The BHS Spring Gathering 2023 took place on Zoom on Saturday, 3 June at 4pm-7pm UK time. Over 40 BHS members from different countries joined in. The event had two parts with a short tea/coffee break between them.

Part 1:
Articulation of the Single Line Haiku – A haiku zoom workshop by Alan Summers

This 90 minutes haiku workshop was all about the magic of the single line. It’s what we look for in that line as poets, and also as readers. As Alan said: “A haiku need not be too plainly descriptive, wildly logical, or constrained by Earth’s gravity”.

Workshop details:
On the day participants shared one previously unpublished one-line haiku into the Zoom Chat feature. Alan’s friendly approach enabled even poets who weren’t sure they can write single line haiku at all, to take part and attempt at least one single line haiku. And although the workshop had a very tight schedule, it was very positive and inclusive. In preparation for the workshop the poets were able to refer to Alan’s article on one-line haiku published in Blithe Spirit 33.1.

Part 2
Ekphrastic haiku inspired by music

The second part of the Spring Gathering was a sharing session of ekphrastic haiku. Roger Noons had prepared the following prompts of performers, musical instruments and composers (clockwise from top left):

Portrait of Georges Bizet; Opera North, an aria from Die Walküre by Richard Wagner; Scene from The Nutcracker, a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Miles Davis playing “So What” from his album Kind of Blue (1959); Music score for Flute and Piano; British rapper Slowthai; Unusual musical instrument – Factory Fan Bass; harpist Madeline Kirby; Nyckelharpa (key harp) – a traditional musical instrument from Sweden; Fingering for C chord on guitar.

Participating poets have prepared at least one haiku inspired by the prompts which were shared on the day using the Chat feature.

Write-up: Iliyana Stoyanova