MITSUAKI KOJIMA

Haikuists find pathos everywhere they look: a parking lot at dusk; illuminated trees on dark city streets; an elderly man lying on the street all by himself; train tracks disappearing into the distance. Canadian haikuist Navita Kalra started to cry at the sight of a leaf. Watching clouds in Indiana had a similar effect upon Thomas Canull.

Leaf in rainstorm
onslaught of tears--
fragile fingers

Tears fall
the clouds in spring
help my soul grow

The irony of depression is that the pervasive sadness that pierces the heart connects the haikuist to the everyday world of necessity. Prijono Tjiptoherijanto took pity on an old man left behind by the mill of commuters at the start of the workweek in Kuala Lumpur. Angelika Kolompar encountered a retired man sitting idly in a park near her home on Vancouver Island. Leah Ann Sullivan writes about the first homeless person to move into her neighborhood.

An old man
lying beside stairs
busy Monday morning

Under cedar
old man sits alone
with memories

Warm winter day--
asleep on the brick walkway
shoes by his side

Cold winter winds bear reminders that life is fragile. Brittle leaves crunch resoundingly like tender hearts underfoot. Charles B. Rodning found solace in the faces of tiny yellow flowers in Alabama.

Snowy bone-chilling cold--
narcissus bloom along
black stone fences

Yutaka Kitajima hints at his feeling of imprisonment: "Here in the hilly district of Niigata, to prepare for the harsh season we board up windows to prevent snow from blowing in. As a result we are forced to live in a dim house, like a cave, for more than three months."

Faint sunlight
through the clapboards
stripes the floor

In cold Aomori, Tatsuko Toshima remarks on how bird families keep to their own. Winter songs in Romania have a sad note according to Vasile Moldovan.

Water birds
of a feather stay together
cold river

Cawing crows
and chirping sparrows
winter blues

Out for a walk at dusk in Canada, Marshall Hryciuk heard swifts escaping from a condor. The chimney swift has a loud rapidly twittering voice and they hunt at dusk. It prefers catching insects in the open sky over cities and towns. The condor lives in South America, but Hryciuk may have seen a turkey vulture in Toronto. Daryl Nielson watched Canadian geese head south above his home in Boulder, Colorado.

Missing the sunset
a twittering of swifts
a condor

Wild geese
from what depths
these tears?

Barbara Casterline eyed a pheasant hiding in a portrait at a gallery in Nagoya.

Bright pheasant
tries to hide behind
painted grass

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Lessons from love will be featured in the Feb. 16 special Valentine's Day issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network. Please mail haiku to David McMurray at the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, 5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8011, fax 03-5541-8539, or e-mail <is@asahi.com>.