MITSUAKI KOJIMA

The Asahi Haikuist Network receives work from poets located all over the world, yet many tend to sketch similar scenes. This is partly because haiku are selected in tandem with what's happening weather-wise. At this time of year gardeners prune trees note Dan Pugh from Scotland and Stuart Walker in Hokkaido. Nurse logs are trees that have fallen and started to rot, allowing seedlings to take root.

Another reason for the similarities in the choice of images to write about can be explained by noting how photographers can't help filming myriad sunsets and artists keep on painting rolling green hills. Haikuists simply can't resist sitting at water's edge to stare at the moon. Note the resemblance of the settings penned by Matsuyo Sato who enjoyed a quiet moment in northern Japan and Yoriko Tashiro who explored the delta of the Nagata river near Kagoshima. Sato studies haiku in English at Tezukayama Gakuin University and Tashiro studies international haiku at The International University of Kagoshima. The first line by Sato could have been rendered as "Autumn calm." Tashiro referred to dry grasses to clearly set her poem in autumn.

Haiku rely on artwork from nature to fill in background, but stylistically they require something unique from humanity in the foreground. This concept is illustrated in the following poems by Yoko Aisaka and Patrick Sweeney.

Wen Wei from New York and Charlie Smith in Hiroshima put their favorite beverages up for grabs in these haiku. Wei contrasts all of autumn and its furious hurricanes with the serenity of a simple cup of tea. Smith put emphasis on a red oval--perhaps a coffee maker logo--but mentioning a red maple would have conjured up a whole forest.

Murasaki Sagano in Kyoto and Angelika Wienert in Germany are also coffee connoisseurs.

The superimposed foreground section of well-written haiku contain creative, novel, stylistically interesting elements. Paul Faust won the top prize in this year's Basho Festival held Oct. 12 at the Basho Memorial Museum in Iga, Mie Prefecture, for the following 5-7-5 haiku.

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The Dec. 17-18 issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network will feature poetry about snow. David McMurray welcomes haiku sent to the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, 5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8011.