Haiku Bindii

Julia Wakefield, Jake Dennis, Steve Wigg, Stella Damarjati, Maureen Sexton, Subha Goonaratne and Lynette Arden met on Saturday June 29 at 3pm, using Google Meet. Apologies were received from Ewan Rourke and Maeve Archibald.   We workshopped our haiku, some of which addressed the the topic for this meeting, which was ‘creepy crawlies’. We also commented on some of the winning and shortlisted entries for the Touchstone Awards, https://thehaikufoundation.org/2023-touchstone-awards-for-individual-poems-awarded/ https://thehaikufoundation.org/2023-touchstone-awards-for-individual-poems-long-list/ in the context of the techniques that Jane Reichhold listed on her website. Many of the winning poems paid little attention to any of the rules, which was a lesson to us all about the danger of falling into a conventional trap, whereby you strive for orthodoxy rather than authentic poetic expression. On the other hand, it’s also easy to become too obscure or ‘clever’ for a general audience.

  Report on the Bindii Meeting May 5 2024 Julia Wakefield, Jake Dennis, Steve Wigg, Stella Damarjati, and Lynette Arden met on Sunday, May 5, at 7 p.m. using Google Meet. Maureen Sexton, Subha Goonaratne, Ewan Rourke, and Maeve Archibald apologised.   We workshopped some of our haiku and discussed possible topics for future meetings. We have decided to take a closer look at some of the techniques listed in Jane Reichhold’s book, Writing and Enjoying Haiku. The list can also be found on her website here: https://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm In the above article, she makes some amusing comments on the reverence expressed towards ‘Zen’ haiku and gives a clear definition of the ‘desk haiku’ that so many of us often find ourselves struggling with. Although Subha could not attend the meeting, she reported that the launch of her new haiku collection went exceedingly well. We all look forward to reading it! Our next scheduled Google Meet is on Saturday, June 29, at 3pm. We will wo

Julia Wakefield, Stella Damarjati, Lynette Arden, Maureen Sexton, Subha Goonaratne and Maeve Archibald met on Monday 15 April at 7pm using Google Meet. Apologies were received from Ewan Rourke, Jake Dennis, Steve Wigg and Kirsten Johnston. We asked people to send in the haiku that they would like to have read at the AHS meeting scheduled for World Haiku Day, April 17.             We workshopped our haiku and between us we selected one from each submission that would be read at the AHS meeting. Three of us were subsequently able to attend the meeting: Lynette Arden, Maeve Archibald and Julia Wakefield. Maeve read the selected haiku, as Maureen was unable to attend.             We also shared our news: Maeve will be reading her poetry at the Club Acoustica at the Olive Branch Café in Balhannah in October. She will send us details.  An extract from Lynette’s poem about St George and the dragon has been published in a booklet produced by St Bart’s Church, Norwood which serves as a gu

Steve Wigg, Julia Wakefield, Stella Damarjati, Lynette Arden, Jake Dennis and Ewan Rourke joined the Google Meet meeting, and apologies were received from Subha Goonaratne, Maureen Sexton and Kirsten Johnston. Most people sent their haiku in advance, which made it easier for us to critique them.             We workshopped our haiku and then arranged to have our next meeting on Sunday April 14 at 3pm, before the AHS meeting that takes place on International Haiku Poetry Day on April 17.             There was general agreement that the ‘nature poem’ can be satisfying on its own without an obvious reference to the human condition, but our use of words to describe a natural scene can often evoke human associations. The less we directly refer to an emotional state, the more room there is for the reader to imagine a parallel human situation. We didn’t discuss the concept of ‘ma’ at the meeting, but the most successful haiku often seem to imply this ‘negative space’ in the same way that

We had a Google Meet meeting for the first time. Steve Wigg, Julia Wakefield, Stella Damarjati, Maeve Archibald, Subha Goonaratne, Maureen Sexton and Lynette Arden were joined by three new members: Kirsten Johnson, Jake Dennis and Ewan Rourke. Jake lives in WA as does Maureen, and Subha is based in Sydney, so Google Meet is a very handy way of bringing our group together. We all agreed it works just as well as Zoom.             Everyone brought some haiku for critique, and established members were very impressed with the standard of haiku submitted by our new members. A lively discussion began, focusing on the importance of reducing a haiku to one idea that can be interpreted in different ways according to each individual’s POV, rather than invoking a collection of ideas that pull the reader in too many directions at once. It’s always fascinating to see how many different responses a group of readers can have to one simple haiku.             We are excited that the group has now ex

  Report on the Bindii Meeting 28 January 2024 Five members of the Bindii Group met up at 2pm for a Ginko at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens: Steve Wigg, Julia Wakefield, Stella Damarjati, Maeve Archibald and Lynette Arden. We managed to coordinate a Google Meet with Subha Goonaratne and Maureen Sexton using Julia’s iPad. It was a perfect day for the occasion, even though the temperature was a little too warm for any strenuous walking. The café we arranged to meet at after an hour’s wandering proved too noisy, so we adjourned to a small summerhouse nearby. We were all surprised at how many haiku we all produced in such a short space of time. Many of them were inspired not just by the natural beauty but also by the behaviour of human beings – the park was crowded with people relaxing and enjoying the balmy weather. Subha and Maureen had some haiku that were similar in theme, and we all found that many of our haiku had subject matter in common. We felt the standard of work was impress