Katikati’s haiku pathway

New Zealand may be a damp place, but its public artworks in places like Katikati make Australia’s Big bananas and their ilk look like civic design by Year 2. I took myself off at Christmas-time to the eastern coast of the north island to visit this town, near Tauranga, so that I could walk its haiku pathway with Marianne. The town is renowned for murals, and we found all kinds of other artworks. In front of the info centre where we called in to ask for directions, a man was sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper. Only his face was bronze -coloured, the rest of him in white metal clothes. Beside him was a small terrier with a ball, undistractable in metal.

According to the interpretive sign we read later, the haiku pathway was the brainchild of Catherine Mair. It follows the Uretara stream (why are there streams in NZ, not creeks? Does a creek vanish in dry times? Streams however are constant here.) The stream allowed the Irish to land and settle here ( not sure what happened to the Maori). This is her haiku, carved into a large river boulder:

nearly tripping me
round my feet
the monarch butterfly

The info centre lady directed us behind the library, past the mosaic work flourishing around the childrens’ play equipment. The first haiku stone was on the corner of the library and it was carved in a beautiful italic script. Marianne especially liked the second one we came across. She’s just completed the Hollyford track in Fiordland, with her walking companions, but is left with a soreness in her foot.

We limped down the stairs towards the stream, she with her aching foot and me with my tender knee. We had our raincoats on for the drizzle that threatened. We came to an open park area, with a concrete path winding along beside the stream and the haiku boulders at strategic intervals. Willow trees were scattered here and there. At the crook of the stream, ducks paddled, looked at us and began to climb out and up the bank. Their hopefulness gave way to caution, and they retreated back into the water. Another duck in the distance made a “V” swimming towards them.

All the haiku on the stones have been previously published, and were chosen from collections.William J Higginson was at the bottom of the stairs - the editor of so many collections.


I loved this. It’s a haiku with much resonance - not easily understood. Those were my favourites on the walk. You could come back to them at a later date and revolve them in your mind. We wandered along reading the haiku. In some places the stones were blank, and had simply been arranged into beautiful arrangements. It brought to mind a story I read about zen master Shunryu Suzuki, the founder of San Francisco Zen Centre. In transplanting zen from Japan to the U.S. he also brought a very fine aesthetic - he sweated and laboured over the particular placement of a stone at Tassajara zen centre.

Marianne and I compared notes: did we like this one or that one? She found a haiku spread on one line, about a heron flying along the water, too anorexic. But I rather liked the image. Further along haiku bricks had been set into the path. These were haiku that had been chosen from a competition. It was good to be able to make a comparison with those that had been through a double layer of selection. Some of them, such as :

‘conversion -
the ray of sun strikes
between the goal posts’

is too obscure for me, because I don’t know enough about rugby, the national passion. We talked about this. Is there a wry comment about something here, that I am missing? But does it matter that I don’t get it? Thousands of aficionados of the game will. We talked about what ‘conversion’ means. My apologies to the poet of this witty haiku if I have not quite got your wording. My camera ran out of poop, and also I could not read your name on the brick.

We came to a place where there was a mounting for a bridge. This might be the spot where a rather lovely little pedestrian bridge had been, removed because structural flaws were found in it recently. the bridge would have taken you to the other side of the stream where the pathway continued towards the highway. We wandered on, reading the paving stone haiku and the boulder haiku, delighted by the stone which faced the housing development on the other side of the stream:

on the farmlands
new homes
slowly rising

Patricia Prime NZ


It sums up a whole complex of things in 10 syllables. Fantastic. I thought I could see across the stream into one of these comfortable houses, through the tinted glass to someone at a kitchen bench.

We found another undernourished haiku all in one line. Marianne said, “If I had a kid in my class who wrote that, I would think about it overnight and come up with a line for it in the morning”. For my money, the haiku that sets the scene but not too specifically, and then leaves a lingering haze in my mind, which is not quite in focus, is the best. It conveys mujo, impermanence, and how provisional things are - like the bridge, and the names of authors on haiku bricks. But this one

“A breeze and then my mind wanders on”

(a poet from the US, apologies sir, I didn’t write your name or haiku down correctly.)
is vague but commits what I consider to be a haiku sin. It is rather too self-conscious. There is great awareness of consciousness but little of nature.

