Dear AHS members,

I would like to take this opportunity, once again, to wish you all a happy, prosperous, and most of all, safe 2022. Filled with haiku, of course.

Nothing could have prepared us for the challenges of the past two years, as poets and humans. Covid has not only rearranged our lives, it has shone a light on our values.  Writing haiku is a peaceful and creative pursuit - a process of discovery fundamentally driven by ingenuity and further enriched by opportunities to share and learn.  In that sense, our values have not changed. In fact, in 2021, we have excelled in our endeavours. As a community, we should be proud of the riches that our collective, creative spirits have produced.

I would like to pay a special tribute to all the local haiku groups around the country that continued to meet and share haiku whenever and however they could assemble. I have enjoyed reading your group reports throughout the year immensely.

A huge thank you to all those poets who participated in the various activities and competitions run by the AHS this year. (There will be more to come next year. Stay tuned!)  Of course, this year, we announced the inaugural winner of the John Bird Dreaming Award for Haiku – a competition that attracted 890 poems from 41 countries. Our regular haiku strings and kukais also attracted hundreds of writers from far and wide.

I would also like to thank all those haiku poets who took the trouble to contact me throughout the year for advice, encouragement, or just to share some thoughts. I am very grateful for this and look forward to more correspondence next year.

There are some exciting things to come next year for the AHS and I look forward to sharing them with you all.

See you in 2022.
Happy New Year!
Rob Scott

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Simon Hanson | January 1, 2022 at 5:06 pm | Categories: Members' News | URL: https://wp.me/p7niH4-418
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