| To validate "themed haiku sequences" as suitable for Yellow Moon competitions, Beverley George (Yellow Moon editor) and John Bird (Yellow Moon haiku sequence judge) collaborated to write a number of sequences and submit them to open competitions and for publication. Reproduced here are: |
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Aged in Oak Winter Beach Voices of the Rivers the magpie watcher |
Walking Into Autumn Market Day Counsel of Crows |
Aged in Oak Aged in Oak was published in Stylus No9, November, 2003, and published in Yellow Moon No14, 2003. |
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Winter BeachWinter Beach was highly commended in the Hawkesbury River Writers Competition, 2003, and published in Yellow Moon No14, 2003. |
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Voices of the Rivers
a senryu sequence in three parts by Beverley George & John Bird |
| 1. John Oxley, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, explorer |
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inland sea unfound we turn east to find an ocean clematis clings to escarpment rocks our clawing descent an easterly sings in the casuarinas faint tang of salt storm-torn trees crash all around us I lead the prayers thoughts on India I name this river Hastings we trade a tomahawk for an Aborigine canoe they fear my white horse |
natives hover beyond out campfire's reach Great Dividing Range our victuals: kangaroo emu fish duck a moving feast a zigzag march through rainforest we feed the leeches... Sea View Mount we land-locked mariners feel the ocean's tug North Brother Looms over Watson Taylor's Lake Aborigine dreaming? for this unclaimed land a governor's name I proclaim Port Macquarie |
| 2. Leviston, Aborigine of the Ngamba tribe, blacktracker and bush constable |
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morning birdsong Koori and kangaroo drink the same river three ships voice of our fathers lost in the gale oh, North Brother who will save your brothers from this bad dream prisoners break free I find their tracks at Bonny Hills such thick walls for St Thomas' Church what spirits do they fear? |
we swap an old canoe for Oxley's iron axe his white spirit horse glint of muskets the storm can not hold them away from us Cedar Cutters' Plains four axemen feel the bite of Koori spears Monunggal has caught an escaping prisoner I will not watch bush constable now tea and sugar rations for my gunyah |
| 3. Daniel Watkins, convict prisoner, sawyer |
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the Lady Nelson runs for shelter in Trial Bay a stormy remission hail on our hut I sharpen the saw teeth with a whetstone long stroke of our cross-cut saw the guard lights his pipe a rosewood log floats down the Hastings twilight stretches smoothing adze no splinters for the bums on St Thomas' pews a pardon, free to go home but, oh the smell of eucalypt |
a seasoned sawyer I join the cedar getters no double-irons dawn work parade cedar towering over brush red gold the sledge rings against a splitting-wedge a crow flies off red dust showers my partner in the saw pit a bellbird calls James Simons spread on the triangle again blood fills his boots |
Voices of the Rivers was Highly Commended in the FAW Hastings poetry competition, 2003,
and published in the anthology People Of The Two Rivers.
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Walking Into Autumn ~ a haiku sequence ~ |
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'Walking Into Autumn won the Hawkesbury River Writers competition, 2003, and
was published in Yellow Moon No14, 2003.
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~ Market Day ~ |
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the Salvo band a boy wraps his arms round a watermelon a woman peeps into the tarot tent wind in the bunting a whetstone rasps down the axe blade edge his gnarled thumb reedy harmonica a worldly child holds the busker's hat competing chefs the sparrows served in many languages Horries Handy Tools the ten pound sledge heavily discounted tinkling bells a brass buddha smiles at the rose quartz the village poet recites rude limericks a mynah bird the RSL gun aimed above the markets cormorants fly past |
jewelled slippers in the silk bazaar tang of sandalwood bargain fashions under makeshift cubicles thonged feet shuffle mango smoothie after six samples the kid says no jewellery display the stallholder's navel winks at me Family Pedigrees his cross-eyed bitzer sniffs my calves bouncing castle a pregnant lady enters the boy scout raffle rain clouds the man sings a folk song to bromeliads fading light the hand-knitted toys repacked in tissue voices rise in the emptying car park swirling leaves |
'Market Day' was published in the Karrinyup Writers anthology, Kingfisher, 2003.
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The Counsel of Crows ~ a parallel haiku sequence ~ |
The Counsel of Crows, by Beverley George and John Bird, was published in Yellow Moon No14, 2003. It is an example of the Parallel Collaborative Haiku Sequence, described as 'parallel' because it contains two sequences. Each is meant to be read vertically but there is a relationship between haiku on the same horizontal level.
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~ the magpie watcher ~ |
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his wheelchair crunches pine needles the cries of nestlings morning sunshine inches down the pine a dead fledgling chair brake on the wild flapping of a branchling adults away a dissonant warble from the nest tv antenna the mother calls her offspring into the world gardener's spade the juvenile stalks its mother an erratic swoop the spider repairs its web shortening days through his open window the dawn carol |
'the magpie watcher' was published in Blithe Spirit 15 (1) 2005.
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