Ginko No.24 (summer)
Shaw's Bay, Ballina, NSW
Thursday 9 February 2012
Never be afraid of a wet ginko. When poets gather to experience together the nuances of their environment, images are heightened by the extremes that the elements may present. The Cloudcatchers held their summer ginko at Shaw’s Bay, and at the Skate Park, Ballina, on Thursday 9 February. It rained all day.
Continue reading "Report on Cloudcatchers’ Summer Ginko No 24" »
Huge congratulations to Dr Sharon Dean, who has had the degree of Doctor of Philosophy conferred upon her by the Griffith University QLD. Her thesis was entitled 'White Heron: The Authorised Biography of Australian Pioneering Haiku Writer, Janice Bostok.'
A strip of land between sea and fresh water is a magical place. Cloudcatchers assembled for their Spring Ginko at Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Head, on Thursday 13 October 2011, savouring the salt spray from the ocean, which mingled with soft breezes from the banksias and tea-trees lining this tea-coloured lake.
Continue reading "Report on Cloudcatchers’ Spring Ginko No.23" »
A dozen Cloudcatchers wore their scarves and woolly hats to the winter ginko at Torakina Park, Brunswick Heads, on Thursday 30 June 2011. This is our favourite site, at the mouth of the Brunswick River, and although it was the tenth time we have held a ginko here, it was our first in winter.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Previously Cloudcatchers have gathrered at Bangalow Weir in Summer (2007) and Spring (2008 & 2009). But this time it was Autumn. We did not expect to feel a seasonal change, but it was indeed cooler, the light softer, the pace slower. No insects worried us. Turtles were fewer and more languid, and there were no water dragons. But the tessellated trunks of the old pines, patterned by lichen on the shady side, remained as we remembered them.
Continue reading "Report on Cloudcatchers’ Ginko No 21 (autumn)" »
Cloudcatcher's Ginko No.20 had to be planned over a year ahead. A ginko held among the teeming life of a mangroves swamp demands a very low tide at a convenient location, at exactly the right time of day, on the right day of the week, in summer (because we wanted to wade).
There was only one site and one date that fitted these requirements: the mouth of the Brunswick River, on Thursday 27 January 2011. Of course we also hoped it would be fine, but not too hot. The day arrived, and it was PERFECT: a brilliant azure sky and a river that had peeled off its covers to allow us to enter into its fascinations. Poets strolled (bare-footed, mostly), along the mud flats and sandy riverbed, absorbed in a world of sand creatures, aerial mangrove roots, oyster shells, sea snails, and a variety of marine birds.
This paradise is just behind the Scout Hall, and we found, nearby, the cold ashes of a large fire, surrounded by a ring of logs, just perfect for sitting on, and all in the shadow of a cooling gum. Here some of the captured impressions were crafted into haiku, and these were read in turn around the campfire. We lunched at the Brunswick Hotel, looking out across the river, under a canopy of Moreton Bay Figs. A Round Robin is now underway.
The autumn ginko is planned for late April, at Bangalow Weir. Please contact Quendryth Young (quendrythyoung@bigpond.com) nearer the time, for more details.
Quendryth Young
Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Head
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Lake Ainsworth, at Lennox Head, is full to overflowing with freshwater, so that the trunks of the melaleucas continue on into the lake. Just over the road is the beach and the ocean. It was here that twelve Cloudcatchers gathered for our spring ginko on Thursday 14 October.
Across that dark, dark teatree-stained water, with the pale trunks of those magnificent trees arching over the mysterious depths, came a flotilla of canoes, multi-coloured and multi-voiced, emanating from the Youth Recreation Centre nearby. Add to that a turtle, a purple snail shell, a surf kite, a dog tied to a pram, bad banksia men and seagulls.
Haiku were created in abundance, and appreciated around the picnic table. The sun came out, and some of us lunched together afterwards at 'Ruby's' (Lennox Hotel), overlooking the surf. An email Round Robin, in full swing at the moment, perpetuates some of those marvellous images.
Our next ginko will be No.20, held at Brunswick Heads, late in January 2011, when we will explore the extraordinary splendours of the ordinary mangroves.
Quendryth Young