Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Haiku Festival Tauranga

I have just returned  from a two day  Haiku Festival in Tauranga  exhausted and bursting with information overload about  haiku, tanka and haibun.
 
Since I am  a beginner and have never written any tanka or haibun  it was all a  new  world to me.

 Haiku Master Class with world famous  Jim Kacian was full of energy and entertainment.
I was amazed the organisers Sandra  Simpson  and Margaret Beverland were able to obtain  funding to have a person of  his stature  flown all the way out from America, especially for the conference.

I  enjoyed  the Haiku, Haibun & Everyday Things with Dr Lawrence Marceau lecture.
 It was great to learn about the  Japanese historical and cultural perspective of these poetic forms.
 I sat opposite him and his lovely Japanese wife at dinner and we had a great conversation about Japan and pottery making.

Australian haiku expert Beverley George ran an  engaging  workshop on tanka.
She only had an hour which did not do her justice.
I would like to attend a workshop  with her for a whole weekend.
Maybe a trip to Australia to do it would be a good  in the future.
I can just see myself sitting in a Eucalyptus tree over a river in  Queensland pumping out Haiku and Tanka about Kookaburras, Kangaroos and Ibises.


Owen Bullock who was the first poetry teacher to introduce  me to haiku three years ago was  also at the conference.
 I am planning to go to Taupo to a haiku workshop he is running in August.
He is a very encouraging and positive person and it is these types of teachers that you need when first starting out.

I had a chance to catch up with Kirsten Cliff and see an array of her illustrated haiku.
 It is great to see her looking so well, happy and prolific.
Kirsten has had her haiku  published in journals all over the world in a relatively short  space of time.
She is a master at seizing the moment.

I realise  it's really easy to write trite, facile, obvious and just plain nonsensical haiku and tanka, the trick is to achieve the a-ha moment along with a degree of subtlety and lightness.
I  am presuming these qualities will appear in time with my haiku and tanka with more reading  and more writing and as my understanding and appreciation grows. .

My interest in reading and writing these forms has been further  ignited by the conference and that's what 's all about- inspiration. .
Attending a festival is a great way to find time to have a go and write some as well as learn from  the experts.

Thanks so much to Margaret and Sandra for a well run and fun Festival.
 I am grateful to these people for giving up their valuable time to organise such a momentous event.
.

  “Calligraphy of geese
against the sky-
the moon seals it.”
Yosa Buson






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