Cloudcatchers Autumn Ginko # 57

Thursday April 30, 2020

In view of the social distancing imposed upon us, it had to be different this time. Fourteen Cloudcatchers participated in a virtual ginko, each in our own home and/or immediate environment. The period indicated was between 10 am and noon, with 10 am being the time at which each poet thought of all the other poets taking part, doing the same thing at the same time.

The nature of this ginko meant that we could invite past members, now living at a distance, to take part. We were delighted that our beloved patron, John Bird, joined us in thought, and that three past members participated from Burleigh Heads in Queensland, the Mornington Peninsular in Victoria, and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.

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Bindii Report Two Zoom meetings in April

On two consecutive Sunday afternoons, April 19 and 26, we assembled and experimented with holding an online meeting. Attendees on the first occasion were Julia Wakefield, Steve Wigg, Maeve Archibald, Lynette Arden, Dawn Colsey and Margaret Dingle. We decided to have a second meeting as Stella Damarjati couldn’t attend the first one, and we also needed to practise with the technology. Continue reading “Bindii Report Two Zoom meetings in April”

Illawong Isolation Exercising

Illawong Haiku Group usually meets seasonally but during isolation and with the use of modern technology we are staying connected. This is good for our mental health, improving our haiku writing and mentoring our newbies.

Our first exercise was writing a commentary on a selected haiku. The second exercise was writing three haiku on the subject of Covid. The haiku were then compiled into a list and circulated for everyone to rank in order of preference for each writer. The best haiku for each writer resulted in this string:

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Fringe Myrtles special meeting for International Haiku Day

The Fringe Myrtles held a special meeting on the evening of Friday 17th April to celebrate International Haiku Day. Of course, due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the meeting took place virtually on ZOOM. This was our second virtual meeting since the outbreak of coronavirus, and it is clear that we are managing to adapt fairly quickly (some faster than others!) to the technological demands. One of the sweet ironies of this whole pandemic experience, particularly in relation to social distancing, is that technology is allowing us to keep in contact more frequently than usual. Continue reading “Fringe Myrtles special meeting for International Haiku Day”

Echidna Tracks Submission Reminders

Echidna Tracks will be accepting submissions for Issue 5: Open Theme throughout the month of April. The editors invite your previously unpublished haiku and senryu on any topic that stirs your imagination and that is likely to stir the imaginations of our readers.

Please read the guidelines carefully.

Submissions may be made via the form that will appear on the Submissions page throughout the month of April 2020.

Lynette Arden
Lyn Reeves
Simon Hanson

Echidna SH
Photo by Simon Hanson

Watersmeet Virtual Ginko

Since last year’s “Haiku Windows” event at Fullers Bookshop where Watersmeet members celebrated International Haiku Poetry Day with customers and passers-by, we have continued to meet, interspersing monthly meetings with seasonal ginkos in various places – Cornelian Bay, The Botanical Gardens and Kingston Beach, followed by sharing our haiku over lunch.

photo: Mount Nelson by Ross Coward

The first ginko for this year was planned for 27th March at Mount Nelson. Ross Sampson Coward, our designated leader for the walk, came up with the idea of a virtual ginko. He visited the location, created a mud map and took photographs of the points along the way. He then emailed us:

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