We had by now walked through town, crossed Highway 2, walked past another mural being put up and the seal carved from a huge lump of wood with a chainsaw, and back down to the stream. The path here blends haiku with a bird walk.The beginnings of it have both haiku stones and sculptures - to my delight, the first sculpture was the karearea or native falcon, life-size, and there was an interpretive sign. They are ‘acutely threatened”, and can do 230kms per hr, when hunting. They take birds, but also rats, rabbits, mice. My haiku, for what its worth:

A hawk surveys
the path and stream
for smaller pickings

DL

Here’s a link to the website for the pathway:

www.katikati.co.nz/kk_text/haiku.html

We didn’t see it all. It is something you could return to, and wander and ponder. There are benches placed everywhere too, for picnics and just sitting and gazing. In the distance the Kaimai mountains were wreathed in cloud. Here is a haiku by one of the best (in my opinion) Australian haiku poets, Janice Bostok, who sadly passed away last year:

sleeping horse -
angled bones lean
into the summer sun

The Elders walk to the Gardens of Stone

The yatra for the elders in our community took place last Sunday in windy conditions. Despite that, the group opted to walk along the ridge- top at Newnes plateau, trusting me when I said that the destination was rather good. "But be mindful of each and every step!"






We had the good fortune to have Donald Elniff on the walk with us. We did tai ch'i with him in a clearing beside a huge old tree. It was a skilful way in to Broad Mind, the mind that is spread right across the body. And to be taught moves such as 'flowing over a waterfall' ( I think that's right) , and to be centred in the dan t'ien, helped to locate us right where we were, in Mingaan country.

I found this track with the help of my good friend Kate Litchfield (below).

It is discouraging to see the degradation caused by trailbikers on this ridge. The tracks weave in and out, and the rubbish carelessly tossed aside is an indicator of the lack of genuine connection to the land - it is only there for your recreational pleasure. Ok - that's my rave - I could also say that I experienced aversion and a hot series of thoughts when I saw the damage.
But then there is also this rusted twisted fender, some decades later...

So many delights along the way; I think I saw a flame robin.
and I loved the rivulets running down the road.















What else can I add? It was a terrific group of people. Other animals had been trotting along the road too, as we saw from the tracks and prints in the sandy soil. Perhaps dingos - a kangaroo - a large lyrebird, with its distinctive back claw print.

Oh - another total joy - pagoda daisies.

The next yatra, for the middlin' level of fitness, is on Saturday October 22. We'll start at Linden railway station at around 8 a.m. but contact me first, on 0432-619-305 or diana.r.levy@gmail.com, or 4751-3935. This yatra is longer with about 6 hours of walking , none of it too difficult. There is a pool - swims are possible - and we will have time for seated meditation as well. The day should finish around 4 pm.

There are some very good websites which can show you some of the longer yatras that have taken place in Australia. Try dharma.org.au, and have a look at the art works which have been inspired by the walks. Also have a look at About Yatra, Carol Perry's piece is a clear explanation of what we are connecting with when we walk silently and mindfully with each other, in country. At the dharma gathering ( see dharma.org.au for the link) she leads a yatra to the beach.
Here is the link to the Encounter programme on ABC Radio National, which featured yours truly and my collaborator in April, Gary Gach, and others. The subject was Buddhist poetry.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/stories/2011/3294311.htm

Taking time
to sniff a boronia
I make myself late

ABC interview

Small biplane
dragonfly tries
to find the moon

Recently ABC radio interviewed me for their programme "Encounter". The programme was about Buddhist poetry and I was one of the poets, along with Gary Gach, Jane Hirschfield, Tash Sudan, and Bill Porter. I took Kerry Stewart the producer on a ginko along a ridge in the Blue Mountains, talked haiku. You can find this programme by going to the ABC website , look for Radio National , then go to 'Encounter', and thence to Buddhist Poetry in the index. Wish I knew how to link it to this blog.
Your chance to go for a ginko wander is in 2 weeks, Sat October 8. What a good way to forget the woes of the world for a while!

Yellow inside
the broken egg
beneath the tree

SPRING GINKO

creek's mirror:
rain circles in the sky,
the currawong call.

Christopher McLean

What a beautiful haiku, suggesting so much, and across the different senses. It lingers. Christopher wrote this at the playshop with myself and Gary Gach, back in April.

But now the sap is rising - my peach tree is giddy with blossoms - hover flies and bees are drunk with the amount of burrowing into blooms! Insects are re-appearing, wattle trees are gorgeous in their Tour de France yellows, birds in their mad mating dashes are here ..... gone! And splashes of warm days amid the occasional frost all make for renewal, our creative juices rise up. So set forth with me in October , when I will again be offering a ginko at Lawson in conjunction with Ben Roberts café.
Sat October 8, with meditation beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Guide Hall, and then the playshop will begin at 9:30 a.m. at Ben Roberts, where we’ll have a civilized morning tea to begin our look at how to express spring. The ginko (haiku walk) will proceed from there, no need to hop into a car first.
Main details:
• Sat October 8th, 9:30am - 2 pm.
• $100 (conc. avail.)
• children over 8 years welcome
• lunch at Ben Roberts café ($12.50) optional. Bookings essential
• Book in by September 9th, numbers limited
• meditation ( optional) before and afterwards
• Ph. Diana 02-4751-3935, mob. 0432-619-305, diana.r.levy@gmail.com

