Members’ News – May 2025

President’s Message

Learning of the passing of a fellow haiku poet always brings sadness, but often there are also happy memories of favourite poems they’ve penned, encouragement they’ve offered or their generous service to the haiku community. So it is for many who knew Cynthia Rowe, as attested by the recently posted tributes.

Submissions for Catchment 4 due by 21st May

A big thank you goes out to all AHS members who have already offered contributions to the fourth edition of Catchment – Poetry of Place!

With submissions set to close on 21st May 2025, other Australian poets are encouraged to send in new work which shows a sense of location.

Haiku @ The Oaks

On a sunny Canberra autumn Thursday 13th March, a smaller group of haiku poets than usual met for lunch and discussions under the trees at The Oaks Brasserie, Yarralumla. Around the table were Hazel Hall, Kathy Kituai, Greg Piko and Marietta McGregor. Glenys Ferguson and Jan Dobb were unable to attend and their enthusiastic participation was missed this time. Talk at first turned to poetry in general, with reminiscences about first moments of reading work to an audience, sometimes many years ago in individuals’ writing lives, and the feelings engendered on those occasions.

Portarlington Haiku Society celebrates International Haiku Poetry Day

Members of the Portarlington Haiku Society celebrated International Haiku Poetry Day by hanging their ‘serviette haiku’ along a wire fence leading into town from the pier, capturing the attention of those arriving from Melbourne on the daily ferry. The group met at a local cafe for lunch before securing their prepared material serviettes with staples along the fence line.
The PHS continue to run their own monthly kukai, the results published in a regular newsletter, ‘Wingspan’.

Cloudcatchers GINKO No. 76

Summer, February

Cloudcatchers Ginko No. 76 was held in Pop Denison Park, Ballina and as a Virtual Ginko. Norma Watts and Laurel Astle were at the park, while Angela Smith, Vivien Royston, Quendryth Young, and Robyn Braithwaite participated virtually.

WA Poets’ Summer Ginko Paperbark Haiku Gathering

On Wednesday, 19 February, eight poetically minded people met at the WA Museum, Boola Bardip, in Perth. Sitting between the original heritage building and the new glass addition of the museum, we enjoyed a morning of haiku.
Led by Coral Carter and Rose van Son, we began by considering the idea of the ‘pause’ as a moment to stop and observe and then make that observation concrete in words. It was a beautiful, not too hot, morning and after a bit of discussion and some readings, we separately went in search of haiku.
The eight were Rose van Son, Coral Carter, Pat Johnson, Rita Tognini, Madeleine Tingey, Neil Pattinson, Ruari Jack Hughes, and Gary De Piazzi.

Haiku @ The Oaks, Canberra

20th February 2025

Jan Dobb, Glenys Ferguson, Hazel Hall, Kathy Kituai, Marietta McGregor and Gregory Piko gathered @ The Oaks café for our first meeting of the year. There was lots of sunshine and good cheer as we caught up on recent happenings before launching into a range of haiku matters.

February 2025 Members’ News

From the President…

Welcome to our first news for 2025.
Have you entered the third John Bird Dreaming Award yet?
The executive committee met on 10th February. We reviewed activities over the last months of 2024 and discussed some initiatives for this year.