February 15, 2013
David McMurray
ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK/
David McMurray
The moustache
that you stole from me . ..
plum blossom
--Alan Summers (Bradford on Avon, England)
* * *
Admiring
mother’s old china
faded plum blossoms
--Bob Lucky (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
* * *
I paint with coffee,
the canvas is a plate
where the mug is
--April Mae M. Berza (Taguig, Philippines)
* * *
Coffee cools
dreaming near the cafe window
plum blossoms in rain
--Steliana Cristina Voicu (Romania)
* * *
Fireworks . ..
I let my girlfriend
kiss other boys
--Jacek Margolak (Poland)
* * *
In winter’s tux
I want to marry a plum blossom
with whispered vows
--Kael T. Smith (Perdue, Indiana)
* * *
Whispered news
change the walking route
ume blossoms
--Hidehito Yasui (Sakai, Osaka)
* * *
In the scent of plum
restless heart
white hair
--Bernhard Kopf (Vienna, Austria)
* * *
Open mouthed
together we catch
icicle drops
--Paul Conneally (Loughborough, UK)
* * *
A snowman
with two right-hand gloves--
lost and found
--Yuji Hayashi (Fukuoka)
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FROM THE NOTEBOOK
Fragile love--
frozen chocolate
in the fridge
--Teiichi Suzuki (Osaka)
The haikuist stores a precious gift in his refrigerator. In Japan, men receive chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Women hope their gifts will be reciprocated on White Day, celebrated on March 14. Surrounded by rolling hills and covered in water lilies, Maria Santomauro recommends this warm water lake in Hungary as a perfect place to fall in love. Shivering in the cold, Lydia Lecheva seems to envy bathers in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Swimming
in Lake Heviz--
first love
* * *
Freezing night
the hot springs
lovers
Teiichi Suzuki wishes the day would last forever in Osaka. Twinkling stars captivate Pravat Kumar Padhy in India. In Nedescina, Croatia Malvina Mileta fears competition from the moon.
Ruby lips--
in the last light of the sun
plum blossoms
* * *
Plum blossoms--
the twinkling eyes
of my beloved
* * *
Jealousy
pushing the moon away
from her ring
Beate Conrad offers advice about love in Waterford, Michigan. Youthful streams can cut V-shaped valleys between mountains, but it takes tectonic forces or poets like Frank Walker in Virginia to move mountains back together again.
The icy pond of
course, it’ll be broken--what else
is a heart for?
* * *
Blue sky, brilliant sun
crystal clear air
mountains slide closer
Valeria Barouch slows his stride in Switzerland. Passion pushes Stuart Walker’s pace in Sapporo. Tatjana Debeljacki spies on the goddess of love in the skies over Serbia.
From a snowy bush
slowing my morning rush
the call of a sparrow
* * *
Tonight’s mad moon spurs
my heart’s impetuous gallop
beats toward her home
* * *
Moonlight shadows
envy Venus
on a journey
Rahadian Tanjung pauses in front of a restaurant in Jakarta. Evgeny Ivanov fills his pockets in Moscow. Jose Fernandes finds a quiet place to stroll in Sao Paulo.
Menu stand
boldly displays the specialties
winter night
* * *
Moscow courtyard
the plum tree with my allotment
dropping petals
* * *
Withered plum blossoms
free falling on the sidewalk
Silently
Rita Odeh from Nazareth reworks a poem about viewing blossoms with a child. It won a Sakura Award in the 2008 Vancouver Cherry Blossom contest. In the April 20, 2012, issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network, she delayed the appearance of the season word until the third line. This heightens the reader’s interest in the child’s point of view. Positioning the plum blossoms on the first line can imply that both the child and Odeh are admiring and chatting about the blossoms simultaneously. If placed on the last line, a possible meaning of the poem could be that the child is coaxing the haikuist to look at something unbelievably beautiful. Chen-ou Liu admires the shape of a hand in Ajax, Ontario.
Plum blossoms--
a child asks
if they are real
* * *
“Plum blossom”
in her sign language
whistling breeze
Wondering why plums don’t grow in the upper reaches of her wild plum tree in Oxford, Isabelle Kandler discovered that doves eat the blossoms while sitting on the treetop. Ralf Broker watches a gardener work in Munster, Germany. Maria Santomauro recalls how hard her mom used to work in Hungary. Minoru Nakamura takes his dog for a walk in Komoro, Nagano. Ian Willey uses an idiomatic expression to explain that something strange is going on, but it’s being ignored, at Kagawa university.
Shower of petals
doves gather--in the pink
above, in the plum tree
* * *
Hoar frost
the plum twig
she cuts
* * *
Memories
mother milking a goat--
plum blossoms
* * *
18-year-old dog
almost blind deaf
sniffs spring nearby
* * *
Crooked clocks
the elephant in
every room
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