A recent haiku.…

Bert’s old fence
wire slackened and curling out
cannot hold the wind
DL

BM YATRA and ELDERS YATRA

I will again be offering a Blue Mountains yatra, a day of mindful walking. The date is October 22, and I was out and about, looking for a secluded but well-formed , gentle yet spectacular, warm but not too hot, trail for meditators and poets alike. And I found it!

• meet Linden railway station northern carpark, 8a.m.
• $20 to cover costs
• walking meditation
• seated meditation, swimming meditation as well!
  
• for people of middlin' levels of fitness
  

I am also going to offer a yatra for elders, on Sunday 9 October. The walk will be about 2 to 3 hours in length and easy. We will be most fortunate in doing tai ch'i with teacher Donald Elniff. He has spent decades of learning this movement art from great teachers in Taiwan, and now teaches in the upper mountains. And, as always, we will meditate in nature. The track I have in mind is in Lithgow near the Newnes plateau. Because there are 2 small challenging sections gradient -wise, ( that is to say, they go up) after a creek crossing, it is a Grade 1-2 walk. Otherwise the walk is on a well-formed track along a creek, with gorgeous cliffs either side. It is close to the town, so those people who want to catch a train there and back, will have no transport hassles.

• $20
• walking, meditation, tai ch'i
• easy grade walk
• bring lunch and morning tea
• meet 9 a.m. Lithgow Station north side
  

Please give me a call or email about any of these offerings. Gassho, D

May yatra

Sydney was experiencing cold windy weather, the week of the yatra. And so it was, on Saturday May 14. The wind was whipping through the carpark at Wentworth Falls, so we wanted to get going as soon as we could. My car had a little connniption in the battery department, but after we connected it via jumper leads to Jeremy’s car, all was well and we drove to the trackhead without incident. I had been anticipating traffic on the road from the North Face 100 km endurance race, but that didn’t manifest till the afternoon.
The track-head is about 600 metres above sea-level, and it was sheltered, so it was a relief to be out of the cold. Nevertheless the cold had penetrated my bones so I set a fairly cracking pace. We set off as a silent group of 8 walkers at 9:25 a.m.
We were walking along an out -of- the -way but well maintained fire trail. There were no other people on the track all day. I was looking out for the fungi which had been such a feature of the track a few weeks previously. But they were almost all shrivelled back into the earth from whence they came - fruit of the threadlike mycelium.
I feel passionately that students of the dharma do better if they use their bodies well, and if stretching and exercise is incorporated as a formal part of any programme. This is the case whether the main focus is sitting meditation or walking. Sitters get sore knees; walkers get sore backs, shoulders and feet. Consequently I led a short stretching session once we had walked for about 15 minutes and were warm. I had been to a retreat with Kit Laughlin and Patrick Kearney in April, so had a few novel stretches up my sleeve. Although the walk was an easy gradient, it was long, so I wanted us all to get the best out of our bodies and place each step with care and mindfulness.
We made a few stops along the way to pay attention to the forest with particular senses. Then at about 11: 30 a.m., we caught a glimpse of Burragorang dam, and McMahon’s point.
But only at the rock platform 15 minutes later could we also see the surrounding landmarks, and the upper reaches of the dam where it is clearly a river, the Cox’s, making it’s serpentine way between the hills. It was sad to have to report that this rock, which is a rather important Gundungurra site, had been damaged when a bulldozer drove straight across it some time before. The driver had not been told to avoid it by the relevant government authority - the National Parks and Wildlife Service. I had met the bulldozer driver previously on the road, and he seemed a really decent chap who would not want to damage heritage. I invited the group to remove their shoes and walk the way that Gundungurra did in country - with bare feet. The sandstone felt cold underfoot.

