The Summer meeting of Illawong Haiku Group was held on Tuesday 11th December at Club York in Sydney which Gavin kindly arranged for us. It was a special treat to pass by the Queen Victoria Building on the way to the venue, one of the jewels in Sydney’s crown at Christmas time.
We shared a smorgasbord lunch and discussions around a set exercise – a haiku based on a family Christmas tradition which we uphold.
pudding bowl
I test the brandy
just as Nan did
Gavin Austin
Seemingly a world away from the peace and quiet of the natural environment where we usually hold our meetings, the buzz of human conversation proved more disconcerting than any buzz of bees. Combined with the time taken for our experienced writers to mentor newer members through the process it was almost time to depart. As we all have done when we first wrote haiku the number of words needed to be minimised however everyone seemed satisfied with the end result.
Christmas carol
small children
counting stars
Margaret Mahony
With just a short time left those who had completed our other set exercises relating to favourite Christmas haiku and International Mountain Day read their work.
We agreed it had been a good idea for the ‘southerners’ to journey north for a change and get out of our comfort zones in ‘the burbs’. With that thought we have decided to schedule one meeting each year at a city venue and hopefully spend a bit more unhurried time together. As Group Leader I have already made my New Year’s resolution and that is to build the haiku skills of our novices members.
Carol Reynolds
Australian Haiku Society 