Happy Holidays!

I created this book Christmas tree for Elliot Books and I'm so stoked with how it turned out. Oh, and before I forget - here is the December page of the haiku calendar I did with my husband for this year. (click to enlarge)

 

Haiku first published in The Heron's Nest Volume XV, Number 2 (June 2013)

Well, it's been a crazy year with lots of twists + turns. And for those that haven't caught up - I stepped down as editor of the haikai section of the NZPS magazine. Onwards to 2015.

I wish you all the best for a safe + happy holiday season, and a creative new year ahead. Blessings!

My 4th Cancerversary - "Keep Calm and Haiku On"

This first week of March 2014 marks four years since I was diagnosed and began treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APML). I'm celebrating being cancer free by releasing a new t-shirt design in my online shop Haiku On.

Brought to you by Haiku On - Taking you on a haiku journey. 

http://www.cafepress.com/haikuon

That's right, it's the method that got me through the madness of cancer: "Keep Calm and Haiku On". Isn't she a beauty? Buy yours here.

I first used the phrase "Haiku on!" in my judges report for the junior section of the NZPS International Haiku Competition last year. (You can read it here.) So when I was coming up with a name for my online shop it just seemed right. 

Now putting that together with the well-known "Keep Calm" saying means I have something that not only commemorates my journey, but indeed the experiences of many others world wide who have the haiku bug and just can't stop writing haiku!

I hope you enjoy this new range of tees. Check out the other designs while you're there. And remember to "Keep Calm and Haiku On" :-)

December Daze

Things have gotten hectic this month. Even if you're not a big Christmas person you certainly can't help but get caught up in the rush of others as they proceed to shop, celebrate, and ready themselves for the big day. All this extra buzz and busyness makes things like supermarket parking difficult and appointments for haircuts hard to come by, even in a small country town!

So you'll find me at home making some Christmas cards for family and putting the finishing touches on my 2014 calendar of haiku and photography, which I invited my hubby to be a part of this year. We have six months each and it's pretty cool to have our two styles represented within the pages for our family to enjoy.

Below is my last calendar page for 2013. Click on image to enlarge.

I achieved some big things this year: the biggest of all being completing my first poetry collection and sending it in to the Snapshot Press Book Awards. It will be a long few months yet before I hear anything back about the contest, but it's exciting enough to have fulfilled my goal and the rest is out of my hands for now. 

Another big highlight of my writing year was being part of A New Resonance 8: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press). I still have copies of this for sale, so please get in touch if you'd like one to give as a Christmas gift to yourself or to someone else. Just send me an email.

2013 also included writing tanka sequences with Pamela A. Babusci and Seánan Forbes (a delight); judging the junior section of the NZPS International Haiku Competition (great fun); coming 5th in the open section of the NZPS International Haiku Competition (yay!), and editing a month of dream haiku thanks to The Haiku Foundation's 'Per Diem:Daily Haiku' feature. Hard to believe it's all coming to an end . . .

So, what does 2014 hold? In regards to the writing realm I'm not sure, but stay tuned!

Given an ordinary stone . . .

The New Zealand Poetry Society 2013 Anthology, Given an ordinary stone, edited by Owen Bullock, was launched over the weekend in Wellington. You can order your copy here.

The anthology includes the winning poems from the NZPS International Competitions, including the Haiku Junior Section I judged, as well as other poems and haiku selected by the author from the remaining entries.

This year I won 5th Prize in the Open Haiku Section, judged by Nola Borrell, with:

drifting evensong
pine needles cloistered
in fresh snow

This appears in the book, along with my Commended placing:

full morning moon
cows chew their way
through the fog

I look forward to receiving my copy and reading all the poems from 2013! I'm sure it will be an inspiration. :-)

NZPS Feature Article for September: Collaborative Poetry

Inspiration through Collaboration

by Kirsten Cliff

I never thought I'd need a prompt to get me writing. I always seemed to have new ideas, and could easily draw from what was happening around me. Then some dark days arrived – cancer, mostly – and it seemed that the act of writing got harder. I was writing less. Maybe that was okay? But being generally uninspired in my play with words did not feel good. So when a haiku friend (who'd also survived cancer) asked if I wanted to write with her, I welcomed the opportunity to expand my writing world.

