FROM THE NOTEBOOK

Schools across Japan opened their doors to falling cherry petals this week. Normally the trees should only be starting to bud. The pink blossoms opened unusually early in Kanagawa, laments Mototaka Yamakami. He personifies the blossoms as children unaccustomed to waking up so early. Mickey Nasu bought his grandson a shiny black backpack to carry his books to school. They may have been so excited about gearing up for the adventure of the first day neither the poet nor the child got much sleep.

"More sleep!"
cry cherry blossoms
global warming

Grandson's gear
brand-new black satchel
first school day

No student wants to be late for school, and certainly not on opening day, though Michael Corr heard from a bird that was delayed by unusual spring weather. California poet Susan Antolin went for a walk through the schoolyard at sunrise.

"I'm late," chirps
temple cherry's green
bush warbler

School field wet with dew
each drop beginning
to evaporate

Satoru Kanematsu caught sight of a girl who was blind enjoying a spring walk down a scented lane in Nagoya. Shoji Sugisaka admired deft cha-cha footwork by a lovebird in Yokohama.

Sightless girl
taps with a white cane
daphne scent

Dancing solo
in the spring sun
passionate dove

Duncan Miller spent the morning daydreaming under cumulous clouds in Sapporo. Ian Willey enjoyed a similar slow-moving morning in Takamatsu where he's awaiting the birth of his second child. Indian poet Gautam Nadkarni also looked heavenward for answers, wondering where he might possibly fit in the huge arch of the spring sky.

The sky is busy
ferrying along cotton
What will today bring?

Swollen buds
a butter-blue sky
expecting

Seeking
in the firmament
my own patch of sky

Confined to bed unable to see garden flowers is no fun at all, writes Teruko Omoto, who nonetheless took solace from a bedside visit. After hours, the mysterious visitor went looking for Kanematsu, too. Yoko Kawazaki personifies the sweet daphne, a shrub whose colorful calyx flowers have no petals.

Sick in bed
feeling the season
through its daphne scent

Evening dusk
not able to hide
daphne scent

Daphnia
whispers where she is
hidden in night veil

Want to try composing haiku ?

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The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears April 21. Send haiku to David McMurray at the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, 5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8011, by fax to 03-5541-8539, or by e-mail to <is@asahi.com>.