— Heike Gewi (Aden-Crater, Yemen)

Comment: The author thankfully saw the golden New Year through the mist.

— Keith A. Simmonds (Tunapuna, Trinidad & Tobago)

Comment: God's glorious hand invites through the black forest in the New Year morning.

— Maria Santomauro (Commack, NY, USA)

Comment: It is like having synesthesia … where things unseen can be seen. The mountain chapel is so steadily placed in this haiku that we can see love and mercy jumping down to the people at the foot of the mountain.

— jerry ball (Walnut Creek, CA, USA)

Comment: I can see Jerry's joyful face on the blade of the knife.

— Valeria Simonova-Cecon (Cividale del Friuli, Italy)

Comment: The full moon is so huge and perfectly round, the lunar gravity can make the tides flow in the author's heart, too.

— Joe Davis (Honolulu, HI, USA)

Comment: I admire the author's effortless, graceful depiction of a gliding dolphin.

— Romano Zeraschi (Parma, Italy)

Comment: Children are growing healthy listening to the fantasies of the author.

— Bruce Ross (Bangor, ME, USA)

Comment: Kyorai was one of Basho's 10 great disciples living in Kyoto after retirement. His cottage was named "rakushisha." "Raku" means "fallen," "shi" means "persimmons," and "sha" means cottage. The second line can be interpreted as either: "even if persimmons could be too bitter," or "even if Kyorai could be too bitter for haiku."

— Mario Massimo Zontini (Parma, Italy)

Comment: "Chat" must be referring to internet chat. I've never tried it, but have a mind to do it for keeping up with the times, while living alone in the silence of haiku.

— Jacek Margolak (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: Actually a moth can't walk on the surface of the moon. But a miraculous sensation makes it possible to walk from crater to crater. This could be a model for a mere description of surroundings.

— o g aksnes (Toensberg, Norway)

Comment: He says nothing about the situation, just makes a noise, but we can sense something special in this haiku. "Cold sun" has a strange power.

— fereshteh panahi (Mashad, Iran)

Comment: Dad leading the family, Mom walking hand in hand with her boy … going along the Islamic street, they all look happy.

— Lothar M. Kirsch (Meerbusch, Germany)

Comment: Still, there might be a few people besides the author in the empty ghost town.

— Elke Bonacker (Duisburg, Germany)

Comment: How about a "lunch cafe" instead?

— Vasile Moldovan (Bucharest, Romania)

Comment: Thank God, there will be a happy reunion sooner or later.

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: Though without freshness in it, the haiku precisely represents the daily, calm living of a senior woman.

— Michael Henry Lee (St. Augusine, FL, USA)

Comment: Eight content words and three seasonal items: this haiku could be downsized to, for example, snowy egrets / knee deep / in the moon shadow

— Motoko Amatsuji (Takarazuka, Japan)

Comment: "Kyoto dialect" must have been translated from Japanese, "Kyokotoba." I want this elegant word to get an entry in the English language dictionaries.

— Dorota Pyra (Gdansk, Poland)

Comment: If the author could find a substitution for "misty" in the first line, it would be much better, because "misty" and "breath" are a bit "tsukisugi" (almost the same thing) in this case.

— Verica Zivkovic (Letnja, Serbia)

Comment: The last line's punch is superb. The indefinite article at the top seems unnecessary.

— Raquel D. Bailey (Kingston, Jamaica)

Comment: The orchid gardens will become ambiguously beautiful.

— Carlos Gesmundo (Minneapolis, MN, USA)

Comment: For Thanksgiving, garbage collectors are on holiday and the leaves are getting yellower in transparent bags.

— Francis Attard (Marsa, Malta)

Comment: Excellent. If it was my haiku, I would say "T-rex" instead of "rhino." The reason: I just like dinosaurs.

— Y E Wong (Briar Hill, Australia)

Comment: And every star bared to the earth.

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: On the moonless night a cat left to lick itself … under a lamppost.

— Smajil Durmisevic (Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Comment: I feel the author would like to add "glorious" just before Bosnians.

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: The night train sped away, dragging a bright light belt. The second and third lines are superb in this minimalist haiku.

— Tomislav Maretic (Zagreb, Croatia)

Comment: Two years have passed since the monster tsunami attacked eastern Japan. Thanks very much for a nice, consoling haiku.

— Horst Ludwig (St. Peter, MN, USA)

Comment: The third line doesn't apply to the world of human beings. (I mean a human mother and her three daughters)

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: Blizzards—gigantic natural walls never to be passed through.

— Julia Sanders (Misawa Airbase, Japan)

Comment: In childhood memories, around the fireplace, you and your sister, parents, a kitty cat, and falling snow …

— Don Hansbrough (Seattle, WA, USA)

Comment: It's cold outside; however, the round face of his favorite movie star shines and smiles in the center of the night sky.

— Patrick Sweeney (Misawa, Japan)

Comment: You will have a very good fortune this year and you won't need to lose your weight, because Buddha's plump belly is a symbol of happiness.

— Del Tan (Singapore)

Comment: A heartwarming third-line device.

— K. Ramesh (Chennai, India)

Comment: We have the same kind of vendors selling baked corn or sweet potatoes, with the nice flavors drifting along the narrow alleyways of the megalopolis.

