My Favourite Haiku

Recently I was asked to write a piece on my favourite haiku for the Haiku NewZ web pages. You can read the resulting essay on Jack Kerouac's below haiku here.

  The taste

     of rain

—Why kneel?

Jack Kerouac 

More 'My Favourite Haiku' selections by well-known writers and editors can be read here. What would you choose?

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!

The Haiku Help-Desk

The Haiku Help-Desk is part of my haikai column in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society. It's a place where readers can learn by example: in each issue the editor gives feedback on a haiku in such a way that it shows the reader how they might improve their own haiku or otherwise learn about the art of writing haiku. The editor sometimes uses their own haiku as the example and other times another poet's work is used. These articles are now being archived on the Haiku NewZ website thanks to Sandra Simpson and Laurice Gilbert. So far you can read:

• The Last Line by Kirsten Cliff
• The Shaping of a Haiku by Margaret Beverland
• Awareness in Haiku by Patricia Prime

More will be added over the coming months. Check out other archived articles, as well as book reviews, competition and journal listings, the Showcase of NZ haiku poets and the My Favourite Haiku features while you're visiting. And don't forget about Haiku Festival Aotearoa 2012 - registrations in by June 1st! I'll see you there :)

First Published Haiku

I recently took Sandra Simpson's advice from her January 2012 Haiku NewZ article, Turning Over a New Leaf, and created a 'published' file on my computer for all my haiku and tanka. I thought I'd better get on to it before too many more years went by and the task became unmanageable and undesirable! Now it's all done, I'm enjoying the fast and easy access to my haiku, and where they've all been published. While undertaking this task, I was reacquainted with my first published haiku and thought, "Why not share!"

Papamoa Dwellings

motor camp

grass struggles

against sandy soil

                    cleansing the mind

                    glasses misty…

                    sea spray

following sandy footprints

too big to fill

                    frisky waves –

                    white foam

                    chasing my toes

in summer skies

green kites flutter –

corporate giveaway

                    laughing

                    with the rushing wind…

                    dune flowers

enveloped by sand –

my feet…

warmed

                    discarded nylon –

                    a fisherman was here

empty beach –

but for the waves…

hushed

                    suspended from

                    an evening cloud –

                    our mountain 

 

This Side of the World: Tauranga Writers Celebrating 40 Years (Tauranga Writers, 2007) Edited by Sue Emms and Jenny Argante

The last haiku is this sequence went on to be published (with a slight change, see below) in the taste of nashi: New Zealand Haiku (Windrift, 2008) Edited by Nola Borrell and Karen Peterson Butterworth

suspended 

from an evening cloud –

the mountain 

 

It has also appeared in:

Bay News, Wednesday, May 21, 2008 
Waiariki Institute of Technology 2010 Calendar

and on my THF Haiku Registry page here

 

Saying Hello, Saying Goodbye

Today marks the beginning of NaHaiWriMo which will see poets all over the globe writing a haiku a day for the month of February. You can find all the information here. I've written two today while out (using the pen and post-it notes I keep in my handbag) and think I might have gotten hubby on board, too :)

To welcome in the new month, here is the February page from my haiga calendar. The haiku placed Highly Commended in the 2008 NZPS International Haiku Contest and was published in the NZPS anthology, Before the Sirocco. The photograph was taken near my parents house in Kihikihi, Te Awamutu, and is very similar to the view I now get to see every day from my hill in Hobbiton, Matamata. (You can click on the photo to see a larger version.)




February 2012 - Kirsten's Calendar of Haiku & Photography

February 1st was also a day to say goodbye: The Grandfather of haiku in New Zealand, Cyril Childs, passed away on 27 January and his funeral was today in Dunedin.

I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Cyril at my first Haiku Conference in Christchurch in 2008. I remember his kind eyes and warm smile, the encouragement he gave me, and his passion for haiku. My condolences to his family and friends, and his haiku family and friends in New Zealand and around the world.

You can read some of Cyril's haiku on his Haiku NewZ Showcase page here and read the tributes to this wonderful haijin here. May he rest in peace.

Haiku Workshop In Tauranga

Sandra Simpson, editor of Haiku NewZ and an award-winning poet, is presenting a winter workshop for those who wish to learn more about the beautiful art form of haiku.

The workshop will give participants a sound introduction to writing haiku, and will include an exploration of some of the Japanese traditions behind the form, while also examining contemporary developments.

The workshop will take place at Waikato University's Bongard Centre in central Tauranga on Saturday, July 30 (9am-3pm) and Sunday, July 31 (10am-1pm) and include a Sunday ginko (walk to collect material for haiku). 

The cost is $75. Enrol online here, or for further information contact Nyree Sherlock, phone 07-577-5376 or email.

Breaking News of the Haiku Variety

Finally some good news!

I found out on Friday (while visiting Haiku NewZ) that one of my haiku was selected for evolution: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2010, edited by Jim Kacian and the Red Moon Editorial Staff (Red Moon Press, 2011).

The exciting thing about appearing in the annual Red Moon Anthology is that you don't submit your haiku: it is chosen from the pool of haiku that is published internationally each year.

This from Johnye Strickland in her review of the 2008 anthology:

The key to the selection process for all works nominated by the editorial staff was that they should be considered to be "of exceptional skill." Those making the final cut had to receive approval of the editor-in-chief, as well as votes from five of the ten staff editors (50%). My PhD dissertation didn't receive this much scrutiny.

