April 21, 2017 at 10:00 JST
Sand trickles through my fingers--the ocean of life
--Paul Geiger (Sebastopol, California)
* * *
apartment balcony
a figure with a cigarette
appears in the mist
--Hidehito Yasui (Osaka)
* * *
the birds and I
watch the valley mist creep
through our minds
--Earl Livings (Melbourne, Australia)
* * *
Mist . ..
his answers
when I ask why
--Ana Drobot (Bucharest, Romania)
* * *
Fog . ..
i admire the lack
of landscape
--Nikolay Grankin (Krasnodar, Russia)
* * *
Craving to be
immersed in greenery
urban girl
--Christina Sng (Singapore)
* * *
digging the garden
only a ceramic head
rosy cheeks
--Brendan Hewitt (Rigaud, Quebec)
* * *
red sunset
flamingos cram
on an isle
-- John Zheng (Itta Bena, Mississippi)
* * *
An old pond
no sound from turtles
though I wait
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)
* * *
A day passes by
the turtle
still where it started
--Zoie Martin (Misawa, Aomori)
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FROM THE NOTEBOOK
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What’s sprouting
from what’s decaying
the soil’s scent
--Satoru Kanematsu (Nagoya)
A retired school teacher, the haikuist informs our understanding of ecology. In Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, Yutaka Kitajima recalls the smell of shaved wood and graphite. Gexter Lacambra notes that schools in the Philippines begin in June, when monsoon rains sweep the islands.
The schoolroom
fills with the scent of
new pencils
* * *
First school day
tucked in my raincoat
unsharpened pencils
April 22 marks Earth Day, an event when leaders in 193 countries promote this year’s goal of ensuring that every student around the world graduates high school as a climate-literate citizen. Eleonore Nickolay casts a critical eye on such celebrations in Paris.
Earth Day T-Shirt
redolent of lavender
fabric softener
Minako Noma teaches her granddaughter the sounds of nature in Matsuyama. Twelve-year-old Zoie Martin listens intently. Jiro Oba recalls a once familiar sound in Kawasaki.
Imitating
the low warbler twittering
a girl asks its name
* * *
The wind blows
hear my name being whispered
the wind’s message
* * *
Insects awaken:
sound of military boots
on the radio
Lucy Peterson relives a fabled time in West Springfield, Massachusetts, when she was “walking to school on a sidewalk under hickory trees, stepping on the fallen pods for the sheer pleasure of feeling them squish.”
Hurry count the paces--
underfoot, hickory pods
stain new shoes
Adjei Agyei-Baah fondly describes his school days in Ghana. Lucia Fontana jogs in Milan. John Zheng observes birds dance in Mississippi. Guliz Mutlu tries to decipher messages overheard from the Black Sea.
going to school
the comfort of being
the teacher’s favorite
* * *
mist
soft blackbird chirps
along the path
* * *
tap-dancing--
hubbub of blackbirds
on bare trees
* * *
dolphin messages
the universe
solved, unsolved
Eva Limbach peeks at her past in Saarbrucken, Germany. Ramona Linke untangles the way she was raised in Saxony-Anhalt. Twelve-year-old Claire Bowman responds to a question raised in her biology class.
forget-me-not
the gate to my old school
slightly ajar
* * *
old schoolhouse
birch trees growing
up the stairs
* * *
Labyrinth
seedling searches
for light
Alexey Andreev’s morning express passes through a station in Moscow. Fellow commuters ride oblivious to his wont to communicate.
no-stop station
floating into the mist
a jar of cranberries
* * *
morning mist
a girl in the trolley
looks through me
Commuting to school in Italy, Maria Laura Valente describes her town of Romagna as “a very green country with a wonderful natural landscape, with many beautiful peach trees blossoming in pink.” Her haiku underlines the importance of environmental protection. By the time her students graduate at Marie Curie High School, she hopes they will be ready to take action and be a voice for beneficial change to our shared world heritage.
misty highway--
invisible peach trees
blossom
Valente’s second haiku is about the shallow Rubicon river. Surrounded by a beautiful park and a naturalistic path called Julius Caesar’s Ring, she says that “on misty days you can’t see the river anymore, we only can hear the sound of water.”
deep mist--
Rubicon is nothing
but a sound
Madhuri Pillai was likely walking by a school in Melbourne, Australia, when she heard the morning chimes calling students to class. Sequentially she may have first crossed the road, heard the 9 a.m. school bell, and finally relaxed in the resulting calm. The haiku moment takes place in the here and now of the silence.
the silence after . ..
the school bell
from across the road
Having retired years ago, Teiichi Suzuki revisits the moment when a city girl transferred to his village school, “I still remember her looks and name. She was very pretty, with a special look rarely found in the country.” Fatma Gultepe enjoyed teasing students every April Fool’s Day in Ankara, Turkey. Simon Hanson recalls being mesmerized by the furious pace of his teacher at the chalkface in Queensland, Australia. Aparna Pathak sneezes in Gurugram, India. Let’s wish Slobodan Pupovac many happy returns in Zagreb, Croatia.
