A child asks
if they are real
cherry blossoms . ..
--Rita Odeh (Israel)
* * *
Cherry blossoms--
a butterfly flutters
from my head to hers
--Chen-ou Liu (Canada)
* * *
Between
a new teacher and students--
a butterfly and smile
--Ikuyo Yoshimura (Gifu)
* * *
Between tears
and new love--
my first teacher
--Maria Santomauro (New York)
* * *
Riding a bike
through the shade
cherry blossoms
--Rahadian Tanjung (Indonesia)
* * *
Mountain village
cherry blossoms
lingering snow on the ridge
--Hidehito Yasui (Osaka)
* * *
Dust on a chalkboard
with seeds from Mrs. Moran--
grows to poetry
--Kael T. Smith (Indiana)
* * *
Windowsill sparrow
requesting food to eat
Homeless begging
--Thao Nguyen (Texas)
* * *
Blue bottlenose
clouds hand on the line
’tween sky and sea
--Stephen Le Page (Australia)
* * *
Before sunset
small boy in blue shorts
walks uphill
--Prijono Tjiptoherijanto (Kobe)
-------------------------
FROM THE NOTEBOOK
-------------------------
The rushing
of the language
spring wind
--Martina Heinisch (Germany)
The haikuist cautions an excited interlocutor to speak more slowly, to savor every syllable of the conversation. After a shaky experience, Deborah Finkelstein takes her time. Chitra Rajappa invites you to follow her along a colorful path in Bangalore, India.
Slippery ice patch--
learning to trust
again
* * *
Following the footsteps
of the spring breeze--
scattered petals
When writing haiku in Tokyo Hajimu Hirakita looks to the sky for inspiration. Michael Corr scouts southern skies.
The spring sky
the primary teacher
of poetry
* * *
Really here
the love for you in
southern skies
Murasaki Sagano explains to a northern friend that Kyo-sakura is a type of cherry tree that grows in Kyoto. Yukiko Minami watches a train speed past her Kyoto home.
Tokyo friend
her smile within its pink
Kyo-sakura
* * *
Power cable dancing
cherry blossoms waving
Shinkansen window frame
Vasile Moldovan patiently waits in Romania. Ramona Linke describes how a first kiss feels in Germany. J.D. Heskin observes a blushing beauty in Minnesota.
Waiting for
the cherry trees to bloom . ..
a long kiss
* * *
Her first kiss--
the vast heavens
blossom-strewn
* * *
Her red cheeks--
they tend to blossom
in a cool wind
An exchange student from Britain, Gemma Peele, and first-year Sena Ogata pen their first haiku in English. They took part in a “Hanami and Haiku” event during their first week at Seinan Jo Gakuin University in Kita-Kyushu. Sixty classmates in the freshman class were coached by second-year students and teachers on how to compose haiku in English. Mitsuhiro Hashimoto, a professor of English, inspired students to write haiku based on the sound of a shrike. Hidehito Yasui wonders where fallen cherry blossoms go?
Plane landing
in a strange place
teaching blossoms
* * *
Entering this school
everyone is so cute
his face too
* * *
High blue sky
my teacher screeches shrilly
no idea where I am
* * *
Cherry blossoms
rolling petals
going where?
Martin Gottlieb Cohen pens his haiku on one line: a lone breeze through the cherry blossoms twilight.
Hidehito Yasui celebrates the 100th birthday of his mother in Osaka.
Potomac centenary
cherry blossoms
grandmother’s age
Don Hansbrough’s teacher awakes early. Saki Ikeda writes about her English teacher in Kita-Kyushu. Though Teiichi Suzuki once feared his teacher, and the tone of her voice has not changed, he says she is diminutive in size now.
My teacher and I
rising sun and morning star
shining on the world
* * *
Mrs. Tanaka
small woman, small voice
shaking in English
* * *
Deja vu?
once a towering teacher
spring reunion
When Isao Soematsu was a preschooler, his older sister helped him to write, read and do his arithmetic homework. He says he dearly misses her now because “She was called to heaven five years ago.”
The three R’s--
first teachings of
elder sister
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The next issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network appear May 4 and 18. Readers are invited to send haiku about a cabin, hut or cottage on a postcard to David McMurray at the International University of Kagoshima, Sakanoue 8-34-1, Kagoshima, 891-0197, Japan, or e-mail to (mcmurray@fka.att.ne.jp).
* * *
David McMurray has been writing the Asahi Haikuist Network column since April 1995, first for the Asahi Evening News. He is also the editor of OUTREACH, a bi-monthly column featuring international teachers in The Language Teacher of the Japan Association for Language Teacher (JALT).
McMurray is professor of intercultural studies at The International University of Kagoshima where he lectures on international haiku. At the Graduate School he supervises students who research haiku. He is a correspondent school teacher of Haiku in English for the Asahi Culture Center in Tokyo.
McMurray judges haiku contests organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Asahi Culture Center, Matsuyama City, and Seinan Jo Gakuin University.
McMurray's books include: "Canada Project in Kyushu" Vol. 1 (2006) - Vol. 7 (2011), Pukeko: Fukuoka; "Haiku in English as a Japanese Language" (2003), Pukeko: Kitakyushu; and "Hospital Departmental Operations - A Guide for Trustees and Managers," Canadian Hospital Association: Ottawa, Canada.
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