Another Beautiful Meeting in the Blue Room, Pacific Asia Museum, Sept 18, 2010

In the Blue Room at the Pacific Asia Museum,








while our wonderful moderator, Deborah P. Kolodji and many of our members were attending the Asilomar Haiku Retreat in Northern California, a smaller group of us kept the haiku fire alive in Southern California. Phyllis Collins beautifully managed the session, introducing a lovely kigo discussion and overview of the season, to which many contributed natural developments of our Southern California environment at this time. Phyllis brought some fascinating haiku books for perusing and as we shared two rounds or our newly written work, a few using special poems they were attracted to in the journals. We sipped tea and shared seaweed snacks and tamari almonds, and other sweets as we collected our cards and began our interesting writing session. Our meetings held in such a beautiful museum enhances the experience. We wander in the courtyard where koi swim, and new flowers bloom, small waterfalls sound and excite the imagination. This day was especially unusual,there was a performance by dancers and orchestra of Los Angelos Indonesian Culture Center, and the drums and bells could be heard even from our Blue Room writing table! The contrast between the quiet light in this inner room, compared with the bright and colorful costumes and lights outside was remarkable. The colors and sounds permeated many of our haiku! The anonymous reading proceeded to the Indonesian tunes but clearly spoken by our reader, and our interesting discussions complemented our appreciation as we listened and considered. We are all looking forward to the Book Launch Reading of our Southern California Haiku Study Group sponsored Anthology, "An Island of Egrets" this Sunday, September 26, 2 PM in the Japanese gallery of the Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave, Pasadena, CA 91101. We are also looking forward to hearing the stories of our friends in Asilomar! It was a special feeling of simultaneity... our haiku spoken in the Blue Room simultaneously with our friends afar on their adventure in the sea air of blue haiku shores of Northern California.