Australian Haiku Society

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Members’ News June 2026

Welcome to the third issue of Australian Haiku Society Members’ News for 2026. In this edition Leanne reflects on dogs and other animals as subjects of haiku, there are links to a review of The Routledge Global Haiku Reader and to the latest Fringe Myrtles Report in which Rob Scott discusses Grant Caldwell’s presentation of fueki ryūko.

New Secretary & other Committee news

The Committee is pleased to welcome Nick O’Connor as the new Secretary. As well as being a thoughtful poet, Nick brings a wealth of administrative experience to the role.

The AHS Executive Committee met last on 11th May. Among the matters discussed were upcoming events we are planning – a photo haiga contest to mark the Winter Solstice, a second Haiku Reading Event following the Queensland one on 22nd April, and preliminary plans for the fourth iteration of the John Bird Dreaming Award contest, which will open towards the end of the year.

President’s Message

After our previous dog died during the COVID years, my partner and I were not ready for another dog until now. We recently adopted two small rescue dogs, who are bringing chaos and joy to our household. Their arrival prompted me to think about animals in haiku. Domesticated animals are part of our lives, so it’s no wonder they make their way into our haiku.

spring sunshine . . .
how our old dog
would have basked
Leanne Mumford, AHS Haiku String: Spring Equinox 2023

record highs
kelpies caper
in a bore trough
Marietta McGregor, AHS Haiku String: Summer Solstice 2024

ginger cat
curled on my lap
evening falls
Alison Rogers, AHS Haiku String: Winter Solstice 2024

alone on the trail
my attention
horse centred
Myra King, AHS Haiku String: Autumn Equinox 2020

Among the Japanese masters, Issa is known for his compassion for insects. Small creatures that are often overlooked are also to be found in English Language Haiku. During the pandemic lockdowns, when I was working from home, I was fortunate to be able to take breaks outside in my garden. In those days, companionship with any other living thing seemed precious.

skinks and I
warming our backs
shortest day
Leanne Mumford, Modern Haiku 51.3, 2020

loneliness—
becoming a blood brother
with a mosquito
Mirela Brailean, AHS Haiku String International Poetry Day 2020

Of course, nature is a major preoccupation for haiku poets, and there are many poems about wild animals, with birds being perhaps the most frequently mentioned. Although I live in an inner city neighbourhood, at various times of the year grey-headed flying foxes visit my backyard to feed on native flowers.

bat chatter
in the firewheel tree
starry night
Leanne Mumford, A Hundred Gourds 2:4, 2013

a tiger snake
in the tomato patch . . .
dark thunder
Ron C. Moss, AHS Haiku String: Summer Solstice 2018

still water
a jellyfish
kisses the surface
Margaret Mahony, AHS Haiku String: Summer Solstice 2017

three eggs
in a mud nest
peewee duet
Louise Hopewell, AHS Haiku String: Spring Equinox 2020

Previous haiku strings have been compiled into PDF books, which are available to download and browse at any time.

Leanne Mumford

The Routledge Global Haiku Reader

The Routledge Global Haiku Reader, edited by James Shea and Grant Caldwell received an extensive review by Michael Farrell in the Sydney Review of Books.More information about the book, published in 2023, including the table of contents, can be found on the Routledge website.

Fueki ryūkō: the unchanging and ever-changing

Grant Caldwell gave a presentation on fueki ryūkō, ‘the unchanging and the ever-changing’, at the Fringe Myrtles Haiku Group in May that might be of wider interest.

Basho-an: a haiku journey

Duncan Richardson’s new collection of haiku/senryu is out and available as a paperback at Lulu.

Conclusion of Illawong Haiku Group

The Illawong Haiku Group began as an aspiration 9 years ago to establish a haiku group in the southern area of Sydney. I have been Group Convenor since the beginning until now. We had an open door policy and some people came and went while others stayed. I am grateful to those who stayed. Since our last meeting I expressed my wish to relinquish my position due to changing circumstances. Following further consultation with members it was decided to disband and continue to enjoy our mutual love of haiku in a different way.

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku featured author for June: Simon Hanson

The Mann Library of Cornell University in the US is featuring one of Simon’s haiku on their Daily Haiku website each day for the month of June.

