Month: December 2008

WHAT IS HAIKU? – Week 7

Dick Sanders (Charlestown, NSW)

‘Haiku is of the seasons and the ten thousand things; it evokes; it
never describes.’
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Carolyn Cordon (Redbanks, SA)

(1) ‘Haiku is a poem describing a moment in nature, with few words.’
(2) ‘Haiku is a joke played by the Japanese on Westerners, who, at
best, only think they get it.’
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Vidur Jyoti (Gurgaon, India) .

‘It is a tide contained in a ripple.’
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Max Ryan (New Brighton, NSW)

‘A haiku is a small, undramatic disappearing act where the poet is
lost in the poem. What is left is an overall image that may be
composed of more than one element from nature but that nevertheless
conveys the sense of a single moment.’
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Can you answer THE question in less than forty words.? Then please tell
John Bird at link removed He is is editing this feature
for us.

Cloudcatchers Summer Ginko No.12

Cloudcatchers (the haiku group on the Far North Coast of NSW) is three years old. On 5 December 2005, thirteen poets assembled at Torakina Park, Brunswick Heads, where the river meets the sea. Last Friday, 12 December 2008, fifteen enthusiasts gathered at the same place for the summer ginko. Nathalie Buckland presented our usual introduction, “I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, and ask you to think of all of our ancestors, remembering other feet that have trodden this ground before us.”

Continue reading “Cloudcatchers Summer Ginko No.12”

WHAT IS HAIKU? – Week 6

Graham Nunn (Brisbane, Qld)

‘a short poem that captures the true essence of a moment in time.’
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Jan Rikken (The Netherlands)

‘For me a Haiku is the “condensation” of a personal feeling evoked
by a natural phenomenon, into a little poem, without the explicit
expression of that feeling.’
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Duncan Richardson (Brisbane, Qld)

‘ … the classic elements meet what appeals to me in haiku, namely
intensity, capturing the moment and relating to nature in some way, all done in
a very brief manner.’
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Larry Bole (New York City, USA) Paraphrasing U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Potter Stewart:

“I shall not attempt to define the kinds of material I understand to
be embraced within the shorthand description haiku; and perhaps I
could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I
see it.”

WHAT IS HAIKU? – Week 5

Bob Jones (Bingal Bay, Qld)

“A renga-related nature-based poem whose plain imagery evokes a particular moment, stripped to its most telling features, classically intimating the quick of all moments.”
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Janice M Bostok (in collaboration with John Bird)
“A haiku is a brief poem, built on sensory images from the real world. It evokes a personal insight into how people are connected to their environment.”
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Bea Holmes along with a number of others, favours the current definition of the Haiku Society of America:
“A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition.”
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Lorin Ford (Melbourne, Vic) Her working description (not definition) is
‘Haiku in English are brief poems about observable things. Haiku suggest connections and relationships between the things of nature and human life. Abstractions are avoided, as is the overt use poetic devices such as metaphor, simile and other tropes.’

WHAT IS HAIKU? – Week 4

Dawn Bruce (Sydney, NSW)

‘The writing of haiku captures a moment that reveals the extraordinary in the ordinary; it allows one to slow down and value the present; it enables one to forget the ego and feel the miracle of nature; more than anything it is the heart of poetry.’
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Alison Williams (UK)
‘A haiku is a short poem that finds the intangible in the tangible.’

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Janet Howie (Melbourne, Vic)

‘Haiku is a concise poetic form that captures a keenly perceived and felt moment in nature, leading to further reflection on universal human experience.’
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Merle Packham (Alstonville, NSW)

“A haiku is a brief poem expressing a moment of observation, with
awareness of all the senses to nature, the seasons, and one’s
surroundings.”

What is Haiku? – Week 3

Katherine Gallagher (UK)

(1) “Haiku is a brief season-oriented poem of Japanese origin but
increasingly adapted to Western usage and local tastes. A haiku mirrors
a moment’s experience often shown via contrasting images – the so-called
‘haiku moment’ bringing about a. sudden illumination to dramatic
effect.”

(2) and Katherine’s short description:
“Haiku is a brief poem about the sensory vibrancy of the planet.”

Maureen Sexton (Perth, WA)
“Haiku exalts nature by recording, in as few words as possible,
something from the natural world that creates an insight which
resonates with the reader.”