— Gregory Hopkins (Weaver, AL, USA)

Comment: Boys and girls have graduated from the rural wooden schoolhouse a long time before, and it has now been deserted. However, just the same as ever the sun rays come in through the broken window panes.

— Rahadian Tanjung (Jakarta, Indonesia)

Comment: It may be quitting time in the city of Jakarta. It's a cool breeze.

— Virginie Colline (Paris, France)

Comment: This kite must have been suddenly pulled up from nowhere, and it then started chasing after a seagull. The kite became a ghost with a gust of wind. "Kites" are included for winter in the New Year categories of the season-word dictionaries in Japan.

— Barbara A. Taylor (Nimbin, Australia)

Comment: The season in the haiku must be the New Year. Chinese descendants have been carrying on the valuable traditions.

— Djurdja Vukelic Rozic (Ivanic Grad, Croatia)

Comment: Through to the last word we, including the magpies, do not know the reason why they are so surprised. And an excellent finale.

— Stephen A. Peters (Bellingham, WA, USA)

Comment: Mr. Peters, you are of such character, and I am glad to know that.

— Maria Santomauro (Commack, NY, USA)

Comment: Only one white rose in the withered gardens, and what is more, in the snow … a gem, indeed. There is no color, but that's the point.

— Alegria Imperial (Vancouver, Canada)

Comment: There is a bit of redundancy in the second and third lines.

— martin gottlieb cohen (Egg Harbor, NJ, USA)

Comment: An inch is equal to 2.54 cm. No need to say the concrete space between the legs. Just "close" would be enough, I think.

— John Hamley (Marmora, ON, Canada)

Comment: I like the last line's punch. John, drive carefully along the maple road.

— Zelyko Funda (Varazdin, Croatia)

Comment: I more often than not put down my own favorite haiku on a square piece of hard paper used by haiku lovers.

— Kala Ramesh (Pune, India)

Comment: Silence says much. Please add an annotation for a widely unknown word like in the above haiku.

— Origa (Okemos, MI, USA)

Comment: Weak winter sun rays, not so vigorous and helpful.

— Roberta Beary (Bethesda, Maryland, USA)

Comment: Two words in the second and the third lines are a bit too close in meaning, but from another point of view, they are proper and pleasant.

— Lothar M. Kirsch (Meerbusch, Germany)

Comment: The author's haiku ability can be surmised from the last line of this haiku.

— hortensia anderson (New York, NY, USA)

Comment: She hit the jackpot. A big round pearl was taken out of an oyster.

— William Hart (Montrose, CA, USA)

Comment: We wouldn't like to get a bird's nest in our chest X-ray films. Let's quit smoking and too much drinking, as the surgeon general says.

— martin gottlieb cohen (Egg Harbor, NJ, USA)

Comment: "Encased" is a sparkling choice of word in this haiku, as if a branch were wrapped up with film of light, and "noon" is a good choice of words. If it was morning ice, a branch would be encased in the icicle, and if it was night ice, then no one could see it.

— charlie smith (Raleigh, NC, USA)

Comment: I am an old hermit, too. However, instead of a puppy pet, I am collecting unmoving little figures like "Hello Kitty" and "Doraemon," and hundreds of them.

— Brian Campbell (Hampton, Australia)

Comment: And Brian cheers up.

— Ramona Linke (Beesenstedt, Germany)

Comment: The author has experienced a miracle. The last word's punch is superb, and "minster" is irreplaceable in this haiku.

— Horst Ludwig (St. Peter, MN, USA)

Comment: Christmas Day storm / two kings from the creche / face down in the snow (Patricia Neubauer) In this haiku, "cause of" is an unnecessary haiku expression.

— Toshio Matsumoto (Osaka, Japan)

Comment: The merit comes from the use of a seasonal word: winter. The winter Venus shines brighter than in the other seasons, indeed.

— Raj K. Bose (Honolulu, HI, USA)

Comment: Funny close encounters: the crab is afraid, the human is being human. And "rocky" implies the ups and downs of two lives.

— Christopher Patchel (Mettawa, IL, USA)

Comment: Every Japanese is a year older on New Year's Day, for age is reckoned by the number of years one has seen. Hence, a child born in December becomes 2 years old on Jan. 1 of the next year. (from Daniel C. Buchanan's recorded tape) This haiku is full of paternal love toward a son.

— hortensia anderson (New York, NY, USA)

Comment: A koi in the pond of a nearby park slowly sinks herself into the water, without any movements.

— Romano Zeraschi (Parma, Italy)

Comment: I can't fully illustrate this haiku scene, but I can fully sympathize with the nostalgia the old movie shack emanates, teetering under a plastic moon.

— Cameron Fadale (Buffalo, New York, USA)

Comment: You have a variety of books on the shelf. You must be a happy man.

— Reza Aerabi (Semnan, Iran)

Comment: Scarecrows look shabby and seem to have pain in the feet from the beginning.

— Goda V. Bendoraitiene (Klaipeda, Lithuania)

Comment: The author must be a good painter, indeed.

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: Talented Tyrone, your haiku territories range wide. There are no flaws.

— Heike Gewi (Aden-Crater, Yemen)

Comment: "Borrowed" is an idea, simply put and expressed here.

