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ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK

Nov. 6, 2009

Autumn sun
in mother's blanket
pervasion

 
--Murasaki Sagano (Kyoto)
Russet dress
tattered and dry
blows away

 
--Margaret Mullins (Maryland)
Swans depart
from the beech forests
yellow leaves

 
--Hidenori Hiruta (Akita)
Persimmons gone
longer on the fields
my shadow

 
--Kiyoshi Fukuzawa (Tokyo)
Bark to scroll
Koh-an paper
persimmons

 
--Michael Corr (Nagoya)
Indian summer
the smoke of leaves
lingers in the branches

 
--William Cullen (New York)
Autumn leaves
swirl through the streets
lantern procession

 
--Martina Heinisch (Germany)
Chilly rain
the withered leaves cling
to the ground

 
--Jerzy Malysz (Poland)
Yellow lime leaves
braving the autumn winds--
for how long?

 
--Mario Zontini (Italy)
Autumn evening
walking a path of red and gold
to our cottage

 
--Charlotte Digregorio (Illinois)


from the notebook

illustration
MITSUAKI KOJIMA

Bonfire roast
of fallen leaves--
sweet potatoes

Outdoor fires are prohibited in urban areas, but haikuists in the countryside can readily savor the balmy taste of this poem about roasting sweet potatoes. Koju Fujieda teaches Sunday school to children in Echizen, Fukui Prefecture, where one of the young girls had hoped to take a roasted potato to the home of an elderly woman who could not venture outdoors. Every time Fujieda rakes up leaves he salivates the taste of autumn delights and remembers the kindness of the student. His colleague Reverend Ryokan composed the following haiku.

Enough fallen leaves
to make a bonfire with--
gift from the winds

Richard Jodoin laments not having his haiku selected for a contest he entered. The search for the fabled blue rose is over announces Kiyoshi Fukuzaka.

Autumn leaves
a haikuist turned down
rakes up

"Impossible"
cleared by new rose
blooming blue

Kiyoshi Fukuzawa reaches out from one temple to another with the fragrance of sweet olive.

Sweet olive
temple to temple
linked in fragrance

With help from the swirling winds, Ramona Linke mixes the autumn yellow colors of mustard and birch leaves. Indian poet Gautam Nadkarni notes the care a cat takes in walking down a lane.

Mustard poultice
battling of birch leaves
with the wind

Autumn lane
cat steps gingerly
yellowed leaves

Soematsu Isao marvels at the red reflections from a lake near his home in Nagoya. Sweeping leaves makes Gesine Becker remember she has a loaf of bread in the oven.

Autumn leaves
shining on the mirror
of a still lake

Sweeping leaves
the smell of it--
homemade bread

Helen Buckingham pokes fun at the free papers distributed in London.

Free
paper flyer
a dead leaf

Want to try composing haiku ?

Back numbers

Send haiku about the end of autumn by 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>. The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Nov. 20. One haiku is selected for printing in the Asahi Haikuist column in the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun on the first, third and fifth Fridays of the month.


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英語論文コンテスト

  • ヘラルド朝日「英語論文コンテスト(English-language Essay Writing Contest)」を開催します。【詳細】

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