The March 2021 Eucalypt: a tanka journal e-Newsletter is now online, announcing the Distinctive Scribble Awards for issue 29.
Please click on the link below to open the PDF file.
Warm wishes,
Julie Thorndyke
Editor, Eucalypt : a tanka journal
Month: February 2021
Facebook Ban – What it means for the AHS
The Australian Haiku Society’s Facebook page has unfortunately been caught up in Facebook’s ban on all news sites in Australia. Continue reading “Facebook Ban – What it means for the AHS”
Bombora Summer Meeting
Our small BOMBORA group had a most enjoyable Christmas luncheon at a local tavern in mid December. Discussion varied from our haiku learning journey to how great it was to be able to actually all go out to lunch together after all the difficulties of 2020. Thankfully we are all fit and well.
We then had our first meeting of the year late last month in air conditioned comfort at Gayle’s house, deciding against a meeting in the park in hot, humid Brisbane weather. Present were Gayle, Dawn, Yvonne, Melody and Suzie, and we welcomed new member Geoff.
Haiku @ The Oaks, Canberra
Tuesday 9 February 2021
A bit of a nip in the summer air as we gathered once again for lunch at an old round wooden table beneath the trees. Although the birds were not quite so vocal this time, our little mob certainly made up for that as we alternated between serious discussion and infectious laughter. Five of us were present–Glenys Ferguson, Gregory Piko, Kathy Kituai, Hazel Hall and Jan Dobb. We missed Marietta McGregor this time.
John Bird Dreaming Award for Haiku
A reminder that entries for The John Bird Dreaming Award for Haiku close on March 1, 2021. You can access guidelines and submission details here.
Light and Counterlight by Mark Miller
Mark Miller has recently had a new collection of haiku and senryu, Light and Counterlight, published by Ginninderra Press. ‘In Light and Counterlight it is especially Mark Miller’s unique view, his long experience and solid craft of writing that make his work look effortless. His poems are aesthetic and effectively show that the small things, such as a breeze, the trickle of water or shimmering light, are actually the great ones that drive and preserve the circle of life.’ – Beate Conrad, Editor Chrysanthemum
Cover: Autumn Valley, watercolour by Ron C. Moss
Cloudcatchers Summer Ginko #60
Pop Denison Park, Ballina, NSW
Thursday 28 January 2021
Cloudcatchers gathered for Ginko No. 60 at a lovely little seaside inlet, Shaw’s Bay, in Ballina, just north of the mouth of the Richmond River. Previously the group has celebrated each ‘noughty’ ginko at the site of our first gathering in 2005, at Brunswick Heads, but we have all aged since then. As most of our more senior and stalwart members are now reluctant to make the half hour drive in highway traffic, we ‘stayed home’, and the younger ones came to us.
Still in the search for ‘What makes a good haiku?’ we enjoyed reading snippets to each other from the recent ‘Windfall’, Issue No.9 2021 (edited by Beverley George, published by Peter Macrow of Blue Giraffe Press). We appraised a number of haiku by members, and also those of some highly respected haijin, savouring the process.
Book Review – breaking my journey
breaking my journey by Gregory Piko
reviewed by Cynthia Rowe
breaking my journey, published by the prestigious Red Moon Press, is delightfully produced. The cover, designed by Ron C. Moss, a digital photograph, is particularly striking. The book is smoothly finished, and a pleasure to hold.
The collection contains ninety-eight individual haiku, two haibun, a rengay and haiku shuffle, wherein Gregory Piko extols the things we take for granted, the essence of what makes us ‘us’. He extracts beauty from the everyday, makes us see the world in a fresh light; that which seems banal on first viewing is elevated to the extraordinary, universal in its appeal.
Australian Haiku Society 