We each found possies out of the wind and to eat our lunch. While I looked out at the Wild Dogs way in the distance, and Mt. Mouin, I remembered that all of those peaks were named Meeouwin by early Gundungurra informants. But somehow that was corrupted to Mouin, and that name was only applied to the peak next to Medlow Gap, which is shaped a like a fedora and stands apart. Those who have the power, get to name the landscape.
We could not stop as long as I would have liked, because of the wind. To keep us warm I added an extra 30 minutes of walking - sorry Fran!
Along the ridge there are stretches of beautiful groves of angophoras.
The walk back is usually a fairly direct affair I find. When you’re riding a horse, and you’re going home, all it wants is to be back in its home paddock. We stopped for a sharing circle - and sat in the sunny spots created by the cleared area underneath the power-lines, to have afternoon tea. The lines buzzed in a strange way - it is almost an eerie sound that emanates from them ( does electro-magnetic radiation also emanate?) as though from another world, whereas in fact it is the sound made by the burning of coal and boiling of water. Natural - and not natural.
When we were nearly ‘home’ I showed the group what lycopodium looks like. They look like a kind of moss, and this is in fact their family. In the carboniferous period, these plants were as large as trees. They are from an ancient plant family, the club mosses.
Back at the cars, some expressed regret that the walk was over - some relief - some commented that, in silence, we formed a group rather than a number of individuals. Cath was deeply enamoured of the angophoras - and along the ridgetop there is one stretch where many dwarfs wiggle their way out of poor shallow soils.
We were back at Wentworth Falls before 5 pm, and in time to reward ourselves with hot chocolate and chips at a local café.

This walk was 17 km long. I’m encouraged to offer another yatra later in the year for a similar level of fitness, though I would also like, if there is enough interest, to run a yatra for those who could only manage a small easy walk. For unwell, unfit or elderly people, I would be happy to offer a short yatra, which might incorporate more standing and seated meditation . Please email me if this would be your style, and if there are enough people I’ll organise it.

Poetry reading on Friday night 20th May

I will be reading some poems along with Pip Griffin (verse novel "Ani Lin") at the Sydney Zen Centre on Friday 14th May, starting at 7:30 p.m. I'll be reading my "Tao -Jones Indexes" which was shortlisted in the Newcastle Poetry prize in 1999 and published in the anthology. Also some other things. Pip's verse novel is a beautiful narrative set in the southwest corner of China around the turn from the 19th into 20th century. Be there 7:20 pm for a 7:30 start - we will begin with a period of zazen ( meditation).
The zendo is in Annandale at 251 Young St, on the corner with Arguimbeau St. The SZC women's group will provide refreshments afterwards. No charge.

Autumn Rain

30th April dawned dry, but the week had been wet and the forecast was not promising. Undaunted, about seven or eight meditators converged on the Guide Hall at Lawson to begin the day. I felt quite nostalgic, as this was the venue for the zen group that I led a few years back. And there was the Queen above the door - appropriate given that the nuptials of her grandson were broadcast the night before.
At Ben Roberts café there were ten of us, enjoying their atmosphere and delights. As we sat there cosily drinking beverages and listening to Gary talk about the breath and writing, I noticed the rain gradually pull up its chair outside. When it came time for the ginko, two people elected to observe nature from the verandah of ‘Heatherbrae’, a grand old place which the Council intends to spruce up for community use. But the rest of headed out in rain garments of various sorts. We walked first along the commemorative walk of Honour Pde.


patches of sky

among soggy red leaves

 rain puddles

Brent Couper

I fairly quickly found that my pen wouldn’t work in the rain. So I had to follow my own advice about John Shaw Nielson, the poet jackaroo who would remember his poems and work on them in his head. I found it quite hard to do. Pre-literate peoples are very good at the act of remembering, but we have lost it. I love using my pen and the act of writing.

Toadstools
bright children’s toys
cupping endless rain...

Ruby Levy-Stephens


We walked on down to the creek, through a bush regeneration area. As leader I have to keep tabs on everyone, especially since there were a couple of roads and crossings to navigate.

Seven writers...
five writers...
the rain heavier.

We all turned back before I could take everyone onto the golf course and along the bush track. It was enough to have seen the stream, the trees, the rosellas and king parrots, listened to the drips on leaves and felt the squelch in the path.


Soft rain
hard asphalt -
drowned earthworms

Diana

After we'd consumed lovely hot drinks and juices back at Ben Roberts, we got to work on the hard part - which is, editing. Gary's idea was to put a haiku onto a whiteboard and allow everyone to ruminate on it. Verity and Margaret had done their writing on the verandah, and we began to look at one of Verity's poems to see whether there were too many words in it - how those words could be arranged - what order they came in - whether other words could be used. It was a fascinating exercise, and naturally the final version came down to the poet herself.

discarded

pink sock
vacant verandah


Verity Roberts

We workshopped a poem of Ruby's , about the parrots flying out of a tree. That haiku didn't come together - it was time to have lunch. Conversation around the table flew in all sorts of directions. We could now be as rowdy as other diners. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this work in Ben Roberts, with its art works everywhere, and the convivial style of meeting and eating. Thanks to Carolynne and her staff for their hospitality , great food, and especially to Carolynne for her enthusiastic encouragement of the idea.