— philip d noble (Inverness, Scotland)

Comment: Acquiring more and more refined beauty, the author enjoys haiku in the north land. He lives in Inverness. … Oh, by the way, I have never tried that kind of coat. Viva, Sherlock Holmes!

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: I asked a shop girl in Ginza how much it would cost to repair my old Mont Blanc fountain pen. The answer came a few weeks later. They didn't have the parts for the repairs here in Japan, so they would send my pen to Germany, estimating more than 60,000 yen. Endure the leaking, Helen.

— Doris Lynch (Bloomington, IN, USA)

Comment: Oh, she is an Air Force pilot, because the second line birdie told me so.

— P K Padhy (Andhra Pradesh, India)

Comment: To put it simply, this piece deals with twinkling stars. However, no one could feel sentiments more hearty than those the above depictions conjure up. This is the secret of haiku.

— Deborah P. Kolodji (Temple City, CA, USA)

Comment: I've never experienced that.

— Jacek Margolak (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: Jacek the naughty must be enjoying his early childhood again with the eyes of a haiku author.

— Sandip Chauhan (Great Falls, VA, USA)

Comment: This is a good model of juxtaposition: no direct relationships between the two—library and winter rain.

— Ram Krishna Singh (Dhanbad, India)

Comment: The raison d'etre lies in the second line.

— Neal Whitman (Pacific Grove, CA, USA)

Comment: In the last line, "my" is a psychological possessive.

— Kirby Record (Amagasaki, Japan)

Comment: He enjoys living in Amagasaki, western Japan. We learn that from the words "every inch."

— J. D. Heskin (Duluth, MN, USA)

Comment: I think he was trying to find a season word: I hope he was successful.

— John Tiong Chung Hoo (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Comment: Thank you very much for your everlasting attention.

— Barbara A. Taylor (Nimbin, Australia)

Comment: It would be better to leave unsaid the third line's "heavy."

— Mark Miller (Shoalhaven Heads, Australia)

Comment: The second anniversary of the funeral…the haiku needs something special, though I recognize the contrastive combination of colors: white and the black (unsaid) of umbrellas.

— Heike Gewi (Aden-Crater, Yemen)

Comment: The last word is interesting. In haiku, the word "interesting" is equivalent to "superb."

— amir hasanvandi (Shoush, Iran)

Comment: The sparrow is so beautiful, flying through the alternate strips of sun rays.

— Krzysztof Kokot (Nowy Targ, Poland)

Comment: Like Jesus, the author was being carried to the hill of Golgotha, with all the bus windows closed.

— Marcus Henry (Nagoya, Japan)

Comment: A valuable sketch of the Great Buddha and the temple now under repairs. Buddha never moves, he just sits in meditation.

— druart patrick (Urou et Crennes, France)

Comment: Cherry blossoms bring happiness every year.

— Kashinath Karmakar (Durgapur, India)

Comment: The three factors, backview, childhood, distancing, are too close. They were made in the process of the same old harmony. Basho once said: "New things should be the flower of haiku."

— Andrea Cecon (Cividale del Friuli, Italy)

Comment: "Pale sun" in the early spring is effective.

— john mcdonald (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Comment: God knows everything and He rarely opens his mouth.

— Tatjana Debeljacki (Serbia)

Comment: This is a combination of colors: light blue, brown and white. They match well in this haiku.

— Vasile Moldovan (Bucharest, Romania)

Comment: I have seen a lot of puddle haikus, and this full moon is shining anew.

— Romano Zeraschi (Parma, Italy)

Comment: Nobody will find the answer to why geese take a V shape while they are returning home. Nature is a great wonder.

— Raj K. Bose (Honolulu, HI, USA)

Comment: She will come back if your love is true and sincere.

— Noel King (Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland)

Comment: Catch-and-release fishing is done to preserve valuable resources. We are so sorry, however, that fish feel pain each time they are hooked. "Winking"…The fish understands humans' practical jokes.

— Paul Dicu (Constanta, Romania)

Comment: The first line excites the traveler's sentiments.

— Angela Terry (Lake Forest Park, WA, USA)

Comment: In the Japanese standard of season words, this haiku has three seasonal references: kite (New Year), plum (early Spring) and March. If a haiku has more than one season word, it can have its objective blurred by other factors.

— natalia kuznetsova (Moscow, Russia)

Comment: Natalia, you make lots of good haiku and have a good sense of haiku humor.

— Rudi Pfaller (Remshalden, Germany)

Comment: I know not the singer, but I can hear her screaming voice.

— Cristina-Monica Moldoveanu (Bucharest, Romania)

Comment: For right or left, up or down, north or south, etc., the final decision of choosing the most appropriate words or phrases is very, very important. It's OK to exchange actual situations with other real ones for haiku perfection.

— Ernesto P. Santiago (Athens, Greece)

Comment: The contrast of colors is effective. I envy your healthy white teeth. I just came back from the nearby dental office.

— Stephen A. Peters (Bellingham, WA, USA)

Comment: Indeed! This is a kind of maxim in making good haiku, too.

— Valeria Barouch (Cologny, Switzerland)

Comment: My poor example: on the silver moon / a new crater / a cloudlet…

— tzetzka ilieva (Marietta, GA, USA)

Comment: This uses an archaic word: galoshes (meaning overshoes).

— Bruce Ross (Bangor, ME, USA)

Comment: "The little leap-up of the sparrow" could be his recent self-portrait. "Lightest snow" represents his whitish hair.