Cara Holman and I started writing rengay together: a modern form of linked haiku verse. I found that writing to the prompt of her haiku lead me to write poetry that I wouldn't have penned otherwise. On really hard days – when the chemotherapy was stripping me bare – collaborating was what helped me get out of bed in the morning. Why? Because I knew that the next link in the poem would be waiting in my email inbox.

I quickly became excited about writing again. I was inspired in a way I hadn't been before. My writing was taken in new directions. It was still my writing voice, but it was brought to life through the links of my poetry with Cara's. I got instant feedback on my work, often in the form of her next haiku verse. This was highly positive as it meant I had inspired my writing partner, too. We were on a roll.

The Scent of Pine

Cara Holman & Kirsten Cliff

evening sky

the moon cradled

in the ginkgo's branches

the scratch of pencil

on paper

hushed dawn

bird tracks

in the snow

fallen fence post

counting out pills

for the day

a hawk scatters

the flock of starlings

cloud cover

the scent of pine

from the wood pile

Our first two rengay, “The Scent of Pine” and “Turning a Corner”, were quickly accepted for publication, appearing in the on-line journal A Hundred Gourds (June 2013). Over the course of that year we wrote 13 rengay together, including four on our joint experiences of cancer, and all were well received by editors. Every time we completed a rengay, we'd start another. It was addictive. And so much fun!

Then I got the itch to try a tanka sequence and asked another writing friend, Margaret Dornaus, if she'd like to work with me. We quickly found a subject we could both get stuck into: our overseas travels. We took inspiration from photos of our journeys abroad, and wrote our first sequence of tanka linked by that travel bug. Margaret and I have since written together several times and I find her feedback invaluable. I'm learning all the time in this world of poetry and she is one of my teachers.

So the positives of collaboration continued, and the desire to do more never waned. After each project I'd feel the need for a break – it was time to return to my own writing. But these 'breaks' never lasted long. My hunger for this new type of inspiration would rapidly grow, and before I knew it I'd be emailing a friend with a new idea for a rengay or tanka sequence. I soon grew bolder and began asking others to write with me. I've now written with six different people.

Lost & Found

Margaret Dornaus & Kirsten Cliff

crossing the river

into this new year, alone

I stop

to look at every turn

before I carry on

first dream of the year

diagnosing her pain

as leukaemia . . .

could I find the strength

to do it over again

on the bench

at the foot of her bed

a clutch of tissues . . .

abandoned like the words

she can no longer recall

I hear her say

she's lost the will to live . . .

the waves

keep on cresting

keep on breaking

winter fog—

the lighthouse steps

we climb

to see whatever

we might see

all day long
the peacock's cry

once again
I fail to listen
to my intuition

Part of a tanka sequence published in LYNX (March 2013)

Experimentation was part of the joy. Cara and I played with the rengay form creating what we called 'rengay sequences': four rengay linked together. This developed from that drive to keep writing with one another, and wanting to explore all avenues of a particular theme. Now I'm breaking new ground with Seánan Forbes: we are writing tanka sequences using repeating lines. This occurred the first time naturally when I was so inspired by Seánan's starting tanka verse that I wanted to use one of her lines in my linking tanka. It can be quite a challenge to use your writing partner's first line as your third line, for example, but, once again, I can't seem to say no!

A very different experience was my first time writing face-to-face, and as part of a group, at the June 2012 Haiku Festival Aotearoa in Tauranga. It was a session filled with laughter, and where I realised I wasn't too good at writing haiku under pressure! Sandra Simpson lead ten of us in writing a junicho: a longer and stricter form of Japanese linked haiku verse. It was also a 'competitive' write, which meant that we all contributed verses for each new spot, and Sandra choose the one that linked best. Although this began in real-time, it was completed on-line, which gave me more space to become inspired by the preceding verse. The experience of working face-to-face in a group setting is one I would definitely repeat, though. After all, it is how linked verses were traditionally written in Japan.

