MITSUAKI KOJIMA

Haikuists are rapidly turning the pages of their saijiki seasonal word lists. Spring breezes felt just a few days ago by Teruko Omoto in Osaka have given way to sultry warm weather felt by Yutaka Kitajima in Niigata.

Spring breeze
carries no message
just a feeling

Warm enough
taking the shady side
of the street

Leah Ann Sullivan has stocked up on haiku books to read through the rainy season in Nagoya. She feels motivated to study Japanese by learning kigo season words.

Cold rainy day
reading the summer kigo list
feet up on the sofa

Although the month of June is a busy time for students taking final exams, summer vacations will soon follow. Susan Antolin has started to plan an overseas vacation already.

Dreaming of escape
I add "get passports"
to my to do list

Satoru Kanematsu is all eyes and ears for his tiny grandson these days. The newborn baby catches the rapt attention of everyone in the house when he's awake. Masako Yamada watched a young boy gaze in wonder at the shiny glow of just one candle on his birthday cake.

Dawning light
newborn baby cries
for mom's breast

In wonder
at the candle flame
first birthday

Etsu Sasayama celebrated her birthday with a trip to a southern island. There were many stars in the sky to mark the event, but the glow from a pilotage star focused the attention of the poet from the Meguro Friendship Haiku Club.

Pilotage star
bright above Ishigaki Island
spring of my 77th year

Matsuo Basho described islands as bits and pieces of land in the sea:

shimajima ya chiji ni kudakite natsu no umi

islands and islands
shattered into a thousand pieces,
summer's sea

Doc Sunday splices darkness with light in his haiku about life in Hiroshima, a city famous for its oysters. Kala Ramesh prefers the taste of fish in his native India.

Dark island
oyster beds float in
morning sun

Fish--
out of the sea
full of the sea

Starting from the southern islands of Okinawa, monsoon rains sweep northeast along the many islands of the Japanese archipelago.

The rains have reached Osaka where Taizo Arakawa and Mamiko Seto write about its before and after effect.

Rainy season
dark clouds covering
the full moon

After the storm
murmuring leaves
bush warblers

Want to try composing haiku ?

Back numbers

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network will appear on June 30. Readers are invited to mail summer haiku about the rainy season and contest or club announcements 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 e-mail to <is@asahi.com>.