— Walter O. Mathois (Vienna, Austria)

Comment: My friendly "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary" teaches me—dream-catcher: "a ring containing a decorated net, originally made by Native Americans, and thought to give its owner good dreams." I wonder whether the dash in the first line is necessary or not.

— Lilia Racheva (Russe, Bulgaria)

Comment: Excellent and an entirely new piece: I have never seen a haiku like this that deals with a bubble gum breeze in the bleachers. The game suddenly becomes exciting with a big bubble.

— Toshio Matsumoto (Osaka, Japan)

Comment: A kind of fantasy, chimerical.

— Shawn Singleton (Misawa, Japan)

Comment: The punch word in the last line tells me of the author's haiku talent.

— Ramesh Anand (Tamil Nadu, India)

Comment: The bypass has only one lane, the tractor moves slowly, and the traffic must follow the bulky cart.

— David Jacobs (London, UK)

Comment: A cyclist on flash lights runs past another cyclist, saying "Sorry." Uniquely, this uses two cyclists.

— jerry ball (Walnut Creek, CA, USA)

Comment: A vigorous resurrection.

— Lothar M. Kirsch (Meerbusch, Germany)

Comment: Shakespeare's best known phrase, "To be or not to be," has been variously translated into Japanese as a translation on doom, existence and future. My experimental one simply goes like this: "What shall I do next?"

— Andrea Luna (Vilnius, Lithuania)

Comment: You stepped on the brake at the intersection, facing the distant misty peaks.

— Rita Odeh (Nazareth, Israel)

Comment: It's a fantastic illusion.

— Keith A. Simmonds (Tunapuna, Trinidad & Tobago)

Comment: Beam has two meanings: one is a big smile and the other a bunch of sun rays. A boy on the swing goes up and down, shining in the double meanings.

— Zoran Doderovic (Novi Sad, Serbia)

Comment: Sepia color will remind us of the memories of mom and dad.

— Gregory Hopkins (Weaver, AL, USA)

Comment: Old people like shopping, so "shopping mall" is essential in this situation. I heartily sympathize with your illusion.

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: Helen can also see the traces of air mail.

— Judith Gorgone (Newton, MA, USA)

Comment: The old maple knows best, growing taller and taller like a sequoia.

— o g aksnes (Toensberg, Norway)

Comment: The author put a unique haiku gaze on the tail, which should be smaller than the body, but wondered at it. The one word in the third line, "tail," indicates to us a perceiving process from head to tail.

— John Zheng (Itta Bena, MS, USA)

Comment: In the spring dawn, "faint shine" is a bit redundant. Better to find a substitute (objective collateral).

— Vera Primorac (Kovo, Croatia)

Comment: The good old days are being projected on the wall.

— Marcus Henry (Nagoya, Japan)

Comment: In haiku, you may not express your subjective views directly. "Simply that" is two words too many.

— martin gottlieb cohen (Egg Harbor, NJ, USA)

Comment: Juxtaposing two objects (often one is seasonal) requires putting some distance between them. In the third line, a new finding must be essential.

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: Next time, for a challenge, how about shifting your haiku style to "objective haiku," namely, not expressing your feelings directly ("subjective haiku"), but through objects. I'm sure a new Tyrone haiku will be born successfully, soon.

— Abraham Freddy Ben-Arroyo (Haifa, Israel)

Comment: What's the color of your hair?

— Hayden Simpson (Misawa Air Base, Japan)

Comment: And your shift, too.

— Sonam Chhoki (Samtse, Kingdom of Bhutan)

Comment: The cat's ears are very sensitive to hear the movements of birds.

— Pamela A. Babusci (Rochester, NY, USA)

Comment: I don't think it's all right to pull up sunken coins under cover of darkness.

— Rudi Pfaller (Remshalden, Germany)

Comment: And then the author gazed at half moons in his nails. A long way ahead.

— David Jacobs (London, UK)

Comment: Therefore they always win.

— Walter O. Mathois (Vienna, Austria)

Comment: The author must know the antecedent below, and you have to contrive to find a fresh third line for composition.
Perched on the temple bell / the butterfly sleeps — Buson (1716-83); translated by Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: Chimerical. This is a means for enjoying haiku.

— jerry ball (Walnut Creek, CA, USA)

Comment: A veteran haiku author's masterpiece. By the way, I don't know if interchanging the first and the last lines would make it more effective or not.

— Cezar F. Ciobica (Botosani, Romania)

Comment: After the huge tsunami disasters, I had a few power cuts in Chiba near Tokyo. In the dim light of a candle, I was forced to pass a few hours remembering the dark nights after World War II and felt rather relieved in using no electric power from the nuclear reactors. In the above haiku, "clear" implies the restoration of human nature.

— Gregory Hopkins (Weaver, AL, USA)

Comment: I like this unexpected and funny ending.

— Jose del Valle (Rockville, RI, USA)

Comment: I like this piece better than Issa's:
Don't swat it! / The fly is rubbing his hands and / His legs (translated by IH) By the way, who is Saint Francis? In my dictionary, there is no entry about St. Francis except the River.

— Lothar M. Kirsch (Meerbusch, Germany)

Comment: A good composition of two things (toriawase in Japanese). "First dandelions" is defined as an objective collateral of "tramway."

