The launch by Robyn Mathison of “Windfall” issue 3 took place at the Allport Library and Museum in Hobart, with the prior launch of a haiku book by Ron C Moss facilitating the use of this excellent location, and an interested and informed audience of about sixty people already in place.
Peter Macrow, founder and manager of “Windfall”, was present, as was I as editor. “Windfall” poets in attendance included Marilyn Humbert, visiting Tasmania from Sydney, Lyn Reeves, Robyn Mathison, Ron C Moss, Sarah Clarkson, Judith E P Johnson, and Lorraine Haig.
The launch was expertly conducted by respected Tasmanian poet, Robyn Mathison.
Robyn expressed her appreciation to Peter Macrow and his Blue Giraffe Press for “offering poets the chance to be published in this tiny but stylish collection of haiku,” and congratulated the fifty-three poets for moments shared in the sixty-three haiku included in “Windfall 3”.
An extract from Robyn Mathison’s launch speech follows:
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“I’d also like to thank the editor Beverley George and congratulate her on her selection and particularly for the sequencing of the haiku she has chosen. I have taken several leisurely strolls through the pages of “Windfall”, stopping to ponder awhile after each haiku and again after reading the three grouped on each page. In my readings I noticed and appreciated the connections between each trio. Sometimes it is colour that connects them; sometimes it is a season, or movement; or the activities of people, animals and other creatures.
On page three, for instance, it is reference to sound that links them, the completely imagined sound of water tumbling a stone in the middle one.
winter sunshine
an unseen guitar
in a minor key
John Bird
river stone
the current of years
in every shape
Dawn Bruce
wombat bones
dry hollyhocks rattle
by the roadside
Ron C. Moss
On page six, birds make the connection.
lowering sky
the breeze lifts a brolga
into flight
Kent Robinson
rain gauge
the bird bath full
after the storm
Rose van Son
galahs
against a dull sky
the pink parts
Quendryth Young
On page eight, moving and changing light links the images.
windswept rocks
the fisherman’s lantern
comes and goes
Cynthia Rowe
wind chopped light chopped winter bush
Kieran O’Connor
fading daylight
gathers more sky . . .
winter solstice
Jayashree Maniyil
And on page twenty-one, all three are about home.
google earth
I mostly look
at my house
Lynette Arden
he threatens
to sell again
the crunch of a snail’s shell
Bett Angel-Stawarz
holiday over
my backpack sags
on the floor
Duncan Richardson”
Robyn Mathison’s closing remarks included:
“Like one of those miraculous Japanese paper buds that only needs a glass of water to unfold slowly into a flower, this little book needs only quiet reading to expand into dozens of images for the mind’s eye or the mind’s ear and to provide hours of contemplation.
“Windfall 3” is an excellent chance for you to get an inexpensive but very rich collection. I have much pleasure in launching it into the world – and I’d like to invite those contributors who are here this evening to read their haiku from “Windfall”.”
Robyn Mathison
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Although unable to attend the event in person, Australian Haiku Society secretary, Rodney Williams, lent his support to the occasion by producing a tanga; a photograph of a fruit tree with a tanka imposed on it, and gifting copies of this to Peter Macrow, Robyn Mathison, Beverley George and Ron Moss.
with this breeze
such sweet nectarines
as windfall
she gathers together
all those precious poems
Rodney Williams
Beverley George, Editor, “Windfall”
Australian Haiku Society 