MITSUAKI KOJIMA

White cherry
blossoms falling in−
to spectrum

What color are cherry blossoms? Junko Yamada ponders this question while admiring the falling petals near her home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture. In spring sunlight, the petals seem bright white. In the evening, they are tinged with pink. Her poetry wraps around the end of each line. The three lines could be stretched into one. Yamada studies haiku in English in a correspondence course offered at the Asahi Culture Center in Tokyo.

Seinan Jo Gakuin University students brushed up their English skills by composing haiku during orientation week. More than 100 freshmen mixed with their seniors at a haiku workshop organized by professors in the English department. Hiroki Yamamoto penned the following poem to set an example for the new students. Dennis Woolbright sums up the special day.

Cherry blossoms
in the forest depths
all alone

Long spring day
for the first time
a perfect world

Professor Yuji Hayashi teamed up with four students to pen this haiku about leaving home in Fukuoka to travel to the college campus in Kita-Kyushu. Keiko Fujii composed her poem while walking along a moat.

First spring day
good-bye with a smile
leaving home

Mass of cherry petals
floating in the castle pond
walking in moonlight

Junko Yamada climbed as high as she could in Kanagawa to catch sight of the mountain cherry variety. Betsy Headley visited a temple in Nagoya. Hiro Ando traveled from his home in Ottawa, Canada, to take his 90-year-old mother to enjoy cascading willow cherry blossoms in Tokyo.

Mountain peak
temple bells at six
cherries blossom

Cedar beams
in simple measure rising−
Torii gate

Aged mother
leaning on my elbow
willow cherry

Perry Kinman compares cherry blossoms on an asphalt road to aircraft on a tarmac in Osaka. Rika Arai, a student at Tezukayama Gakuin University wrote about the effect the spring wind has on cherry blossoms. Ting Ting Liu, a foreign student at the International University of Kagoshima shares her thoughts of home in Shenyang, China.

Spring wind
cherry blossom road
ready for take off

Sound of the wind
cherry blossoms
in confusion

Just one morning in spring
dew rolls down petals on my closed eyes
home faraway

Want to try composing haiku ?

Back numbers

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears May 30. Readers are invited to submit haiku on postcards about the rain to David McMurray at the International University of Kagoshima, Sakanoue 8-34-1, Kagoshima 891-0197 or e-mail to <mcmurray@fka.att.ne.jp>. One haiku is selected to be printed in the Asahi Haikuist column in the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun on the first, third and fifth Fridays of the month.