MITSUAKI KOJIMA

Haiku is more than a short weather report; the short poem also includes a human reaction to the climate. Haikuists are keenly aware of changes in weather, and seasoned haikuists try to write about how those changes affect human behavior.Satoru Kanematsu's following arrangement of 11 syllables evokes an eerie loneliness.He is member of the KO haiku school. Maki Hatanaka caught a silent moment of communication. He is member of the Meguro International Haiku Circle.

Chilly night
"sorry, wrong number"
unknown voice

Autumn wind
rises from their fingertips
_sign language

The following two poems by Emiko Miyashita were recently published in "a mime's perpendicular pause" edited by Canadian haikuist Nick Avis and printed by King's Road Press in Quebec City. The first shares the shivery chillness of an autumn night that makes us move about to keep warm. The second compares the delightful fresh look of a white tablecloth or bed sheet to the first snows on a wide plain. The poet must have watched the cat for several minutes, whereas the flick of the wrist needed to spread open the tablecloth took but a second.

from roof to roof
an alley cat...
frosty night

she unfolds
a new linen_
Tablelands covered with snow

Murasaki Sagano visualized her haiku during the moment it took to open a window in her Kyoto home. The final line of Masako Yamada's haiku implies a cold shrug of the shoulders. She is an adult student in the Extension Program "Haiku in English" at Tezukayama Gakuin University.

Night's heat gone
through an open window
early autumn

Weather forecast
an early frost in the north
winter setting in

Anna Akamatsu confers with the wind that circles her home for seniors in Kawasaki to stay up to date with what her children are doing. Her 11-syllable haiku effectively personifies the autumn wind as a messenger and leaves her readers contemplating the great gift of life. From experience Sagami Matsuda knows his busy boys must be OK even though they haven't contacted him at his home in Osaka yet this season.

Autumn wind
tells me of children
God gave me

No news
from sons is good news
deep autumn

Lorne Henry wrote the following haiku pitying a poor bird floating on the dam water near her home in Warkworth, Australia. Spring wind kept blowing the swan down to one end, so it kept swimming back to the center of the pond again. Michael Corr watched his grandchild swirl down a street in New York.

Wind so strong
again and again
black swan swims
Haiku strophe
grandchild pirouettes
down York Street

Miranda Naito titles her poem composed in 17 syllables about the coming and going of a storm, "clouds." She writes in the past tense. Paul Faust submits a haiku about the emotional vicissitudes that he is experiencing this season using a playground ride as a metaphor.

Today I watched clouds
the storm retreated in haste
away from our home

Darkly dull feeling
alternates with elation
an autumn seesaw

Want to try composing haiku ?

Back numbers

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears in the Nov. 5-6 edition. Readers are invited to mail haiku about the changing colors of autumn leaves, contest announcements and haiku books for review to David McMurray at the International Herald Tribune /Asahi Shimbun, 5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8011.