September 16, 2006 - Workshop and Kukai

Asian Heritage Festival - Haiku Information Table
Vic Gendrano, Peggy Hehman-Smith, Nardin Gottfried,
Linda Galloway, Kendall Evans, Debbie Kolodji

The Southern California Haiku Study Group participated in the Asian Heritage Festival at the Queen Mary in Long Beach on Saturday, September 16th. We prepared a haiku information table and answered questions from people who stopped by. We also encouraged our table visitors to try their own hands at haiku. Ferdi Ihdianto, a political science student at UCLA, wrote the following:

the wind blows
merchants are busy
picking up flyers

- Ferdi Ihdianto

This haiku perfectly describes our constant battle with the sea winds which kept blowing our flyers off the table.

In the afternoon, we had a workshop and kukai. Darrell Byrd, Peggy Hehman-Smith, Kendall Evans, Linda Galloway, Vic Gendrano, Janis Lukstein, and Debbie Kolodji participated in the kukai. Nardin Gottfried minded the table and fielded questions from the public.

We discussed the season's kigo. Here are a few of the kigo discussed:

The Seasons: summer's end, cooler nights, beginning of autumn

Sky and Heavens: shortening days, autumn light, autumnal equinox, wind in dry leaves

Mountains and Fields: dry grass, brush fires, harvest, sand

Flowers and Plants: apples, acorns, squash, pumpkins, red leaves

Birds and Animals: crickets, grasshoppers, gathering squirrels

Human Affairs: back-to-school, evenings at home, chimney sweep, furnace cleaning, new shoes

Here are a couple of haiku which received votes at the kukai:

Boyhood home
Shape of my old mare’s nose
in the salt lick

- Darrell Byrd

pecking pigeon
making a cracker
dance to the death

- Janis Lukstein

Our day at the Asian Heritage Festival closed with a poetry reading near the stern of the Queen Mary. Amy Uyematsu, the author of Stone Bow Prayer, was the featured reader. Albert Kung and Vic Gendrano read next, followed by other members of the Southern California Haiku Study Group. A row of pelicans watched us from their perches on one of the anchor lines of the Queen Mary, prompting this haiku:

row of pelicans
on the anchor line
a poet's audience

- Deborah P Kolodji

Vic Gendrano, Amy Uyematsu, Debbie Kolodji,
Linda Galloway, Nardin Gottfried, Albert Kung