White Pebbles
Convenor: Beverley George
In the winter poem many of us are familiar with, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening , the poet stops on the darkest evening of the year, ‘to watch his woods fill up with snow’. Like the poet, Robert Front, the White Pebbles Haiku Group stopped to watch the winter scene unfolding at the Gosford /Edogawa Japanese Gardens on the Central Coast this past Saturday 15th June just a week out from the dark and shortest day of the year (Winter Solticies this year June 20/21st )
We all look forward to our meetings and our winter ‘stopping’ was no exception.
This is our second winter walk together. ; with Beverley George our leader, present were Verna Rieschild, Marilyn Humbert, Maire Glacken. Samantha Hyde, Colleen Keating with a heart-felt apologies from Gail Hennessy and Kent Robinson.
We began our morning with a welcome coffee and catch-up in the cafe sharing some newly published work and thoughts from our ‘homework,’ – a handout that Beverley emailed earlier to help us prepare.
We spent about forty minutes contemplatively moving around the garden, walking, sitting, pondering, jotting down thoughts and ideas for haiku writing; Today the cheeky plowers were busy, their call ringing out continuously. Lingering leaves from the maple trees were drifting down many children were feeding the the koi , ducks were active catching most of the food and the light playful nature of the children reminded us winter is only a season not an age.
Some of the group sat in the open tea room overlooking the white pebble beach, Some took advantage of sitting in the winter sun under the climbing wisteria.
After our ginko (season walk) we are privileged, each visit to enjoy a quiet working space in the Art Gallery and we gathered at the round table to share our writing and work sheets.
Beverley introduced the group to Haiga inspiring us with her beautiful greeting cards. We had all done our homework which was to bring a winter scene and our haiku to go with it and at our sharing time it was enlightening to discuss our work . Next meeting we will continue to work with more haiga.
We marvelled at the rich and varied takings from our winter observations. We are encouraged and affirmed by our sharing. We left inspired in our haiku writing and look forward to our spring meeting Saturday 14th September 2019.
Just one final observation since our Autumn meeting a new gengo (era) has been declared with the new reigning Emperor. Reiwa was announced and is based on the Manyo-shin – Japan’s oldest Anthology of Poems. It means that culture can grow when people sincerely care about each other. What beautiful sentiment and hope for our world.
Some stayed to enjoy the choices from the delicious lunch menu in the cafe.
Colleen Keating ( White Pebbles Haiku Group)
