May 18, 2012

Summer camp:
the first time the child
sees the sea
--Mario Massimo Zontini (Italy)

Can you remember seeing the ocean for the first time? The haikuist camped by the sea as a little boy. His lingering final line provides the reader with a breathtaking panoramic view of the Mediterranean. Hajimu Hirakita views the sea with mixed emotions. Memories of the tsunami that hit northeastern Japan are unforgettable, yet an undulating, calm sea glows so alluringly at sunset.

Earthquake zone
temporary hut
shining sea

Out collecting clams to mix into an early-morning breakfast of buckwheat fritters, Michael Corr is surprised by an incoming tide in Washington. Vladislav Hristov walks barefoot down the Black Sea coast. On a visit for three months in Cuba, Canadian poet John Hamley shunned hotels in favor of a simpler lifestyle with the local people. Ernest Wit inspects a new cottage in Poland.

Night isthmus
flood tide empties beach
comber’s hut

Camping on the beach
the ebb steals
my new sandals

A neighbour
gave us three potatoes
we ate them with chicken

Country cottage
the host apologizes
for every convenience

Teiichi Suzuki recalls a business trip to Zurich, Switzerland. Lodging in a five-star hotel, he was preparing his business papers for the next day when he was suddenly drawn to the window.

Classic hotel
the distant singing
of campers

Raj K. Bose goes camping in Hawaii.

Beneath the stars
the campfire embers
serenade fireflies

Whirling winds make Vania Stefanov shiver in Bulgaria. An unexpected guest enters Isao Soematsu’s tent. Ramona Linke eavesdrops.

Old hobo
stirs the campfire
wind among the crags

Riverside camping--
fireflies stray into
the tent

Talk of crisis--
in a neighboring tent
the kettle hums

Martin Gottlieb Cohen pens a one-line haiku: in the white ash of campfire cinders dawn. An about-face wind covers Priscilla Lignori and her children in ashes while camping and canoeing in the Adirondack Mountains. Sue Bakewell enjoys camping so much in Ontario, Canada, that she wishes she could live outdoors forever.

Adirondack wind--
turns around and blows smoke on
shadowy faces

Ceaseless bonfire
endless singing and roasted marshmallows
under the countless constellations

Barbara Taylor braved dingoes and frogs while camping in the Outback of Australia.

After one week
the return to my soft bed
becomes urgent

Hajimu Hirakita commemorates the end of World War II. Yutaka Kitajima recounts having learned a ballad from a girl who returned safely from Manchuria after the end of the war. It was a sweet but sad tune.

Fire ruins
tin hut with no view
World War ends

Hills greening
Manchurian tune
wafting through

Satoru Kanematsu marks the anniversary of the death of Shunsui-koji, the noted British haiku poet James Kirkup (1918-2009). The moon was his favorite haiku topic.

Shrine woods wake:
budding camphor trees
singing birds

Hazy moon
missing in Kyoto
James Kirkup

Dear poet
his posthumous name:
Spring Water

Want to try composing haiku ?

Back numbers

The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear June 1, 15 and 29. Readers are invited to send haiku about rain water 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).