Myron Lysenko began writing haiku and senryu in the late 1990’s. He is the Victorian Representative for the Australian Haiku Society. He has published seven books of poetry, the most recent two consisting of haiku. His latest, published by Flying Islands was released in January 2021 and is titled a ghost gum leans over.
Myron has run almost 50 public and private ginko since 2008. A ginko is a haiku outing in a scenic spot where a group people gather to write haiku, then share, discuss and revise them.
His poems have appeared over 600 times in journals and anthologies around the world.Myron has been writing, performing, publishing, editing and conducting poetry workshops since 1980. He was a founding editor (with Kevin Brophy) of the lively independent literary magazineGoing Down Swinging from 1980 to 1994. They then passed the magazine on to new editors.
Myron is a poetry organiser; he was director of the Montsalvat National Poetry Festival, a convenor of La Mama Poetica, and currently runs the monthly reading in Woodend, Victoria Chamber Poets.
Myron teaches creative writing at the Woodend Neighbourhood House and is the leader of the poetry and music band Black Forest Smoke who have released a CD It’s Alright.
Books:
Coughing With Confidence
Pets & Death & Indoor Plants
I’m Ukrainian, Mate
Winning and Losing
Winning and Losing Again
a rosebush grabs my sleeve
a ghost gum leans over
You can see Myron reading his poetry or playing with his band here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93MXBvIG9T53isfUOhO8yQ/featured
Here is the opening sequence from a ghost gum leans over:
sarcoma
(for Lucy Lysenko, diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma on Oct 2008)
winter chill the GP can’t explain the pain in her knee
compost heap – she rings to say her knee has been x-rayed
nectarine blossoms the teenager diagnosed with bone cancer
x-ray vision a rare bone cancer in her knee
Ewings Street is just around the corner… Ewings Sarcoma’s here
did the specialist say she may not need surgery? medical jargon
taxi to hospital she tells me to stop telling jokes
she sets up a tent at the Falls Festival new crutches
the surgeon replaces her knee... late summer heat
ambulance to Peter Mac to begin chemotherapy -- perfect beach weather
Bloom Haibun
The pale and bloated teenage girl is lying in a hospital bed. There are cards lined up on a shelf above her head. The smell of dinner spreading through the wards is a warning that visiting time will soon be over. There are three elderly patients and four televisions in this ward but none of them are switched on. The girl’s father is at the foot of the bed with a cryptic crossword and her mother is standing with her arms crossed at the window. The oncologist is coming through the door.
rose petals she begins to lose her hair
leaves falling in the moonlight her nightmares
a blackbird flies towards the moon cancer ward
winter wind she cries on her way to more chemo
chemo no. 9 after her constipation diarrhoea
she flies to Sydney to see her favourite band infected PICC line
her port malfunctions… chemo postponed
on crutches at a party she falls onto her knee Oxycontin tablets
low platelets her immune system is zero
closed pink coffin her bald teen friends cry together
black orchids the pain in her knee is still there
her kneecap rubs against her inner thigh bone nectarine buds
last rounds of chemotherapy empty bed
remission she books her tickets for a holiday in Europe
end of chemo party I perform a song with a sing along cancer chorus
six years cancer free a day full of rain
her positive results on the ten-year check... a new tattoo
