Julia Wakefield, Maureen Sexton, Ewan Rourke and Maeve Archibald met on Sunday September 28 at 4 pm, using Zoom. Apologies were received from Lynette Arden, Stella Damarjati and Radhika de Silva. The attendees brought some haiku for review and Radhika sent her haiku in spite of her absence.
Maeve reported that one of her poems (not haiku) had been featured in a Friendly Street publication. Ewan reported that one of his haiku had won a competition run by My Haiku Pond https://www.facebook.com/MyHaikuPond.
We had been asked to bring haiku with a coastal theme, with or without a reference to the algal bloom that has recently brought so much devastation to the marine life in the St Vincent and Spencer Gulfs. We reviewed everyone’s haiku, then proceeded to group them into two sequences. Everyone was happy to alter or even delete a line from their haiku in order to help the flow of the sequence. It was an enjoyable, if slightly humbling, experience to share our opinions about how a sequence could be improved. Some of the haiku that seemed a little obscure on their own acquired extra depth and meaning when they were added to the sequence.
We will hold the next meeting on April 11 or 12, depending on people’s availability. No topic has been suggested yet, but it would be good to attempt another sequence, especially for those who couldn’t attend this month. Maureen has suggested that we try to meet regularly on the second weekend of every second month.
Julia Wakefield
Australian Haiku Society 