dread, race against heat
Aurora borealis
Smokes like a squirrel
* * *
crimson sky
drilling on the face
of the Red Planet
Rob Scott’s writing class at a school in Melbourne, Australia, exchanged haiku with high school students from Shibuya Ward in Tokyo. Tomoki Yamada and Kenji Higashitani’s poems, respectively, were inspired by the name of a local flora that has thick felt-like leaves resembling a cover of frost. Afterwards, Tsumugi Yamamoto continued to study at home.
chilly day--
gazing at the lamb’s ears
they are frozen too
* * *
fog covers the sky
lamb’s ears are white and cold
summer’s snow is here
* * *
lavender blooms--
I will make a bookmark
and read stories at home
Joanna Ashwell in Barnard Castle, U.K., and Maria Tosti in in Perugia, Italy, respectively, lamented the loss of springtime.
rain weaver
the songbird carrying
blossom away
* * *
Who stole the spring?
In the beak of a magpie
a cherry blossom
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The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear May 2, 16, and 30. Readers are invited to compose haiku the Golden Week holidays: Constitution Day, Greenery Day, or Children’s Day. Send haiku 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).
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray
April 4, 2025
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray
March 21, 2025
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray
March 7, 2025
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray
February 21, 2025
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray
February 7, 2025
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/ David McMurray
January 31, 2025
Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions. (The page is in Japanese. Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.)
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