Author: Nick O'Connor

You could be forgiven for thinking it was spring at the Paperbark Haiku Winter Ginko morning, Perth City Farm, East Perth, July 15, 2026! 

Photograph and Report: Rose van Son

The sky so blue, and not a breath of wind.  In fact, some members commented that spring had arrived with the flowering of everlastings featured in street plantings.  The forecast temperature was 25 degrees! 

Eight excited haiku lovers – including two new attendees – enjoyed the Café’s coffee welcome and discussion of what constitutes haiku.   And so, it was a recap session for haiku guidelines. To get in the Haiku Mind, we read a variety of haiku from various Australian collections, discussed their meanings and associations, and the importance of immersion, mindfulness, and brevity for writing. The consensus was that readers of haiku bring their own associative responses to a haiku.  And writers, too, write from an association, often a memory, of what a scene, a sound, means to them, and where it may take them.    The group also discussed the use of simple language in haiku.  

There was so much to enjoy at Perth City Farm, a half-hectare garden site close to the city and transport. It was our second visit, having visited during the autumn ginko. It is a ‘working’ farm with herbs and vegetables, chickens, flowers—so much to stimulate the senses. Its website states it ‘enables connected, sustainable lives in harmony with nature.’  A perfect, relaxing venue for our winter ginko, and for visiting, walking and writing anytime! 

cloudy skies
           brilliant sunsets
gifts of winter

        Aileen Hawkes


vegetable patch 
sweet peas this side
of the train line
	
       Rose van Son 


‘children playing’ 
yet the concrete floor
is cold and bare

	Naomi Segal 


kids chase
pigeons win 

	Coral Carter 


benign winter day
tending vegetables 
for everyone 

	Madeleine Tingey 


mirrored
in the bus windows 
city farm visitors

	Daniel Dowsett 


seasonal swing
moist malleable soil
onion weed tug
 
          Neil Pattinson