New school term
urban transferee
red sweet pea
* * *
After the quiz
I draw an April fish
on the board
* * *
Old school
memories of chalk dust
riding sunbeams
* * *
Chalk dust
teacher grows old
explaining life
* * *
I’ve started
the sixtieth race
around the sun
Paul Geiger might have heard kids shout in unison: “the Eagle has landed” while they ran back to class. Nazarena Rampini watches insects retake the schoolyard in Pogliano Milanese, Italy.
paper gliders
all land
recess over
* * *
Children in classroom--
over the silent lawn
only butterflies
Evgeny Ivanov studied physics in Moscow. Jonas Woodbury studies haiku at Sollars Elementary in Aomori. Craig W. Steele makes a wish in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania.
school lesson--
petals of lilac
on the cloud chamber
* * *
the dandelion
with a mane
of gold
* * *
dandelions’ yellow
turns white
turns bare
With her green thumb, Pillai pinches withered blooms to channel all its energy down into the bulb to regenerate lilies again next year. Ken Sawitri explains interconnectivity from her home in Blora, Indonesia. Craig W. Steele reports on May disease, an increasingly common disorder that causes worker bees to abandon their queen and hive.
deadheading
the last of the sword lilies . ..
autumn’s breath
* * *
A dewdrop falls into the pond
the wing beat of a new butterfly
moves the sky
* * *
dead honey bee
painful sting
of colony collapse
Singaporean writer Christina Sng is nurturing her skill at growing plants. Admitting that at first she “actually killed cactus,” she adds, “I am making up for the plants I inadvertently let die.” Her cat rolls in a refreshed environment.
Green thumb
bringing back to life
these wilted plants
* * *
Patch of grey
in the grass
my tabby cat
Thomas Canull prays for a good harvest in Indiana.
tilling of the soil
aroma of the fresh turned earth
waiting patiently
Isabelle Prondzynski double-checks the guide paper during Japanese calligraphy class in Kenya. Jennifer Hambrick claims that, “True Kentuckians teach their kin why bluegrass is called bluegrass.” Christof Blumentrath attends reading class in Borken, Germany. Rod Walters tinkers with photography in Matsuyama. Dragan J. Ristic observes art class in Nis, Serbia.
feeling the texture
of the practice paper--
is this the smooth side?
* * *
mountain mist
she teaches me
how to read the bluegrass
* * *
evening school
moving the index finger
from word to word
* * *
freshly cleaned camera
shooting white magnolias
with hungover eyes
* * *
art in the school--
so much sincerity in
drawing mother
Ed Bremson reports “it doesn’t take much snow to close the schools in Raleigh, North Carolina.” Bowman enjoys a skiing adventure when her school closed for a snow day. Valentina Ranaldi-Adams shivers in Fairlawn, Ohio.
first snow,
just enough to make
children happy
* * *
gondola
takes me
through the clouds
* * *
nineteen degrees--
daily walk to school
on snowy sidewalks
Chinook winds roll down the Rockies to warm up Pat Benedict Campbell in Calgary, Alberta. Kiyoshi Fukuzawa finds solace in Tokyo. Murasaki Sagano sits center-stage.
his diagnosis
our dreams move ahead
without us
* * *
No cherry trees
no friends to meet, and yet
petals come flying
* * *
Singin’ in the rain
they drop from the stage
cherry blossoms
Anna Cates remembers when unruly teens killed 13 people at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Columbine is the official state flower of Colorado, named from Latin for its dovelike petals that grow peacefully in meadows and woodlands.
snowy field
remembering columbine
gray horizon
Junko Yamada bows toward the home of a bereaved family in Kamakura. Eleonore Nickolay realizes there’s not much time left.
Primroses
in a bay window
house mourning
* * *
third quarter day moon
so much still to be done
on earth
Grassroots haiku grow at http://www.asahi.com/ajw/special/haiku/. The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear May 5 and 19. Readers are invited to send haiku about children 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 featuring graduate students 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 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: "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).
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