my old slippers the journey has ended
--Emil Karla (Paris, France)

* * *

parachute game
an Action Man repeats again
from an ill boy’s window
--Alan Summers (Wiltshire, England)

* * *

longing for sleep
night after night
awake with the flu
--Melissa Dennison (Bradford, England)

* * *

my autonomy
lowered into
the bath
--Patrick Sweeney (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

* * *

after chemotherapy
mother tells
where she (s)tumbled
--T.D. Ginting (Medan, North Sumatra)

* * *

bare branches--
his last lung
filled with shadows
--Kelsey Oliver Imanishi (Nara)

* * *

together at a cafe
all these years that have passed
the day is ebbing
--Foteini Georgakopoulou (Athens, Greece)

* * *

crows on power line
everyone in the photo
gone except me
--Jackie Chou (Pico Rivera, California)

* * *

it’s the brewing storm
pray now a daybreak’s shadow
won’t pack on me soon
--Francis Attard (Marsa, Malta)

* * *

one last look
at the setting sun--
the ferryman beckons
--Paul Callus (Safi, Malta)

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

it’s all important
until it isn’t--pinwheels
in a puff of air
--Lynda Zwinger (Tucson, Arizona)

The haikuist composed a truism. On Sunday, Feb. 9, Horst Ludwig will likely be in an easy chair watching the Chiefs play against the Eagles in the NFL Super Bowl championship football game, noting that winter finally came to Minnesota because his beloved Vikings lost. Jerome Berglund doesn’t have time for games in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Pious thanksgiving:
Nothing adds to holidays,
family and football

* * *

this snowstorm
is given a name…
cleaning it up

In today’s column, haikuists composed haiku about the end of life. This topic resonated deeply with Mikael Kales in Odense, Denmark, whose father said goodbye for what he thought would be just a week: “When I came back to spend the weekend with him, he was gone. He must have been holding himself together for those final moments.”

last moon shines
the fireworks begin
a little early

John Pappas heard an oboe-like cold wind blow in Boston, Massachusetts.

the wind’s moan
over the bottle mouth
autumn deepens

Angela Giordano kept vigil in Avigliano, Italy: in illness the only desire is to stay by your side

Rob Scott remained tranquil in Melbourne, Australia.

at the hospice
the warm silence
of nothing to say

Destiny Washington’s mother kept vigil in Greenwood, Massachusetts.

mama’s eyes
a burning lamp
in the dark

Tomislav Maretic recalled an unforgettable scene at an intensive care unit in Zagreb, Croatia.

boy in a coma
the open eyes
of his teddy bear

Berglund introduces us to a scene in which someone named after a cartoon character--a well-meaning, caring father, who is often befuddled by problems in a future world--dispenses medicine to save a fentanyl drug user from overdosing.

meet george jetson…
narcan in the
little free library

Walking briskly on a chilly day in Osaka, Teiichi Suzuki greeted passersby.

Expressionless
except for our eyes above the mask
passing each other

This winter too, Slobodan Pupovac’s fingers have stiffened in Zagreb, Croatia. Sweeney was in too much pain to sleep. Yutaka Kitajima felt too weak to brush away even fragile threads with his hand.

the cold came
my rheumatism
wakes up

* * *

starry night
lymph blisters
on one hand

* * *

Time and again
against Gulliver’s blowing
stands a house spider

Alan Maley composed these 17 syllables in the Year of the Snake.

the year slithers in,
coiling itself round our lives,
squeezing out our days…

In Tokyo, Junko Saeki awoke suddenly from an after-dinner snooze, “surprised to find it was only 20:20…I started to brush my hair…cold to the touch.”

Thanksgiving eve--
brushing my cold heavy hair
one hundred times

Kitajima tried to soothe the aches and sciatica pains ringing inline down to his toes: Massaging the lower limbs...watch-night bells

Despite his misery, the haikuist cared for a cold-resistant plant sleeping outdoors on his porch in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture.

Nighty-night!
all petals closed tight...
Calendula

Mario Massimo Zontini teared up in Parma, Italy.

how pitiful
in the autumn rain:
the scarecrow

Sweeney pitied a spent wasp. Keith Evetts tried to meditate in Thames Ditton, U.K.

maybe dead from the waist down
on a crutch of hot air
a giant hornet

* * *

while I study Zen
wasps built a nest
in the attic

Vladislav Hristov observed a meteor shower in the heavens above Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Marie Derley observed the hottest planet rise over Ath, Belgium.

last days…
in the old cat’s eyes
perseids

* * *

a nightlight
on the shortest night
Venus in the sky

Admitting he’s feeling “reflective and gloomy” in Glasgow, Scotland, Tony Williams nevertheless cheered “a good year of health.”

I slither
out of bed
the journey of a snake

Zelyko Funda shrugged off the cold winter wind in Varazdin, Croatia. Ron Scully snapped in Burien, Washington.

departing
nobody waves goodbye
pine tree boughs

* * *

winter solstice
deep in the dark woods
a bough breaks

Zontini pinched his nose.

wind of winter
the sky so clean
I don’t dare sneeze

Ivan Georgiev’s task was frustrated for lots of different reasons in Gottingen, Germany. Jennifer Gurney sees her mother everywhere in Broomfield, Colorado.

I’m trying to get
old friends together
leaves in the wind

* * *

a ginkgo leaf
waving to me
my mother

Roberta Beach Jacobson looked for something in her wardrobe to match the season in Indianola, Iowa. Francoise Maurice wore bright colors while holidaying in Chile.

