Paperbark Autumn Ginko

28th April 2021

Paperbark haiku group held their Autumn Ginko at Adachi Park in Belmont, Perth on a warm but smoky morning. Unfortunately there were prescribed burns in the Perth hinterland which led to poor visibility and an obvious health risk to people with breathing problems. As a result there was a disappointing turnout with only three of the group attending.

Despite this it proved to be a very interesting and productive session with the participants reading some of their favourite haiku and then walking around the park making observations for their haiku. Rose van Son, Coral Carter and Barry Sanbrook attempted to use other than the traditional three line haiku to experiment with single, two or four line poems and some of these are included below.

Adachi Park has a strong Japanese flavour. It is named Adachi Park because the city of Adachi in Japan has sister city status with Belmont. The park runs along a beautiful stretch of the Swan river, which while we were there was very calm, encouraging meditative thought.

The writings of the morning were shared in a tranquil gazebo overlooking the river as gentle ripples drifted across its surface towards us.

The smoke had one advantage, it gave a mystical quality to the scene, which combined with the Japanese influence, made it the perfect place to write haiku.

Here are some of the haiku written at Adachi Park.

buzz of an outboard
heat haze on the BBQ
ting of bicycle bells
today’s river

Adachi Park
the Japanese script
I cannot read

in the web
a gumnut, a leaf, a spider

ripples roll reflections to the shore

Coral Carter

the ground rises   my heartbeat

ripples    approach silently

a spore
unattached
floats by

paddler
his blades
mark the passage

Barry Sanbrook

river and reeds
a yellow kayak
pins the silence

paperbark
so much to peel back
end of summer

empty playground
the uncontrolled chattering
of birds

Rose van Son

Report by Barry Sanbrook