Category: Members

Members News – Jeff Harpeng

In 2007, Jeff Harpeng released a collection of haibun: Quarter Past Sometime, published by Post Pressed.

Re: the opening piece in Quarter Past Sometime, Jeffrey Woodward (Haibun Today), said, “Birdlings Flats” by Jeff Harpeng probably illustrates the expressionist method at its best. From the opening sentence, the reader discovers himself in the presence of a poet who is master of the rhythms of his language and of the possibilities of his material…

Jeff was a featured reader with Janice Bostok at the second Words and Water Dragons haiku outreach event of the 2007 Queensland Poetry Festival and read from Quarter Past Sometime as a Post Pressed reader at the Maleny Writers Festival.

Continue reading “Members News – Jeff Harpeng”

John Bird appointed to consider haiku definitions

Haiku Definitions- appointment

On behalf of the committee of the Australian Haiku Society I am pleased to announce the appointment of John Bird to act on behalf of the Australian Haiku Society to consider the following questions and make recommendations to the Society on:

1. What haiku-related terms, if any, should the Australian Haiku Society define for its members?
2. What wording should be used in any such definitions?
3. What supporting or clarifying notes are required?
4. How should the Australian Haiku Society definitions be adopted and promulgated?

Beverley M George
President, Australian Haiku Society

 

 

RESULTS FROM 2007 ANITA SADLER WEISS MEMORIAL HAIKU AWARDS

Sponsored by the Haiku Poets of Central Maryland

Judge: Billie Wilson, Juneau, Alaska
FIRST PLACE

summer dawn
the bones of the bonfire
charred black
~Kate Bosek-Sill, Rochester, NY

A new day is dawning, and the remains of this fire remind us that yesterday is gone forever—as fully consumed as the wood (the “bones”) of that bonfire. There is a nice edge of wondering why the fire was built. The use of “bones” is not only intriguing within the haiku, but within the context of etymology, since “bonfire” comes from the medieval “bone-fire.” This is an excellent poem to be read aloud. The inner play of the long “o” sound of “bones” with the short “o” in “bonfire—the near-rhyme of “dawn” and bonfire”—and the alliteration of “b” words in the second and third lines—add layers of pleasing sound.
SECOND PLACE

whaling station—
the weight of rust
on the snowline
~Ron Moss, Tasmania, Australia

An unusual topic. The freshness of the material is appealing, and the juxtaposition is compelling. Even in abandonment, the very existence of this station “weighs” heavily against human history. The damage done is powerfully captured in understatement: that feather-light rust is like blood against the snow.

Continue reading “RESULTS FROM 2007 ANITA SADLER WEISS MEMORIAL HAIKU AWARDS”

More Aussie Rain

And the congratulations keep coming… Haiku Oz would like to congratulate Peter Macrow for his recent success in the Rain Haiku competition.

Peter’s haiku:

waiting
for spring rain to stop
I clean the shower

has been selected to be published in a forthcoming anthology of the winning entries.

Australian Rain Rules

Haiku Oz would also like to announce the success of another Australian haiku poet, Ynes Sanz. Ynes is also one of the eight poets selected to have their haiku published on a haiku umbrella as part of the rain Haiku competition.

Her haiku:

under the thunderhead
throwing a last stick
to the dogs

Congratulations Ynes!

Rain Haiku Winner

Australian haiku poet, Lynette Arden, has recently had one of her haiku selected to appear on a haiku umbrella as part of the Rain Haiku competition. Lynette’s haiku is one of only eight selected from the one thousand haiku received.

Her selected haiku:

city lunch in rain
neon lights flick colours
across the menu

HaikuOz congratulates Lynette on this fine achievement.