Ginko With Lysenko #29 — the end of spring

Venue: St Kilda Botanical Gardens, Sunday November 20th 11.30am—4pm.

Present: Myron Lysenko, Ela Fornalska, Sol Oost, Kate Brabon, Chris Lynch, Ben Oost, Louise Hopewell, Takanori Hayakawa, Rory Hudson.

There was a fun run in the city so most of us turned up late, but we still managed to start proceedings at 11.30 am. I began the ginko by giving a focus for our writing: kigo and kire. I explained these concepts and Taka and Chris expanded on them. I read several haiku as examples then we went our separate ways through the park for 40 minutes writing haiku or notes about our sensory observations.
Continue reading “Ginko With Lysenko #29 — the end of spring”

Lorin Ford’s haiku for comment in re: Virals  

This week the following one-line haiku by Australian haiku poet Lorin Ford has been chosen for comment in re: Virals 66, on The Haiku Foundation website:

she waves a thin blue scarf becoming sky

— Lorin Ford, tinywords 15:2 (2015)

Sheila Sondik selected Lorin’s haiku, after her own response to Patrick Sweeney’s “in my other life” was chosen as the latest weekly winner in re: Virals, viewable at this link:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2016/12/16/revirals-66/

Comments on Lorin’s haiku are welcome. These need to be placed in the Contact box at The Haiku Foundation website by midnight on Tuesday (Eastern US time), using the subject heading “re: Virals”. Selected responses will be posted next Friday.

Rodney Williams
Secretary
Australian Haiku Society

Langhorne Creek Young People’s Writers’ Competition

2016 was the fourth year of the Langhorne Creek Young People’s Writers’ Competition, in which young writers of prose and poetry competed to win individual prizes, as well as books for their school. Last year Lynette Arden and Lee Bentley developed a haiku guide for the teachers, which was well received and used again this year. Bindii Japanese Genre Poetry Group sponsored prizes for haiku, across the year groups of Grades 2-3;  4-5;  6-7; and 8-10. In 2016 a special commendation was also issued by judge Lee Bentley for the most outstanding haiku overall. Continue reading “Langhorne Creek Young People’s Writers’ Competition”

Announcement: Summer Solstice Haiku String

The Australian Haiku Society will be holding its first Haiku String during the day of the Summer Solstice, 21st December.

We invite haiku poets around the world to respond to the featured poem or any poem posted in the comment box.

You may enter as many times as you like.

Haiku posted must be original work by the poster.

Please include your name as you wish it to appear, as author of each of the haiku you post.

Gathering of Haiku @ The Oaks, Canberra on Monday 5 December 2016

A warm morning to match the warmth of our keenness as we all gathered at the Botanic Gardens.  Our usual venue of The Oaks Brassiere is closed on Mondays – but this was the day Beverley George was in town!  We were delighted to welcome her to our table – Gregory Piko, Kathy Kituai, Glenys Ferguson, Marietta McGregor and Jan Dobb.  A whisper had reached us that it was Beverley’s birthday so our morning took off with cake, candle and song.
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Red Kelpie Haiku Group Meeting & Ginko #10

As predicted, Sunday, 4th of December was hot and humid, Melbourne’s first hot summer day. Five members of the Red Kelpie Group gathered at our ‘home’ base, at the Melbourne Botanic Tearooms, but we moved, as planned, to a lawn area under deep shade of old trees, near Nymphaea Lily Lake, to hold our meeting in peace and quiet.

think tank
the pond floats
a waterlily

—Lorin Ford, Failed Haiku #12, December 2016

Our topic, suggested by Jen Sutherland, was an enquiry into kigo , which had been confusing for some. We focused on what kigo means to Japanese haiku practice and how it differs from EL seasonal reference.

Continue reading “Red Kelpie Haiku Group Meeting & Ginko #10”

Red Dragonflies Summer Meeting 2016

Members of the Red Dragonflies were unable to meet in person this quarter, so instead we decided to complete a shisan renku by email where I acted as sabaki.  The renku’s title is ‘A Dream of Persimmons’ and was most enjoyable to write.  After eight years of writing and discussing haiku together, we found that our rapport was still strong even though we weren’t writing face-to-face.

Vanessa Proctor Continue reading “Red Dragonflies Summer Meeting 2016”