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MITSUAKI KOJIMA |
A lone rose provides Yoriko Tashiro companionship during the rainy season in Kagoshima. Early summer rains have been heavy in southern Kyushu and flowers have had a hard time blooming. In northern Japan the skies have been clearer, writes Tatsuko Toshima.
Rose arranged
used lotion bottle
lives alone
Sparkling purple
star dust on the ground
forget me nots
Sagami Matsuda percolates fresh coffee every morning while composing haiku. Monsoon weather makes the brewing coffee smell even more enticing. In between rain showers, Masako Yamada enjoys a stroll in the woods near Tezukayama Gakuin University in Osaka-Sayama.
Mocha scent
dripping in the morning cup
lazy days
Stroll in the woods
murmuring of the stream
call of a cuckoo
Being pent up during the start of the rainy season in Niigata inspired Yutaka Kitajima to dream of foreign travel. Satoru Kanematsu says he would love to travel abroad, but for the moment he prefers to take care of his elderly mother in Nagoya.
Sunset far
in the Amazon...
sailfin dreams
Changed light clothes--
traveling abroad
still my dream
Earlier this spring the streets in Nagoya were completely covered by kosa, yellow sands, that blow in from China. This year the sands seemed heavier than usual says Barbara Casterline who laments that even the air smelled strange.
The yellow sands are an environmental issue in Niigata, too, writes Yutaka Kitajima.
Birds suffer from the unwelcome visitor that flies over the Japan Sea.
In the street
in the crevasses--
yellow sand
Near miss with
a seagull lost in
yellow haze
Charlie Smith suffers from allergies each spring because of the thick yellow pollen that blows off the huge oak trees in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Blooming oaks
fine golden powder
falls from beard
Edward McFadden enjoys translating haiku composed by Yosa Buson. His translations, penned in Providence, Rhode Island, have been published in the Kyoto Journal.
Translating Buson
not even tempted by his
sweet smelling trout
Want to try composing haiku ?
Back numbers
The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network will appear on June 17. Readers are invited to mail haiku, contest announcements and haiku anthologies for review to David McMurray at the International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun, 5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8011 or fax 03-5541-8539.
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