Unless stated otherwise, all poetry on Swimming in Lines of Haiku is Copyright Kirsten Cliff and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from the author. kirsten(DOT)cliff(AT)gmail(DOT)com

Saturday, October 27, 2012

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! :)


Sunday, October 21, 2012

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
 

Thursday, October 18, 2012

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
 
 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

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


Friday, October 12, 2012

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


Monday, October 8, 2012

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

Saturday, October 6, 2012

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.

Friday, October 5, 2012

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.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

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.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

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.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

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

Monday, October 1, 2012

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!