Catherine Mair, of Katikati, New Zealand, has been given a Queen’s Service Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to poetry and to the community. She conceived and has managed the building of the “Haiku Pathway” in a park setting along a river in Katikati. The pathway features large stones carved with haiku by poets from around the world, and is one of the region’s stellar contributions to a celebration of the new millennium. The Haiku Pathway has recently been expanded, and there is a booklet of the poems available.
Seems like Catherine, with a lot of help from members of her community—as she gracefully acknowledges—has turned “haiku” from an unknown to a household word where she lives. We should all be proud of her, not for this award in itself, but for her achievement on behalf of haiku everywhere.
For a local news story on the award, see “Medal an ode to crafter of poetry” on the Bay of Plenty Times web site, here. For more information on the Haiku Pathway itself, check out this link.
A Haikai Pub toast to Catherine Mair!
Bill
Wordfield's Haikai Pub 