Lynette Arden

Spring Equinox 2025 – Haiku Musings Event Preliminary Notice

To mark the Southern Hemisphere Spring Equinox in 2025, we will be offering a new interactive opportunity – a chance to contribute a Haiku Musing and to respond to other poets’ musings. The prompt question for you to muse on is:

What do you find most helpful when writing haiku?

Writing a haiku can involve many considerations, such as where you find inspiration, the kinds of experiences you like to write about, your aims and approach, haiku craft and techniques you employ, and how you go about editing your compositions. You will be invited to share your thoughts on aspects important to your haiku compositional process.

Please keep your Musing succinct, to no more than 250 words.

During the event you will also be invited to respond to other poets’ musings with succinct comments.

This Haiku Musing event will open on Saturday 20th September 2025, Australian time, and close on Sunday 28th September.

Why not start thinking now about what you might like to share with fellow poets? If you’d like to read some more substantial invited musings from our archives, please visit the dedicated category Haiku Musings. We look forward to contributions from haiku poets worldwide.

Results of the AHS 2025 Winter Solstice Haiga Kukai

On behalf of the Australian Haiku Society, I would like to thank you for your entries from Australia and other countries.

Many of the entries described the image. As Ron Moss (well-known poet and haiga judge) has stated …

“Ideally, a ‘link and shift’ will occur between the written word and the image: the two separate elements brought together to make something that resonates on a level higher than when they were separate. It’s a challenge to bring two disciplines together to make all the elements sing and best portray the haiku moment, but I strive to capture that ideal.”

The awarded images achieved this with exceptional skill and a profound understanding of haiga.

Continue reading “Results of the AHS 2025 Winter Solstice Haiga Kukai”

Report on the Bindii Zoom meeting July 2025

Julia Wakefield, Subha Goonaratne, Radhika DeSilva, Udara Thambapanni, Stella Damarjati, and Lynette Arden met on Saturday, July 12 at 3.30pm, using Zoom. Apologies were received from Maeve Archibald, Ewan Rourke and Maureen Sexton. The attendees all brought some haiku on the two themes of winter and water, as arranged previously.

Haiku Northwest’s 22nd annual Porad Award

Haiku Northwest’s 22nd annual Porad Award opens for haiku submissions on July 14.

The contest is named for Francine Porad, founder of Haiku Northwest, former president of the Haiku Society of America, and editor of Brussels Sprout. The annual award is open to all, members and non-member alike.

Introduction to Ginko for Writing Haiku – Sydney, 6th August 2025

Red Room Poetry designates August as Poetry Month. On 6th August join the President of the Australian Haiku Society and Gadigal Ginko Convenor, Leanne Mumford, for an introduction to haiku writing by undertaking a ginko – a walk for composing haiku. This workshop event in Sydney is designed for novice haiku poets. It will include some pre-work to help prepare for the ginko and ensuing discussion. In joining this event, you’ll discover that there’s more to contemporary English language haiku than counting syllables.

AHS Winter Solstice Haiga Kukai 2025

A note to poets entering this competition. Please include your name below your haiku. An email address will not be counted as a name. If you make a mistake when entering, please enter your work again, including a note.

Welcome, haiku poets worldwide, to the Australian Haiku Society Winter Solstice Haiga Kukai 2025. The competition starts today, 21 June, in Australia. It will be open for eight days, including today, to allow haiku poets in Australia and abroad to contribute their haiku. The competition will close at 1 am on 29 June ACST (Australian Central Standard Time). To avoid missing out, please ensure you have entered your haiku in good time, as the competition cannot be reopened once it closes automatically. Please read the guidelines carefully.

Prior Announcement: AHS Winter Solstice Kukai 2025

The Australian Haiku Society will hold a Haiga Kukai on 21 June 2025 to mark the Winter Solstice. Poets from Australia and internationally are invited to participate.

Wanda Amos has generously provided a photographic image, which will be displayed on the AHS website starting on 21 June. The competition will be open for eight days, allowing haiku poets in Australia and abroad to contribute their haiku. The competition will close at 1 am on 29 June ACST (Australian Central Standard Time).

Please enter your haiku well before the opportunity finishes to avoid missing out. Once the comments are automatically closed, they cannot be reopened for late entries.

For this competition, poets will be invited to submit one previously unpublished haiku inspired by the image. Wanda will then select the winning haiku, which will be displayed on the AHS website.

Report on the Bindii Meeting, June 1 2025

Julia Wakefield, Subha Goonaratne, Radhika DeSilva, and Lynette Arden met on Sunday, June 1, at 3:00 p.m. via Zoom. Apologies were received from Maeve Archibald, Ewan Rourke, Udara Thambapanni, Stella Damarjati and Maureen Sexton, who sent us some haiku to use in the session. The rest of us had all brought some haiku on the two themes of technology and birds, as arranged at the previous meeting.