Haiku evolved out of haikai-no-renga, a social form of poetry. The social aspect of haiku is certainly an immense charm and strength, yet at the same time could it perhaps be its fundamental weakness, too?
Hailstone Haiku Circle was founded at a ginko-rodokukai event held in Shiga on 11.11.2000, so after the Hibikiai Forum class on Thursday (11.11.2010), a dozen or more of us repaired to ‘Dish’ near Kawaramachi-Imadegawa to celebrate our Tenth Birthday as a haiku association. Over those ten years, we have published six books of poetry (see Publications page, top right). For five of those years, we’ve also been publishing on our internet Hotspot and Icebox, too. We bring poets together, treasuring each individual’s unique take on the world, and we hold a great number of extremely varied events!
Tireless workers, Keiko and Mari, presented Hailstone founder and HF facilitator, Tito, with a box of 小倉山春秋 crackers (to eat with friends on Mt. Ogura) and an ultra-petite red cyclamen. Nice. Yoshiharu Kondo came all the way from Mino. Richard Steiner came all the way from the other bank of the Kamo River. Kiyomi Yatsuhashi dropped in from the sky. A good time was had by all.
Tito ended his brief word of thanks with a haiku by Jane Whittle, one of those recently sent to Hailstone as a greeting from the Red Thread Haiku Sangha in Britain, but he added the word ‘hail’ to her first line:
white hailstone
in the palm of my hand
growing younger
Icebox 
Thanks for the post revealing a little of your history, and congratulations, and happy anniversary! ;-)
Alan, With Words
Excellent stuff and congratulations… I hope hailstone will continue to storm on through its next decade….
I wish I still lived in Japan to be able to join so many like minded poets. I hope to be able to contribute in some small way to the next ten years and beyond.
David
Happy 10th anniversary Hailstones. Thank you Stephen, and to all the Japanese and non-Japanese members/friends, for sharing so many educational and exciting aspects of Japan through various events (ginkos, hikes, workshops, etc) to help us release the haiku within us.
Thanks for the well-wishes. It is but a little landmark. Gerald, I especially appreciate your comment. Long live our little circle of ice!