chilly days ...
summer warmth lingering
in the pumpkin field
--
Cezar Ciobica (Botosani, Romania)
Selected by Dhugal J. Lindsay
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250926/p2g/00m/0su/025000c?fbclid=IwY2xjawNuAElleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHhkPfd9sXkES7nXpZ-eFzEhT-JAKpVIQpOJ71rSm1wIcmLm6ybF9tWXCnYg-_aem_zX3kqqss4mieNrzFXIaDLA
Selected by Kōko Katō
Edited by Malcolm Curtis.
Light and dark
The stars are high up, and I'm lazing about this holiday village. An owl calls and flies away from a house, while, rising from the reeds, fleshier than in the city, the moon makes its golden way. On a rock, by the river, a dry face of many wrinkles turns to me: See this boat? it was my man's. We were together like thirst and water, but one fuliginous day, he didn't come back. After a while, my son left home too; the butterfly doesn't stick around its caterpillar for long...
shell strings
hanging by the window –
marital horizon
Lifeline
On the wall in front of the house, an old man with his feet dangling towards the road. Sunlit or shaded (as the clouds will), he seems related to a piece of stone. He stays up there all day long, sometimes even at night, to be closer to the road and the angels. At home, there's nobody, even the trees have dried up, but he has this wall. His parents built it to protect them against the winters and the people, when they were listening to Radio Free Europe. In a shady corner, a ripe wild cherry tree.
lifeline –
from one thistle to another
hands and feet
Hidden paths
In the harsh light of noon, the woman’s hand over the eyes trembles like a broken wing She lowered the garden fence, so she can see as far as the horizon, where someone appears now and then, but never reaches her. As the sparrows are dozing off among blue morning glories, the silence seems too hard to be broken, but a ship’s horn sounds and some ray of hope is flitting across her blushing face. Time to pull off the weeds on the pathway home again...
two cups of tea –
coming at the right time
a cloud of rain
Waiting
Dawn. Shouldering my Nikon, I hunt along a narrow Danube channel. Poking around in the reeds, I come across a woman sitting by the water, a few rods and yellow water lilies aligned before her. We are close enough for a dew drop to reflect us both. She smiles, holding an envelope, but I feel her soul keeled over and her voice fluttering like a newborn butterfly says: I got this letter a few years ago but I won't open it. I postpone my joy until the second one will arrive.
I wait, you wait –
never enough time
to leave as one
Dust clouds
Holding a clay pot by the brook, a woman in black shroud asks me: What does it mean when you dream of an excavator? It was driving along, dragging the forest behind it, and the wild animals were running in the village, with their young in the mouth. Then, it cleared the graveyard for bones and dropped them in ash-pots, but my man’s wasn’t there, so I got this clay pot for him. In the meantime, I changed my mind.
A dream is just a dream. And yet, where does this billow of dust come from?
people on the road –
a two eye-spotted shadow
swept up by the wind
Autor Lavana Kray
Issue 13: Tea Time, October 2025
Scrisoarea Editoarei
Ceaiul este o scuză pentru a ieși afară, în grădină, și a petrece timp cu prietenii. Ceaiul este ceea ce bei când ești bolnav și îl consideri acea licoare magică aducătoare de sănătate și liniște (unii dintre prietenii mei beau ceai doar atunci când sunt bolnavi :). Cafeaua este invitația perfectă pentru a începe ceva frumos... câte povești de dragoste nu au început așa? Cafeaua este prietenul tău tăcut de dimineață, este un strop de energie, este timp pentru tine. Ceaiul și cafeaua sunt importante pentru fiecare dintre noi, nu doar prin ceea ce sunt, ci prin semnificația pe care le-o dăm.
Să vă bucurați citind acest număr, în timp ce vă savurați cafeaua sau ceaiul, și să distribuiți pe canalele voastre de socializare poemul publicat, folosind #EnchantedGardenHaiku și #TeaTime!
Până data viitoare,
să vă bucurați scriind haiku!
Steliana Voicu
Ghicind norocul...
împotmolită în zaț
o buburuză
Fortune telling...
in the middle of the coffee grounds
a stuck ladybug
Vasile Moldovan, București, Romania
cafea neagră -
adaug culoare
nopților albe
cu spuma valurilor
revin poveștile
black coffee -
I add some colour to
our white nights
with the waves’ foam
same stories return
Ana Drobot, Romania
aromă de cafea -
pisica cea bătrână
face stretching
scent of coffee...
the old cat starts
stretching
Flory Unțanu, Romania
spărgând gheața -
între noi doi stă
ceașca de cafea
breaking the ice -
lying between us
a cup of coffee
Ana Drobot, Romania
aminirea mamei -
aroma ceaiului de tei
urcând spre cer
mother's memory -
the aroma of linden tea
rising to the sky
Mihaela Cojocaru, Constanța Romania
arome de ceai -
din odaia bunicii
numai amintiri
tea fragrance -
from grandma 's room
only memories
Carmen Duvalma, Romania
nori încă din zori –
ea îi mai strecoară în ceașcă
un cub de zahăr
clouds since dawn –
she slips into his teacup
one more sugar cube
Mirela Brăilean, Romania
geriatrie...
un doctor îmi recomandă
doar ceai verde
geriatric clinic...
a doctor recommends
only green tea
Cezar Ciobîcă, Botoșani, Romania
ora ceaiului -
pregătind o ceșcuță
și pentru cel absent
tea time
preparing a cup
for the absent too
Cristina Pietraru, Romania
CÂȘTIGĂTORI PREMII SPECIALE (Secțiunea
ENGLEZĂ)
Honorable Mentions
Cristina Pietraru
old pond
an origami frog floating
among tadpoles
折り紙の蛙浮かべぬ蝌蚪の池
Dan C. Iulian
it’s snowing -
how materializes
the silence
沈黙が物の形に雪積もり
