Sunday 21 October 2018

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival


I'm delighted to receive an honourable mention in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Awards for this haiku:

at her bedside
a child she once knew
cherry blossoms

Hazel Hall
Australia








Thursday 18 October 2018

Moonlight over the Siding

I'm thrilled that my collection of published tanka, Moonlight over the Siding was recently accepted for publication by Interactive Press. Each subsection has a coloured image by the late Robert (Bob) Tingey, Antarctic geologist and author of The Geology of Antarctica (1991). Thanks to his wife Nancy for photographing the images. Bob received the Australian Antarctic Medal for services to Australia's Antarctic Program in 1990. Thanks to IP publisher Dr David Reiter for designing the beautiful cover.

Not surprisingly, one of the Bob's best known images is 'Antarctic Waters'. It has been exhibited in the gallery at the Visitors' Centre in the National Botanic Gardens. Here is the poem I chose for it:

beneath the breakers
a hermit crab chooses
an empty shell
I didn't appreciate
the depth of your pain


Click these links to find out more:







Step By Step

Recently I collaborated with Angelina Egan to produce a chapbook of Tai Chi steps (Yang form), Step by Step. It shows the 24 steps, demonstrated by Angie and photographed by her daughter Bethany, with a meditative haiku related to each one. An inexpensive gift for Tai Chi lovers.


My gratitude to fellow poet Gregory Piko who read and commented before printing and has reviewed Step by Step  on his website:


Thanks also to Chrissi Villa, editor of the online haiku and tanka journal Frameless Sky,who featured a full video of Step by Step, read by me and demonstrated by Angie.