I've since gone on to create collaborative haiga (putting haiku with a photographic image) with two of my haiku friends. I was also part of Ruth Arnison's 'Poems in the Waiting Room' fundraiser, which saw the haiku of North Island poets paired with South Island artists. In this collaboration I was a silent partner, but was excited by the artists' interpretations of my haiku. I look forward to future collaborations with other people outside the world of haiku, as well as those within it.

First published in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society (September 2013); reprinted at NorthWrite

Hubby and Haiku

I use Grammarly for online proofreading because although my husband, Cameron Elliot, is a self professed geek in these matters, he isn't always right! So it's great to have a more reliable back-up at my finger tips.

We met at the local writer's group, and aren't the first to have found more than friendship there. But apparently we are the only couple writing and publishing haiku in New Zealand. 

Here I share some of my hubby's 'ku on the month of our fifth year since falling in love . . .

busy road 

the rest

of this seagull 

Kokako 15 (September 2011)

city centre

the footpath swerves

around two silver birches 

Commended, NZPS International Haiku Competition 2009; moments in the whirlwind (NZPS Anthology 2009)

treatment ends

the sky yields

a burst of rain

With Cherries on Top: 31 Flavors from NaHaiWriMo (Press Here 2012)

 

Oh, and he doesn't like me using the word 'hubby' (or geek for that matter -- he prefers nerd) but this is my blog so I win! :-)

New Zealand Poetry Society Haiku Competitions 2013 Results

In June I was the competition judge for the junior section of the New Zealand Poetry Society Haiku Competition. I had a great time doing this job. You can read about it and find out the results here.

Then last month I found out I'd won fifth place in the adult section of the competition. Yay! Great to have finally cracked the top five of my home country's major haiku contest. I was lucky enough to also receive a commended placing. You can read the full judge's report by Nola Borrell here.

My congratulations to all the winners! Next on the New Zealand haiku calendar is the 7th Kokako Haiku & Senryu Competition. Find out all you need to know here.

Anthologised

My poetry has appeared in five anthologies this year, which is a record for me. I thought I'd do a round up of them here as part of my end of year review, with thanks to all the editors who've published my work in 2012:

I have one haiku in The Heron's Nest, Volume XIII 2011, which is a collection of all the haiku from all the issues of The Heron's Nest that appeared on-line in 2011. This was my first time appearing in this annual anthology, and, to date, is the only haiku I've ever had published in The Heron's Nest. Copies can be bought from this link (either cheques to the postal address, or scroll to the bottom of the page for a PayPal option). You can read my haiku here.

Three of my tanka were chosen for the final volume of Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 4. Again, this was my first time appearing in a Take Five anthology, and I'm honoured that my work was chosen from the eighteen thousand tanka read by the editorial team. You can purchase a copy here, or through Amazon. Read the tanka of mine that are included here.

A Blackbird Sings: a book of short poems is the second anthology to come from the River of Stones January small stone challenge (now renamed Mindful Writing Challenge for 2013-- Join us!). I have two small stones in this collection, which can be read here. You can buy a copy in print or Kindle from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

When one of my haiku won a Highly Commended placing in this years New Zealand Poetry Society International Haiku Competition I automatically made it into the annual anthology, Building a time machine. It was a bonus to have another haiku chosen for the collection by the editor. Read my two haiku here, and purchase your own copy here.

Last but not least, is the Haiku News Anthology 2009-2011, which is a collection of haiku, senryu and tanka chosen from the first three years of this unique on-line newspaper. I have one haiku in the collection that you can read here. Copies can be bought from here.

I can recommend all of these anthologies as Christmas gifts for yourself or the creative people in your life. My work is but a small part of these fine collections that comprise some of the best that short form poetry has to offer. Get into it!

Building a time machine

I'm really pleased to once again have haiku in the annual New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology, which was edited by Owen Bullock this year. It contains all the winning entries of the NZPS International Haiku and Open Poetry Competitions, as well as work chosen 'blind' by the editor from the remaining poems entered.




My first haiku won a Highly Commended placing:

bus stop
the moonlight
on her cane



This second haiku was chosen by the editor:

his gentle snores
when did I last
see the stars . . .



You can order your copy of the NZPS 2012 anthology Building a time machine here (PayPal is available).

Launching into November . . .

