October 21, 2006 - Workshop and Kukai

Pacific Asia Museum Courtyard

The Southern California Haiku Study Group met for the first time in its new home at the Pacific Asia Museum on Saturday, October 21st. Shown above are (top row)Victor Ortiz, (second row) Peggy Hehman-Smith, Kathy Wilson, Linda Galloway, Debbie Kolodji, Tom Bilicke, D'Ellen Hutchens, Nardin Gottfried (bottom row) Wendy Wright, Vic Gendrano, and Darrell Byrd. Not shown but present were Kraig Keeler, Inez, and Mimi Ortiz. Everyone enjoyed tea, cookies, sesame and rice crackers, haiku sharing, haiku workshop, and a kukai.

Some kigo appropriate for October discussed were:

The Season: autumn, autumn dusk, Indian summer

Sky and Heavens: fire sky, Santa Ana winds, starless sky, Orionids

Mountains and Fields: brush fires, harvest

Flowers and Plants: last tomatoes, honey locust blooms, scented angel trumpets, pumpkins, changing leaves

Birds and Animals: returning seagulls, white pelican, widowed mockingbird, deer mating, crow convention

Human Affairs: baseball, football, lobster season, Halloween

Some sample haiku from our kukai:

highway fog
the honking of geese
homeward bound

- Darrell Byrd

starless sky
my son tells me
he's moving out

- Deborah P Kolodji

morning boats
my dreams
in lobster cages

- Victor Ortiz

SCHSG at Asilomar

Linda Galloway signing the season...spring

Amidst Monterey pines, raccoon, and Arts and Crafts architecture, the annual Yuki Teikei Haiku Retreat took place the end of this September at Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds.

Four of our SCHSG travelled north to participate—Linda Galloway, Peggy Hehmann-Smith, Nardi Gottfried, and Wendy Wright. Joining them was Jerry Ball Doijin Emeritus of SCHSG, recently re-located to Walnut Creek, who drove down to everyone's delight.

Our own Linda Galloway gave a presentation on Sign Language and Haiku to an enthusiastic and engaged audience.

Tei Matsushita Scott (www.matsushita.com) led everyone in several hands-on painting workshops, The Fusion of Poetry and Painting.

One evening everyone sat rapt with Ellen Brooks who talked about and performed Noh Dancing.

There were the inevitable camp mascots, raccoons, who were eager to join in all activities, especially a nighttime bonfire filled with cocoa, singing, poetry and joke telling. And, of course, there were numerous ginkos and haiku sharing.

Emiko Miyashita led one kukai where entrants had to use the following three words in a haiku "sun, "shine" and"surf".

summer sun --
her bling bling outshines
the surf

--linda galloway

October 21, 2006 - Meeting Notice

The Blue Room at the Pacific Asia Museum

Starting with the October 21st workshop and kukai, the Southern California Haiku Study Group will be meeting on the third Saturday of every month from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. in the Blue Room at the Pacific Asia Museum, 46 North Los Robles, Pasadena.

There is a kitchen we will be able to use to prepare tea. The garden in the museum courtyard is only a few stairs away, easily accessible for the reflective writing part of our workshop and kukai.

Parking is free but you will need to ask for a token at the front desk to exit the parking lot. The museum is within a short walking distance of the Memorial Park station of the Gold Line.

When you arrive at the museum, there will be a sign-in sheet at the front desk. Tell the desk attendant that you are here for the haiku workshop and you will be directed into the central courtyard. Take the stairs on the left to reach the blue room.

Please bring kigo appropriate to the season and any haiku you have written recently.

Pacific Asia Museum Courtyard
Stairs Leading to Blue Room

Goodbye, Rengé

David Priebe (Rengé), 1937-2006

David Priebe died on Friday, September 15, 2006, after a long illness. Even with his weakening condition, he would drive to the monthly meetings of the Southern California Haiku Study Group. He was on a waiting list for a kidney that never arrived. Each time we saw David he seemed to be more pallid.

David had been the publisher of the international magazine, Haiku Headlines, founded in April, 1988. In the last issue of February, 2006, he apologized for its late publication. (It appeared in April)

In that issue he wrote, “Since the first of the year, I have been hospitalized seven times, including a bout with pneumonia, twice hemodialysis shunt repairs, 12 days in a convalescent home, and subsequent days of weakness after dialysis 3 times a week . . . 38 days away from my computer... But I’m feeling stronger every day and once again feel motivated to resume the Headlines where I left off. . .” Sadly, David did not produce any more issues. He included this haiku from his last publication:

Instead of quitting
because of my failing health:
Rage on, Haiku-san!

And others from his published works:

Another sky bird
Lights atop the deodar
And one flies away

Cemetery pond
Lilies of the Nile blaring
their purple trumpets

David starting writing haiku when he was 20, accounting for 86 volumes, 14,495 haiku and 5 published books. The last SCHSG meeting he attended was in April, 2006, at the Food Court next to Borders Book Store in Cerritos.

David’s wife, Maria, to whom he had been married since 1960, died in 1997. This union propagated five children––Aida, Rosemary, Holly, Marshall and Todd––thirteen grandchildren and one great grandchild. David was buried on his 69th birthday.

- Margaret Hehman-Smith

Tribute Haiku for David by SCHSG Members:

the last of the ink
from his "Haiku Headlines" pen
news of his passing

- Victor Ortiz

cemetery pond
a family’s tears pooling
together

- Deborah P Kolodji

on a summer breeze
goes a message of love
for David

- Margaret Hehman-Smith

the hummingbird flies
with a falling leaf
news of his passing

- Vic Gendrano

cool hotel lobby
I watch the traffic passing
and remember you

- Tom Bilicke