BHS Spring Gathering, Bradwell on Sea, 8-10 May 2009

Inspired by Steve Mason, the highlight of the Spring Gathering this year was our choral humming and reading by candlelight of ‘moon’ haiku in St. Peter’s Chapel, Bradwell on Sea, on the night of the full moon.

Just a short walk from our residence at the Othona Community, the chapel’s acoustics and ambiance created a memorable experience for us all.

The community at Bradwell is in a remote corner of Essex behind the sea wall, on the estuary of the River Blackwater. It was founded in 1946 by Canon Norman Motley to “foster peace and reconciliation between people of different nations beliefs and outlooks in the aftermath of the Second World War”.

We were looked after by Gail and Matthew, who couldn’t have done more for us, and Gail’s cooking is second to none. I’m sure we all put on a couple of pounds, despite one two hour walk and several shorter ones.

Diana Webb initiated a way into haibun using postcards as inspiration, and encouraged collaboration by getting us to use a partner’s haiku and continue the creative process using our partner’s postcard. This resulted in some interesting pieces of writing.

After lunch, Annie Bachini led the group in an exploration of metaphor and parallels in haiku by asking questions about texture and layers of meaning. We then went on to write haiku using keywords from lists provided.

The evening was spent humming and making sounds in preparation for our performance in the chapel the next evening.

Fred Schofield led us on Sunday morning by providing a mix of haiku with contents that could be linked to specific cultures, which raised a number of questions. Which culture does football belong to!?

Thanks to Diana Webb for organizing a magical weekend. Thanks also to Frank Williams for taking the photographs.

Attenders were: Mauri Askell, Annie Bachini, David Bingham, Doreen King, Anthony C Marcoff, Steve Mason, Mark Ritchie, Fred Schofield, Diana Webb, and Frank Williams. Stephen Gill was there in spirit.

BHS London Regional Group - Summer Solstice Event, Leatherhead, 20-21 June 2009

The London Group is planning a special Summer Solstice Event in Leatherhead on 20-21 June 2009. It is being organised by Diana Webb and details plus dates/venues of other London Group meetings may be had from Steve Mason (e-mail address at the foot of this page).

North East Regional Group Renga Day at the Garden Station, Hexham - 6 June 2009

The North East Group has arranged a Renga Day which will be led by Clara Warden (replacing Alec Finlay) at The Garden Station, Hexham, on 6 June. For further details and to reserve a place, please contact Chris Phillips at chrisphil79 'at' hotmail 'dot' com (you will need to convert the foregoing into computer-recognised input format, of course).

North East Regional Group Haiku Workshop - 24 May 2009 (change of date)

The North East Group (formerly referred-to here as the Newcastle/Gateshead Regional Group) has now arranged its next meeting, which will again take place at Morden Tower, Newcastle, on Sunday, 24 May 2009, from 2 - 5 pm. Please note that this is a change to the original date which was 3 May 2009, but had to be postponed. The meeting will take the form of a Haiku Workshop and will be led by Peter Mortimer, founder and editor of Iron Press. Both novice and experienced haiku poets will be welcome at this friendly, informal event in the spectacular Tower. There will be an entry fee of £3.00 (£2.00 concession) which includes a donation to the Tower. For further details and to reserve a place, please contact Chris Phillips at chrisphil79 'at' hotmail 'dot' com (you will need to convert the foregoing into computer-recognised input format, of course). A description of the North East Group's inaugural meeting at the same venue in March is immediately below.

Newcastle/Gateshead Regional Group inaugural meeting - 15 March 2009

Group organiser Chris Phillips reports on the first meeting: "Our first Morden Tower workshop went well, thanks to the generosity of Connie Pickard in agreeing to let us use the Tower, and the hard work of Fred Schofield and Martin Lucas who travelled up from Leeds and Preston, respectively, to lead it.

"The day was split into two parts, both generating lots of discussion about how a haiku can be defined. We began by looking at favourite haiku brought along by members, paused for tea and cake, and then moved on to two activities provided by Fred: the first, a collaborative exercise, involved piecing together existing haiku which had been cut up; it was interesting that several new and plausible haiku could be generated. In the second activity, we were each given a list of single lines and asked to form a haiku around any of them. The spontaneity of the poems produced delighted us, with no-one failing to 'score a hit' with at least one of their efforts.

"(Re the second activity: there was concern, initially, that writing in response to a given image, instead of a haiku moment of your own, would not be as successful, in the sense that you have to use your imagination or summon up an event from your past, thereby losing any sense of the 'immediacy' of that moment. However, the effect of the poems on the listeners was, as Martin pointed out, often an immediate and empathetic one. Furthermore, it's not always possible or practical to scribble down your response to an experience immediately, and most haiku therefore rely on a recalled experience.)

"It was lovely to meet new people and share poems and views. Connie has kindly offered Morden Tower as a venue for future haiku workshops, so watch this space: the next one will be in May." If you wish to attend the next meeting, see below for Chris's contact details.

Previous Events - Reports and Photos

To browse an archive of older BHS Events and any accompanying photographs, please click here

Local BHS Groups

At present we have four thriving local regions, London, Kent, Yorkshire/Lancashire and North East (primarily the Newcastle/Gateshead area). There are several other regions of the country with a high concentration of members, where regular local meetings might be viable. Possibilities include South Wales, the West of England, the North/East Midlands, East Anglia and the South Coast. It can be good - both socially and creatively - to meet other haiku poets for activities such as workshops, renga or ginko (haiku composition walks). If you would like support in forming a group in your own area, contact Steve Mason (South & East) on sm at box dot ndo dot co dot uk, Felicity Brookesmith (Kent) on felicity493 at btinternet dot com or Chris Boultwood (North & West) on chris dot boultwood at ukonline dot co dot uk (obviously, you will need to convert each of the foregoing e-mail addresses into computer-readable format before use), and we'll help you set something up.

For information on the North East Group, including details of forthcoming meetings, contact Chris Phillips at chrisphil79 at hotmail dot com (again, you will need to convert this into computer-readable input).