And these thoughts from Michael Dylan Welch in his 2000 essay A Survey of Today’s English-Language Haiku Activity:

Also of note in the last four years are annual anthologies published by Red Moon Press, primarily edited by Jim Kacian, that aim to collect the very best haiku poems published each year. Though the selection process remains flawed and the editor includes too much of his own work, this annual publication is beginning to serve a very useful purpose in attempting to collect the best haiku in English each year.

I am pleased as punch that I made the grade and promptly bought two copies of evolution from the Red Moon Press website.

My haiku sits alongside other New Zealand haiku poets: Ernest J Berry, Owen Bullock and Andre Surridge. And here it is: 

coming home
to an empty house
so many stars

Copyright © Kirsten Cliff
First published in Kokako 12 (April, 2010)

The Devastation of Earthquake and Processing Through Poetry

Christchurch, in New Zealand's South Island, suffered a major earthquake this week.

Many people are displaced, injured, missing or deceased.

Many buildings are battered and broken, streets ripped apart, possessions lost forever.

I have been deeply moved by this event, although I'm not in the earthquake zone and am safe.

A chest x-ray I'd had recently came back clear this week: a small victory for me on my medical journey.

But all I kept thinking was of those in Christchurch who are just beginning their life-changing journey through the medical system with spinal injuries, amputations, and so on.

May they receive the same excellent level of care and attention that I received (and am still) on my journey through leukaemia.

Poetry has played a part in my healing process, and poems have already begun emerging from the earthquake rubble: one here by haiku poet Dick Whyte.

I have written a tanka and sent it in to Haiku News, and am sure I'll write more poems as the full extent of the tragedy unfolds for us all.

Pacific Poets, which meets next Sunday in Papamoa, will be sharing our grief at the devastation through poetry also.

I welcome you in sharing your poems in response to the Christchurch earthquake in the comments section of this post. (See 'comments' below for haiku from me and several by Michael Dylan Welch)

Information about how the poets in our haiku family are doing can be found here on Haiku NewZ. Thank you, Sandra Simpson, for keeping this updated.

Sending much hope and many prayers to the people of Christchurch and all affected by this disaster. Kia kaha.

First day of sping and it's all about poetry

Happy first day of spring! And the good news keeps coming for me and my poetry leanings...

My page on the Haiku NewZ Showcase is now live. You can see it here: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/kirstencliff and also check out another newcomer to the showcase, Margaret Beverland: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/margaretbeverland

A big thank you to Sandra Simpson for inviting me to be part of the Showcase and for expertly putting together all the Haiku NewZ pages. I have added the link under 'Links to My Writing', which are on the right hand side of this blog under the photo of me.

I love it when things come together. I haven't submitted anything for months and then the good news flows forth in a rush! I've had a haiku accepted for the 2010 New Zealand Poetry Society anthology, which will come out in November with a launch in Wellington. And a poem accepted for publication in Takahe sometime in 2011. This came about after Stylus was unable to publish the feature '12 New Zealand Poets' that Pat Prime had put together, so Pat contacted Siobhan Harvey, poetry editor at Takahe, and she agreed to publish the poems throughout 2011. Superb news for me having never had a poem in Takahe before. Thank you, Pat and Siobhan!

My final piece of good news isn't directly poetry related, but haiku could well end up involved! I volunteered to be one of 10 people to represent leukaemia survivorship in an ad campaign for Leukaemia Appeal Week (Nov 1-7). I did a photo shoot last week at Browsers Quality Secondhand Bookshop in Hamilton with photographer TJ Alderson. It was a great experience and I'm proud to be able to help the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation in this way. My image will end up in various places, which could include posters, pamphlets, books and websites.

TJ enjoys incorporating words into his images and, knowing I was a haiku writer, asked me to send him any that spoke of my leukaemia journey. Watch this space - haiku could be flooding the media come November!

First post back is about haiku, of course!

Hello, hello! It's good to be feeling well enough to start blogging again :)

The world of haiku has been chugging along while I've been in hospital, and the fruits of my labours in late 2009 and early 2010 have now come to fruition. So while I wasn't doing much writing, the past months have seen me receive third place in the Katikati Haiku Contest 2010 (judged by Sandra Simpson), two haiku published in the haikai pages of Bravado 19 (edited by Barbara Strang), and a haiku in, what ended up being, the final issue of moonset. I also saw my first ever tanka published in Valley Micropress (Vol13:Is3) and had my angel photo appear on the following month's VM cover (Vol13:Is4).

I was in between hospital visits when the Katikati Haiku Contest had its prize giving on June 6th so was able to attend and catch up with my fellow lovers of the Japanese poetry forms. The Katikati Haiku Pathway was also celebrating its 10th anniversary that wet and wonderful day and you can read a write up, complete with pics and the winning haiku, here: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/502 . The Wai Taiko drummers were thrilling once again, but hearing them indoors this time round was a full body experience!

The biggest haiku event, however, to have put a smile on my face since returning to Wordsmith House is my invitation to appear on the Haiku NewZ 'Showcase' of talented haiku writers in NZ. I'm honoured that my name and haiku will sit alongside such great haiku writers, those whose work I have studied, aspired to; some I am lucky enough to have met and call 'friend'. You can see the 'Showcase' here: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/275 . I have to get organised and choose 10 of my haiku and write a short bio for my inclusion, which should appear online next month. Will keep you updated!