Three launches that include my haiku are happening this month, and unfortunately I won't make it to any of them! Never mind because the books will arrive soon. :)

First is the launch of Building a time machine - the 2012 New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology, edited by Owen Bullock. I have two haiku appearing in this anthology: one that received a Highly Commended in the NZPS International Haiku Competition, and a further ku that was chosen by the editor. Order your copy here.

Second is the opening of the exhibition When North meets South, organised by Ruth Arnison. This is where artists of all kinds from the South Island chose haiku from poets from the North Island and made works of art inspired by them. I can't wait to receive my copy of the exhibition booklet that will include my four chosen haiku turned into works of art by four different painters. Hopefully I'll be able to link some photos soon!

Last but not least is the launch of the Haiku News Anthology, edited by Dick Whyte (NZ) and Laurence Stacey (US). I have one haiku appearing in this anthology and look forward to seeing this unique collection. Presales are now being taken here to support the printing of the book.

November 2012 - Kirsten's Calendar of Haiku & Photography

Above is the November page of my calendar. The photo was taken last year at Papamoa Beach especially for this project. The haiku is one of my most published ku, originally taking out Third prize in the Katikati Haiku Contest (2008). I've been busy making a 2013 calendar to give to family and friends this Christmas. Lot's of new photos and haiku to enjoy throughout the year. Remember you can see all the pages from my 2012 calendar at the link on the side-bar: Kirsten's 2012 Calendar of Haiku & Photography.

Last month I did several new photo-haiga in collabortaion with Cara Holman. This was the first time for both of us working together in this way, and we've deemed it a great success! Three have already appeared in Margaret Dornaus' Day of the Dead post. Five more have been sent to Aubrie Cox, the new A Hundred Gourds haiga editor, for consideration in the next issue. All have used my images with Cara's haiku; plus I also sent in three that are all my own work. I've only submitted haiga twice to a journal and look forward to seeing how these collaborations fare, and to doing more of the same in the future. Happy haiku-ing, friends! :)

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth #4

'Straight From the Haijin's Mouth' is one of the features that makes up my haikai column in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry. This edition is from the March 2012 issue, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Laurice Gilbert, Sandra Simpson and Ernest J. Berry. 

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth

I asked award-winning haiku poets, Sandra Simpson and Ernie Berry, 'What's it like to send your haiku out into the world?'

Sandra Simpson's answer: Selecting haiku to send to an editor or judge can be difficult – they’re all my babies, I love them equally.

As it turns out though, I love some more equally than others. With experience comes the knowledge that while some are “publishable” (but not outstanding) some are altogether better (and some we don’t discuss!).

Most editors like a set of 5-15 haiku which means I can try some poems that are a bit “different” in the mix. Re-reading submissions a month later is a good practice – the haiku often turn out to be not so great as I thought and go back through the editing process.

Getting to know a journal’s ethos helps, although editors can often surprise with their choices.

This haiku, for which I never had high hopes (thinking it was a bit obvious), was published in The Heron’s Nest and won a Touchstone Award for one of the best haiku published in English in 2010:

slicing papaya –

the swing

of her black pearls

The poems to which editors and judges respond are almost invariably (the above example notwithstanding) the ones where I have strived to be honest about the moment.

This haiku came complete while visiting Otago Museum and was a runner-up in last year’s HaikuNow! Contest (limit one haiku; a tough ask):

in the cabinet marked Mesopotamia a broken face

But I also have plenty of haiku that will never be published … and that’s okay. To write the good ones I accept that I have to write the bad ones.

Ernie Berry's answer: My first foray into the world of poetry was about age 5 when Aunt Haysl of Hay's Ltd in Christchurch saw fit to publish one of my poems in her weekly children's page of the Christchurch Star-Sun. 60 years later I started dabbling in poetry again as a retirement project in Mexico where the kindly editor of an American journal targeting snowbirds* was so impressed with my work that he appointed me 'poetry editor' and insisted I supply a new poem for every issue forthwith and recruit other poets from Mexico and California.

