Category: Tributes

Vale John Bird

23.12.1932 … 22.5.2022

John Bird, Founder AHS

At the Australian Haiku Society we are greatly saddened to hear of the passing of John Bird who, in November 2000, co-founded our society with Janice Bostok. John was much loved and admired as a poet, mentor and friend. His generous encouragement of the writing of Australian haiku continues to this day. The following eulogy by Quendryth Young and tributes from other Cloudcatchers, a group that John began, attest to this. His influence goes far beyond this haiku friendship group that was so close to his heart. Many of us have been touched by John’s impact on our own haiku journeys.

This page will remain open for two weeks for your personal comments and tributes for a man who passionately but humbly steered the development of a uniquely Australian voice celebrating the culture and environment of our place in the world of haiku.

Lyn Reeves

Continue reading “Vale John Bird”

Tributes: Dr Jacqui Murray

Dr Jacqui Murray: Patron of the Australian Haiku Society, spent many years running the JAL Children’s Haiku Contests in Australia, thus forging a generation of enthusiastic and talented haiku poets.
Alongside her many achievements in the promotion of haiku in this country and overseas she also co-edited The Third Australian Haiku Anthology (paperwasp:2011) and the anthology still heading out: an anthology of Australian and New Zealand haiku, two remarkable collections amongst others that she was instrumental in producing.

Continue reading “Tributes: Dr Jacqui Murray”

Members’ News, August 2021

Tribute to Katherine Samuelowicz

Australian and international haiku poets were saddened this week to hear of the passing of Brisbane poet, Katherine Samuelowicz. Katherine, a talented and free-thinking poet whose haiku, tanka and other poetry was published widely, leaves a huge legacy for Australian haiku, particularly in her role as editor of one of Australian haiku’s most well-known and long running journals, paper wasp (1994-2016).  

Katherine’s association with paper wasp began in the early 90’s as a founding member of the paper wasp group which she led for a number of years. From the very first issue of the journal in 1994-95 – a collection of erotic haiku – a feature of Katherine’s editorship was a willingness to engage fresh voices. Many of us are beneficiaries of this attitude, with paper wasp unearthing a generation of Australian as well as international haiku poets.

Katherine was a great supporter of the Australian Haiku Society, serving in its early years as Secretary in 2003-2004. She was a co-editor, along with Janice Bostok and Vanessa Proctor, of the Second Australian Haiku Anthology (2006) and the Third Australian Haiku Anthology (2011) along with Jacqui Murray. In 2013, she also co-edited an anthology of Australian and New Zealand haiku.

Katherine was widely regarded as a generous and compassionate person who enjoyed the company of fellow poets. Her role as a full-time delegate to the 4th Haiku Pacific Rim Conference in 2009 was just one example of this.

Katherine is a significant voice in Australian haiku which deserves to be recognised. Some of Katherine’s publishing details can be found here. The Committee of the Australian Haiku Society wishes to acknowledge her contribution to Australian haiku and express our sincere condolences to Katherine’s family and loved ones.

another glass of wine
twilight carrying
the world away

……..Katherine Samuelowicz

Continue reading “Members’ News, August 2021”

Vale Stuart Quine, 1962-2020

Sad news has been received that Stuart Quine, the English haiku poet, died on March 24 from the Covid-19 virus. A former associate editor of Presence haiku journal (he rejoined for a time after the unexpected death of his friend Martin Lucas), Stuart had one of his poems added to the Katikati Haiku Pathway collection last year and kindly agreed to having the one-liner engraved as three lines to fit the boulder. Stuart and Martin attended the 2009 Haiku Pacific Rim conference in Terrigal, NSW, Australia. Continue reading “Vale Stuart Quine, 1962-2020”

Sharon Dean’s biography of Janice Bostok on THF

‘White Heron: The Authorized Biography of Janice Bostok’ by Sharon Dean has gone up on The Haiku Foundation website as the ‘Librarian’s Cache’ for the week.

It can be accessed at this link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/06/01/librarians-cache-the-life-of-janice-m-bostok/

As noted by Lorin Ford, ‘this is a piece (a major work!) that will be welcomed and applauded by all Australians at all interested in haiku.’

Cloudcatchers Ginko No. 41 (autumn) 2016

Presentation to John Bird

Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Head NSW
Thursday 5 May 2016

This was no ordinary ginko. Earlier in the year the committee of the Australian Haiku Society, with Vanessa Proctor as president, resolved to honour John Bird with recognition of the invaluable role he has played, not only in the formation of the society, but for his initiative and application in developing and promoting Australian haiku. The AHS requested the presentation be made at the autumn ginko of the Cloudcatchers, on the Far North Coast of NSW. Continue reading “Cloudcatchers Ginko No. 41 (autumn) 2016”

Janice Tribute: Jacqui Murray

Jan had a special relationship with Wollumbin/Mount Warning which dominates the Northern Rivers landscape of NSW, the country in which Jan was born and spent most of her life. Her connection to the mountain was profound. In feisty middle age Jan drew herself as the mountain. Mountain as naked woman. Her sketch and accompanying haiku appeared in the first (summer 1994) edition of paper wasp of which Jan was a foundation member and editor.

Late in life, when Jan moved from her beloved Dungay farm, she chose her last home with care. She could not, she explained, live anywhere where she could not see ‘her’ mountain. As with the first people of this land, Jan believed that the mountain was not only her totem, it was her strength and source of energy. I never look at Wollumbin without thinking of Jan.

towering
above the dark earth
Wollumbin’s dawn light

Jacqui Murray