czhdigestwinter2006

CANADA

the wind awakens

trees are swaying, limbs protest

creaking like old bones

Régis Auffray, British Columbia

Kanji ookami: wolves

pass through trees as spirits

swift paws on soft snow

Bradley Alexander Bucsis

stars shining on snow

in the twinkling of an eye

a world upside down

winter's cold hard fact

the hibernating bear too

dying in its sleep

Richard Doiron

herd of moose

nature teaches drivers how to move

like lemmings

Tim Lang

chambre anonyme

l"éclat des néons

sur ses fesses

anonymous room

strips of lights cast by the neon

on her buttocks

Angèle Lux

Sora Kanji for sky

snow clouds -

her geisha face

Pamela Murray

la neige crisse

dans un érable négondo

Orion, eh oui!

screeching snow

in a manitoba maple

Orion, oh yeah!

Bertrand Nayet

appendectomy --

her Buddha belly

smiles with a tin grin

Richard Stevenson

she canoed

all winter long

in the same place

tout l'hiver

elle a fait du canot

sans bouger

Richard Vallance

AUSTRIA

my uncle's funeral

winter wind in the void

between us

Onkels Begräbnis

in der Lücke zwischen uns

Winterwind

Dietmar Tauchner, Austria

INDIA

droplets on the moon

a crocodile's jumbo sneeze --

blows away the pearl

in a pond

tigers lick :

the moon

Charishma Ramchandani

JAPAN

to the wintry wind,

the gills are exposed

of a hooked fish

"Kogarashi" is the seasonal wind coming from the northwest at this time of year in Japan. "Kogarashi the first" has blown today, which informs us of the coming of winter.

Umi ni dete

Kogarashi kaeru

tokoro nashi.

(Seishi Yamaguchi)

going out into the sea,

the wintry wind

has no place to return

My uncle-in-law, a disciple of Seishi's, puts up this haiku written in Seishi's own writing on the wall in his room of the home for the aged. Every time I visit him, he takes it off to present to me, and I'm always deeply impressed with his skillful writing becoming a master haiku poet. He explains to me Seishi composed it for soldiers going to the front during the second World War.

Translated by Shigeki Matsumura

NETHERLANDS

a polar bear sniffs at

the snow with his snout

he is hungry

Rita B. Fox

PHILIPPINES

day after Christmas

she gives a used card

to her shelter friend

alone

in a moon's shadow

the owl's sigh

nagiisa

sa anino ng buwan

huni ng kuwago

Victor P. Gendrano

polar bears

outside their cave --

cottonballs

Lanie Shanzyra P. Rebancos

ROMANIA

my footprints

ring on the sidewalk and

shadows lean more and more

Ioan Rusu

USA

winter wind arrives

forcing maple leaves to fly

torrents of gold

Toni Calvello

fresh snow everywhere

except for a skid mark

on a lonely road

zen garden

scent of tranquility

winter fog

Amitava Dasgupta

November sky:

a blank sheet of music

waits for a composer

holiday season --

under the tinsel,

a dying tree

Judy Kamilhor

Midnight Mass

Handel's Messiah

fills the church

hunting dog

the prey's shadow

crosses its coat

a loose gray hair

on her cheek

shorter days

Deborah P. Kolodji

Christmas eve--

the young prostitute

weeps

Norman William Muise

museum of past loves

in a building with no doors

walls or windows

scientifically on display

Sandy Vrooman aka Kitsune Miko