The Whole Body Singing is Quendryth Young’s first book of English-language haiku, containing more than one hundred haiku, six haiku sequences and one haibun. Since the publication of her first collection of free verse and traditional poems, Naked in Sepia (2004), Quendryth has devoted much of her life to the haiku way. She co-ordinates the haiku group cloudcatchers, edits the haiku section of the literary magazine, FreeXpresSion, and is a participant with John Bird and Nathalie Buckland in the Wollumbin Haiku Workshop. Continue reading “The Whole Body Singing: Review by Graham Nunn”
Category: Members
Members News – Janet Howie
Janet Howie had two haiku published in KO – haiku magazine in English: SPRING-SUMMER edition, and four haiku in the AUTUMN-WINTER edition 2007. She also had one haiku in Famous Reporter 35.
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.
New Portfolio from Ron Moss
Ron Moss, a former Secretary of Haiku Oz and Regional Rep for Tasmania, has a stunning new portfolio of haiga for viewing at http://www.haigaonline.com/issue8-2/contemporary.html
The haiku and paintings are inspired by his voluntary work as a fiery. Congratulations, Ron.
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
New Release: Stepping Stones by Janice M. Bostok
Most members of HaikuOz would know Janice Bostok for her work in haiku, tanka, and other Japanese forms. Her latest book release has been called ‘an extended haibun’ by its publisher. It is the story in verse and prose of her feelings and time spent raising a profoundly handicapped son.
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 Haiku Society 