Not having any personal connection with Cynthia Rowe, I’m very grateful to Vanessa Proctor, Cynthia’s successor as AHS President in 2016, for providing the following tribute to her.
The comments section at the foot of this page will remain open until 20th May for you to add your personal reflections and tributes to an influential Australian haiku poet who shared her passion for haiku with so many around the world.
Leanne Mumford
It is my sad duty to inform the Australian and worldwide haiku community of the death of Cynthia Rowe on 6th April at the age of 86. Cynthia succeeded Beverley George to the position of President of the Australian Haiku Society in 2011, and served until Vanessa Proctor took over in 2016. Cynthia was also the editor of the Haiku Xpressions section of FreeXpresSion Magazine for many years. AHS will be publishing a full tribute in recognition of Cynthia’s many contributions to the haiku community. For the time being, with the family’s permission, we would like to let everyone know about the two memorial services that have been organised to honour and celebrate Cynthia’s life.
– In Sydney at St Mark’s Anglican Church, Darling Point on 23rd April 2025 at 12.00pm
– In Melbourne at St John’s Anglican Church, Toorak on 30th April 2025 at 11.00am
There will be a celebration of life held after each service.
Leanne Mumford
President, Australian Haiku Society
This week’s featured poet from ‘Under the Same Moon’, the Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology, is Cynthia Rowe.
Continue reading “Featured Haiku – Under the Same Moon: The Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology”
Dr Jacqui Murray: Patron of the Australian Haiku Society, spent many years running the JAL Children’s Haiku Contests in Australia, thus forging a generation of enthusiastic and talented haiku poets.
Alongside her many achievements in the promotion of haiku in this country and overseas she also co-edited The Third Australian Haiku Anthology (paperwasp:2011) and the anthology still heading out: an anthology of Australian and New Zealand haiku, two remarkable collections amongst others that she was instrumental in producing.
breaking my journey by Gregory Piko
reviewed by Cynthia Rowe
breaking my journey, published by the prestigious Red Moon Press, is delightfully produced. The cover, designed by Ron C. Moss, a digital photograph, is particularly striking. The book is smoothly finished, and a pleasure to hold.
The collection contains ninety-eight individual haiku, two haibun, a rengay and haiku shuffle, wherein Gregory Piko extols the things we take for granted, the essence of what makes us ‘us’. He extracts beauty from the everyday, makes us see the world in a fresh light; that which seems banal on first viewing is elevated to the extraordinary, universal in its appeal.
Australian Haiku Society 