Dear AHS members,
I would like to take this opportunity, once again, to wish you all a happy, prosperous, and most of all, safe 2022. Filled with haiku, of course.
Nothing could have prepared us for the challenges of the past two years, as poets and humans. Covid has not only rearranged our lives, it has shone a light on our values. Writing haiku is a peaceful and creative pursuit – a process of discovery fundamentally driven by ingenuity and further enriched by opportunities to share and learn. In that sense, our values have not changed. In fact, in 2021, we have excelled in our endeavours. As a community, we should be proud of the riches that our collective, creative spirits have produced.
I would like to pay a special tribute to all the local haiku groups around the country that continued to meet and share haiku whenever and however they could assemble. I have enjoyed reading your group reports throughout the year immensely.
A huge thank you to all those poets who participated in the various activities and competitions run by the AHS this year. (There will be more to come next year. Stay tuned!) Of course, this year, we announced the inaugural winner of the John Bird Dreaming Award for Haiku – a competition that attracted 890 poems from 41 countries. Our regular haiku strings and kukais also attracted hundreds of writers from far and wide.
I would also like to thank all those haiku poets who took the trouble to contact me throughout the year for advice, encouragement, or just to share some thoughts. I am very grateful for this and look forward to more correspondence next year.
There are some exciting things to come next year for the AHS and I look forward to sharing them with you all.
See you in 2022.
Happy New Year!
Rob Scott
Groups and Gatherings
To catch up on the latest with some of our regional groups click on the links below.
December
November
AHS Summer Solstice Haiku String
The AHS has hosted another successful Haiku String, this time marking the Summer Solstice or 2021. It has been heartening once again to see the international reach of this event with a total of 148 haiku being posted from contributors in Australia, Northern Ireland, India, Romania, Malta, UK, USA and China – (country only known where poets have listed it). During the week of Dec 20th to 26th there were 516 visitors to the site making up a total of 1762 views from 45 different countries.
You can revisit the string here.
The Ink Sinks Deeper
The Ink Sinks Deeper edited by Hazel Hall & Kathy Kituai is a 28 page anthology of haiku by members of Canberra’s Haiku @ The Oaks and is available from Ginninderra Press. This is bound to be an impressive collection. Sample haiku and ordering details can be found here.
Congratulations
MAYA LYUBENOVA INTERNATIONAL HAIKU CONTEST, Bulgaria 2021
First Place
after the fire
the sound of a falling
rain drop
Josie Lim
All selected haiku can be found here
Irish Haiku Society International Haiku Competition 2021
Honourable mention
alpine meadow
the sky descends
into gentians
Marietta McGregor
thunder
the rattle of a coin
in the beggar’s cup
Mark Miller
brewing tea
night and day
become one
Greg Piko
All selected haiku can be fund here
“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.”
― Leo Tolstoy
Australian Haiku Society 