August 2024
Again, we gathered around an inside table @ The Oaks, the breeze still too chilly for lunch outside. Perhaps we may celebrate spring next month with a session beneath the leafy trees? Glenys Ferguson, Gregory Piko, Marietta McGregor and Jan Dobb exchanged warm greetings. This time, we missed the company of Hazel Hall and Kathy Kituai.
While waiting for our lunch orders, Jan distributed autographed copies of a recently published poetry collection, Lighting Up the Duff, generously sent to us from our ex-officio American member Sheila Sondik who has family in Australia. Although not haiku, we were intrigued with Sheila’s ‘Golden Shovels’ which she explains in an Author’s Note: ‘The last words in each line of a Golden Shovel poem, read in order, comprise a line or lines from another poet’. We spent time enticed by these before tucking them away for further reflection. Our grateful thanks, Sheila.
Glenys briefly outlined her participation in Kathy Kituai’s ‘Tea with Mary’ program and her appreciation of the insights into writing and personal growth that have resulted from Kathy’s course on the poems of Mary Oliver.
A wider scope of poetry narrowed to haiku, of course and not surprisingly, Haiku Down Under was soon under discussion, being just over a week away, with Greg and Marietta participating in a panel and a presentation respectively. Marietta’s topic of Synesthesia in Haiku took our thoughts in various directions as we discussed the effectiveness of this technique, and whether some haiku poets are indeed synesthete? This extended to a lengthy consideration of other senses beyond the traditional five, or even ‘sixth’. A place in synesthesia haiku for these too? Maybe worth experimenting. . .
We expressed interest in the recent developments of Echidna Tracks including its foray into haiga, with Marietta as one of the editors. A personal preference was voiced, however, for the one-a-day publication of haiku rather than the five-each-Monday arrangement.
With thoughts of our two absent friends, we began to pack up after a cosy afternoon of poetry and natter. A few hours later, a group email from Hazel arrived in our inboxes with the two contributions she had hoped to bring until circumstances intervened. One was the result of the recent New Zealand Poetry Society haiku contest for which she was the judge this year. The second was to announce a forthcoming joint book launch with Kathy of collected poems: A Hint of Rosemary (Hazel) and The Art of Catching Jam Before it Burns (Kathy). Material for much talk next time.
Jan Dobb
Australian Haiku Society 