Tuesday 3rd September
The Illawong Haiku Group took advantage of an opportunity to experience something a little different for our Spring meeting. Hurstville Museum and Gallery (HM&G; part of Georges River Council) invited writing groups to use the current travelling exhibition 1 x 4 as inspiration. Museum space, writing supplies and morning tea were provided.
Illawong Haiku Group at 1 x 4 exhibition
Five of our six members were present – Carol Reynolds, Margaret Mahony, Alison Miller, Roslyn Pitt and Rita Potente. Patricia Meredith was sadly missed. On a more positive note we welcomed visitors Wanda Amos, Gabrielle Higgins and Kathleen Ann, some fresh faces to our usual lineup.
After initial introductions, the Museum’s Education and Public Programs Officer Laura Martinez welcomed us to Bidjigal Country followed by instructions on how to interact with the exhibition. We downloaded an app on our phones to scan each object’s QR code. When scanned you could see a picture of the object, a name and date, and information written from four different perspectives. After morning tea we were free to wander around the exhibition and take notes as needed.
With time running out we regrouped and discussed the particular items that attracted our attention. We read aloud the haiku we had written. Before finishing up Laura thanked us for our participation and encouraged us to submit some of our writing for inclusion on the HM&G blog.
All eight who attended enjoyed lunch at a nearby café where good food and conversation were had.
Over the next two weeks we compiled a list of haiku sufficiently worthy for display in the public arena. A final list of two haiku per writer covering fourteen different objects has since been submitted and we will be advised once they appear on the blog. Following are some of the haiku that were included in our submission. I have purposely not named the item about which they have been written. That is your mission should you choose to accept it!
pottery fragment
brought to the surface
one hundred years of anger
Rita Potente
brass model loco
grandfather’s foundry
now a high-end café
Alison Miller
little black dress
grim reaper
in disguise
Kathleen Ann
postcard to mum
– I hope he made it home
Margaret Mahony
colonists saw
what it could be
Red Cedar
Carol Reynolds
his miner’s helmet
replaced by a velvet cap
sporting luxury
Gabrielle Higgins
pigeon racing
stimulant for
prized trophy
Roslyn Pitt
a pinch of snuff –
now replaced
by inhaling vapes
Wanda Amos
Haiga by Wanda Amos, on Bead Snake, 1919.
Australian Haiku Society 