Otata will come again
one day
late fall in the mountains
— Santoka, as translated by Burton Watson
As Watson notes, “Otata was a woman who went around selling fish in the area of Santoka’s cottage in Matsuyama.”
An e-zine of haiku and other short poems, ‘Otata’ appears on the last day of the month.
The ‘Otata’ e-zine can be accessed through this link:
Continue reading “‘Otata’ – an e-zine of haiku and other short poems”
Recently Beverley George became the fourth Australian haiku poet to be honoured as a Focus Poet in the respected British haiku journal ‘Presence’ (issue #54, February, 2016).
Along with other poems of hers which have previously gained recognition elsewhere, the following new haiku by Beverley have just been featured in Focus Poet # 39 in ‘Presence’:
the haiku books
I thought I would read again
the ones I do
key in the lock our dog’s swift head count
Three other Australian haiku poets have likewise been honoured in the same way: Lorin Ford, Ron C Moss and Vanessa Proctor. Groups of both Australian and New Zealand haiku poets have also been featured in Focus pieces in ‘Presence’. (See below.)
Continue reading “Beverley George the latest Australian to be a Focus Poet in ‘Presence’”
While further poets are encouraged to offer selections of their work, the following Australian haiku writers already have portfolios of their haiku represented in ‘The Living Haiku Anthology’:
Dawn Bruce, Jan Dobb, Lorin Ford, Simon Hanson, Myron Lysenko, Jayashree Maniyil, Ron C,. Moss, Cynthia Rowe and Scott Terrill.
Links to these various portfolios can be found below:
Continue reading “Portfolios for Australian Haiku Poets – ‘The Living Haiku Anthology’”
I’m very happy to be able to announce that the nine complete issues 1.1 through to 3.1 of the quarterly journal, ‘Notes from the Gean’, for which I was haiku editor, have been recovered and are now archived on Don Baird’s website, ‘The Living Anthology’.
You’ll find them in TLA’s ‘Library Shelf’ under the heading ‘Journals’:
The work published in the first issue, ‘Notes from the Gean’1.1, June 2009, includes haiku by these Australians:
Lynette Arden, John Bird, Neil Bramson, Dawn Bruce, Nathalie Buckland, Ashley Capes, Beverley George, Gina, Matt Hetherington, Michelle Leber, Jo McInerney, Mark Miller, Graham Nunn, Rhonda Poholke, Jack Prewitt, Harry Rout, Barbara A. Taylor, Rodney Williams and Quendryth Young.
More can be found in the further issues of ‘Notes from the Gean’ archived on ‘The Living Anthology’ website.
– Lorin Ford, haiku editor & etc., ‘A Hundred Gourds’
The 2015 Martin Lucas Haiku Award – conducted in the UK by ‘Haiku Presence’ – attracted 283 entries from 52 poets, with all three poems rated as Commended coming from Australian haiku poets:
newborn lamb
a first look towards
the stars
– Ron C Moss
full moon
she makes her butterpat
a perfect circle
– Marietta Jane McGregor
falling leaves
the open book
as you left it
– Barbara A. Taylor
Full results – with the judge’s comments – can be accessed through this link:
On Thursday, 11 February, I spent an evening at the Halifax Café with a large and enthusiastic audience for the ten Bindii poets who read their work. We were also fortunate to have musicians Munetaka Umehara and Alexander Ask performing A Midsummer Walk, their original work for Japanese flute and didgeridoo.
Australian writer Cynthia Rowe has offered her thoughts about defining what haiku is for her. Under the title ‘Concision’, it can be found on ‘The Living Haiku Anthology’ website, under ‘Poets on Haiku’, or it can be accessed directly through this link:
http://livinghaikuanthology.com/lha/defining-haiku/2920-concision-by-cynthia-rowe.html
A portfolio of Cynthia’s haiku has also been created: it can be accessed within ‘The Living Haiku Anthology’ website, through this second link:
http://livinghaikuanthology.com/poet-portfolios/324-r-poets/cynthia-rowe.html
Torakina Park, Brunswick Heads NSW
Thursday 4 February 2016
The tenth anniversary of the inaugural meeting of the Cloudcatcher haiku group was celebrated at the very same picnic table where the original gathering took place on 5 December 2005. Torakina Park, in Brunswick Heads, where the Brunswick River meets the sea, has been a favourite site for ginko, and this was the fourteenth assemblage there by the group. Janice Bostok, known as the haiku pioneer of Australia, was with us at that first meeting (as she was also at a number of subsequent ginko), inspiring participants with her astute comments and some impromptu haiku of her own.
Australian Haiku Society 