The twenty-first Bowerbird Tanka group meeting was celebrated on 30th November 2019, in the Crommelin Arboretum at Pearl Beach. Again it was heart-warming to note how far poets will travel to explore and share the poetic genre of tanka.
In addition to a presentation by Michael Thorley on shasei, and a ginko relevant to this, appraisals by three poets of a tanka they particularly enjoy, written by someone they have not met were shared and helped us to explore the more distant national scene as well as the international one.
Delegates at this meeting enjoyed a session in calligraphy conducted by a local Japanese artist, Tomoko Oka, and also a musical interlude by Pearl Beach guitarist and singer, Philip Rich.
A report by Colleen Keating and the appraisals can be found on the Eucalypt website under the heading Bowerbird.
Beverley George
Australian Haiku Society 