Category: Cloudcatchers

In spite of the location we made no attempt to skateboard, but wandered around the area where North Creek enters the Richmond River, just before the river empties into the sea.

The predicted ‘occasional showers’ were off again/on again but interfered little with the absorbing of images in this delightful venue by eleven of us. Birds and breaking waves featured, of course, with casuarinas, fishermen, a beach shanty built of storm debris, driftwood, a spider lily and a bobbing buoy.

The autumn ginko is scheduled for Thursday 9 May 2013 – to be confirmed.

Quendryth Young

Meldrum Park, Ballina
Date: Thursday 11 October 2012

Meldrum Park in Ballina is a new venue for the Cloudcatchers. It is on the shore of North Creek, and was chosen to coincide with low tide. Nine poets trod the sandflats spreading out before us as the water receded.

Thursday August 9th 2012

Ten of us gathered at Torakina Park, one of our favourite meeting places. Sadly Quendryth, who organises and has always introduced these events, was unable to be with us due to illness in her family. She was greatly missed.

We greeted old friends and newer members, chatting in the familiar environment before dispersing with our notebooks into the park.

Cloudcatcher:

I feel sure you will all join with me in saluting one of our founding members, Sharon Dean. Sharon has been informed that she is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal (Griffith University) for excellence in the Doctor of Philosophy, for ‘recognition of your exceptional performance in your research higher degree placing you as one of the highest achieving PhD graduates and the Arts, Education and Law’s top ranked candidate for 2011.’ The graduation ceremony will be in July/August.

The Widjabul people are one of the tribes of the Bundjalung nation. Widjabul country extends from the lower Richmond area around Coraki, to the headwaters of the Richmond catchment in the north, and eastward to the coastal escarpment.

At the entrance to the rainforest remnant at Victoria Park, just outside the village of Alstonville, is a notice claiming, “We belong this country. We look after this country. Don’t do wrong around here this country. We don’t harm this country here. We belong to it this country.”

It was with respect and awe that ten Cloudcatchers meandered in silence under the canopy of this ancient habitat on Thursday 10 May, with glorious autumn sunshine filtering through the diverse foliage. Among the reverence and serenity we found a vitality of life in the canopy and underfoot: abundant bird calls resounded from every side, shy pademelons (small wallabies) were glimpsed from time to time, and a few land mullets (large skinks) scurried under the boardwalk. And everywhere were the lianas, strangler figs, delicate spiderwebs, moss-covered rocks, lichen and fungi, delighting us. Images were captured, and crafted into first-draft haiku around a picnic table. After sharing these, we lunched together at the local ‘Amaze ‘N’ Place’. The sun continued to shine.

A winter ginko is planned for Thursday 9 August, at the mouth of the Brunswick River. Contact: quendrythyoung@bigpond.com.

Quendryth Young
Cloudcatchers Coordinator

Shaw’s Bay, Ballina, NSW
Thursday 9 February 2012

Never be afraid of a wet ginko. When poets gather to experience together the nuances of their environment, images are heightened by the extremes that the elements may present. The Cloudcatchers held their summer ginko at Shaw’s Bay, and at the Skate Park, Ballina, on Thursday 9 February. It rained all day.

Some walked along the beach, wet and laughing; some had umbrellas blow inside out; some had problems with ink on wet paper as they took notes. Some hunkered down in the shelter shed which they shared from time to time with a variety of silent disheveled birds, and small black ants also on a quest for a dry spot.

This is the summer weather of where we live, and we were in it. The smell of the rain, the sound of the rain, the way it joined the puddles, the wide open bay receiving it all. Images were captured in words, and woven into haiku around a large table at the Shaw’s Bay Hotel, where we stayed on for lunch together.

Any poet wishing to join our autumn ginko is welcome to contact Quendryth Young, at: quendrythyoung@bigpond.com

Quendryth Young
Cloudcatchers Coordinator

Huge congratulations to Dr Sharon Dean, who has had the degree of Doctor of Philosophy conferred upon her by the Griffith University QLD. Her thesis was entitled ‘White Heron: The Authorised Biography of Australian Pioneering Haiku Writer, Janice Bostok.’

Sharon was present at the time of the formation of Cloudcatchers, in December 2005, where she had conversation with Janice Bostok. You will recall that Janice, our Patron, died in September this year. Sharon has maintained a passionate interest in all Cloudcatchers, and their activities and successes, though her work situation has prevented her from attending ginko recently. She has been congratulated by the Dean of the Griffith Graduate Research School on her outstanding achievement and the significance of her work and its contribution to the field of research.

Sharon won the Haiku Dreaming Australia Competition in 2009. And it was a haiku of Sharon’s that was the only one chosen to illustrate the genre in the review of the ‘Third Australian Haiku Anthology’ which appeared in ‘Spectrum’ (Sydney Morning Herald) last Saturday. We are fortunate and privileged to number her as one of us.

Quendryth Young
Cloudcatchers Coordinator

Quiet contemplation allowed an immersion in the ambience of the abundant bird life, with its various rhythms of song, the soft peeling bark of the melaleucas, the gentle lapping of ripples on sandy banks, and a regular resident who was feeding the water dragons from his mechanised chair. Images were scribbled into notebooks during the meditative hour, which seemed to pass too quickly. Hastily constructed first-draft haiku were read around the picnic table, and now some of these, which have been reviewed and refined are being circulated among participants during a Round Robin workshop.

A summer ginko is planned for the first week after school returns in January 2012. If you would like more information, please get in touch with Quendryth Young at: quendrythyoung@bigpond.com.

Quendryth Young
Cloudcatchers Coordinator