Haiku Bindii

Our meeting on Saturday 4 June will be a haibun workshop with Maeve Archibald. The workshop will commence at 12 noon at the Box Factory. Members will be emailed a reminder of the meeting. For further details contact haikubindii@gmail.com

Report on Bindii Ginko at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 2016 Nine Bindii members met at the kiosk near the lake in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens at 11 am on 2 April for a ginko led by Margaret Fensom. On such a beautiful autumn day there was plenty to experience and participants immersed themselves in this beautiful place for an hour of walking or quiet contemplation before returning for the kiosk for lunch. We were fortunate to secure a table right near the lake edge and had duck and crested pigeon visitors to entertain us. After lunch, Margaret organized a ‘round the table’ discussion as members read out their haiku and tanka or their notes for poems and showed off the pictures they had taken. Lyn Arden has offered an email workshop to participants, which will start in a week from the ginko, to give participants time to polish their work.

Members of Bindii Japanese Genre Poetry Group and friends are invited to join us for a haiku walk in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens on Saturday 2 April at 11 am.  We will meet at the kiosk near the central lake in the gardens. The walk coordinator is Margaret Fensom. Members on our email list will receive details by email. For other enquiries please email  haikubindii@gmail.com

We now have a Facebook Group, which will make it easier for members to contribute to our presence on the web. HaikuBindii Facebook Group This group is for  . posting notices by the group,  . information on competitions and publishing opportunities . discussion of Japanese Poetry Genres . discussion of haiku and tanka and related forms.

Some of our readers at the Halifax Cafe event on 11 January 2016. Alex Ask (Didgeridoo), Lynette Arden, Gail Umehara (gong), Natsumi Hyashibara (percussion)

On Thursday, 11 February, I spent an evening at the Halifax Café with a large and enthusiastic audience for the ten Bindii poets who read their work.  We were also fortunate to have musicians Munetaka Umehara and Alexander Ask performing A Midsummer Walk , their original work for Japanese flute and didgeridoo. Munetaka’s great niece Natsumi performed on percussion to accompany the other musicians. A great effort, as she had just arrived from Japan at 2.30 pm that day. The event was organized for Bindii by Lynette Arden, on behalf of the Adelaide City Council and the Box Factory Community Centre. The readings were structured by Lynette Arden, Julia Wakefield and Sara Sims into themes: Nature, Childhood, Love, grief and loss, Humanity and finally, Music. Each theme was welcomed by a gong, sounded by Gail Umehara. Julia Wakefield was MC for the event. Readers were: Sara Abend-Sims, Maeve Archibald, Lynette Arden, Lee Bentley, Belinda Broughton, Dawn Colsey, Margaret Fens...

Report on Bindii Japanese Poetry Genres Group Meeting: 6 February 2016 Ten Bindii members met at The Box Factory for a workshop by Julia Wakefield on ‘What Makes a Good Haiku’.  Julia presented a thoroughly researched workshop, looking at examples of haiku that have been critically acclaimed, and members discussed what made them ‘good haiku’. Julia focused not only on three-line haiku, but had plentiful examples of one-line haiku and also some four-line haiku.  It was interesting for members to discuss the impact of the format of these haiku and why the author had chosen that particular format, instead of sticking to the more usual three line. Events planned for 2016 2 April: Autumn ginko. Members will be contacted with details. 4 June: Maeve Archibald: haibun. 6 August: Maeve Archibald: follow up session on haibun. 1 October Belinda Broughton: haiga 3 December meeting: end of year celebration.