Recently I was speaking to Jim Kacian of the USA a very fine poet and publisher of Red Moon Press. We first met several years ago when he spoke at our haiku group in Hobart and we have stayed in contact over the years. Earlier this year Watersmeet moved to a new venue and I asked Jim to be our virtual guest and he obliged us with a wonderful talk and inspiring haiku….
Ron Moss
An introduction to haiku
Rosny Library Meeting Room, Bligh Street, Rosny Park, Hobart – near Service Tasmania.
Haiku are tiny poems that were first written hundreds of years ago. People from all over the world are discovering the pleasure of these condensed capsules of poetic insight, so that Haiku-in-English has become the fastest-growing literary genre. Today’s haiku have their beginnings in ancient Japan, but today’s poets use haiku to express the uniqueness of everyday experience and the environment they live in. A haiku captures a moment in time and shares that experience with a reader. The skills developed by writing haiku can make all types of writing more vivid and immediate.
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.
The December issue of Famous Reporter is replete with wonderful haiku from some of Australia’s leading haiku poets. It contains 65 haiku over 11 pages, with a significant contribution from northern NSW haijin. In addition to this you will find John Bird’s prize-winning haiku sequence, ‘The Fence Rider, 1950 Australia’. This outstanding poem is in six parts, each part a sequence of seven haiku.
If you want to read haiku with a distinctive Australian flavour, Famous Reporter #34 is essential reading. $8 posted (within Australia) from Walleah Press, PO Box 368, North Hobart, TAS 7002 – or $15 for a subscription.
Submissions for issue #35 close end of April
Here are some quotes from Christopher Bantick’s review of Spinifex: haiku by Beverley George in The Sunday Tasmanian(18/2/07):
‘it celebrates the strength and diversity of haiku as a poetry form’
‘The poems rest on the page like perfectly cut templates of experience’
‘Apart from the poems that will make readers stop and regard the world perhaps a little more thoughtfully, the design of the book also deserves comment. Besides the convenient size that’s ideal for handbags and pockets, the poems are not cluttered on the page…Reeves has presented the poems with a filigree of grass on the pages. This adds to the delicate feel of the book. The result is an excellent gallery of words and shape.’
‘hard to imagine a better example of the form’
‘a book of quiet contemplation and stolen moments of peace winnowed from busyness’
The recent Tasmanian Living Writer’s week saw many activities throughout Tasmania and their popularity was very evident to all.
One of these was Haiku Graffiti an event which was the brain child of Irene Mc Guire of Fullers Bookshop in Hobart. Haiku poet’s Lyn Reeves, Ron Moss, Peter Macrow, and Jenny Barnard were invited to write haiku on the large glass windows outside the store and Irene joined in as well. A pre selected list of words was used and different colour pens which ensured a colourful event. People passing by enjoyed the experience and many were seen reading the haiku. Several other people joined in with a haiku of their own. The local Mercury Newspaper featured a photo and event information, the haiku will stay for about a week and it continues to attract interest.
A Report from Tasmania by Ron Moss
The Mountain Festival was a great success with many excellent events and enthusiastic participants. Ross Coward and Ron Moss once again ran the haiku gingko walks over successive Saturdays and many people enjoyed the silent walking with occasional haiku and beautiful flute playing by our friend, Satyamo. We shared green tea together at our destination ‘Lone Hut’, on the slopes of Mount Wellington.
Australian Haiku Society 