After returning to Godzone in 1993, a friend gave me a book of poetry titled Haiku Menagerie which proved a life-changer for me because it consisted entirely of 'haiku' a genre I'd never heard of till then but which catered nicely to my predilection for poetic brevity. I took to haiku like a duck to a frogpond and my first haiku was accepted for publication by an Aussie mag, Paper Wasp in 1995 and within 2 years I was being published in haiku journals in NZ, USA, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Croatia and Argentina, etc., etc. Being published 'world-wide' and winning the odd contest was quite a thrill and has kept my nose to the grindstone of octogenarianism...

petrified forest
a child inspects
my legs

~second place in the ukiaHaiku Festival Contest 2008

* people from northern USA who migrate south annually to escape winter.

 

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth #3

'Straight From the Haijin's Mouth' is one of the features that makes up my haikai column in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry. This edition is from the January 2012 issue, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Laurice Gilbert, Catherine Mair and Patricia Prime. 

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth

I asked long time friends and poetry writing buddies Catherine Mair and Patricia Prime, 'Where has your reading and writing of haiku taken you over the years?'

Catherine Mair's answer:

It was the late 1980s and I had just started writing poetry. Because of the economical, rural/nature content it was suggested that I might find an affinity with haiku.

I'd never heard of haiku. Upon expressing my ignorance I was sent a few notes on the basics of this genre. In 1993 the first New Zealand Haiku Anthology included five of my haiku and the second Anthology (1998) included a number more. My interest in haiku lead me on a number of journeys the most far flung being a jaunt to Romania for a haiku conference hosted by Ion Codrescu. Picton was another very enjoyable destination.

The succinct way of haiku suits my natural brevity and because of a busy lifestyle the idea of so much in so little really appealed to me. Haiku satisfied several leanings. I'd been very interested in painting but farming in partnership with my husband and bringing up four children left little time. Over the years I've met some superb people. Haijin seem to share a relatively humble outlook and an acute sensitivity to nature, including human nature.

There is something about haiku which is spiritually satisfying. Something which seems akin to creation.

 

Patricia Prime's answer: 

As co-editor of the New Zealand haiku journal Kokako for the past 15 issues, I am privileged to have come to know and correspond with editors and writers throughout the world. I wrote my first haiku in the 80s and have submitted work to journals in the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, India and Ireland. What better way is there to make friends than through poetry?

Martin Lucas says in the Introduction to his book Stepping Stones: a way into haiku that “Haiku is not a descriptive poetry, it is a reflective poetry, and we need to understand that distinction.” Haiku in its own way is self-counselling; it is a pleasure to read other people’s work and to study their methods and it is beneficial to write about one’s own feelings. Haiku is a form that blends sensitivity with realism, using simple language and clear images and I hope my poems are accessible to most readers and that they can identify with them in some way.

I’ve spent half a lifetime in Auckland, where I’ve lived, worked, brought up my family and found poetic inspiration and motivation. I’ve also made trips to China, Tibet, Macau, Australia and the South Island. These were enchanting journeys and have since lent themselves to my poetry. Writing haiku has been a long journey: some haiku had their beginnings long ago, others are very recent. Old memories supply material for my haiku, as do places I’ve visited, nature, friendships I’ve made and my family.

In a spiritual sense haiku can be a release for emotion, can range from the lyrical to the haunting, or be touched with humour or sadness. A lightness of tone, memory and imagination, are all part of the spiritual reality of haiku.

Two NZ Haiku Contests Closing In May

Katikati Haiku Contest

Cash prizes totalling $NZ175 in the senior section. All proceeds to the Haiku Pathway project. Judges are Owen Bullock (senior) and Catherine Mair (junior).
Closes: In hand May 16.
Cost: Within NZ: 18 & over - $5 for 3 haiku or $2 for 1 haiku. 17 & under - $1 for up to 2 haiku. For overseas entrants: $US5/3 haiku or $US2/haiku.
For full details see the website.

NZPS International Haiku Contest

Top five haiku/senryu will be awarded $NZ100 each; first place will also receive the Jeanette Stace Memorial Prize of $NZ150. Winners will be published in the NZPS annual anthology. Judge is Barbara Strang.
Closes: May 31.
Cost: $1.50/haiku, for NZPS members every 5th haiku is free.
Full details from the website.

