BHS North East Haiku Workshop

The second BHS North East Haiku Workshop to be held at Newcastle's Morden Tower on 24 May 2009 proved popular, with many new faces turning up. Peter Mortimer, founder and editor of Iron Press, led the afternoon, not an easy task given our varied levels of experience. What was lovely was how quickly our reserve faded and trust developed, so that we felt able to express our opinions without fear of giving offence. This was in no small part owing to Pete's friendly, enthusiastic but, overall, sensitive approach. Well done, Pete!

People brought along two haiku, one by themselves (optional) and one other. There was no theme (despite the apparent emergence of one in the haiku below). The workshop was supposed to be in two parts: a discussion of the haiku, followed by a ginko in the local area and the writing of city haiku. The discussion took longer than expected, however, so the walk has been postponed until our meeting in September.

I should like to thank Connie Picard for her continued kindness in allowing the haiku workshops to take place at Morden Tower. All proceeds from the entry fee were donated to the upkeep of the Tower.

Some haiku from the day:

So many birds on the walnut bough!
Has the tree grown birds
or the walnuts wings?
Alireza Hassani

on the path
trodden on unseen
a white down feather
Jean McCallum

cherry petals
dance in the spring wind-
my thrush sings
Mandana Mashayekhi

A happin' o' fog is aal noo thor is
Wheer warriors fo't an' dee'd, thor
Dreamin' an' ettlin
Bill Griffiths
(After Basho: summer grasses all that remains of soldiers' dreams)


Thank you to everyone present for making the day so enjoyable.

Chris Phillips (Co-ordinator)