Lynette Arden

Report on the Bindii Meeting May 5 2024

Julia Wakefield, Jake Dennis, Steve Wigg, Stella Damarjati, and Lynette Arden met on Sunday, May 5, at 7 p.m. using Google Meet. Maureen Sexton, Subha Goonaratne, Ewan Rourke, and Maeve Archibald apologised.

We workshopped some of our haiku and discussed possible topics for future meetings. We have decided to take a closer look at some of the techniques listed in Jane Reichhold’s book, Writing and Enjoying Haiku. The list can also be found on her website here: https://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm

A reminder that submissions close at the end of April for Issue 13 of Echidna Tracks Australian Haiku

Submissions for Issue 13 of Echidna Tracks are open until the end of April. Please send us your best haiku. This collection is important because we aim at our regional group of haiku writers and present haiku that reflect our identity. Although we publish haiku with our distinctive flora and fauna, it is not about Australian animals. It is about our experience of living in Australia and our experience of life from our point of view. Australia is a vibrant, cosmopolitan and multicultural nation, and we strive to reflect that.

Please make submissions via our website. Submissions

Report on the Bindii Meeting 15 April 2024

Julia Wakefield, Stella Damarjati, Lynette Arden, Maureen Sexton, Subha Goonaratne and Maeve Archibald met on Monday 15 April at 7pm using Google Meet. Apologies were received from Ewan Rourke, Jake Dennis, Steve Wigg and Kirsten Johnston. We asked people to send in the haiku that they would like to have read at the AHS meeting scheduled for World Haiku Day on April 17.

Report on Bindii Meeting 23 March 2024

Steve Wigg, Julia Wakefield, Stella Damarjati, Lynette Arden, Jake Dennis and Ewan Rourke joined the Google Meet meeting, and apologies were received from Subha Goonaratne, Maureen Sexton and Kirsten Johnston. Most people sent their haiku in advance, which made it easier for us to critique them.

We workshopped our haiku and then arranged to have our next meeting on Sunday April 14 at 3pm, before the AHS meeting that takes place on International Haiku Poetry Day on April 17.

Report on the Bindii Meeting 24 February 2024

We had a Google Meet meeting for the first time. Steve Wigg, Julia Wakefield, Stella Damarjati, Maeve Archibald, Subha Goonaratne, Maureen Sexton and Lynette Arden were joined by three new members: Kirsten Johnson, Jake Dennis and Ewan Rourke. Jake lives in WA as does Maureen, and Subha is based in Sydney, so Google Meet is a very handy way of bringing our group together. We all agreed it works just as well as Zoom.

Report on the Bindii Meeting 28 January 2024

Five members of the Bindii Group met up at 2pm for a Ginko at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens: Steve Wigg, Julia Wakefield, Stella Damarjati, Maeve Archibald and Lynette Arden. We managed to coordinate a Google Meet with Subha Goonaratne and Maureen Sexton using Julia’s iPad.

It was a perfect day for the occasion, even though the temperature was a little too warm for any strenuous walking. The café we arranged to meet at after an hour’s wandering proved too noisy, so we adjourned to a small summerhouse nearby.

Results of the AHS 2023 Summer Solstice Haiga Kukai: Non-Seasonal

I would like to congratulate all the winners and thank everyone who participated in the summer solstice kukai. I looked for some interesting and somewhat different images this year, hoping that the responses would also be of a similar nature, and I’m pleased to say the winner’s list reflects just that. The seasonal image was captured looking from the porthole of the Earnslaw, a 1912 Edwardian twin-screw steamer based at Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand – a stunning cruise if you ever get the chance to view one of the most beautiful places in the world.

1^st Place

childhood
the things locked
behind time’s door

Gavin Austin

I really enjoyed such a clear and well-stated emotional poem that resonated with the strong solid image of the door. The poet uses an interesting phrase, time’s door, suggesting that so much is locked away in secret places over the passing of time. Combined with the single word first line, childhood, this is very nicely conceived poem and an interesting connection to the image, creating an effective haiga.

Results of the AHS 2023 Summer Solstice Haiga Kukai: Seasonal

1^st Place

wind-snapped sky—
out by the heads
the seal colony barking

Sandra Simpson

From the very first reading, I was taken by the original opening line, wind-snapped, which is a perfect description of the sharpness and power of a blue sky. The poet places us in a nautical setting with the haiku, artfully creating a subtle double meaning with out by the heads, which is of course a land mass, and perhaps also the seals barking their heads off! Such fun and a worthy winner that works very well with the seed image and, rather than describing the image, gives us a strong shift to another place with beautiful descriptive language.