Author: Simon Hanson

Haiku @ The Oaks, Canberra

Tuesday 8 February 2022

Filtered sunshine and leafy shadows—a perfect summer day at The Oaks as we began another year of haiku together. How good to be back again—Hazel Hall, Gregory Piko, Marietta McGregor, Glenys Ferguson, and Jan Dobb. Again though, we missed Kathy Kituai and our fond thoughts were with her.

Hazel arrived with extra copies of our recently published anthology The Ink Sinks Deeper and Marietta took several of these to post off to potential reviewers. As Hazel responded to questions about the Picaro Poets imprint of Ginninderra Press, she encouraged our publishing of personal chapbooks. Meanwhile, we have been delighted with Greg’s review of the Oaks anthology on his website      

As another year gets under way, Jan checked on people’s views about our gatherings. Any suggestions? Changes? Preferences? The consensus was to continue as is, enjoying the spontaneity and stimulation of each other’s company and input, and of not being bound by homework or obligatory expectations. All except Marietta—who admitted that she rather likes a bit of homework. With that, she was encouraged to undertake her own and to bring us the results. So that’s exactly what she did—immediately!

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Haiku Down Under

G’day, kia ora and hello,

poetry from the edge

Being held via Zoom from October 7-9, 2022, this new initiative to connect writers from New Zealand, Australia and beyond will use workshops, prompted writing sessions and presentations to celebrate our seasons, people, landscapes and seascapes, vernacular language, and flora and fauna.

Organisers: Leanne Mumford and Carole Harrison (Australia); Sandra Simpson, Sue Courtney and Sherry Grant (New Zealand).

We are pleased to announce that we are ready to receive proposals for presentations and workshops at Haiku Down Under, taking place online from October 7-9, 2022. All the information you require (we hope) is on the Proposals page on our website.

While we are keen to have proposals from people living in New Zealand and Australia, or from Kiwis and Australians living outside their countries of birth, we would also be delighted to receive proposals from people living in other parts of the world. We want to deliver the best ‘learning-gathering’ we can.
And although haiku is our main focus, we are open to proposals focusing on senryu, linked verse, haibun, haiga, tanka, tanka prose, etc.

The deadline for making a proposal is 5pm (your time) on March 31.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.
Leanne Mumford
on behalf of the Haiku Down Under team

Portarlington Haiku Society

Exciting news! A new regional haiku group has started up in Victoria by Jenny Macaulay. You can read her profile by scrolling down the Haiku Group Leaders page on the AHS website here. The group began among friends in October 2021, with eight members currently and room for others who may like to join along the way. The group are running their own kukai and producing a newsletter – Wingspan.

We look forward to hearing more of their progress and to sharing the journey.

Windfall: Australian Haiku, Issue 10, 2022 – Review

The 10th and final issue of the much-loved journal, Windfall: Australian Haiku, was released in January 2022.

Windfall is an annual journal edited by Beverley George and published by Peter Macrow at Blue Giraffe Press. The cover artwork is by Ron C. Moss, with design and layout by Matthew C. George.

Originating in Japan, the popularity of this short poetic genre has spread widely around the globe. Australian interest in haiku dates as far back as 1899 when an Australian haiku competition was conducted(1). Subsequently, in the 1970s, Janice Bostok produced Australia’s first haiku magazine, Tweed(2).

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Members’ News, December 2021

Dear AHS members,

I would like to take this opportunity, once again, to wish you all a happy, prosperous, and most of all, safe 2022. Filled with haiku, of course.

Nothing could have prepared us for the challenges of the past two years, as poets and humans. Covid has not only rearranged our lives, it has shone a light on our values.  Writing haiku is a peaceful and creative pursuit – a process of discovery fundamentally driven by ingenuity and further enriched by opportunities to share and learn.  In that sense, our values have not changed. In fact, in 2021, we have excelled in our endeavours. As a community, we should be proud of the riches that our collective, creative spirits have produced.

I would like to pay a special tribute to all the local haiku groups around the country that continued to meet and share haiku whenever and however they could assemble. I have enjoyed reading your group reports throughout the year immensely.

A huge thank you to all those poets who participated in the various activities and competitions run by the AHS this year. (There will be more to come next year. Stay tuned!)  Of course, this year, we announced the inaugural winner of the John Bird Dreaming Award for Haiku – a competition that attracted 890 poems from 41 countries. Our regular haiku strings and kukais also attracted hundreds of writers from far and wide.

I would also like to thank all those haiku poets who took the trouble to contact me throughout the year for advice, encouragement, or just to share some thoughts. I am very grateful for this and look forward to more correspondence next year.

There are some exciting things to come next year for the AHS and I look forward to sharing them with you all.

See you in 2022.
Happy New Year!
Rob Scott

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