Meetings & Events
At Regency Park.
Photo by Dave
Russo.
Meetings
The North Carolina Haiku Society holds meetings every two months on the dates announced below. The meetings are open to anyone with an interest in haiku, beginner or advanced.
The main event of most meetings will be a workshop in that we discuss haiku that we have written. As you might guess from our web site, the focus of the meetings will be on literary haiku rather than "joke haiku" about spam, computer error messages, and the like. Please see Meeting Format below for details.
| Date of Next Meeting | Saturday, January 14 2012 |
| Time | 12 noon to 2:00 |
| City or Town | We announce the meeting location to our mailing list. You can also Contact Us. |
In general, we'll begin by giving people a chance to ask questions or make comments. Someone might give a brief presentation about haiku or related forms. Then we will move on to the main event: a workshop in that we discuss haiku that we have written.
If you are a free spirit and just want to come and see what happens, welcome!
If you'd like to know a little more about contemporary haiku in English, you could read the topic What's a haiku?, then read the poems on a well-edited haiku site, such as The Heron's Nest or the Harold G. Henderson Memorial Award Collection on the Haiku Society of America web site.
Hope to see you at the meeting!
Ginkos (haiku walks)
Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), one of the "Big Four" of the Japanese haiku masters, thought that haiku poets should practice shasei—"sketching from life"—in order to develop their powers of observation and description. A traditional way to develop these skills is to participate in a ginko, a haiku walk.
NCHS ginkos tend to be informal and democratic. We gather at a location, usually a scenic or historic place, and walk about. We jot down notes about what we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste—as well as thoughts and feelings that arise. After the walk, we turn our notes into haiku and read some of them aloud to the rest of the group. The goal is not to "impress" but to respond to what is around us.
Again: if you are a free spirit and just want to come and see what happens, welcome!
If you'd like to know a little more about contemporary haiku in English, you could read the topic What's a haiku?, then read the poems on a well-edited haiku site, such as The Heron's Nest or the Harold G. Henderson Memorial Award Collection on the Haiku Society of America web site.
About the 5-7-5 syllable count: For the purpose of our ginko, please feel free to keep the familiar 5-7-5 syllable count or adopt the freer form that is typically published in literary journals that focus on haiku written in English, such as Frogpond, Modern Haiku, The Heron's Nest, and others. Since the early years of the 20th century, many poets in Japan and elsewhere have de-emphasized the 5-7-5 pattern in order to focus on other elements of haiku form and tradition. Other poets have broken with tradition in order to seek new possibilities in haiku. For details, see What's a haiku?
| Date of Next NCHS Ginko | To be announced. |
| Time | To be announced. |
| Place | To be announced. Details will be sent to our email list and will also be published in local newspapers. If you are not on the list, you can contact us and ask for directions. See our Contact Us page.
|
Haiku Holiday: April 28, 2012
Overview
Come celebrate the 33rd annual Haiku Holiday with the North Carolina Haiku Society on Saturday, April 28, 2012. Experienced haiku teachers and poets conducted workshops, talks and walks. The event was open to anyone with an interest in haiku, beginner or advanced.
Our first Haiku Holiday took place at Bolin Brook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the United States of America on January 26, 1980. Since then, all of our annual meetings have been held at Bolin Brook Farm—thanks to our gracious host and member since the beginning, Jean Earnhardt. Our Galleries section has a few pictures from past Haiku Holidays. Our Archives page has schedules from those events.
If you are going to participate in a workshop, bring previously written, unpublished haiku—or you can dash one off after the ginko (haiku walk). Membership in the North Carolina Haiku Society is encouraged but not required. There is no membership or registration fee, but small donations will be gratefully accepted at the workshop.
Please:
- Bring a bag lunch.
- Check the weather and dress accordingly. Haiku Holiday is held rain or shine.
Bring One Favorite Haiku on a 3 x 5 Card
Please consider bringing one favorite haiku on a 3 x 5 card. The haiku should be by someone other than yourself. Be sure to include the poet's name on the card, if you know it. The haiku can be on any subject. We'll post these cards around Jean's house for people to read during the day.
Contact
The main contact for this meeting is Dave Russo. See the Contact Us page for my contact information. Feel free to contact me with any questions about the meeting.
Presenters
To be determined.
Our Host
Jean Earnhardt retired in 1995 after 20 years as a hospital PR/marketing director. She received her undergraduate degree in English from Carolina in 1952 and a Masters in Liberal Studies from Duke forty years later. While raising two sons she sold freelance features and photographs to newspapers and tried her hand at short stories and poetry. She lives on an old farmstead which has been in Jean's family for 12 generations. Bolin Brook has hosted the Haiku Holiday since its inception in 1980.
Directions to Bolin Brook Farm
More later, closer to the event.
Schedule for Haiku Holiday on Saturday April 28, 2012
Updated: December 27, 2011
Planning is in progress.
Email List & Facebook Fan Page
We have a low-traffic NCHS email list that we use for meeting announcements and haiku news. This is a one-way list: only the webmaster can post messages. If you would like to join the list, use our NCHS Email List Sign-Up Form.
We have a Facebook fan page as well.
See also Curtis Dunlap's blog, Blogging Along Tobacco Road. Curtis is an NCHS member.