The White Pebbles Haiku group meets four times a year at the start of each season to celebrate the movement of the seasons and the writing of haiku in English in response. The Spring meeting was held on Saturday 14th September at the Pebbles’ regular meeting place – the beautiful Gosford/Edogawa Commemorative Japanese Gardens on the Central Coast of NSW.
Present were Beverley George (convenor), Colleen Keating, Marilyn Humbert, Maire Glacken and Michael Thorley. The day was perfect. The meeting began with greetings and coffee in the restaurant before members moving singly out into the gardens to wander and write. As I walked out among the carefully shaped trees and bushes I was struck by the absolute stillness of the morning under a clear blue sky. A perfect Spring morning for our purpose. The stillness was broken though by the sudden appearance of about a dozen cheeping ducklings running down the path between our feet and plunging into a pond. A delightful and appropriate beginning to the day.
After half an hour of wandering around the gardens and being inspired by the beauty around us we retired to the meeting room for the business of the day. We began with congratulations to Marilyn who has joined the panel of selectors for the Echidna Tracks online publication as a co-editor for the next issue, 14. Marilyn outlined the procedures used for selection and publication in Echidna Tracks and encouraged us to submit our work. We then went around the group discussing the haiku written in the earlier stroll around the gardens as well as others brought to the meeting for discussion.
Beverley suggested that haiku brought for consideration could be presented on single written pages for circulation. The meeting concluded at midday with a convivial lunch for those who could stay and later stroll through the gallery which forms the other component of the gardens.
The next meeting will be at the start of December – and Summer!
Michael Thorley
Australian Haiku Society 