Category: Members

13th European Quarterly Kukai Spring 2016 Edition

211 entrants from 43 countries participated in 13th European Quarterly Kukai Spring 2016 Edition, on the theme “people”. No 13 saw the largest number of entrants in the global kukai.

Tash Adams from Perth, Australia won first place: this is the third time an Australian author has won (after Simon Hanson – 11th Kukai; and Beverley George – 8th Kukai) –

leaving him
one kilo
at a time

– Tash Adams – first place

mountain peak
the rising edge
of a muezzin’s call

– Jayashree Maniyil – sixth place

For a full report, please visit http://europeankukai.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/results-of-european-quarterly-kukai-13.html

Please consider participating in the next quarterly kukai, while also enjoying these remaining entries from Australia below:

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Marietta McGregor – winner: 5th Setouchi Matsuyama Photo Haiku Contest

Congratulations go to Australian haiku poet Marietta McGregor for winning the 5th Setouchi Matsuyama Photo Haiku Contest, with the following poem:

summer dusk
fishing boats set their nets
around the sun

– Marietta Jane McGregor
(Canberra, Australia)

As posted by David McMurray, this judge’s comment accompanied Marietta’s winning haiku:

“Poetically encompassing the circumference of the sun in a far-reaching wide-angle shot, this haiku won the 5th Setouchi Matsuyama Photo Haiku Contest sponsored by the Asahi Culture Center and The Asahi Shimbun. The Highest Award came with a 30,000 yen gift coupon and handicrafts from Matsuyama.”

Full details can be gained by accessing the Asahi Haikuist Special website, through the following link:

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201603210024.html

Continue reading “Marietta McGregor – winner: 5th Setouchi Matsuyama Photo Haiku Contest”

Message from Vanessa Proctor – new AHS President

I am honoured to take up the role of President of the Australian Haiku Society. Firstly, I’d like to pay tribute to those who had the foresight to found HaikuOz in 2000. The original mission to promote haiku within Australia and to bring Australian writers to the world haiku community has been so successful that Australian haiku is flourishing as never before. This is largely due to the many people who have worked tirelessly to promote Australian haiku, both in Australia and overseas. I look forward to a very bright future for HaikuOz and for English-language haiku itself.

Vanessa Proctor
President
Australian Haiku Society

Beverley George the latest Australian to be a Focus Poet in ‘Presence’

Recently Beverley George became the fourth Australian haiku poet to be honoured as a Focus Poet in the respected British haiku journal ‘Presence’ (issue #54, February, 2016).

Along with other poems of hers which have previously gained recognition elsewhere, the following new haiku by Beverley have just been featured in Focus Poet # 39 in ‘Presence’:

the haiku books
I thought I would read again
the ones I do

key in the lock our dog’s swift head count

Three other Australian haiku poets have likewise been honoured in the same way: Lorin Ford, Ron C Moss and Vanessa Proctor. Groups of both Australian and New Zealand haiku poets have also been featured in Focus pieces in ‘Presence’. (See below.)

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Portfolios for Australian Haiku Poets – ‘The Living Haiku Anthology’

While further poets are encouraged to offer selections of their work, the following Australian haiku writers already have portfolios of their haiku represented in ‘The Living Haiku Anthology’:

Dawn Bruce, Jan Dobb, Lorin Ford, Simon Hanson, Myron Lysenko, Jayashree Maniyil, Ron C,. Moss, Cynthia Rowe and Scott Terrill.

Links to these various portfolios can be found below:

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Australian haiku poets successful – Martin Lucas Haiku Award 2015

The 2015 Martin Lucas Haiku Award – conducted in the UK by ‘Haiku Presence’ – attracted 283 entries from 52 poets, with all three poems rated as Commended coming from Australian haiku poets:

newborn lamb
a first look towards
the stars

– Ron C Moss

full moon
she makes her butterpat
a perfect circle

– Marietta Jane McGregor

falling leaves
the open book
as you left it

– Barbara A. Taylor

Full results – with the judge’s comments – can be accessed through this link:

http://haikupresence.org/awards

Cynthia Rowe – Living Haiku Anthology

Australian writer Cynthia Rowe has offered her thoughts about defining what haiku is for her. Under the title ‘Concision’, it can be found on ‘The Living Haiku Anthology’ website, under ‘Poets on Haiku’, or it can be accessed directly through this link:

http://livinghaikuanthology.com/lha/defining-haiku/2920-concision-by-cynthia-rowe.html

A portfolio of Cynthia’s haiku has also been created: it can be accessed within ‘The Living Haiku Anthology’ website, through this second link:

http://livinghaikuanthology.com/poet-portfolios/324-r-poets/cynthia-rowe.html

Further haiku response from Jo McInerney – THF’s ‘re: Virals 21’

In the latest weekly posting of the ‘re:Virals’ segment on The Haiku Foundation’s website, Australian haiku poet Jo McInerney features once again, this time through her response to the following haiku:

dry wheat grass . . .
the whiteness of
a child dying

— Robert D. Wilson, ‘A Lousy Mirror’ (2011)

As well as being reproduced here in full, below, Jo’s response can be accessed at the following link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/02/05/revirals-21/

Continue reading “Further haiku response from Jo McInerney – THF’s ‘re: Virals 21’”