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Bindii Meeting report for February 11 2023

Stella, Lynette, Steve, Maeve and I met for our usual Zoom meeting. We received apologies from Maureen, Kaarin and Subha. Steve had undertaken to give us a fascinating introduction to Zen Buddhist teachings, in the context of wabi sabi . As a trained Buddhist teacher himself, he is amply qualified to speak on the subject. We all said afterwards that it would be wonderful if he could produce a webinar on the subject that could be broadcast to other members of the Australian Haiku Society and/or to the general public. Steve connected the Buddhist precepts of impermanence, suffering and removal of the concept of self with the principles of wabi sabi. He added that the reality modes in Buddhism: emptiness, fullness and interconnectedness, also directly relate to wabi sabi . The moment of enlightenment, Steve said, can itself be a manifestation of wabi sabi , in the sense that it is not a dramatic experience; it is more like a moment of intimacy with an everyday natural event. Steve
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Bindii Meeting report for November 26 2022

Stella, Lynette, Maureen and I met for our usual Zoom meeting. We received apologies from Steve, Kaarin and Maeve. Some of us had attempted haiku using the ideas promoted in Michael Dylan Welch’s Haiku on Steroids paper that was published online during the 2022 Haiku down Under online conference. After discussing the merits of radical experimentation, we tried writing a spontaneous haiku sequence, taking turns to write each line. The result was certainly entertaining, but perhaps not a work of literary merit. It was, however, a useful way of generating ideas. The next Zoom meeting will be on Saturday, Feb 11 at 3pm. We welcome a new member, Subha, who belongs to a Sri Lankan online haiku group and is based in Sydney. The topic will be wabi sabi, and Steve will give us a presentation on the concept.   Julia Wakefield
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Bindii Meeting report for October 15, 2022

Lyn, Steve, Stella and Julia met (Maeve sent her apologies) to discuss the Haiku Down Under online conference, which some of us attended. Those who got to it said it was very worthwhile. Those who couldn’t get there were able to download some pdfs, which proved useful discussion points. Of particular interest was the session on wabi sabi, ‘Joy in the Ordinary’, by Marietta McGregor. Steve has said he would like to give a presentation on this topic at a future meeting, and Lyn also would be interested in contributing. The presentation, ‘Haiku on Steroids’ by Michael Dylan Welch provoked further discussion. We analysed some of our recent haiku according to whether they were breaking the rules or not, and whether it mattered. We then agreed to attempt some haiku using one or more of the radical approaches suggested by Welch, for reviewing at the next meeting. We are also intending to try a spontaneous haiku writing session on the day, using a ‘Haiku on Steroids’ approach. In addition, the
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Bindii Meeting report for August 20, 2022

Lyn, Julia, Stella and Maeve (Steve sent  an apology) all reviewed each other's haiku and concluded that rather than create a string, we would each work on our own themes and produce individual sequences, which we could send to each other by email and/or discuss at the next meeting. The next meeting was scheduled for after the Haiku Down Under conference https://sites.google.com/view/haikudownunder/home We agreed to discuss what we derived from it, as well as bringing our own recent work, whether it be haiku, haiku sequence, tanka, haibun etc. Lyn reminded us that a good source of haibun - and a place to send them - is Drifting Sands:  https://drifting-sands-haibun.org/ We set a tentative date for the next meeting: October 15, 3pm.   Julia Wakefield
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Bindii Meeting 12 June 2022

 Lynette Arden, Stella Damarjati, Steve Wigg and I gathered this afternoon for a Zoom meeting. Our agenda was writing tanka. We began by discussing the definition of tanka, and Lyn pointed out that the pivot that is so often emphasised in tanka definitions doesn’t have to occur on the third or fourth line, but can happen anywhere. The only requirement is to progress from one image or thought to a different place. It is often helpful to encompass this progression in a sentence, but this is not compulsory. Below are some links sent from Lyn that help to clarify this definition. https://www.graceguts.com/essays/modern-tanka-in-japan https://poetrysociety.org.nz/affiliates/haiku-nz/haiku-poems-articles/archived-articles/the-seed-of-the-human-heart-writing-tanka/ I also found some examples (2021 contest winners, on the right-hand side of the home page) on the American Tanka Society website that show the variety of pivot point locations that can be found in different tanka: https
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Report on Bindii Meeting 6 February 2022

Julia, Stella, Steve, Lynette, Maeve and Kaarin met together on Zoom. We discussed the possibility of attending the upcoming Zoom meeting on International Haiku Day, April 17. As previously arranged, we all brought examples of classic haiku and/or some of our favourites from the Snapshot Press collections. We also attempted our own haiku that evoked similar moods to the examples. Steve began with a haiku by Boncho, a student of Basho. the dyeing tubs dripping ceased tree cricket Steve explained that crickets are associated with Autumn, which is when indigo dyeing takes place. In the original Japanese the cutting word translates as ‘happened to notice’, or ‘lo!’ We are asked to notice the absence of dripping, which enables us to hear the crickets. This depth of meaning contrasts with ‘shopping list haiku’, which is a habit that Western haiku poets can fall into. Stella and Maeve gave two examples by Shiki, which expressed both the brevity of life and the tedium of finding no
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Report for Bindii meeting, October 31 2021.

Present: Lynette Arden, Stella Damarjati, Steve Wigg, Julia Wakefield. We discussed tanka, as planned from the previous meeting. Stella showed us some that she had prepared, including one that had been accepted for Eucalypt, and Lynn showed us some tanka that she had previously published. We also looked at tanka by Julie Thorndyke. We agreed that tanka are most often successful when they form a complete sentence, and the last two lines don’t have to be longer in order for the tanka to work – even one word in a line is acceptable. We tried doing a five-minute brainstorm, writing sentences on the topic of ‘fear’ and trying to turn them into tanka. An abstract term is a better theme for a tanka than a concrete one such as ‘water’, which is more suitable for a haiku. The results were surprisingly effective. It seems that if we pick on a deeply personal interpretation of a theme, the sentences start to flow. It was in many ways a refreshing approach compared to the discipline of haiku
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