— Peter Newton (Winchendon, MA, USA)

Comment: It's word magic for the lunch hours.

— o g aksnes (Toensberg, Norway)

Comment: Rather a long piece for a minimum haikuist. Another way of writing: against / the dark clouds / a sunlit seagull

— Pravat Kumar Padhy (Rajahmundry (AP), India)

Comment: The very small dinosaur was firstly born on the super huge continent, Pangaea, 225,000,000 years ago. As human beings, we have to replace "our motherland" with "Africa" in the third line.

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: The dandelions have serendipity to find a good haiku author.

— John Tiong Chung Hoo (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

The use of a small letter "i" has special reasons. One of them is from the writing style of haiku like the above, another comes when the author "i" happens to feel rather small as a human being. Mr. Michael McClintock's masterpiece: i eat alone / & pass the salt / for myself

— Ramona Linke (Beesenstedt, Germany)

Comment: The spring moon over the convent leads us to recall the various bygone things and days.

— philip noble (Inverness, Scotland)

Comment: In a sense, for elderly people, it is a relief sitting at a separate table in some open cafe.

— Robert Henry Poulin (Micco, FL, USA)

Comment: An excellent one-liner depicting Bob's beloved mother stretching her hand toward the cherry blossoms.

— Marion Clarke (Co Down, Northern, Ireland)

Comment: Another good "reflection" haiku with a new phrase: "midge haze."

— Zelyko Funda (Varazdin, Croatia)

Comment: A peaceful country park with all the innocent words.

— Heike Gewi (Aden-Crater, Yemen)

Comment: "Leafing green" tempts the author to get in line for a flu-shot.

— Romano Zeraschi (Parma, Italy)

Comment: Satan will never be near the scent of lilies. In the Buddhist temple lilies are often dedicated on the altar with apples.

— Kala Ramesh (Pune, India)

The key word to recall the memories must be "mangoes" in the kitchen gardens that grandma opened. When I am drunk, my brother is always saying my voice is taking more and more after our father.

— Beate Conrad (Waterford, MI, USA)

Comment: "Slowly" is effective.

— Mary Hind (Melbourne, Australia)

Comment: So haikuic: "father's eye."

— Vania Stefanova (Silven, Bulgaria)

Comment: Rather artificial, but it has a fantastic atmosphere.

— Bernhard Kopf (Vienna, Austria)

Comment: "Someone" is vague and replaceable. My idle thought: my ex-wife.

— John Hamley (Marmora, ON, Canada)

Comment: The author is shivering, too.

— Bruce Ross (Bangor, ME, USA)

Comment: Rhododendron may originally come from a wild species, so it may not need to be raked to be nurtured … I don't know.

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: The balloon is just flying over a slender margin between the reality and unreality of haiku.

— Stephen A. Peters (Bellingham, WA, USA)

Comment: Red, yellow, white, pink, green and blue … many unspoken colors in this haiku.

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: The "morning glory" represents the purity of one's heart and the use of the small letter "i" implies the weakness of one's heart.

— Beate Conrad (Waterford, MI, USA)

Comment: There is the one, strong last punch.

— K. Ramesh (Chennai, India)

Comment: Clean water and air are essential for fireflies. "Tips" is not essential for this haiku.

— Nu Quang (Seattle, WA, USA)

Comment: A nightmarish contrast between yellow and black.

— Kayla Wilkinson (PSC 76)

Comment: Excellent. Kayla draws a great haiku scene.

— Alan Summers (Bradford-on-Avon, England)

Comment: If we know not either St Pancras Station or John Betjeman, we can fully appreciate this haiku. Larry Gates: "My purpose in writing haiku is not so much to express my own poetic feelings as it is to evoke poetic feelings in others."

— Mario Massimo Zontini (Parma, Italy)

Comment: Wisteria has a welcoming fragrance, especially in the spring rain.

— o g aksnes (Toensberg, Norway)

Comment: The author might have been thinking about juxtaposing two things: sun and doubt.

— martin gottlieb cohen (Egg Harbor, NJ, USA)

Comment: Excellent. A unique fish market scene.

— Toshio Matsumoto (Osaka, Japan)

Comment: The author let the bike lie as it was for the morning glories.

— Urszula Wielanowska (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: Excellent. "Illegitimate" and "trembling" both are effective choices of words.

— Doris Lynch (Bloomington, IN, USA)

Comment: This is one of the rewards in haiku hunting journeys.

— Maria Santomauro (Commack, NY, USA)

Comment: "Down the river" is haikuic.

— Irena Szewczyk (Warsaw, Poland)

Comment: "Sprinkled" is a good choice of word.

— Marek Kozubek (Zywiec, Poland)

Comment: Just "her scent" would be much better. If you want a season word, then put it in the first line.

— philip noble (Inverness, Scotland)

Comment: Good, practical news, indeed.

— Don Hansbrough (Seattle, WA, USA)

Comment: Excellent. I can clearly see the small waves of the water.

— Lothar M. Kirsch (Meerbusch, Germany)

Comment: The words "old" and "single" are a little too close in meaning.

— Marie Jeanne Sakhinis-de Meis (Avignon, France)

Comment: This kind of rhyme, like with "absence" and "presence," is not so often found in haiku, which does not need to have the raison d'etre as a blank verse.

