TANDEM
HAIKU DAY
Daniel Gallimore, UK
Oxford mental health charity Tandem organised its second "Tandem Haiku
Day" on Saturday 22nd June. About twenty participants gathered in Iffley
Church Hall, Oxford, for a day of haiku under the tutelage of Susumu Takiguchi.
Only three of us had ever written haiku before. Tandem provides a befriending
service for people who have become socially isolated due to mental health
problems. The purpose of the Day, therefore, was to promote awareness of both
the World Haiku Club and of Tandem, and to promote the appreciation of haiku
among people with an interest in, or experience of, mental illness.
The Day opened with an introduction to haiku by Susumu followed by a sushi lunch
provided by local restaurant Gashi Gashi. After lunch, there was a free writing
session by the River Thames at picturesque Iffley Lock. Participants then heard
a paper from organiser, Daniel Gallimore, exploring the possible relationships
between haiku and mental health, and after tea, we had a go at unravelling
anagrams of classical and contemporary haiku before Susumu announced winners of
the competition for the best haiku of the day. These are listed below.
The Day was generously sponsored by the Cooper Charitable Trust, and I very much
hope that through such sponsorship Tandem can hold similar events in the future,
whether one-off haiku days such as Saturday's event, or in collaboration with
other mental health charities in Oxford.
Incidentally,
poet Michael Rosen will be talking on 'The Healing Spirit of Haiku' at the
Society of Analytical Psychologists on Saturday 29th June:
(http://www.jungian-analysis.org/Publicprog.html).
Winning haiku
1st prize: Chris Smith (Oxford)
Traffic buzzes over sleepy river
Each end unknown to the other
2nd prize: Angela Stannard (Oxford)
Raking the river
For waterweed
I thought I saw a face
3rd prize: Prue Sykes (Oxford)
The wedding guests in high heels
wear hats that hide
their grimacing faces
Honourable mentions
1. Alison Williams (Southampton)
midsummer midday -
in the shade under the bridge
cobwebs in the chains
2. Karima Brooke (Oxford)
Water rushes underfoot
The bridge shudders
I stay firm
3. Chris Earl (Bicester)
Running water
Heading off into the depths
No one knows where
4. Jane Hichens (Bicester)
The rushing water
Silences the softer
Murmurings of summer
5. Malcolm Hayden-Smith (Oxford)
Gulls stand
On sunken columns
While the water flows
6. June Morton (Bicester)
No picnic invitation
for seagulls
circling hungrily overhead
7. Daniel Gallimore (Oxford)
Ronaldo's head
Sun through the silver clouds
Twenty thousand eyes blinking.
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