The June 2020 Eucalypt: a tanka journal e-Newsletter is now online, announcing the Distinctive Scribble Awards for issue 28.
Please click on the link to open the PDF file.
Warm wishes,
Julie Thorndyke
Editor, Eucalypt : a tanka journal
News
Haiku @ The Oaks, Canberra
Tuesday 9 June 2020
With the easing of isolation, we decided to venture from our cocoons and meet each other again in the real world of The Oaks. Canberra’s winter meant a table by a heater in the large marquee instead of out under the trees. And how our hearts warmed too, as we enjoyed each other’s actual presence once again – Kathy Kituai, Greg Piko, Glenys Ferguson, Hazel Hall and Jan Dobb. Unfortunately, Marietta McGregor was out of town.
In order to support The Oaks during tough times, we ordered lunch instead of just coffee and a rather celebratory air prevailed as we chatted over hearty serves of fish and chips. Hand sanitiser distanced with the pepper and salt, but despite spaces between chairs and a lack of hugs, the old camaraderie was heeding no bounds.
Windfall: Australian Haiku Submissions
A reminder to Australian haiku poets that submissions to Windfall: Australian Haiku Issue 9 will be open throughout July 2020. Please send up to six haiku relevant to the experience of urban and rural life in Australia. Observations that celebrate landform, seasons, and our unique flora and fauna, are welcome.
alone again:
tea leaves pattern
my empty cup.
Joy Hutton
a bowl of roses
reflected on the marble
tea growing cold
Pauline Cummings
Prior Notification: AHS Winter Solstice Haiga Kukai 2020
The Australian Haiku Society will be holding a Haiga Kukai for the Winter Solstice occurring this year in Australia on the 21st June. Once again Ron Moss has generously provided two images (Seasonal and Non-seasonal) which will be displayed on the AHS website from the 21st to the 28th of June and poets will be invited to submit one previously unpublished haiku inspired by each image. Ron will then select the winning haiku which will be displayed on the AHS website.
Please note that if more than one haiku per image is submitted by any individual, only the first haiku sent will be considered.
Submissions will only be accepted if entered in the comments section, which can be found at the bottom of the post.
By entering the competition, entrants agree to make their haiku available for use on the AHS website, although copyright will remain with the author.
No correspondence will be entered into regarding winning entries.
Please make sure that your name appears on your entry as you would like to see it on the website.
Members’ News May 2020
AHS Winter Haiga Kukai
The Australian Haiku Society will be holding a Haiga Kukai for the Winter Solstice occurring this year in Australia on the 21st June. Once again Ron Moss has generously provided two images which will be displayed on the AHS website around the time of the solstice and poets will be invited to submit one previously unpublished haiku inspired by each image. Ron will then select the winning haiku which will be displayed on the AHS website. More details will be posted to this site soon.
Watersmeet Zoom 22 May
Like other haiku groups, Watersmeet members had to rely on the internet for our May gathering, and scheduled a Zoom meeting for Friday 22 May.
Lorraine Haig initiated the topic for discussion some weeks beforehand, sending us articles on the topic of yugen, and inviting us to research and contribute further findings on this elusive term. Email exchanges followed, sharing more thoughts on the subject and links to relevant articles. We prepared for our meeting by looking for haiku that we felt expressed the aesthetic of yugen. These could be haiku written by ourselves or by others. Those able to take part in our Zoom discussion were Lorraine Haig, Ron Moss, Ross Coward, Lyn Reeves and (briefly) Jane Williams.
Ron mentioned that yugen is something that he aims to express in his brush paintings, an element of many of his haiga, and that the following words describing the symbols for yugen, from an article by David Anderson, ‘Yugen – a spiritual feeling too deep for words’ held particular resonance for him. Continue reading “Watersmeet Zoom 22 May”
Bindii Report for Zoom meeting in May 2020
On Sunday May 23 we assembled for another Zoom meeting. Just four of us attended: Julia Wakefield, Steve Wigg, Stella Damarjati and Lynette Arden. We were all much more confident this time with the technology and the meeting was quite prolonged!
The topic was Haiku sequences and strings, and our theme was Winter. We began by defining the terms: a sequence usually has a theme and takes us on a journey, sometimes through time, sometimes through a landscape, and often it does both at once. A string, on the other hand, can be loosely bound by a theme. Continue reading “Bindii Report for Zoom meeting in May 2020”
Australian Haiku Society 