NZPS Haiku Junior Contest

Cash prizes, plus one winner will also receive the Jeanette Stace Memorial Prize of $NZ100 open only to entrants who are 17 years of age or younger on May 31, 2012. Schools may send bulk entries, but poems must be clearly attributed to authors. Winners will be published in the NZPS annual anthology.
Closes: May 31.
Cost: $1/haiku.
Full details from the website. For information on group school entries, go here.

My Poetry Month Book Pick

...Is breath by Sandra Simpson (Piwakawaka Press, NZ, 2011)

I've admired Sandra Simpson's haiku for some time. She writes with such depth and yet lightness, with such delicacy and yet strength. I had struggled to explain to others the elusive quality which I found so appealing within Sandra's haiku, and only recently discovered the answer in John Carley's review of her book here. 

He says, of Sandra's haiku, “...we have effortless word choice, unforced structure, and a naturalness of subject that belies the deep resonance hovering just at the edge of perception. This is what Matsuo Basho called karumi - ‘lightness'. It is rare to see it done this well.” Many thanks to John for expressing that so eloquently, and to Basho, of course! 

Contrary to my absolute passion for haiku, I don't buy haiku books very often. But when I heard that Sandra's was coming out, I knew it would be of the highest standard and so did not hesitate in purchasing a copy (even though my health kept me away from the launch party last December). I wasn't disappointed.

Breath is a triumph from every aspect: the size of the book and the font, the cover design and title, the spacing and grouping of haiku. It all speaks of the karumi which Sandra conveys so well. I easily read it all in one sitting – something I've never done with a poetry book or journal before! 

I relished in reading some of my favourites, such as:

feeling it

not feeling it

the grasshopper

between my hands

(Daily Haiku, Vol 6: Cycle 11, 2011)

great-grandfather's diary

his sketch of an iceberg

fading away

(Third place, NZPS Haiku Contest, 2009)

                    pausing also

                    at the sacred matai … 

                    a wood pigeon

  

                    (First place, Kokako Haiku Contest, 2008)

Christmas recipe –

all the ingredients

except my mother's hands

(Ice Diver, NZPS, 2011)

And other haiku that were new to me, such as:

autumn leaves –

my forgotten chore

remains forgotten

(Kokako 2, 2004)

                    winter sun –

                    the time it takes

                    the sheet-scar to fade

                    (Daily Haiku, Vol 6: Cycle 11, 2011)

talking as though he

will die first –

magnolia petals

(first publication breath)

                    uncurling

                    from the tobacco jar

                    last year's receipts

                    (HM, Robert Frost Haiku Contest, 2009)

As Sandra is also an accomplished photographer, I was pleased to see that she had used her own photos to mark seasonal chapter beginnings, as well as other points throughout the book. This is a wonderful touch that adds to the overall experience that is breath. 

I hope you'll purchase a copy of this first collection from an award-winning New Zealand haijin this National Poetry Month (US), especially if you don't already have a Kiwi poet on your bookshelf!

Ordering details can be found on the book’s website http://breathhaiku.wordpress.com/

Sandra Simpson grew up on a farm in Manawatu, New Zealand, and has been a journalist for over 30 years. She has lived and worked in England, Qatar and Lebanon and now lives in Tauranga in the aptly named Bay of Plenty in New Zealand.

Her first haiku was published in 1995 and since then she has gone on to win several international awards, has judged competitions in New Zealand and has had her work published widely, including in several anthologies.

Two of her poems feature on the Katikati Haiku Pathway (click here).

breath is her first collection and represents work largely from the past decade.

Sandra has kindly written a commentary of two of the haiku I chose from breath: 

great-grandfather's diary

his sketch of an iceberg

fading away

The diary actually belongs to my great-great grandfather John Simpson and records the journey he made with his wife and six children from England to New Zealand – leaving Gravesend in the Thames estuary on Christmas Eve. 1874 and arriving in Port Nicholson (now Wellington) on St Patrick’s Day, 1875.

Unfortunately, the extra “great” didn’t scan as well so was dropped. His diary is written in pencil so is, sadly, fading away. John sketched various things in his diary, including the skyline of the island of Tenerife in the Canary group, where his infant son Harry was buried at sea. In mid-February the ship began to meet icebergs and on February 18 John made a sketch of one.

