Becoming Sky - Report by Jeffrey Harpeng

Ynes Sanz cannily mc'd this megavitamin dose of haiku by reading the label of contents on this spoken literary supplement before retreating into the shadows to put her feet up and indulge. First up was the B complex and the St John's Wort from Dangerously Poetic Press. Laura Jan Shore and James Khidir read the Sand Between the Toes anthology to the musical accompaniment of Kevin James maintaining a sustained drone on harmonium and accompanying himself alternatively on ocarina and bamboo flutes according to the changes in emotional tone as the pieces shifted through the landscape and the various styles of the contributors. This firmly established a close your eyes and drift ambience. Almost an out of body experience.

Sue Stanford was an antioxidant in the mix, her acutely observed and crafted pieces a superb antidote to myopic vision and flaccid statement. She prefaced her work with listening advice for the audience. She warned of how a single haiku can set up a resonance and stay with you for minutes and even hours on occasion and at other times elude you before you can grasp them. She advised then, that as she would be reading quite a number of them that it would be best just let go of them. Taking that advice my experience was of an ebb and flow of word and emotion elegant and elegiac, passionate and precise.

Continue reading "Becoming Sky – A Haiku Reading at the Queensland Poetry Festival - Sunday Sept 9" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 08:54 AM | Permalink

Queensland Poetry Festival: spoken in one strange word, has recently secured funding from Brisbane City Council to develop a virtual poetry anthology that will screen on Brisbane's City Cat fleet. The project is a partnership between Brisbane City Council, 4UTV and Queensland Poetry Festival.

24 poets will be invited to submit a poem for this 6-month project, beginning Monday July 9. Each selected poem will form part of the Poem of the Week virtual anthology and will be developed into a 30 second program by 4UTV that will screen once every thirty minutes on the digital screen in each of the 10 City Cats. This will total 2000 viewings for each poem, to an estimated audience of 120 000 City Cat passengers each week.

Continue reading "Poetry on Brisbane's City Cat Ferries" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 02:20 PM | Permalink

The prospect of a crisp Sunday morning in the Japanese Garden at Brisbane Botanic Garden Mt Coot-tha enticed lovers of Japanese poetry forms to the Queensland Poetry Festival's Second Annual Words and Water Dragons readings on Saturday July 8.

After participating in a ginko led by QPF Artistic Director Graham Nunn, our MC for the morning, and informally sharing inspirations and first-draft haiku, more than 30 people gathered in the square pavilion to hear readings of haibun, haiku and tanka complemented by the achingly beautiful sounds of the shakuhachi in Carl Rathus' skilful hands.

Jan Bostok and Jeff Harpeng were feature readers. Other Brisbane haijin including Ross Clark, Graham Nunn and John Knight read from their work, once again reminding us of the breadth of talent in this sector of Brisbane's thriving poetry scene.

Continue reading "Words and Water Dragons - a report" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 04:56 PM | Permalink

A two-part workshop presented by Janice Bostok
as part of the Queensland Poetry Festival 2007 Outreach programme
supported by the Brisbane City Council
and the Mt Ommaney Library

'When the pupils are ready the teacher will come.'

Full workshops and a healthy waiting list for the two free sessions at the Mt Ommaney Library in Brisbane's Centenary Suburbs this June 10th and 24th made it clear that plenty of people were more than ready to explore the pleasures and challenges of haiku and related forms under Janice Bostok's gentle guidance.

Attendances by people from as far afield as Bribie Island quieted any lingering doubts the organisers might have had about the feasibility of holding of an event at this outer suburban venue.

The workshops received excellent support from the local press as well as publicity from Brisbane Japanese cultural groups and the library itself.

Continue reading "Report on Haiku : Sensations of a Lifetime" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 11:19 AM | Permalink

Haiku Oz would also like to announce the success of another Australian haiku poet, Ynes Sanz. Ynes is also one of the eight poets selected to have their haiku published on a haiku umbrella as part of the rain Haiku competition.

Her haiku:

under the thunderhead
throwing a last stick
to the dogs

Congratulations Ynes!

Posted by Graham Nunn at 03:54 PM | Permalink

Small Change Press (www.smallchangepress.com.au) is proud to announce the launch of their first title for 2007, Home is where the Heartache is, a collection of haibun, by Julie Beveridge.

"Compressed energy and an unswerving courage to tell the truth about bad things gives these haibun a sharp edge – a kind of grim elegance. Journeying with Beveridge is not always comfortable but it is always compelling."
Beverley George
President, Australian Haiku Society

Date: Friday 30 March
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: Queensland Writers Centre
Level 2, 109 Edward St, Brisbane
Tickets: $15.00 (including a signed copy of the book and glass of wine)
Bookings Essential: To book call QWC on (07) 3839 1243 or buy online at www.qwc.asn.au.

For more information email Graham Nunn at geenunn@yahoo.com.au

Posted by Beverley George at 10:07 AM | Permalink

This year for the first time Queensland Poetry Festival and Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha invited poets and poetry lovers to an informal reading of haiku and other Japanese verse forms in the the Japanese Garden.

On Saturday 19 August, a lovely spring-like morning, 20 or so people gathered for the readings.

The morning opened with a dedication and reading of the work of Barry Dangerfield, a former curator and significant force behind the gardens as they are today, who passed away late last year.

A strong selection of Brisbane writers including Duncan Richardson, Katherine Samuelowicz, Jeff Harpeng, Ross Clark, Rowan Donovan, Graham Nunn and Ynes Sanz read from their own and others' work.

The highlight of the event for organisers was hearing from a number of people who responded to the invitation to compose a haiku during the morning, especially since some of them had never before written a haiku or read in public!

Those who were there enjoyed the opportunity to listen and read in such a peaceful and fitting setting and supported the idea of building from this somewhat tentative beginning in future years.

Ynes Sanz

Posted by Graham Nunn at 06:04 PM | Permalink

The paper wasp poets continued to meet during 2006 to greet old friends and new faces at Avid Reader bookshop in Brisbane's, West End, to workshop and generally encourage each other.

2006 has been a productive year so far for paper wasp and for individual members:

The paper wasp Second Australian Haiku Anthology edited by Janice M. Bostok, Katherine Samuelowicz and Vanessa Proctor with General Editor Jacquie Murray, July 2006, is now available for $22.00 in Australia and US$22 (cash only) elsewhere, all prices including postage. It contains 172 haiku poems from 48 poets which, are, as Janice Bostok says in her foreword, "the best being written by Australians at this time."

Also out is rusted hinge - the paper wasp jack stamm haiku anthology 2005 edited by Janice Bostok, Ross Clark, John Knight and Jacquie Murray, $10.00 in Australia or US$10(cash only) elsewhere, all prices including postage. This work represents the best of international writing and reflects the richness of paper wasp's subscription list of some 120 or so poets.

As always our pleasure in the winning poem should inspire us to enter again when the next jack stamm contest 2006 opens later in the year. This time the winner was Lorin Ford:

rusted hinge
the butterfly's wings
close, open ...

Continue reading "paper wasp - A report from Ynes Sanz" »

Posted by Graham Nunn at 06:01 PM | Permalink