— J Hudson (Cuyahoga Falls, OH, USA)

Comment: Ah, an unexpected last line.

— Tzetzka Ilieva (Marietta, GA, USA)

Comment: Drifting in a sublime atmosphere…

— Tanja Trcek (Golrik, Slovenia)

Comment: The first line can be replaced.

— Roberta Davis (Belsize Grove, London, England)

Comment: The first line is very dramatic, but the third line not so good.

— Gregory Hopkins (Weaver, AL, USA)

Comment: A very delicate touch of haiku.

— S. M. Abeles (Alexandria, VA, USA)

Comment: So ephemeral and so beautiful.

— Delia White (Concord, CA. USA)

Comment: Put some green leaves into the jars and the night skies will be born.

— K. Ramesh (Chennai, India)

Comment: Hindu priests cherish all creatures, so they would not disturb a squirrel to eat in the ashram.

— Ed Higgins (Yamhill, OR, USA)

Comment: A downsized, new haiku town.

— Romano Zeraschi (Parma, Italy)

Comment: We would have to be in the chaos of Baghdad to taste this atmosphere.

— Charlie Smith (Raleigh, NC, USA)

Comment: Soon a dragonfly will pause at the fingertip. In the last line, the verb "finds" is haikuic.

— Jacek Margolak (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: The first line is the author's awareness.

— Sandip Sital Chauhan (Great Falls, VA, USA)

Comment: Mom made the clay oven by herself a long time ago, and the bright full moon knew it.

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: Thanks for your merciful haiku, and please give my best wishes to the people gathering on St. Swithin's Day.

— William Hart (Montrose, CA, USA)

Comment: "The heat" is equivalent to a Japanese cliché: "atsusakana" (so hot). I am wondering if I bumped into the first two lines somewhere in the season-word dictionary.

— David Jacobs (London, UK)

Comment: I'm sorry I really can't draw the picture of this haiku. "At last" has some grave meaning, hasn't it?

— John Hamley (Marmora, ON, Canada)

Comment: They say the river was named by the shaman a long time ago. Where has the medicine man gone?

— Toshio Matsumoto (Osaka, Japan)

Comment: I don't know which is first in the last line, illusion or reality.

— Urszula Wielanowska (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: If I could, I would like to send a bunch of radishes to all the families in the world.

— Rudi Pfaller (Remshalden, Germany)

Comment: It might be a very small ladybug.

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: After a funeral.

— Michael Henry Lee (St. Augusine, FL, USA)

Comment: A new, cool approach to the moon.

— Zlata Bogovic (Varazdin, Croatia)

Comment: A stork carrying a baby through the hardships of life.

— philip noble (Inverness, Scotland)

Comment: All the quiet in Inverness, Scotland.

— Ryosuke Suzuki (Odawara, Japan)

Comment: Is the third line the final decision?

— Beate Conrad (Waterford, MI, USA)

Comment: "Sweat" is unexpected.

— Reza Aerabi (Semnan, Iran)

Comment: You could surely find a better expression for the second line.

— Brian Robertson (Toronto, ON, Canada)

Comment: A shame!

— Elke Bonacker (Duisburg, Germany)

Comment: Very pretty.

— Mark Miller (Shoalhaven Heads, Australia)

Comment: Naturally.

— John Zheng (Itta Bena, MS, USA)

Comment: It will be a good reunion.

— John Tiong Chung Hoo (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Comment: "Enthrall" is a perfect fit here, although it has many meanings, of which I was shocked to find the definition "enslave."

— Ramona Linke (Beesenstedt, Germany)

Comment: By way of implication, the author wants to depict that horrible burnt-out scenery.

— Lisa Rigge (Corte Sonora Pleasanton, CA, USA)

Comment: It's just like the situation of my wife and I at Narita Airport, waiting for our granddaughter coming back from St. Timothy's in Maryland, USA.

— Priscilla H Lignori (Montgomery, NY, USA)

Comment: "Edelweiss" is a bit ordinary. How about the Beatles? This is a trick in haiku.

— Lothar M. Kirsch (Meerbusch, Germany)

Comment: Baxter (an autistic boy) couldn't pronounce the word "rhododendron" in the movie "Baxter," a long time ago.

— Chen-ou Liu (Ajax, ON, Canada)

Comment: Georgia O'keeffe (1887-1986): American painter. Mostly lived in New Mexico in her later years, drawing fantastic landscapes of forlorn country.

— Motoko Amatsuji (Takarazuka, Hyogo, Japan)

Comment: The bus will soon come, cosmos swaying outside the waiting cabin.

— Gary Hotham (Scaggsville, MD, USA)

Comment: Many newly built skyscrapers in the foreground of the mountain. He is a stranger to the bullet train.

— Gesine Becker (Stralsund, Germany)

Comment: A kigo (season word) is not found here. By putting some seasonal word like "autumn" instead of "the taste of," the haiku sentiment would grow.

— Don Hansbrough (Seattle, WA, USA)

Comment: He is answering for my presentation of Basho's "octopus dream" haiku: "takotsuboya hakanakiyumeo natsunotsuki." Trapped inside a pot / at the bottom of the sea / the octopus dreams' (translated by David Burleigh). Our wonderful haiku communications.

— Mario Massimo Zontini (Parma, Italy)

Comment: In winter, "straight," maybe.