The “fading away” was intended to apply equally to his hand writing as to the slow melting of an iceberg once it sets sail. The judge, Tony Chad, also saw the haiku as a commentary on global warming.

The haiku was written especially for the NZPS contest – coincidentally in November of that same year New Zealand was captivated by the sight of icebergs floating past on their way north to oblivion.

uncurling

from the tobacco jar

last year's receipts

This may seem like a haiku that simply plays with words but I have written about what was, for me, a real event. My father kept important receipts in a tobacco jar and each year at tax time he would bring them out, unroll them and do the necessary paperwork. There is a strong debate among his three children as to who will inherit the china jar.

My thanks to Sandra Simpson for these insights, and for bringing us breath. A great end to a jam-packed Poetry Month!

My Year of Submission

IT BEGAN LAST YEAR on 7^th January when I made the bold statement on my blog: I've decided to submit to a poetry publication or competition every week in 2011. 

 

What can I say? I love poetry! 

 

Plus I hadn't submitted much in 2010: I had my hands full, and my spirit clouded, with leukaemia. In this first week of the New Year I was also hyped up on writing a poem-a-day (PAD) for the first International Small Stones Writing Month (A River of Stones) and my inspiration had kicked into overdrive. I wanted to get back out there. Observing, tasting, trying, writing, reading, submitting...

The first four weeks went by and four poetry submissions were sent off. Without pause, I was participating in another PAD in February: the first NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month). 

 

A further four weeks past and this time I sent out seven submissions. I was getting bolder. I sent poetry to competitions I'd never seen before, and haiku to a journal that I'd previously been too nervous to approach. I got a rejection. Another was the A River of Stones anthology. I got an acceptance:

loading the dishwasher:

remembering

how he likes the teaspoons

in a particular slot

and how he said today

when we sat in the garden

"I like the shapes of the leaves on our trees."

Through March my spirits remained high and making weekly submissions was proving manageable. My first month with five weeks and five submissions were sent off. 

 

April, and yep, I did a third PAD challenge. This time it was NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) and another first for me. More poetry was written, read, shared and submitted. Following a set of daily prompts this time, I tested my skills with triptych, concrete poetry, rhyming- and free-verse, as well as my favourite Japanese short forms. 

 

The months went on and I faithfully submitted poems every week, and I wrote a lot, too. Work that I'm really proud of regardless of whether or not it has found its home in a publication, or stayed at home with me. I thought about quitting my self-imposed challenge several times. Why was I doing this again? But something within just made me keep on going. Some weeks, if I wasn't very well, or just seriously over it, I'd quickly submit a haiku to one of the free entry competitions with an on-line form. So easy! Then I'd sigh: Another week complete. Other weeks would see me submit to two or three different places. 

 

Week 26: I've never before been waiting on so many editors' verdicts and competition results: currently awaiting replies from seven publications (on-line and in print), two anthologies and five competitions. Phew!

I was spurred on by my successes, and the growing number of poets I was meeting on-line after four PAD challenges (A River of Stones again in July) and my blog and Facebook posts. Through these social media interactions I discovered new places for my poems. I also got to read lots more great poetry as I found other writers' blogs and Facebook pages: names I now recognised from these new journals I was reading and sending my work to. 

 

I entered the most competitions I ever had during this year. But sadly had no success, except for my Commended in the NZPS International Haiku Contest with:

tears

the doctor shifts

in his seat

Any fear of rejection I might have had about submitting my little poems from NZ to some of the big US journals went right out the window. It had to. This was my year and I wanted to make the most of it. I was delighted when this haiku was accepted to The Heron's Nest after my first time submitting there:

first winter's day

I slip into

his gumboots

Getting an acceptance was always exciting news, especially from the journals that were new to me. My ultimate high came from being accepted as a contributor for Cycle 12 of DailyHaiku, where 28 of my haiku have appeared over a six-month period:

cherry blossoms...

the bride-to-be offers

a sun-kissed cheek

As the end of the year drew near, I got busy. Nothing too strenuous, just getting married, buying a house, relocating to another region, all while having maintenance treatment for leukaemia (I'm still in remission!). December was the hardest month overall. Half unpacked, only dial-up Internet access, exhausted: I'd had enough. But I still somehow struggled through my submissions each week, then welcomed the end of my year. Week 52: TICK! 

