The latest Haiku Foundation Renku Session is about to get started. Lorin Ford will lead this renku over the coming months and you are invited to join her on the journey. For further information, including links to learn more about renku and to access the complete THF Renku archive please click here.
My Writing Practice: Dawn Bruce
The discipline of haiku guides me to appreciate the ‘now’ of my day. How wonderful it is to jot down images and tiny events that show the extraordinary in the ordinary.
My haiku are not made up of seventeen syllables but usually far fewer. However, I try to keep to the short/long/short format unless I feel the haiku should be a one-liner. I have also written a few two-liners when that is the way they fell.
Though I often use the visual sense in my haiku I also try to catch the other senses of sound, taste, smell and touch. The seasons are used to good effect in most haiku and I too follow this course. I find now I’m older many of my haiku use the autumn season to express thoughts and moments.
The core of the haiku is that light touch and simplicity which shines on the spirit of the poem…that certain something that is almost impossible to explain…maybe wabi sabi.
My favourite haiku is the text of a sensitive haiga by Ron Moss. I admire its lightness and achingly beautiful simplicity: Continue reading “My Writing Practice: Dawn Bruce”
White Pebbles Haiku Group Christmas Meeting and Ginko
Present on this pre-Christmas occasion were Maire Glacken, Gail Hennessy, Samantha Hyde, Colleen Keating, Verna Rieschild and Beverley George.
We slipped easily into our optional routine of catching up briefly for coffee and chat prior to our ginko but at 10:30 sharp we were all out of the door and walking silently in the beautifully designed Gosford/Edogawa garden, noting seasonal changes and listening to the waterfall, cicada hum, the flurry of duck wings and the splash of koi. Red dragonflies skimmed over reeds and water lilies and the bed of white pebbles beside the pond were gleaming in sunlight.
Armed with worksheets of suggested haiku topics we strolled and jotted before meeting up in the tea-hut to exchange our ideas.
Seasonal busyness meant that several members were unable to attend this particular occasion but we all look forward to catching up for our autumn meeting on March 10th.
Beverley George
Convenor: White Pebbles Haiku Group
December 9th, 2017
Members’ News December, 2017
So much has happened haikuwise over the last year as poets continue to enrich the world in the particular way they do and we so look forward to your creations of 2018.
‘Another year over and a new one just begun . . .’
Summer Solstice Haiku String
The Summer Solstice has come and gone for us in the Southern Hemisphere. Thank you to all those who contributed and thanks also to those who simply visited the String to enjoy the offerings. It was especially heartening to have poets from around the world join us in contemplating our theme of Peace including our friends from the Northern Hemisphere sharing some of their Winter Solstice haiku of snow and ice – reminding me that we all hurtle around the same star on this little sphere open to an infinite sky . . .
Please feel free to revisit the string here
Continue reading “Members’ News December, 2017”
AHS Summer Solstice Haiku String 2017
AHS invites you to share with us your original haiku about Peace, a subject that is particularly pertinent at Christmas time. There are many associations with peace such as harmony, freedom and stillness. We invite you to explore these ideas in the String without using the word ‘peace’.
The haiku will be linked by the subject Peace. It is not necessary for each haiku to relate to the one before it.
Contributions are now closed, but please read the entries in the comments below this post. Thank you to all contributors.
A Christmas Message from the President
I’m looking forward to our Summer Solstice Haiku String which opens tomorrow on the subject of Peace, something that is worth reflecting on now more than ever. Please consider contributing your haiku.
As it is not only the Christmas season but also our long summer holiday, here at the Australian Haiku Society we’ll be taking a break from our regular features until the end of January so that we can recharge our batteries and come to you with renewed energy to celebrate Australian haiku in 2018.
I would like to wish all our members and their families a very Merry Christmas and a happy, peaceful and creative New Year.
Vanessa Proctor
President, Australian Haiku Society
The Wonder of Haiku: Quendryth Young
I write haiku because I must. Since childhood there has been a progression through scribbled jingles, ballads, bush verse and free verse, until I discovered haiku.
This is how it happened: in 2004 I won a voucher in the Lismore City Council’s writing competition which I exchanged for my choice at a local bookstore. Among volumes about mysticism, charms and crystals I came upon Haiku, Ancient and Modern, compiled by Jackie Hardy. Within its pages is a haiku by Elizabeth St Jacques that entranced me.
first snow
the neglected yard
now perfect
Announcement of AHS Summer Solstice Haiku String 2017
The Australian Haiku Society welcomes contributions from haiku poets worldwide to the AHS Summer Solstice Haiku String 2017.
We will be holding a Haiku String during the day of the Southern Hemisphere Summer Solstice, which occurs in Australia on Friday, 22nd December 2017. The String will remain open for contributions until Sunday 24th December to accommodate international poets who may wish to take part.
AHS invites you to share with us your original haiku about Peace, a subject that is particularly pertinent at Christmas time. There are many associations with peace such as harmony, freedom and stillness. We invite you to explore these ideas in the String without using the word ‘peace’.
The haiku will be linked by the subject Peace. It is not necessary for each haiku to relate to the one before it.
- Please contribute up to three of your best haiku.
- Haiku should be posted in the comment box at the end of the post.
- Haiku posted must be original work by the poet making the post. Please include your name below each haiku as you wish it to appear.
Posting your work in the AHS Summer Solstice Haiku String 2017 assumes the following:
Copyright of each haiku remains with the author. We request nonexclusive permission to publish your work on AHS website and to republish it in any future online collections on the AHS website.
Australian Haiku Society 