December 2015 – Australian Haiku Society

Tanka by Beverley George featured in Melbourne jazz performance

Earlier in December, leading Australian tanka poet Beverley George – editor of “Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal” – was honoured to have the following three pieces from her tanka collection “empty garden” featured in a live performance that formed part of the Melbourne Women’s Jazz Festival, held in Bennetts Lane, Melbourne:

a lightning strike
splits our old apple tree–
I never dreamed
the death that parted us
would not be one of ours

it’s in our garden
that I miss you most
each year the stems
of rosemary you planted
grow harder to cut back

widening each day
the winter river rushes
over hidden rocks
if you asked me to return
I could no longer cross it

Subsequently included on a CD, Beverley’s tanka were read live by Miriam Zolin, accompanied by a jazz trio comprised by pianist Andrea Keller, bassist Tamara Murphy and trumpeter Eugene Ball.

A review of this performance can be accessed at the following link:

http://ausjazz.net/2015/12/09/solace-in-an-empty-garden/

“Eucalypt” Issue 19, 2015 – Appraisals

From every issue of “Eucalypt: a tanka journal,” edited by Beverley George, two poems are peer-selected for appraisal.

Congratulations to Jenny Ward Angyal and Sonam Chhoki, whose tanka were chosen for appraisal by Patricia Prime and Anne Curran.

You can read about them here:

http://www.eucalypt.info/E-awards.html

While visiting the site, you may also wish to read a wide selection of tanka appraisals at:

http://www.eucalypt.info/E-bowerbird.html

A regular feature of the full-day Bowerbird workshops, convened twice a year, is a presentation by each of three delegates of a tanka by a poet whom the presenter has never met. The appraisals are lively and varied.

12th European Quarterly Kukai Winter 2015 Edition

The 12th European Quarterly Kukai Winter 2015 Edition attracted haiku from 186 poets from 38 countries, including 8 from Australia.

Australian entrants were: Samar Ghose and Tash Adams, both from Perth, WA; Jo McInerney, from Boolarra, VIC; Cynthia Rowe, from Sydney, NSW; Barbara A Taylor, from Mountain Top, NSW, Simon Hanson, from Allendale, SA; Lynette Arden, from Norwood, SA; and Marietta McGregor, from Canberra, ACT.

The theme was ‘night’ or ‘day’.

Gaining 16 points, Samar Ghose achieved eighth place with the following haiku:

how to just be day moon

Gaining 15 points, Marietta McGregor was another top-ten finisher, placing ninth with the following haiku:

overcast day
she saves a poem
to the cloud

Results of the contest can be seen this link:

http://europeankukai.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/results-of-european-quarterly-kukai-12.html

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival – 2015 Haiku Invitational

Australian poets who received Honorable Mentions in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival – 2015 Haiku Invitational include:

snow-heavy blossoms
their hands
share a pocket

Nathalie Buckland (Nimbin, NSW)

late afternoon . . .
touching the blossom
with the tip of her cane

Jo McInerney (Boolarra, VIC)

sharing the bench
the old busker
and cherry petals

Mark Miller (Shoalhaven Heads, NSW)

sharing an umbrella
with a stranger
cherry blossom rain

Vanessa Proctor (Sydney, NSW)

blossom moon
the pregnancy line
turning to pink

Cynthia Rowe (Sydney, NSW)

Australians poets included in ‘Haiku 2015’ – Modern Haiku Press

Modern Haiku Press in the United States has released ‘Haiku 2015’, edited by Lee Gurga and Scott Metz, a selection of ‘100 notable ku from 2014’. Australian haiku poets represented include:

islands of ice
the moon
without an oar

– Lorin Ford, ‘frogpond’ 37:2

nightclub
entrance strobe lit
rain

– Simon Hanson, ‘DailyHaiku’ March 17

new leaves
the old forest
finds its voice

– Rob Scott, ‘A Hundred Gourds’ 3:3

Continue reading “Australians poets included in ‘Haiku 2015’ – Modern Haiku Press”

Red Kelpie Haiku Group Meeting & Ginko # 6

On Sunday December 13th, we held our summer meeting at The Terrace Tearooms in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Everyone else in Melbourne seemed to have had the same idea. We had to raise our voices considerably during our discussion on the topic of the haiku technique of juxtaposition; a topic which is well worth revisiting from time to time.

The day was fine, reaching a warm 27 degrees. The sunny blue of Jacarandas matched the weather, Canna lilies and Red Hot Pokers blazed from across the lake, ducks and swans spent much time bottoms-up and three juvenile water hens followed an accommodating ‘foster mother’ seagull around the lakeside lawn. Every dog’s body language seemed to convey that the day was especially theirs and exuded friendliness and good will.

We were delighted to welcome Marietta McGregor, from Canberra, as our guest, and Madhuri Pillai, from Melbourne, as our newest member. Before we separated for our silent ginko, Jennifer Sutherland gifted each of those present with books that had been given to her at October’s Haiku North America conference by Lee Gurga and Jim Kacian for that purpose. Santa came early for us this year!

Continue reading “Red Kelpie Haiku Group Meeting & Ginko # 6”