December
opening my closet in search of
gay apparel

* * *

a first butterfly
flirts with a rainbow
raindrops

To rejuvenate the soul, Monica Kakkar stirred a steaming pot of cut and cubed squash, bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. Mary Leopkey served a hearty family meal at home on Texada Island, British Columbia. Zrinko Simunic stuffed cabbage leaves in Zagreb, Croatia.

slowly with the snow
irregular vegetables
ah, ratatouille!

* * *

hungry crowd
kitchen chores chop slice sear
gratitude

* * *

new year’s day
concert in Vienna
sarma in the Balkans

In Tokyo, Murasaki Sagano brightened her breakfast and ate everything off her dinner plate.

Spring morning soup
mixing a little fresh miso with
ripened two-year old paste

* * *

A cold moon
blooms on a plate of white stew
edible petals spring

Fried with spices and eaten with rice, Tejendra Sherchan’s meal was simple and healthful.

winter dusk
fresh water snails on sale
fates sink into darkness

In Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Refika Dedic conjured the relentless struggle to survive, perhaps thinking of a death row prisoner’s last meal.

the last bite
between the teeth
seeks a way

Sherchan tamed a house pet in Kathmandu, Nepal. In Durham, England, Joanna Ashwell peeked inside an old overcoat.

fed for months
the stray cat finally trusts me
and settles at my house

* * *

scarecrow pocket…
a sleeping dormouse
tucked within the straw

Scott misses a loved one.

winter frost
the dog’s prints
still on the window

Daniel Sidorowicz’s hamster remains were surprisingly light in Wisznice, Poland.

euthanasia
vet hands me
the teabox

Fernanda Felix Binati is member of Worlds into Words Creative writers’ group.

The snake’s skin dries out
When the old rottens and burns
Selfless sacrifice

Chou reworked her thoughts in Pico Rivera, California. The neighbor’s cat purred to crank up Sherry Reniker’s engine in wintry Kent, Washington. Nicoletta Ignatti wondered what her pet is thinking about doing in Castellana Grotte, Italy.

recycling words
from a cringy first draft
yearend diary

* * *

winter cat’s tail
wraps around
my writer’s block

* * *

behind the hedge
the cat’s ears--
the new year

Kitajima’s housecat passed away silently in its own bed. Moved to tears by the dignified manner, the haikuist noted that sooner or later, death will come for us all just like Ernest Hemingway penned in 1940: Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Chilly night...
silent to the last
my old cat

Writing from Kolkata, India, Jharna Sanyal used persona to share someone’s perspective of illness in this poem.

walking pneumonia
less troublesome, she says
than walking a dog

A distant bugle call for reveille in Hawaii made Eric Kimura “smile at the familiar refrain that was once a part of my younger days.”

Cool autumn air
Bugle call faintly heard
Recalls past life

Aljosa Vukovic flatlined this terminal scene of a fallen soldier in Croatia, Sibenik: war--inanimate scarecrow and dead birds

Nuri Rosegg saluted a war veteran in Oslo, Norway.

a sunflower field
childhood memory
on his deathbed

Imanishi juxtaposed the rising costs of living in Nara with her view of the “state of the world that’s brought us here.”

mounting casualties--
my basket emptier
than before

Pitt Buerken stepped closer, trying to fill an empty space in Munster, Germany.

the family
standing at the sickbed
the doctor leaves

Govind Joshi heard from a procession of songbirds in Dehradun, India.

evening chirp
the magpie takes
its place on the rail

Natalia Kuznetsova tightened her grip in Moscow, Russia.

held on to the last...
dad’s weak grip on my hand
on his deathbed

Helga Stania’s home sank lower in snowy Ettiswil, Switzerland.

snow night
I look helplessly at
mother’s letters

Hubert Felber glared back in Teufen, Switzerland.

cellar find
the abyss
looks at us

Bonnie J. Scherer held on as long as she could in Palmer, Alaska.

his once mighty hand
crumples in mine
he hears me…not

Satoru Kanematsu recalled when his dear sweet mother passed away on Oct. 8, 2009. Mark Gilbert attended a flower-scented funeral in Nottingham, England. Kakkar admired a white marble mausoleum, a masterpiece of art in Agra, India.

Fragrance of
the day mom deceased
sweet olives

* * *

white lilies
a petal falls
a hollow sound

* * *

forget the old year…
timeless at the Taj Mahal
art of wind and moon

David Cox looked up to the eyes of a hammered-copper statue standing 50 meters high above Victory Park in Yerevan, Armenia.

Mother Armenia
who will guard over you
in the cold

Sherchan offered words at a funeral.

all the flowers
in the world won’t bring you back
rest in peace

Tsanka Shishkova pondered the mysteries of life after death in Sofia, Bulgaria. Pupovac was reassured by an age-old maxim in Zagreb, Croatia.

last breath
and the first cry again
enigma of karma

* * *

mother’s death
my sister gives birth to
a daughter

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

The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Feb. 21. Readers are invited to send haiku about the “Shogun” miniseries 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 on the editorial board of the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, columnist for the Haiku International Association, and is editor of Teaching Assistance, a column in The Language Teacher of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (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 International University of Kagoshima, Ito En Oi Ocha, Asahi Culture Center, Matsuyama City, Polish Haiku Association, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seinan Jo Gakuin University, and Only One Tree.

McMurray’s award-winning books include: “Teaching and Learning Haiku in English” (2022); “Only One Tree Haiku, Music & Metaphor” (2015); “Canada Project Collected Essays & Poems” Vols. 1-8 (2013); and “Haiku in English as a Japanese Language” (2003).