Our winter meeting was held at Dawn Bruce’s home on 26th June with special guest Joanne Watcyn-Jones. While the subject matter of our exercises for this meeting was decidedly wintry, with haiku about the season, domestic haiku and images of loneliness, our meeting was, as always, upbeat with much laughter and inspiration.
Vanessa Proctor
Bowerbird Tanka Workshop #4
held at 'Wirraminna' Pearl Beach, NSW
February 27th 2010
Nineteen Bowerbirds, including three presenters, gathered at Beverley George's tranquil home, hoping to take away with them some inspiration and technical tips for writing better tanka.
Not a single bird returned home disappointed.
Amelia Fielden spoke about the tricky question of punctuation, sharing her views and style. She also included a valuable exercise which involved punctuating a number of tanka to improve them.
Kathy Kituai's presentation, 'Write Below the Surface' prompted a lively discussion on a tanka written by Izumi Shikibu and an excellent exercise on listening to our own and other peoples' poems.
In June I was invited to give a tanka workshop for Warrah Writers at Murrurrundi
Murrurrundi is a delightful country town with fascinating rock formations nearby. The meeting place for the Warrah Writers is a room at the railway station which looked bleak when we entered but was soon made cosy and appealing by enterprising members. Two rugs were laid on the floor and four matching blue cloths on each long table. Two antique lamps were placed on the tables and a fire was expertly laid in the fireplace. In no time it was blazing and warmed the room effectively for the two and a half hours the workshop lasted. One slight interruption occurred when an 80 truck coal train passed by only feet away.
A stage two workshop for Warrah Writers is being planned for next year and also an address to a reading group called Scrolls, based near Quirindi . Scrolls was established over forty years ago and has over thirty active members.
Beverley George
to read a moving tanka sequence about Gaza by Anne Benjamin
please visit
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=11494
On March 14, a full room of supporters and fans gathered at Baulkham Hills Library, Castle Hill, for the launch of rick rack, Julie Thorndyke’s book of tanka poetry. It was a wonderful event with a variety of readings with complementary music. Tim, Julie’s husband welcomed the guests and introduced Beverley George who launched the book with a short history of tanka’s origins and readings from Izumi Shikibu.
Julie presented tanka from her book, talking about her tanka journey with each tanka or sequence displayed against stunning visual images. The audience was moved by the impact and effectiveness of Julie’s tanka that covered the gamut of human experience.
There were other readings – a very moving sequence by Beverley George and Meredith Collins, then Julie and Beverley read Locket, their prize winning tanka sequence. The special guest, well known Japanese poet, Mariko Kitakubo, beautifully dressed in a silk kimono, read some of her tanka in Japanese, with Beverley reading the English translations by Amelia Fielden. Mariko accompanied the readings with the Hamohn, a Japanese musical instrument. There were also readings by the Tanka Huddle group from Eastwood Hills Fellowship of Australian Writers ( Those present were Carolyn Alfonzetti, Jan Foster, Beverley George, Anne Howard, Carmel Summers, David Terelinck, Julie Thorndyke).
The star of the show, though, was Julie’s wonderful tanka, which demonstrated why Julie is considered to be one of the leading tanka writers in Australia today.
Carmel Summers
Bowerbird Tanka Workshop 22 February 2009
The third Bowerbird Tanka workshop was held on Sunday 22nd February, 2009 at Pearl Beach, NSW.
Workshop leaders Beverley George, Amelia Fielden and Kathy Kituai supported a full house of tanka enthusiasts in workshopping participant prepared poems. All present were encouraged and entertained by the wide range of poetry submissions, the expert feedback from the leaders and mutual appreciation of workshop members. What a joy to have so many creative minds together in one room at this tanka think-tank.
Kathy Kituai shared some of her writing secrets, then led the group in a creative session designed to court the muse. We were invited to engage with and reflect upon the creative process. I came away with a renewed sense of the pleasure of writing.
The lunchtime kukai on the theme paperbark was won by Carolyn Alfonzetti. The afternoon took the form of small group sessions to write renga on the theme 2008 was the year. During the day many books changed hands and many connections were made. Once again we owe Beverley George a sincere vote of thanks for organising and throwing open her home for this lively and congenial tanka workshop.
Julie Thorndyke