Monday, April 4, 2011

01/04 ASAHI HAIKUIST NETWORK

BY DAVID MCMURRAY

2011/04/01

Hokusai's wave

moves the wall

upsetting print

--Richard Jodoin (Quebec)

* * *

Basho's road

throughout Tohoku--

hope remains

--Stephen J. DeGuire (Los Angeles)

* * *

Calm, placid ocean

suddenly raised up and reared

its venomous head

--Kevin Kato (Iwate)

* * *

Wings of the crane

I too close my arms...

Tokyo blue

--Romano Zeraschi (Italy)

* * *

Gorgeous wings

ravenously peaked

blue heron

--Michael Corr (Nagoya)

* * *

The spring sea

suddenly changes her face

Prajna

--Fusayo Kawano (Fukuoka Prefecture)

* * *

Earthquake--

the whole night

lights in the Japanese shop

--Vladislav Hristov (Bulgaria)

* * *

After the earthquake

the moon in her cup

still quivers

--Jacek Margolak (Poland)

* * *

Lost in a village

creamy white magnolia

guide to heaven

--Asako Utsunomiya (Hiroshima)

* * *

Silent spring...

this table too large

for us two

--Yutaka Kitajima (Joetsu, Niigata)

---------- FROM THE NOTEBOOK ----------

Stacking firewood

my son wants to know

all about tsunami

--Ralf Broker (Germany)

The process of chopping and stacking firewood is usually a meditative time for the haikuist. Perhaps he lives a secluded life, or he is enjoying a few days vacation at a cabin. But the news of a giant earthquake, relentless tsunami and nuclear fallout in Japan have shocked the world and reached the haikuist's son. In the following one-line haiku, Martina Heinisch appeals to the moon for an answer to the suffering of so many people in Japan: Borderland ask questions to the moon

Driving home from a funeral in California, Rod Gardner stopped to think what a grieving grandson might be thinking.

Wait for rain to stop

wet street reflects light shadows

thinking of Grandma

Murasaki Sagano's mother passed away on March 16.

Mother's pain

into the spring sea

her last sleep

Quebec-based poet Richard Jodoin composes a two-line haiku with the hint of a grin.

Her mud pie in a hubcap

ghost of a smile from granny

Here are two poems about the unraveling of time from Penny Harter's 1980 chapbook, "The Orange Balloon."

the old ragdoll

her shoe

unstitching

* * *

the old doll

her mama-box broken

to half a cry

Hidehito Yasui marvels at the quiet onslaught of the tsunami. During a blackout in Romania, Cezar-Florin Ciobica cherishes the glow from magnolia. In Virginia, Bill Cooper sees his favorite flower everywhere.

Silent waves

conceal its energy--

the spring sea

* * *

Power break

magnolia lighten

the graveyard

* * *

Brick upon brick

sidewalk to stoop

magnolia

Surveying his environment on the Kanto plain, Yasuomi Koganei realizes he has nowhere to escape. Halfway round the world in Germany, Ralf Broker tries to share a little humor, or is it fear, about nuclear fallout from Japan. Rahadian Tanjung looks skyward in Indonesia. Rob Scott comments on the radiation from the sun in Stockholm.

No higher ground

near these paddy fields

M9.0 and tsunami

* * *

Lenten season--

how far is it from here

to Fukushima?

* * *

A tiny speck

flying through the air

the windy day

* * *

Radiation soars

plum blossom buds

about to burst

Ramona Linke pleads with the earthquakes to stop by reciting prayers while folding paper cranes in Germany.

Aftershocks--

I'm trying to fold

paper cranes

Time stood still for three days until Raj Bose received a reassuring message from his son in Tokyo. Yutaka Kitajima waited for news from his daughter all night in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture. Chieko Alford in Albuquerque, New Mexico, sends her best wishes to family in Osaka in 5-7-5 syllable form. She lives in Virginia now, but Juli Jergensen retains fond memories of living on the northeast coast of Japan.

"Daddy I'm fine"

time stopping and restarting

e-mail from Tokyo

* * *

March 11

10 hours to get through

to my daughter

* * *

Together we grieve

united we are stronger

time will heal all things

* * *

Shifting earth in spring

ocean surges to engulf the

promise of the land

Sending her best wishes from Barcelona, Sandra Voetberg looks forward to the cherry blossom season. Yuji Hayashi offers his optimistic view of the tsunami from Kitakyushu. Teiichi Suzuki shares his views of the disaster from Osaka. Isao Soematsu gazes seaward.

Soon when sakura

covers the land with petals

beauty will prevail

* * *

Any tidal wave

any quake never could

wipe out a nation

* * *

Tsunami

memories and communities

erased in flood

* * *

An island

wrapped in the mist of spring

dimly visible

--------------------------------------------------

Readers are invited to send haiku with a hint of humor for the April 15 and 29 issues of the Asahi Haikuist Network. Mail a postcard to David McMurray, International University of Kagoshima, Sakanoue 8-34-1, Kagoshima, 891-0197, e-mail (mcmurray@fka.att.ne.jp) or fax 099-263-0527.

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