Category: Members

Australian poets featured in ‘re: Virals’ responses chosen by The Haiku Foundation

As noted in a previous item here on ‘HaikuOz’, the following one-liner by Australian haiku poet Lorin Ford has been posted for comment in the ‘re: Virals’ segment of The Haiku Foundation website:

their wings like cellophane remember cellophane

— Lorin Ford, ‘Roadrunner’ IX:2 (2009)

Lorin’s monostich had been selected by another Australian haiku poet, Jo McInerney, as a result of Jo’s own response to a preceding haiku having been chosen by The Haiku Foundation as the weekly winner in its ‘re: Virals’ feature.

From five responses to Lorin’s one-liner selected – in turn – for inclusion on The Haiku Foundation website, two of those newly posted comments have been written by Australian haiku poets: Jo McInerney herself once again, accompanied by Cynthia Rowe.

Responses by Jo and Cynthia to Lorin Ford’s haiku can be read below, with all five comments about her ‘cellophane’ one-liner able to be accessed through the following link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/01/15/revirals-18

Continue reading “Australian poets featured in ‘re: Virals’ responses chosen by The Haiku Foundation”

Jo McInerney a winner with THF’s ‘re: Virals’ haiku comment

Australian haiku poet Jo McInerney has just been honoured as the winner of the weekly ‘re: Virals’ segment on The Haiku Foundation website, which provides the opportunity for readers to respond to a particular haiku of note, as chosen by the previous winner.

Jo’s response to a haiku by English poet John McManus can be read below.

Looking ahead, however, it should be noted that Jo is not only the first Australian to have a piece of haiku commentary adjudged to be a winner of ‘re: Virals’ – with her choosing the following haiku by Lorin Ford for the next set of comments, it has also meant this is the first time that the work of an Australian haiku poet has been featured for comment:

their wings like cellophane remember cellophane

– Lorin Ford, ‘Road runner’, IX: 2 (2009)

The Haiku Foundation website strongly encourages readers to comment – guidelines are provided through this link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/01/08/revirals-17/

Continue reading “Jo McInerney a winner with THF’s ‘re: Virals’ haiku comment”

12th European Quarterly Kukai Winter 2015 Edition

The 12th European Quarterly Kukai Winter 2015 Edition attracted haiku from 186 poets from 38 countries, including 8 from Australia.

Australian entrants were: Samar Ghose and Tash Adams, both from Perth, WA; Jo McInerney, from Boolarra, VIC; Cynthia Rowe, from Sydney, NSW; Barbara A Taylor, from Mountain Top, NSW, Simon Hanson, from Allendale, SA; Lynette Arden, from Norwood, SA; and Marietta McGregor, from Canberra, ACT.

The theme was ‘night’ or ‘day’.

Gaining 16 points, Samar Ghose achieved eighth place with the following haiku:

how to just be day moon

Gaining 15 points, Marietta McGregor was another top-ten finisher, placing ninth with the following haiku:

overcast day
she saves a poem
to the cloud

Results of the contest can be seen this link:

http://europeankukai.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/results-of-european-quarterly-kukai-12.html

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival – 2015 Haiku Invitational

Australian poets who received Honorable Mentions in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival – 2015 Haiku Invitational include:

snow-heavy blossoms
their hands
share a pocket

Nathalie Buckland (Nimbin, NSW)

late afternoon . . .
touching the blossom
with the tip of her cane

Jo McInerney (Boolarra, VIC)

sharing the bench
the old busker
and cherry petals

Mark Miller (Shoalhaven Heads, NSW)

sharing an umbrella
with a stranger
cherry blossom rain

Vanessa Proctor (Sydney, NSW)

blossom moon
the pregnancy line
turning to pink

Cynthia Rowe (Sydney, NSW)

Australians poets included in ‘Haiku 2015’ – Modern Haiku Press

Modern Haiku Press in the United States has released ‘Haiku 2015’, edited by Lee Gurga and Scott Metz, a selection of ‘100 notable ku from 2014’. Australian haiku poets represented include:

islands of ice
the moon
without an oar

– Lorin Ford, ‘frogpond’ 37:2

nightclub
entrance strobe lit
rain

– Simon Hanson, ‘DailyHaiku’ March 17

new leaves
the old forest
finds its voice

– Rob Scott, ‘A Hundred Gourds’ 3:3

Continue reading “Australians poets included in ‘Haiku 2015’ – Modern Haiku Press”

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival – 2015 Haiku Invitational

Australian poets who received Honorable Mentions in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival – 2015 Haiku Invitational include:

snow-heavy blossoms
their hands
share a pocket

Nathalie Buckland (Nimbin, NSW)

late afternoon . . .
touching the blossom
with the tip of her cane

Jo McInerney (Boolarra, VIC)

sharing the bench
the old busker
and cherry petals

Mark Miller (Shoalhaven Heads, NSW)

sharing an umbrella
with a stranger
cherry blossom rain

Vanessa Proctor (Sydney, NSW)

blossom moon
the pregnancy line
turning to pink

Cynthia Rowe (Sydney, NSW)

8th Kokako Haiku and Senryu Competition

A full set of results for the 8th Kokako Haiku and Senryu Competition will be published – in New Zealand – in the next edition of “Kokako”, accompanied by comments from the judge Catherine Mair.

In the meantime, the following entry by Australian haiku poet Barbara A Taylor was included among the poems rated as Commended:

in wild Kakadu
tourists take selfies
with a crocodile

Report on HNA 2015 – Marietta McGregor

The Haiku North America (HNA) 2015 Conference was held from 14-18 October at Union College, a liberal arts college founded in 1795 with a classically-inspired campus near the foothills of the Adirondacks in upper New York State. Appropriately for the setting, this year’s conference, Autumn Term was themed around the teaching and learning of haiku. After a welcome by HNA’s principal organisers Michael Dylan Welch, John Stevenson and Hilary Tann (other hard-working committee members were Yu Chang and Tom Clausen), 130 poet delegates each recited one of their own haiku/senryu.

The two Australians, Jennifer Sutherland and Marietta McGregor, along with poets who travelled from Japan and India, received a special welcome, a round of applause in appreciation of their long journeys. Jim Kacian launched proceedings with Realism is Dead, posing the question that, if haiku was no longer rooted in the real world, what might then ground it? The keynote address by Dr Randy Brooks examined some of the issues with teaching haiku in the American education system.

Continue reading “Report on HNA 2015 – Marietta McGregor”