Category: Tanka in Australia

Twentieth Bowerbird Tanka Group Meeting

The twentieth Bowerbird Tanka group meeting was celebrated on 30th March 2019, in the Crommelin Arboretum at Pearl Beach. Again it was heart-warming to note how far poets will travel to explore and share the poetic genre of tanka. Delegates came from Canberra (3), Bathurst, Tamworth, Newcastle and various parts of Sydney and each contributed so much to the day.

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19th Bowerbird Tanka Workshop at Arboretum

The venue for the 19th Bowerbird Tanka workshop was not this time ‘Wirraminna’ but  the newly upgraded gardeners’ cottage in the Crommelin Native Arboretum, in Pearl Beach. The venue proved very satisfactory and inspiring for the 13 delegates, with wide double doors of the cottage opening to a grassy slope. The two main workshops on music (Hazel Hall) and tanka as medication (Carmel Summers) were well-received. You can read about them in the report by Kent Robinson on the Eucalypt web-site under the heading Bowerbird along with  tanka appraisals by Beatrice Yell and Yvonne Hales and a fitting celebration of the landscape around us by Michael Thorley which alluded to the many tanka about trees published in the first issue of “Eucalypt: a tanka journal”.

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Limestone Tanka Poets

Blackburn Homestead Retreat 22nd – 24th June 2018

Apart from the chilly weather, the Limestone Tanka Poets Blackburn Homestead retreat (Yass) could not have gone any better; workshops were crammed with information and food bounteous and delicious. The first session on Saturday 23rd, Let’s Get Started (Kathy Kituai), focused on the inspirational power of mandala’s. When relaxing the mind into creative mode, nothing could be better or more fun. Continue reading “Limestone Tanka Poets”

Launch of Only in Silence and Eucalypt 24

On Saturday, 12th May 2018, a large number of poets and other interested people retreated from the congestion of Saturday morning traffic to the quiet upstairs room at the Beecroft Children’s Bookshop.  They were gathered to celebrate the launch of Beverley George’s latest book Only in Silence and also the #24 edition of Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal, editor Julie Thorndyke. Continue reading “Launch of Only in Silence and Eucalypt 24”

A Temple Bell Sounds – Review

A review by Maxianne Berger of the Australian publication “A Temple Bell Sounds: 108 tanka from the first twenty-one issues of Eucalypt: a tanka journal selected by the journal’s founding editor Beverley George” has been published in Gusts: Contemporary Tanka #27 spring/summer 2018 p.31.” With the permission of Gusts editor, Kozue Uzawa, [Canada] and the reviewer, you can read a copy on the Eucalypt web-site here.

Limestone Tanka Poets

Sunday April 22, 2018

Although our Blackburn Homestead retreat was cancelled for last weekend, 20th – 22nd April, due to the lack of rain, seven Limestone Tanka Poets (Carmel Summers, Gerry Jacobson, Glenys Ferguson, Liz Lanigan, Michelle Brock, Michael Thorley, and myself) met regardless. We are thankful to Michelle Brock for hosting this meeting at her home at the last minute and for the kilometers Glenys (from Yass) and Michael (from Tamworth) travelled to attend this meeting. Continue reading “Limestone Tanka Poets”