— Vasile Moldovan (Bucharest, Romania)

Comment: A taste of real haiku.

— David Jacobs (London, UK)

Comment: Excellent dispositions: hospital smoke (rising against) the full moon.

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: The choir on the electric wires.

— Neal Whitman (Pacific Grove, CA, USA)

Comment: Japonism returns.

— Abraham Freddy Ben-Arroyo (Haifa, Israel)

Comment: Fascinating proper names under the white nights.

— Rudi Pfaller (Remshalden, Germany)

Comment: We have a proverb: "When you come to feel filial piety, there are no parents." You are lucky. "Sunset" is effective.

— Maria Kowal-Tomczak (Opole, Poland)

Comment: These days I take a siesta all day long, ha-hah-ha.

— Charlotte Digregorio (Winnetka, IL, USA)

Comment: Thanks for your sincere attention.

— Jan Dobb (Mawson, ACT, Australia)

Comment: One of the typical Australian scenes.

— Tzetzka Ilieva (Marietta, GA, USA)

Comment: I am sure the husband was all right at that time, and the wife just happened to sit behind the steering wheel. Right?

— William Hart (Montrose, CA, USA)

Comment: Not accidental.

— Ronny Noor (Brownsville, TX, USA)

Comment: In the silence, the author's delicacy can hear the water gurgle down the drain.

— Lilia Racheva (Russe, Bulgaria)

Comment: In the first line, the comma (,) is defined as a cutting word (= a caesura), meaning a short pause. Other symbols include (.), (:), (—), and (…). Nowadays dashes, ellipses, and colons are favorably used in writing haiku. In Japanese we use "ya," "kana" and the like.

— Zelyko Funda (Varazdin, Croatia)

Comment: It's fun to freely substitute the beginning of the second line with whatever you like.

— jerry ball (Walnut Creek, CA, USA)

Comment: "National Geographic" was often seen in the waiting rooms of hospitals. Patients would think their recovery was near when they saw the renewed magazine.

— Hana Nestieva (Jerusalem, Israel)

Comment: Good haikus often bear shadows.

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: Helen at once noticed why a butterfly did not sit on the cosmos.

— Isao Komatsu (Akita, Japan)

Comment: It is not so huge as life.

— Ramona Linke (Beesenstedt, Germany)

Comment: Instinctively cats can sense coming misfortunes.

— Jacek Margolak (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: Resurrection!

— Jose del Valle (Rockville, RI, USA)

Comment: Marvelous remembrance.

— A. Sethuramiah (Bangalore, India)

Comment: "White" refers to there being no rain up there.

— Ramesh Anand (Tamil Nadu, India)

Comment: Flawless. Haikus can be told well through objects, not directly.

— Urszula Wielanowska (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: The first line suggests a serious situation like a breakup.

— Mariusz Ogryzko (Bialystok, Poland)

Comment: Ah, water soaks into sand.

— Maria Santomauro (Commack, NY, USA)

Comment: The bright full moon can expose the crow feet under the eyes.

— Rudi Pfaller (Remshalden, Germany)

Comment: "A white cloud" is metaphorical.

— Djurdja Vukelic Rozic (Ivanic Grad, Croatia)

Comment: Excellent. The fishing village was being enshrouded by thick fog.

— Toshio Matsumoto (Osaka, Japan)

Comment: "41 second intervals" — absurd and accurate.

— Gillena Cox (St James, Trinidad and Tobago)

Comment: Good, though I've seen the same theme already this year.

— John Tiong Chung Hoo (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Comment: A haikuic punch in the last line, but a little bit artificial.

— Cezar F. Ciobica (Botosani, Romania)

Comment: Pecking one by one.

— druart patrick (Urou et Crennes, France)

Comment: I once got a hole in one, but your technique must be better than mine.

— Ernesto P. Santiago (Athens, Greece)

Comment: Humility.

— martin gottlieb cohen (Egg Harbor, NJ, USA)

Comment: A bright one-liner, not worm-eaten.

— Beate Conrad (Waterford, MI, USA)

Comment: Soon they will reassemble. "A cloud of" is effective.

— Zlata Bogovic (Varazdin, Croatia)

Comment: Flawless … interesting.

— Alan Summers (Bradford-on-Avon, England)

Comment: Ah, what a huge country house. Kings used to live there alternately.

— Michelle Ang (Water Place, Singapore)

Comment: "Words caked": effective.

— Lothar M. Kirsch (Meerbusch, Germany)

Comment: A strange blank moment after the storm.

— Robert B. Bernhards (Sterling, VA, USA)

Comment: I cannot imagine how large the snowflakes "like torn paper" are.

— Bruce Ross (Bangor, ME, USA)

Comment: One deep, masterly achievement.

— Mamoru Ikeda (Ube, Japan)

Comment: Simply put, haiku doesn't take this kind of an explanation punch in the last line.

— Brian Robertson (Toronto, ON, Canada)

Comment: A natural free camera is under surveillance.

— Sara Backer (Hollis, NH, USA)

Comment: We want a clean election candidate.

— Origa (Okemos, MI, USA)

Comment: The third line device.

— Robert M. Erickson (Alsip, IL, USA)

Comment: Excellent. The seasonal reference in the first line is effectively working.

