New Voices write in Centennial Park

In March I taught a workshop to the New Voices writing group, who meet in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney. Following our heatwaves of summer, we’d had dumpings of rain. I took them for a ginko into Centennial Park, from the Bondi Junction end. Here are our best efforts, with my echo to one of the haikus in each person’s work. 

pressing my nose

to the tree’s trunk -

Maori greeting

Diana

after the rain

blotched lichen on tree trunks

glows, grows.

this bare stick

plaything of dogs

once a flourishing branch

Dexter

yes, always weeds,

happy about the rain -

I also

Diana

A cascade of branches

kissing the earth.

Not bending, connecting

Oliver

it emerges

from under tree-skirts

perky white terrier

Diana

Centennial Park has multiple uses, and users. I love seeing the dogs so happy, free to bound around in a big space, with so many different smells.

burnt branch

shape of an iguana

car revs its nonchalance

Rosalie

like thunder

but more determined

an aircraft coming in

Diana

...and yes, it is a city park.

Poised trembling

Momentarily sun-kissed

A dewdrop waits

Bronze fronds

Spirally wrapped

Uncoil in grace

Haydn

big juicy lillipilli

he picks them

she eats them

Diana

Haydn fortunately knew that it was okay to eat these fruit, which looked like they were dressed for the gym in bright pink lycra.  It brought back childhood memories of what we used to nibble on - we called them “monkey apples” in New Zealand.

Vertical gash

on spotted gum

red sap healing

Through spider’s web

moss encases

rough black trunk

Jennifer

the insects

have come out to play

a break in the rain

Diana

 I wanted to convey to this group that you can write from “don’t know mind” where things present themselves in a bare way.

ash colored curlicue prints

head of leaves

the blue gum is.

Rosalie

Yes, essentially  things just are. “Don’t know” does not mean that you don’t know that it is a blue gum.  Rosalie has captured this sense. Be it human greed or belligerence – that too, just is.

Talk "Haiku in the Tarkine" at Bluegum Sangha, Sydney

Pieman River at Corinna

I'm giving a talk entitled "Haiku in the Tarkine" to the Bluegum Sangha on Tuesday April 18th. They meet at 7pm, at 2 Young St, Neutral Bay. This is an Iyengar Yoga studio. We meditate for about 40 minutes at first, starting I think at 7:20 pm. I will have come straight back from the Frankland River & Tarkine in Motion, so I look forward to telling the gathering about it all.

These photos are of the Pieman River at Corinna, and the lookout near Waratah. Everyone is welcome.

Old growth

Tarkine from lookout near Waratah

clear afternoon -
the smoke of old growth burning
has blown away

Forests are the lungs of the planet. We need them more than ever - the Tarkine is the largest cool temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere. The Bob Brown Foundation is raising money through Pozible, and we need to raise about $17,000 in the next 2 days, or else all the $ raised so far will be relinquished. 
While I've been in Waratah, there's been a haze from the burning of the old growth, which is bulldozed to make way for the Nitins, a hybrid eucalypt from Victoria and plantation tree. This tree does major damage: it sucks up water 20 times faster than the native trees it replaces, thus lowering the water table. It is equipped with natural insecticides which wash into the soil when it rains.
Donate if you can, to:
pozible.com/project...look for Tarkine in Motion

Should the Tarkine transform to this?  on the road to Rosebery

WEA in February - next course May

Gay's drawing of me

The WEA students soaked up the spaciousness of the Botanic Gardens in the middle of Sydney, on their ginko. We’d had several heatwaves, at last some cool weather!

Gawaine Powell Davies wrote this:

Someone

Splashed paint

On those leaves

We wandered towards the bamboo groves near the pond.

kisses under

the bamboo?

JAC loves MEL

Diana

I liked Gay’s approach, which was to respond to the gardens with drawings. In the spirit of first impressions (impressionism?) I wrote a very minimalist

pink on blue

on green on

sunlighted bamboo

I think this suffers from what some people don’t like about haiku: it is a bit thin. 

 But haiku can be a way of bringing you into the present. Gawaine wrote:

Just now, the birds were singing,

And I was here,

Writing this.

And Jan said, when we’d finished, “Wow! I haven’t felt this peaceful for a long time.”

My senryu:

commentary train

an English accent talks of

Aborigines

Well, this is the modern world! We are from everywhere, and a Botanic gardens contains plants from everywhere.

Final words from Trisha, on the study part of the course. We had read a Santoka haiku. She said, “It’s so beautiful it touches me inside – how can I explain how it makes me feel?”

And about the gardens, she said, “This is a magical place”.

Look at that!

I want to say –

divine lotus flowers

Diana

My next course with the WEA starts on Monday May 1^st. It will again be a 5-week course, 9:30 am to 11:30 am. See the WEA website for details.

the ibis chick

shrieks about starvation

Mum honks back

D