MITSUAKI KOJIMA

Sluggish warm weather may have been one reason why Stephanie Post penned a haiku about wanting to sleep in a little longer. She studies haiku in an extension class at Tezukayama Gakuin University with Professor Peter Duppenthaler. Her classmate Sachiyo Kitano wrote an intriguing haiku about holding her breath while sketching a picture. The original version didn't refer to a particular season, but many artists go outside to sketch in early summer.

Shoko Umehara is a sophomore at TGU. Her haiku about waterfalls was originally submitted with the season word on the first line, but it seems to resonate better on the third.

Holding my breath
drawing fresh green grass
an ink picture

Waterfalls
among the green
summer mountains

The following haiku by seasoned haikuist Kennosuke Tachibana in Tokyo underlines that bindweed is a summer reference, whereas morning glories are mentioned in autumnal haiku. Patrick Sweeney has been composing haiku for a decade in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture. He realizes that the best, but most challenging, teachers are found in nature.

Discovery
bindweeds in the wild
summer season word

Ten years in Nippon:
Will I ever learn their quick speech ...
Backyard sparrows

This weekend students at Sapporo International University find out who won the annual Hokkaido Haiku contest. Entries were neither restricted by syllable count nor the need to refer to nature, therefore many of the contestants experimented working with different forms. Tamami Aida tried this four-line version. She knows that when readers come to understand a poem they usually say "ah" or "aha" as an expression of delight or enlightenment. The poem that follows by Masaki Sugimoto reads well as a one-line haiku.

Hot summer
dry throat
cafe latte
ahhhh

My father hop, step and jump my mother

Some contestants tried using metaphor and simile, poetic techniques that work best when the metaphor is subtle and the simile unique.

Today
cloud bubbles
wash the sky!

Blowing wind
sounds just like
mother's voice

English teachers at SIU served as advisers to the contestants and encouraged creativity. Ken Hartmann provided the following model about melting snow. His student Ayano Sasaki penned a poem providing similarly good advice. The 10 best haiku entered in the Hokkaido Haiku contest will be printed in the next issue of Asahi Haikuist Network.

Melting snow
water rushes by
spring has come

Fragrant stroll
through life's seasons
simple is best

Want to try composing haiku ?

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