Area 17: Workshop: Alan Summers 'Foraging for Haiku!'

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Workshop: Alan Summers 'Foraging for Haiku!' - ginko (haiku writing walk)

UPDATE!

We had a great group of people, the room we were given was delightful, and at first I wondered if we'd fit everyone in that kept entering. We did okay! Wonderfully looked after by the festival people, and a special thanks to Tony who made sure we had anything we wanted.

After a quick introduction, as we knew two hours would speed by, we set out on a short leisurely walk to Coate Water. It was a stunning sight to reach the lake, it had something about it of the Lake District in Cumbria, and I also expected vikings to appear as it had a touch of the fjords too. Well worth a visit in itself!

Except for one participant no one else had regularly written contemporary haiku. Everyone came back with fieldnotes and poems in progress. I was astonished how so many haiku were created, and innovative ones. If only I was a haiku editor, I would have snapped up so many on the spot.

A big thank you to both the Poetry Swindon Festival organisers, and one of their staff was in our group too, in between running the cafe, and to every single one of the group.

I was both stunned, delighted, and close to tearful over one unexpectedly powerful four line verse with found speech that I would have snapped up on the spot too.

No time to rest after Sunday, a one-to-one haibun class the following in our Chippenham home, the first one, just before major refurbishment!

Alan Summers

ducks©Alan Summers 2018

Alan Summers and Karen Hoy will be at the Poetry Swindon Festival 2018 event!

Foraging for Haiku with Alan Summers
Sunday 7th October 1-3 pm

(meet at the RICHARD JEFFERIES MUSEUM)
http://richardjefferies.org/finding-us

In this indoor/outdoor event, haiku expert Alan Summers will guide you on a "haiku writing walk" or ginko.

The notes collected will form the basis of your own haiku poems for workshopping back at the Museum.

We will start with Alan reading a number of his haiku, and deconstructing these shortest of poems to show how each originated with his observations of life and the environment.

We'll then all go on a haiku walk, known as a ginko in Japan, and make our own observations and field notes as raw ingredients for our own haiku.

A relaxed workshop follows, where Alan, alongside Karen, will lead you through editing and splicing your notes to create an original, resonant haiku of your own.

If you wonder what myself, and Karen, look like, and what a ginko is, check ten minutes into the video, where this walk, back in 2015 was set in Bradford on Avon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VS36AGVI6s

BOOKING for the Swindon Ginko!:
Go to Eventbrite to get your tickets!
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetry-swindon-festival-2018-workshops-passes-tickets-39387665568

Here's a series of screenshots for the festival payment process if you haven't used this system before:

Click onto Tickets which is top right (see screenshot photo below):