On a sunny Canberra autumn Thursday 13th March, a smaller group of haiku poets than usual met for lunch and discussions under the trees at The Oaks Brasserie, Yarralumla. Around the table were Hazel Hall, Kathy Kituai, Greg Piko and Marietta McGregor. Glenys Ferguson and Jan Dobb were unable to attend and their enthusiastic participation was missed this time. Talk at first turned to poetry in general, with reminiscences about first moments of reading work to an audience, sometimes many years ago in individuals’ writing lives, and the feelings engendered on those occasions.
After lunch, two pages of contemporary haiku were circulated for reading and comment. All poems were published in haiku journals during 2024 and varied greatly in style. Some poems exhibited a more ‘classical’ three-line form of phrase/fragment with juxtaposition. Several were monostitch, with some of those being quite minimalist. Yet others could be described as ‘concrete’ haiku. Our back-and-forth discussions on each were lively and opinionated. What was surprising was that very different personal points of view could be elicited from even the most minimalist of poems.
Considering features such as musicality, cultural relevance and imagery, we settled on favourite haiku which spoke to each of us. By this time, our server was hovering close by to clear away for the afternoon. A former teacher, he may have liked to join our spirited discussion! As always, we said goodbye with a renewed enthusiasm for the beautiful and ever-fresh haiku form.
Marietta McGregor
Australian Haiku Society 