BHS North East Regional Group - Workshop at Morden Tower, Newcastle, 27 Sep 2009

The next haiku workshop will be on Sunday, 27 September, at Morden Tower in Newcastle, from 2-5 pm.

For the first part of the day, please provide a haiku of your own on any topic. Each poem will be discussed in turn. Please e-mail your haiku beforehand to Chris Phillips at chrisphil79 'at' hotmail 'dot' com (you will need to convert the foregoing into computer-recognised input format, of course) so that it can be written up for display. The theme of the second part is 'City Haiku' (this activity was left over from our last meeting when the first part over-ran). We will briefly discuss some published City haiku and then, after a short walk around the immediate area (mainly the Chinese Quarter), head back to the Tower to compare notes/impressions and start penning our own.

The cost is £3 (£2 unwaged), which will be donated to Morden Tower to help with its running costs. (A hot drink and cake/biscuits are included.)

Please also e-mail Chris (address above) as soon as possible if you are likely to be attending.

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

We gathered at one o’clock at Park House in Leatherhead for this 'expedition for beginners', organised by Diana Webb.. There were fifteen BHS members, one ex-BHS member and sixteen other interested people, in groups designed to have an equal mix. Diana provided a very useful set of notes for everyone. This included quotations helpful in encouraging an openness to and awareness of special ‘moments’. There were also 24 haiku as examples for beginners and some extra notes on generally accepted features of what haiku should be.

Having read these with a bit of discussion we were ably guided by Tony Marcoff on a walk beside the mill pond and around marshy meadows. Tony, like Diana, is a resident of Leatherhead and was able to supply interesting information on the walk and the town. The pace was perfect for walking, talking, jotting and identifying the flora. Then back to Park House for rest, refreshment and further jotting.

The second walk headed over the bridge and along the river Mole. On this stretch there were small weirs and wooded islands reminding me how very green Surrey is. Remarkably, all this is very close to the centre of Leatherhead – a wonderful resource for the inhabitants ... and us. Crossing the river we headed back along a road for a short way and then through a magical sloping garden with lavender lanes running down to the river again. One particular spot gave the best view ever along the river with a weeping willow in the distance.

In the evening about forty people gathered in the Green Room of Leatherhead Theatre. Firstly eight of us read our own mid summer haiku in turn, interspersed with the sounds of the flute (Steve Mason) and various other musical and percussive instruments. This was followed by a programme of readings from fifteen BHS members including haiku, haibun, renku and tanka.

The evening ended with expressions of pleasure from the audience and some addresses were exchanged. Diana’s organisation and Tony’s sensitive guidance made the afternoon and evening a very pleasurable experience and a great success.

On Sunday seven of us walked to Bockett’s Farm, a place where the public can see the working of a farm more closely and meet the animals. We passed fields of cultivated elder bushes and had good views over the valley. We walked back a different way and after a pleasant time in a pub garden we parted company, well pleased with the weekend.

Diana informs me that of the 32 people on the afternoon walks, 26 have so far sent her haiku written on, or from the experience of that day. She hopes to put together a small booklet to catch the sense of that particular afternoon on the footpaths around Leatherhead. This would include one haiku per person from everyone who has sent some in.

Earth - the 2009 BHS Members' Anthology theme

Calling all BHS members! That is, fully paid-up members only. It is time for you to submit your entries for this year's Members' Anthology. The theme this year is 'earth', but the word earth is not to be included in the haiku. The Deadline for receipt is 1st August 2009. Send up to 4 unplublished haiku, marked Members' Anthology on the envelope, to Ian Turner, 14 Bushell Place, Avenham, Preston PR1 3TQ, UK. Or email: ianturner50 at btinternet dot com (as usual, you will need to convert that into an intelligible email address). If you want a reply to snail-mail submissions, you must include an SAE (in UK) or two IRCs (rest of the world).

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.

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).