Category: Members

Vale Lesley Walter

Lesley Walter, valued member of the Red Dragonflies, sadly passed away on 21st May. Lesley came from a background of mainstream poetry where she was a very well-respected poet.  With this grounding, she brought a fresh and innovative spirit to haiku.  She had a wonderful sense of humour and was  rigorous both in her questioning of haiku ‘rules’  and in her comments on others’ work.  The group greatly appreciated her frankness.  We will miss her poetry, her insight and her friendship.

Vanessa Proctor

blue-sky day
the way that little girl skipped
when her mum said yes

Lesley Walter

 

Australians featured in THF’s “re: Virals 34”

Congratulations to Simon Hanson for being named as the latest weekly winner in the “re: Virals” segment on The Haiku Foundation website.

Yet commentaries by two other Australian-based writers – Janet Marsh and Cynthia Rowe – were also posted in response to the haiku given below, along with a further comment from Canadian Garry Eaton.
Written by Rodney Williams, this poem was selected by fellow Victorian Jo McInerney, after she had been named the previous winner in “re: Virals 33”:

glimpse of dolphin
beyond the river mouth …
friends a youth ago
– Rodney Williams
As the latest winner of “re: Virals”, Simon Hanson has selected a bi-lingual haiku from Ireland for comment by THF readers, with responses encouraged through The Haiku Foundation website:
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/05/05/revirals-34/ 
Continue reading “Australians featured in THF’s “re: Virals 34””

Simon Hanson wins Shiki Monthly Kukai – April 2016

Congratulations to Australian haiku poet Simon Hanson for gaining First Place in the Shiki Monthly Kukai for April 2016, with the following one-liner:

both sides of the border autumn moon

  • Simon Hanson

Polling twenty-eight points – two more than the second-place winner – Simon was a clear winner in the Kigo section (where the set theme was migration), in a competition which attracted entries from over a hundred poets, across a range of countries and continents.

One voter’s comment about Simon’s winning haiku read as follows: “Definitely topical in 2016, but also universal in its implications. And certainly about migration, all the more powerfully for its stillness. A very strong haiku.”

Continue reading “Simon Hanson wins Shiki Monthly Kukai – April 2016”

Australian haiku poets in THF’s “re: Virals”

As the latest weekly winner for the “re: Virals” feature on The Haiku Foundation website, Australian haiku poet Jo McInerney has selected a poem by another Australian for comment in next week’s segment:

glimpse of dolphin
beyond the river mouth …
friends a youth ago

— Rodney Williams
Stylus Poetry Journal 28 (2008)

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/04/29/revirals-33/

Readers are encouraged to respond. Continue reading “Australian haiku poets in THF’s “re: Virals””

Further success for Marietta McGregor

Along with four of her poems being recently chosen among the best haiku in “The Mainichi” in Japan for 2015, Australian haiku poet Marietta McGregor has also gained two top-ten placings in the Fourth Annual Haiku Contest run by an American literary magazine called “The Lincoln Underground” – this competition requires that entries comply with a 5-7-5 format:

racing the ebb tide
children dash to write their names
in water color

– Second place

tumbled steambed rocks
playing deep arpeggios…
rivers in spring thaw

– Tenth place

Details can be viewed at this website:

http://www.thelincolnunderground.com/Haiku-Contest.html

Success for Marietta McGregor

Congratulations to Australian haiku poet Marietta McGregor for her recent success in having four poems chosen among the best haiku included in “The Mainichi” in Japan during 2015:

lighthouse
the black around us
sliced

– July 1

a flash of white wings
in the corner of my eye
gone in one blink

– August 13

our measure
of summer days
inchworm

– September 10

aircraft landing
a sparrow hops
aside

– December 16

Full details can be accessed through the following link:

http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20160419/p2a/00m/0na/023000d

 

Results – Wild Plum Haiku Contest 2016

Congratulations to Australian haiku poet Jan Dobb for gaining second place in the 2016 Wild Plum Haiku Contest:

drifts of leaves
we listen to the colours
of grandma’s tales

– Jan Dobb

Another Australian haiku poet – Jayashree Maniyil – gained the First Honourable Mention in the same competition:

crackle of twigs
everywhere the smoke
gathering the sky

– Jayashree Maniyil

Full results – with comments from the judge an’ya – can be viewed through this link:

https://wildplumhaiku.wordpress.com/haiku-contest/

Simon Hanson short-listed in Touchstone Awards 2015

Simon Hanson is to be congratulated for having one of his poems short-listed in The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems, as recently posted on The Haiku Foundation website, viewable at this link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/touchstone-awards-for-2015-3/

desert stones
slowly their shadows
change sides

— Simon Hanson, Wild Plum — a haiku journal 1:2

Another leading Australian haiku poet – Ron C. Moss – was one of the panelists for these awards, after his book “The Bone Carver” had received a Touchstone Award last year (just as it received an Honourable Mention in the Mildred Kanterman Book Award, as a Merit Book Award for 2015 – for books published in 2014 – through the Haiku Society of America).