The winter meeting of the Red Dragonflies had to be postponed from the usual Saturday because of that particular weekend’s stormy weather and so was held on Monday, 20th June, 11 to 2pm at convenor Vanessa Proctor’s home in Pymble.
Barbara Fisher, Beverley George and Cynthia Rowe were present. There were only four of us because Dawn Bruce was overseas and, to our great sadness our much-loved member, Lesley Walter, died in May.
We began our meeting with tributes to Lesley, whose incisive and insightful haiku had always given us so much pleasure. Her poems were so fresh and original and often reflected her great sense of humour. Each of us read haiku we had written and dedicated to her. These were handwritten (by Vanessa) in a card and sent to her family.Vanessa, as usual, had set some challenging exercises for us on a variety of topics, including the Vivid Festival then lighting up Sydney. Responses to this topic varied widely and provoked some interesting discussion.
We were naturally all very pleased to learn of Vanessa’s new role as President of the Australian Haiku Society, taking over from past president and fellow member, Cynthia Rowe. Thanks to Vanessa’s efforts, the Society now has a handsome new website, which will be of enormous value to the poetry scene in general and haiku and tanka poets in particular.
Barbara Fisher
Australian Haiku Society 