June 2018 Meeting

Post date: Jun 30, 2018 6:25:2 PM

Haiku Northwest held its June meeting on Thursday June 28, 2018 at the Kirkland Library. The meeting was led by president Michelle Schaefer with the following people in attendance: Joshua Beach, Terran Campbell, Dianne Garcia, Tanya McDonald, Jim Rodriguez, Ron Swanson, Angela Terry, Kathleen Tice, Richard Tice, Joan Stamm, and Michael Dylan Welch—our largest attendance in a while. Following introductions and a few announcements, including sharing some newly published haiku books, Michael introduced Joan Stamm and she discussed her new book A Pilgrimage in Japan: The 33 Temples of Kannon (available on Amazon). Joan and her sister lived in Japan for several years in the ’90s and Joan said they always look for reasons to go back to visit. This time, over three trips, they made a pilgrimage to 33 of the Buddhist temples dedicated to Kannon (the Goddess of Mercy) spread out across the main island of Japan. She read excerpts from the book, including a few haiku written by her sister Gwen. After Joan finished with her reading, Jim Rodriguez unveiled three paintings of Johnny Baranski he made for Johnny’s family, in remembrance of a dear friend and fellow haiku poet. The group then spent about an hour reading and critiquing the haiku that members had brought to share. Then, to finish the meeting, Michelle offered a writing prompt focused on the summer solstice. She had prepared a worksheet on the background to solstice celebrations, and then we read several solstice-related haiku she had found. We broke into groups of two and worked on solstice haiku together, and then shared the results with the group.