Hobart haikuists had planned to meet on the last Sunday of winter for a walk in St David’s Park. The previous night brought bitter weather preceding the State’s coldest August day, with snow at low levels on Kunanyi/Mount Wellington. Rather than face the icy winds we postponed until the following Sunday when we enjoyed a window of sunny calm and the company of two members who had been unable to attend the week before.
St David’s Park is on the site of Hobart’s first cemetery. Buried there are many of the First Fleeters and early settlers. When the cemetery fell into disuse and was made into a place of recreation some of the original headstones were embedded in sandstone walls that form a memorial walk. Stone seats built into the wall are sunny spaces out of the wind. We met near the rotunda and then dispersed to walk silently through the English-style gardens, then came together again in the shelter of the memorial wall. Here we shared our writing and observations, giving comment and feedback to each other before adjourning to a nearby café in Salamanca Place for coffee and further conversation.
bench in the sun
the company
of camellia blossom
We have lost many of the original members of Watersmeet, for one reason or another – age, illness, relocation. But there is a small band of keen new poets that are discovering the pleasure of haiku and the peaceful and contemplative walks where we take time out from our busy lives to absorb the beauty of the natural world and the challenge of recording our responses in the form of haiku.
Australian Haiku Society 
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