Congratulations to Quendryth Young and Greg Piko (Australia) and to Sandra Simpson (New Zealand) for their award winning poems in the The Haiku Foundation’s inaugural Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems. Haiku by two Australian writers and one New Zealand writer, three poems out of a total of seven award winners, certainly shows that ‘The Antipodes’ is on the world haiku map. The full results and judges’ commentaries may be read here:
Lorin Ford
Congratulations to Beverley for taking out the 2010 Saigyo award.
Congratulations to Beverley George for her winning haiku ‘man of the forest’ in this year’s calico cat Haiku Competition. To read the results visit:
The Katikati Haiku Pathway in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty is an attractive embodiment of haiku, where the abstract becomes concrete. A total of 42 haiku are inscribed onto boulders along the Uretara Stream. Each poem has been carefully selected by a committee to reflect its surroundings, and to walk along the pathway is to literally take a trip into the world of poetry. The brainchild of Catherine Mair, the Pathway was one of New Zealand’s Millennium Projects and recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.
I was fortunate enough to attend the celebrations on New Zealand Queen’s Birthday long weekend, along with my family. There was an excellent turn out of poets and supporters, including the Japanese Consul to New Zealand and his wife, and we enjoyed viewing an impressive selection of bonsai as well as ikebana inspired by poems on the pathway. Sandra Simpson, Secretary of the Katikati Haiku Pathway Committee, announced the winners of the Katikati Haiku Competition. Particularly striking was the quality of the entries in the junior section. Two Japanese students demonstrated how to wear a yukata, the traditional summer dress of Japanese women, and there was a rousing Taiko drum performance by Wai Taiko.
Cloudcatchers has become a thriving group of haiku enthusiasts on the Far North Coast of New South Wales. The aim of each participant is to explore haiku in an individual way. For some this is reading; for most it involves writing haiku. A number of us send our writings to haiku publications and to competitions.
The results of the New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition (Haiku section) 2010 have just been announced. I am delighted to tell you that first and third prizes were won by Quendryth Young, with John Bird and Helen Davison receiving Commended awards; Helen for two of her haiku. Quendryth also won the ‘Jeanette Stace Memorial Prize’ for Senior Haiku 2010.
I thank Quendy, who has for several years organized our meetings, checked out suitable venues, coordinated post-ginko round robins and kept us all informed of competitions we might enter. I am so happy to see her achievements.
Nathalie Buckland
Hearty congratulations to Sharon Dean who has won the readers’ choice award for
dappled sunlight
an old dog shakes the river
from his coat
Sharon Dean
Senior Section (18 & over): Judge Sandra Simpson
Lynette Arden recently had her collection, A Pause in the Conversation published as part of Friendly Street New Poets #15.
Australian Haiku Society 