BHS Spring Gathering on 5th and 6th June 2021

Last year the BHS marked its 30th anniversary but due to the lockdown we had to cancel our planned Spring Gathering in London. In order to celebrate this important milestone the BHS hosted a two-day Zoom event in June 2021. We organised two meetings to allow more of the BHS members to join in depending on their places of residence and we had more than 60 participants from Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, The Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA.

The programme was spread over two days and each presentation was followed by Q&A with the participants:

Saturday, 5 June – 9am-12pm UK:

• Philip Rowland, Japan (Haiku and the poetics of George Oppen)
• Anna Maris, Sweden (Haiku performance developed for an international environmental conference in Malmö, Sweden)
• Radu Șerban, Romania (And yet… Kobayashi Issa)
• Kala Ramesh, India (The Zen of Haiku Healing)

Sunday, 6 June – 5pm-8pm UK:

• Susan Antolin, USA (Understatement in Haiku)
• Marco Fraticelli, Canada (Haibun the Gateway to Haiku)
• Roberta Beary, Ireland (Haiku Etiquette: Dealing with Rejections)
• Michael Dylan Welch, USA (The Weather-Beaten Jizō: Shikoku Pilgrimage Haiku by Shūji Niwano)

With many thanks to the speakers and all participants for making it such an enjoyable experience for everyone!

Write-up by Iliyana Stoyanova