News

Red Dragonflies Meeting: 18th June 2011

The winter meeting of the Red Dragonflies was held on 18th June at Barbara Fisher’s home in Mosman. Vanessa Proctor led members Dawn Bruce, Cynthia Rowe, Lesley Walter and gracious host, Barbara Fisher, in a productive afternoon.

Bill Tibben, a guest at the meeting, was a wonderful addition to the group. Beverley George sent her apologies.

Vanessa gave each member a delightful booklet of haiku selected from poems written by members and inspired by the Red Dragonflies’ summer ginko at Pearl Beach, December 2010. Many thanks, Vanessa!

Dawn brought up the subject of photo haiku and it was suggested that we might discuss the basics of haiga at the next meeting.

Cynthia Rowe
President, HaikuOz

3rd Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest

There was a strong Australian contribution to the contest this year as highlighted by Professor Oba in his report shown below. Hearty congratulations to Pamela Smith for winning the grand prize in the foreign country section and to Nathalie Buckland for her distinguished work prize. Their poems in English and Japanese can be seen at:

Continue reading “3rd Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest”

Cloudcatchers’ Ginko No.22 (winter)

A dozen Cloudcatchers wore their scarves and woolly hats to the winter ginko at Torakina Park, Brunswick Heads, on Thursday 30 June 2011. This is our favourite site, at the mouth of the Brunswick River, and although it was the tenth time we have held a ginko here, it was our first in winter.

The sky was overcast, and choppy white water rollicked across the treacherous bar. There was a quietness about the beach. The bittou bush, usually buzzing with life, was bee-less. The wattle buds still bulged green. And then the sun came out. The river was spangled once more, and the basalt breakwater sparkled with crystals. An occasional bather braved the chilly water, turning open-armed to the sun, and a single head swam across the bay. Birds in the littoral forest were as noisy as ever, as we read our first drafts in turn around the table. In contrast to the meditative silence of the ginko, this is always a time for involvement and laughter. And then came lunch. Any poet wishing to partake of these delights would be welcomed to join us at the Spring ginko in October.

Contact: quendrythyoung@bigpond.com.

Quendryth Young
Cloudcatchers Coordinator

Paper Wasp Jack Stamm Haiku Competition 2010

Congratulations to Dawn Bruce and Jo McInerney for winning joint first prize in the latest Paper Wasp Jack Stamm Haiku Competition.

Dawn’s winning haiku was:

moonrise
a flow of shadows
along the river

While Jo’s haiku was:

bare hills
the horizon looped
between post and wire

As Jacqui Murray says in her introduction to the Jack Stamm Anthology, ‘Both haiku have an elegant but non-obtrusive complexity that throws up one image whilst inviting more’.

Congratulations also to Jan Dobb for her lovely haiku that was awarded third prize:

spilling
from the sound of thunder
a rain drop

Greg Piko
Secretary
HaikuOz

The Heart of Haiku by Jane Hirshfield

Jane Hirshfield, translator with Mariko Aratani of the poety of Shikibu and Komachi in the ‘Ink Dark Moon’ has had a new e-book about Basho released by Amazon in the Kindle Singles series.

The new book is titled ‘The Heart of Haiku’ and is based on a lecture she gave several years ago. It is available from:

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Haiku-Kindle-Single-ebook/dp/B0057IYMF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A24IB90LPZJ0BS&s=books&qid=1309080107&sr=8-1

Beverley George