Hot Off the Press!

My latest use of Vistaprint's services:

You can see the 2012 calendar of haiku & photography that I made for my family here, and the mug with haiku & photo I put together here. I also did up a fridge magnet of this image from my calendar. Vistaprint keeps sending me vouchers and so I keep trying new things. Have a go yourself and see what you can come up with for your haiku. That Christmas shopping could be done in no time! :)

My Anger

between the rain
and my anger ...
magpie song

zwischen dem Regen

und meiner Wut ...

Elsterlied

Chrysanthemum 12 (October 2012)

Haiku & Photograph by Kirsten Cliff

Translation by Chrysanthemum Editorial Team

 

His Whispers

first crow ...

his whispers through

myrrh incense

erste Krähe

ihr Geflüster durch

Myrrhenrauch

Chrysanthemum 12 (October 2012)

Haiku & Photograph by Kirsten Cliff

Translation by Chrysanthemum Editorial Team

 

 

The Letter

wind gusts —

the letter was not

meant for me

Windböen —

der Brief war nicht

an mich gerichtet

Chrysanthemum 12 (October 2012)

Haiku & Photograph by Kirsten Cliff

Translation by Chrysanthemum Editorial Team

A Blackbird Sings

I'm very pleased to let readers know that the 2012 anthology of small stones is now available on Kindle, and for pre-order on Amazon. A Blackbird Sings: a book of short poems is edited by Fiona Robyn and Kaspalita and will have a special launch on November 1st, the first ever Mindful Writing Day. Once again, people from all around the world with gather to pay attention and write it down. These small stones will be gathered by Fiona and Kaspa and published on their Writing Our Way Home blog, where they'll be giving away five free paperbacks of A Blackbird Sings to their favourites. And also on this day the Kindle version of the anthology will be FREE! Find all the Mindful Writing Day info here. I hope you'll join us. :)

Here are my two poems in the anthology, which are in good company, including many of my haiku poet friends:

Cover by Ken Hurd

gold moon

my nose pressed against

cold glass

                         empty glass
                         the sound
                         of his sobs

Take Notice

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme is "Take Notice". To find an event in your area, click here, and look here for some tips on taking notice. Writing haiku and small stones starts by paying attention. I hope this week you'll stop and appreciate what's around you, and maybe write it down . . .

taking a mental health day--

the way sunlight moves

through the trees

Haiku & photograph by Kirsten Cliff

Published on Head Lines NZ

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #9

lost

in that deepest green . . .

the mountain alone

has left its imprint

on my psyche

Fern Pass, Austria, 1998 (click on image to enlarge)

Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Tanka appeared in LYNX XXVII: 3 (October, 2012)

in "Forever Home" a tanka sequence with Margaret Dornaus

To start with the first post in this sequence click here.
To see Margaret's tanka and pictures for "Forever Home", 
visit Haiku-doodle.

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #7

the angular roof

beneath marshmallow clouds . . .

an old Chocolat factory

          enveloped, even now

          in the sweet breath of summer 

                              

                    Berne, Switzerland, 1998 (click on image to enlarge)

Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Tanka appeared in LYNX XXVII: 3 (October, 2012)

in "Forever Home" a tanka sequence with Margaret Dornaus

To start with the first post in this sequence click here.
To see Margaret's tanka and pictures for "Forever Home", 
visit Haiku-doodle.

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #5

still showing me

the blessings of survival . . .

an ancient oven

and a stone wheat-grinder

in this deserted city

Pompeii, Italy, 1998 (click on image to enlarge)

 

Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Tanka appeared in LYNX XXVII: 3 (October, 2012)

in "Forever Home" a tanka sequence with Margaret Dornaus

To start with the first post in this sequence click here.
To see Margaret's tanka and pictures for "Forever Home", 
visit Haiku-doodle.

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #3

crumbling brickwork

echoes across the canal . . .

with every bridge

I renew my faith

in a boundless sky

Venice, Italy, 1998 (click on image to enlarge)

Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Tanka appeared in LYNX XXVII: 3 (October, 2012)

in "Forever Home" a tanka sequence with Margaret Dornaus

To see the first post in this sequence click here.
To see Margaret's tanka and pictures for "Forever Home", 
visit Haiku-doodle.

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #1

Recently, my friend and fellow poet Margaret Dornaus and I decided to write a series of tanka based on travel pictures we'd taken over the years. The result, our tanka sequence "Forever Home," was published in the October issue of LYNX, where you can find our alternating verses in their entirety. We thought it might be fun, however, to share the verses and the accompanying pictures that inspired them on our blogs simultaneously, which we'll be doing, one by one, over the course of the next several days. Here is my first tanka that started it all. To see Margaret's tanka and pictures for "Forever Home", visit Haiku-doodle.

decorating our first home

our forever home

with photos of travels past . . .

will I ever explore the beauty

of these landscapes with you

My travel photo albums - clockwise from top: Arundel, West Sussex, England 1997; Fern Pass, Tyrolean Alps and Innsbruck, Austria 1998; Mount Fuji, Japan (from Fujikyu Highland theme park) 1999. (click on image to enlarge)

Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Tanka appeared in LYNX XXVII: 3 (October, 2012)

in "Forever Home" a tanka sequence with Margaret Dornaus

October Oops!

The beginning of another month and I'd usually be showing readers the corresponding page on my 2012 calendar of haiku and photography, but . . . I unfortunately got the last two months in the wrong order, missing out a winter page! So I've now put all the months, up to October, on a separate page, which you can view here. By the end of the year the whole calendar will be up and you can view them at your leisure.

Please click on the image to see full screen.

In place of my October calendar page I've posted the above haiku and image. The haiku is part of a rengay I wrote with Cara Holman on dreams, which was published in one of Aubrie Cox's Yay Words! projects. You can read the full rengay, "Dream Catcher" here, and download your own pdf copy of the ebook that it appeared in, Fox Dreams here. The photo is of the Kaimai Range (or My Mountain as I affectionately call it:) and was taken from my home on a misty spring morning last month.

Tomorrow begins a week of tanka and images here in collaboration with Margaret Dornaus and her blog Haiku-doodle. Our recently published tanka sequence, "Forever Home" (LYNX, October 2012) was written from our respective travel photos, and now we'll bring you the photos along with the tanka. Tune in each day as we bring you a pair of tanka and images between us. We hope you'll enjoy a further insight into our first tanka sequence together, as much as we enjoyed writing it. :)

September was a busy one for me: writing an essay on my favourite haiku for Haiku NewZ, sending in my huge submission of 100 haiku for A New Resonance 8, writing my November haikai column for a fine line, submitting to the 20th Anniversary Rengay Anthology, entering The 4th Kokako Tanka Competition and participating in a further two kukai. Hoping October will be quieter!