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