Paperbark Haiku Group Report – Autumn 2026

The Paperbark Autumn ginko was held on Wednesday 13^th May at the Perth City Farm, a half hectare site devoted to providing information and education to the people of Perth about the protection and regeneration of the natural environment.

Established on a former industrial site in East Perth, this once polluted site has been rehabilitated by volunteers, and is now a welcoming oasis in the busy city.

Upcoming Gadigal Ginkō for Sydney poets: Saturday 20th June

The next Gadigal Ginkō will take place on Saturday 20th June, 2026 from 10am. For this winter gathering we will meet at the State Library, which will provide options for both indoor and outdoor ginkō. To join with other Sydney haiku poets for this event, please register via the form on my Gadigal Ginko page. There you’ll find an outline of what’s involved in the ginkō, as well as links to reports of previous ginkō.

Leanne Mumford
Convenor, Gadigal Ginko

Report on the Fringe Myrtles Meeting May, 2026

For our latest meeting, we were treated to a presentation by Grant Caldwell on the principle of fueki ryūkō in the writing of haiku. It was an illuminating presentation that provoked much thought and discussion among the gathered members. Prior to the meeting, Grant circulated some reading material to help prepare the group. Present at the meeting were: Grant Caldwell, Rodney Williams, Anna Fern, Maurice McNamara, Laura DeBernardi, Helen Williams, Liv Saint-James, Bee Tenni, Di Cousens, Thomas Landgraf, Louise Hopewell, Marisa Fazio, Rob Scott.

Grant sees fueki ryūkō — “the unchanging and the ever-changing” — as a central principle of haiku, but not one limited to Japanese culture. While he acknowledges that the term itself is specific to Japanese poetics, and in particular, Bashō’s understanding of haiku, he argues that the underlying idea is universal and can be found across world literature and philosophy. He provided numerous examples of this throughout the meeting.

For Grant, fueki refers to enduring or universal truths, while ryūkō refers to the shifting, immediate particulars of lived experience. In haiku, the poet captures a fleeting moment in such a way that it gestures toward something timeless. Numerous times during the presentation, Caldwell linked this notion to the broader poetic idea that “the universal is contained in the particular,” citing James Joyce, Heraclitus, and Daoist philosophy as parallels to Bashō’s concept.

Grant was at pains to suggest that non-Japanese poets do not need deep knowledge of Japanese language or culture in order to write effective haiku, because the essential spirit of haiku is grounded in universal human observation of nature, time, place, and experience. What matters is an awareness of the underlying poetics — attentiveness, simplicity, and the ability to reveal the universal through ordinary moments. Drawing from Bashō again, he emphasised the importance of ‘plain speaking’ in composing haiku, which helps us to produce work that preserves, as Robert Hass puts it, the “irreducible mysteriousness of the images themselves.”

Ultimately, Caldwell sees fueki ryūkō as a living balance between tradition and renewal. Haiku poets outside Japan should learn from the Japanese masters, but not imitate them mechanically. With a final nod to Bashō, he argues that poets should “seek what the old poets sought” — the revelation of enduring truth within the fleeting moment of everyday life.

Inspired by the presentation and subsequent discussion, which was engrossed as it was varied, Di Cousens penned the following haiku:

Koroit Country –
the stone axe holds its time
below the lava flow

Photo courtesy of Di Cousens.

Submissions for Edition 6 of ‘Catchment – Poetry of Place’ close on 21 May!

Australian poets working in Japanese verse forms are encouraged to offer up to five (5) stand-alone tanka or a string which is four (4) pieces in length.
Up to three (3) free-verse poems would also be welcome, no longer than 30 lines.

Haiku Society of America contests opening 1 June 2026

The submission window for the Haiku Society of America haiku, senryu, and haibun contests will be June 1-30, 2026. The contest is open to the public. First Prize is $200; Second Prize, $150; Third Prize, $100. The winning poems will be published in Frogpond and on the HSA website. All rights revert to authors on publication. More information at https://www.hsa-haiku.org/hsa-contests.htm

Submitted by Sarah Paris, HSA 2nd Vice President