NZPS Special Call For Submissions

Call for submissions for a special edition of haikai café to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch (22 February) and Japan (11 March).

This will appear in the March 2012 issue of a fine line - The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society.

Please send up to five haiku and/or tanka for consideration to Kirsten Cliff with 'HAIKAI CAFE' in the subject line. (NZPS members only)

Unpublished poetry is preferred, but previously published works will be considered (if credit supplied).

Deadline: 31 January 2012


(Note: a fine line is always looking for Feature Articles "to encourage informed debate, and to assist readers to improve their understanding of poetry." See the submission guidelines here.)

What We Can Learn From Cows

drought

the cows

still chew their cud

Haiku News (November 28th, 2010)

Haiku and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011

My 2011 Christmas Picks

Here's my picks for you and your creative peeps this Christmas:

• Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart by Patricia Donegan
• Stepping Stones: a way into haiku by Martin Lucas
• Memories of Our Lost Hands: Searching for Feminine Spirituality and Creaivity (Carolyn & Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology) by Sonoko Toyoda
• And for the second year running, the Mslexia Writer's Diary

(Please note: some links direct you to the book on my favorite New Zealand on-line bookshop Fishpond, but these books can also be found on Amazon.) Additionally, you might find some Barnes & Noble savings here.

The Poetry of Your Soul

I know not
all the details of your life
and your death,
but am blessed to have read
the poetry of your soul

~for Svetlana

A Small Stone of Love

     at the door
     with muddy gumboots
     he offers me his love &
     a freshly pulled carrot

a handful of stones Thursday, 10 November 2011

Tears in Ice Diver

            tears
            the doctor shifts
            in his seat




Commended, New Zealand Poetry Society International Haiku Contest 2011
Appeared in Ice diver, New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology 2011

October Round-Up - A Surprise Or Two Or Three...

I had a couple of great surprises this month: I was excited to receive a contributor's copy of paper wasp and to find that four of my haiku and four of my tanka were published inside! And I was absolutely ecstatic to be accepted as a contributor for Cycle 12 of DailyHaiku where 28 of my haiku will appear over the next six months. My first week of haiku started on 30 October and can be read here.

Here's how I'm doing on my 2011 goal of submitting poetry to a publication or competition every week:

• week forty - submitted one haiku to the Polish International Haiku Competition (first time submitting here)
• week forty-one - submitted ten tanka (+1 for the contest) to Moonbathing (first time submitting here), one tanka accepted!
• AND submitted ten tanka to Notes from the Gean, one tanka accepted!
• AND submitted one haiga to Yay Words!, which appeared in Aubrie Cox's Tea with Trolls post
• week forty-two - submitted two haiku, two tanka and one haiga to tinywords (first time submitting here)
• AND submitted six small stones to a handful of stones, three accepted!
• week forty-three - submitted two haiku to the Sketchbook Sep/Oct 2011 "cemetery" Haiku Thread
• AND I submitted my second set of ten haiku for Daily Haiku

During the month, my haiku, tanka and haiga appeared online at DailyHaiku, Notes from the Gean, Issa's Untidy Hut, Chrysanthemum, Yay Words! and in paper wasp (print). And there's much more to come this November and December as all my diligence in submitting each week, and trying so many new journals, pays off. Only eight weeks left!

But wait, there's more...

I've left the biggest surprise 'til last...

Cameron and I eloped last week and were married at 2pm on 31 October in Auckland (NZ). Here's our favourite photo from the day, which was taken just after our first kiss as a married couple!

all hallow's eve haiga

Appeared in Aubrie Cox's Tea with Trolls Halloween blog post at Yay Words!

(click image to view larger)