NZPS 2015 International Poetry Competition Results

Results for the New Zealand Poetry Society’s 2015 International Poetry Competition saw Vanessa Proctor of Australia gain fourth prize in the Haiku Section, while entries from Jan Dobb, Cynthia Rowe and Greg Piko also received recognition from judge Elaine Riddell.

Vanessa’s prize-winning one-liner reads as follows:

abandoned lighthouse a smudge of shearwaters

The complete text for other prize-winning poems – along with comments by the judge – can be read by accessing this link, and then by clicking on Elaine Riddell’s name in blue:

http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/2015compresults

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Haiku for Peace – 70th anniversary of Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings

Kyle Kurihara – an intern with the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC) in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California – invites haiku poets from Australia and around the world to contribute work towards a project called Haiku for Peace, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

International haiku poets can post their haiku directly onto the Haiku for Peace project’s Facebook event page, found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1572559833008065/

Non-Facebook users can send their haiku by email to kkurihara@jaccc.org.

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Results – 7th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest

Professor Oba has announced that the results of the 7th Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest are now available on the Museum’s website.

You can access them from this link:

http://samidare.jp/basho/box/7th%20e-haiku%20kusyu.pdf

21 Australians entered this competition.

Beverley George

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Cloudcatchers’ Ginko No.38 (winter)

23 July 2015

On again, off again! With rain and even a thunderstorm predicted we took our chances and gathered anyway for the Cloudcatchers’ thirty-eighth ginko. Yes, it drizzled most of the time, but with a few bursts of sunshine, a brilliant light on the waters at the mouth of the Richmond River in Ballina, along with the warmth of the camaraderie, we experienced another remarkable and productive day. Images of dolphins rolling wave-like up the river, the ever-optimistic fishermen silhouetted against a grey sky and raindrops on the tips of she-oak needles were recorded on damp pages. Lunch together wrapped up yet another morning of perception and empathy.

Quendryth Young

Review of “Haiku Bindii: Willow Light”

The following review has been written by Patricia Prime (NZ), editor of “Kokako”:

“Haiku Bindii: Willow Light. Journal of Bindii Japanese Genre Poetry Group 2015: Volume 2” has been edited by Lee Bentley, with layout and design by Lynette Arden.

Payment can be made via Paypal to lee.bentley@y7mail.com 1. $10AUD; 2. $15AUD; 3 $24 AUD; 4. $30 AUD. 5 or more copies, please contact Lee for details.

“Haiku Bindii: Willow Light” is the Bindii Japanese Genre Poetry Group’s second collection from Australian poets. Haiga inside front and back covers and throughout the book are by Belinda Broughton. The collection is composed of haiku, tanka, tanka prose and haibun.

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Red Kelpie Haiku Group Ginko & Meeting #4

Considering that June weather in Melbourne can be rainy, squally and generally miserable, we planned a venue with centrality and shelter in mind, so on Sunday the 14th we met down on the Old Melbourne Wharf, on the Yarra and now a part of Federation Square. Though a little cold, the day was surprisingly fine and sunny, with no wind.

Our discussion topic this time, inspired by Jaya’s query into the differences between haiku and senryu and taking into account Charles Trumbull’s insight into the growing preponderance of ‘tankaesque’ ku being written and published (see his ‘Between Basho and Ban’ya (bypassing Barthes): A New Brand of Haiku?’ in A Hundred Gourds, June 2015) was ‘Haiku, Senryu or Tankaesque Ku ?’ Each of us attending brought along examples of ku we thought fitted into each of these categories. A challenging topic! The discussion was enthusiastic, in-depth and very lively indeed.

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“Eucalypt” Issue 18, 2015 – Appraisals

From every issue of “Eucalypt: a tanka journal”, edited by Beverley George, two poems are peer-selected for appraisal.

Congratulations to New Zealand poets, Patricia Prime and Anne Curran, whose tanka were selected for appraisal by Sylvia Florin.

You can read about them here:

http://www.eucalypt.info/E-awards.html

While visiting the site, you may also wish to read a wide selection of tanka appraisals at:

http://www.eucalypt.info/E-bowerbird.html

A regular feature of the full-day Bowerbird workshops, convened twice a year, is a presentation by each of three delegates of a tanka by a poet whom the presenter has never met. The appraisals are lively and varied.

– Beverley George