— Rudi Pfaller (Remshalden, Germany)

Comment: "Alone" in the last line may not be necessary.

— Kohjin Sakamoto (Kyoto, Japan)

Comment: I imagine he already has an excellent Japanese version of this.

— Romano Zeraschi (Parma, Italy)

Comment: "Seem to stop" can be deleted.

— Stephen A. Peters (Bellingham, WA, USA)

Comment: Those must be prenatal memories.

— natalia kuznetsova (Moscow, Russia)

Comment: Impressive, but not such a fresh theme.

— John Tiong Chung Hoo (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Comment: I understand how he has thought it over again and again, a thousand times, then … "reflection."

— Gregory Hopkins (Weaver, AL, USA)

Comment: I have seen the same leaf shadows at a bookstore in San Francisco, looking with the traveler's sentiments.

— Djurdja Vukelic Rozic (Ivanic Grad, Croatia)

Comment: An interesting and unexpected punch.

— Ramona Linke (Beesenstedt, Germany)

Comment: These two haikuic things are nicely disposed.

— Don Hansbrough (Seattle, WA, USA)

Comment: This is a return message for a postcard I sent to the author.

— Raj K. Bose (Honolulu, HI, USA)

Comment: Excellent. "Aging" is very effective.

— Wieslaw Karlinski (Namyslow, Poland)

Comment: I think "a leaf" is enough.

— Race Capet (Colorado Springs, CO, USA)

Comment: I am now looking at the veinous back of my hand.

— Heike Gewi (Aden-Crater, Yemen)

Comment: Simple is best in haiku.

— Tomislav Maretic (Zagreb, Croatia)

Comment: Some kinds of rock swallows can dive into waterfalls.

— Doris Lynch (Bloomington, IN, USA)

Comment: A very puzzling two-liner.

— Toshio Matsumoto (Osaka, Japan)

Comment: He uses a coffee percolator and makes a good haiku. I use paper filters.

— Ben Moeller-Gaa (St. Louis, MO, USA)

Comment: The sixth sense, the extrasensory perception.

— John Zheng (Itta Bena, MS, USA)

Comment: We can also see the clear blue skies through the leaf veins.

— Helen Buckingham (Bristol, UK)

Comment: A psychological combination of the two objects.

— philip d noble (Inverness, Scotland)

Comment: The tabby cat must be on the fat side.

— Daniel Bohl (Misawa Airbase, Japan)

Comment: A beautiful and rare angle from an Air Force pilot.

— Valeria Simonova-Cecon (Cividale del Friuli, Italy)

Comment: Excellent and funny, especially in the last line.

— Jose del Valle (Rockville, RI, USA)

Comment: Excellent and flawless.

— Keith A. Simmonds (Tunapuna, Trinidad & Tobago)

Comment: Two strange phenomena.

— Reza Aerabi (Semnan, Iran)

Comment: The solemn fish is sinking deeper and deeper behind the moon reflection.

— Ram Krishna Singh (Dhanbad, India)

Comment: Singular forms would be better: pothole / spot of sunshine / wobbles

— Patricia Neubauer (Philadelphia, PA, USA)

Comment: The following would make a minimal haiku: stars / scattered / seeds

— David Jacobs (London, UK)

Comment: Regrettably, I must confess my hair is not so thick.

— Romano Zeraschi (Parma, Italy)

Comment: He is bending a little over a Zippo to light a cigarette at the edge of his mouth. An excellent Zippo.

— Jonathan Denham (Birmingham, England)

Comment: Oh, poo!

— Billy Howell-Sinnard (Ft. Wayne, IN, USA)

Comment: Fantastic and unreal.

— Jacek Margolak (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: Many harvest moons, here and there.

— Anusha Tennakoon (Izumisano-shi, Japan)

Comment: The last line makes us all weep over the tragedy.

— Brian Robertson (Toronto, ON, Canada)

Comment: The remarkable contrast between old and new.

— Tzetzka Ilieva (Marietta, GA, USA)

Comment: Homophones, hole and whole, which are not deliberately used so often in haiku.

— Claudia Brefeld (Bochum, Germany)

Comment: Japanese contemporary haiku author, Ryuta Iida (1920-2007) wrote: "Haiku is just the literature of self-satisfaction." His well-known haiku: January river— / deep in / the January valley (ichigatsunokawa ichigatsuno taninonaka) —translated by IH

— Helga Stania (Greppen, Switzerland)

Comment: A dancing leaf on the branch in the mist.

— Robert Henry Poulin (Micco, FL, USA)

Comment: That stimulative odor of winter.

— druart patrick (Urou et Crennes, France)

Comment: I used to be in that mood.

— Delia White (Concord, CA. USA)

Comment: So sacred.

— Abraham Freddy Ben-Arroyo (Haifa, Israel)

Comment: Excellent. By the use of an indefinite article ("a") we understand that the author has turned the corner of the corridor.

— Urszula Wielanowska (Kielce, Poland)

Comment: This piece of haiku refers to various hardships of the floating world.

— Ramesh Anand (Tamil Nadu, India)

Comment: It would be better to exchange the first line for another.

— Tyrone McDonald (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

Comment: This could be followed up by "the faint afterglow" or something in the third line.

— Ronald Baatz (St Troy, NY, USA)

Comment: A good and suitable haiku for the end of the year.