 

It's satisfying to have been published in twenty-two publications over the past twelve months. An even better reward is when fellow writers from across the world tell me that I inspire them; sending me messages that my poems have touched them or brought a tear to their eye. I'm extremely grateful for these moments. I'm honoured to have my work read and enjoyed by so many people. I'm happy to be back in full force on my poetry journey.

This article was written for, and first published in, a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society, March 2012.

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth #2

'Straight From the Haijin's Mouth' is one of the features that makes up my haikai column in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry. This edition is from the November 2011 issue, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Laurice Gilbert, Nola Borrell and Karen Peterson Butterworth.

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth

I asked the co-editors of the latest national haiku anthology the taste of nashi, Nola Borrell and Karen Peterson Butterworth, 'What is the most valuable piece of advice you have ever received about writing haiku?'

Nola Borrell's answer: At the risk of being contentious (or not published!), I think 'challenge' is a more useful word than 'advice'. Good haiku depend so much more on a way of seeing, or as Martin Lucas (Editor, Presence) says:

'To begin writing haiku, and to make progress to any significant extent, requires two gifts:

• The ability to be alert to the subtleties of sensory or psychological experience (i.e. to notice things)
• A sensitivity to the subtleties of language (i.e. to be able to express things).'
  

http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/460

A challenge from Martin Lucas stimulated me to look more critically at my haiku. He talks about making a 'magical utterance' or a 'poetic spell', something archetypal/ rare/ essential, and in poetic language (4th Haiku Pacific Rim Conference, 2009, Terrigal, Australia). This seems more likely to reduce the human focus frequently dominant or at least intrusive in many current haiku, as well as prosy statements masquerading as haiku. http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/456

A specific suggestion (just to keep in with Co-ordinator Kirsten!): Early in my writing I received this comment on a mainstream poem: How about avoiding weak endings to lines, such as 'of', 'the',' in'. Of course. Why hadn't I seen it! Thanks Harry Ricketts (V.U.W., Co-Editor, New Zealand Books). This makes even more sense in haiku - where each word and line ending is that much more significant.

Karen Peterson Butterworth's answer: First the foundation. My artist mother who trained my eyes. When a boring (to me) visitor arrived, ‘Watch her hands and do me a drawing afterwards.’ With her water colour tubes laid out on a white enamel tray, ‘Which colours would you mix for that sunset?’ Five minutes later, ‘Now which?’ My music teacher. ‘When it says “staccato”, leave a tiny gap between each note, and for “legato,” make the notes flow into each other.’ My Dad who sang while he turned the separator handle for the cream on our porridge. My bout with polio which gave me five months with nothing to do but read and observe. 

Then meeting haiku in my 50s. Reading, listening, attending workshops. No single piece of advice springs to mind, but gradually three pivotal messages crystallized. 1. Learn to recognise a haiku moment. 2. Note it down straight away. 3. Choose, change, chop, and chisel your words till you make them sing. 

Copies of the taste of nashi: New Zealand Haiku (Windrift Haiku Group, 2008) are still available for sale. Find all the deatils here.

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth #1

'Straight From the Haijin's Mouth' is one of the features that makes up my haikai column in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry. This edition is from the September 2011 issue, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Laurice Gilbert, Joanna Preston and Owen Bullock. 

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth

I asked this year's NZPS International Haiku Competition Judges, Joanna Preston (Open) and Owen Bullock (Junior), 'What is it about haiku that keeps you coming back for more?'

Joanna Preston's answer: It's less a case of ‘what keeps me coming back’ than haiku refusing to let me go in the first place! Every few years I decide I want to leave the genre alone for a while, but something will happen that just can’t be expressed in any other form, or that announces itself to me that way. And then I'm astounded all over again at the depth and complexity of the genre. For me it's that shock of recognition, of purpose, of rightness, that’s crucial in all poetry, but most powerfully concentrated in haiku. And there’s no better training for a poet – to be precise, to be good at recognising exactly what elements of a scene or experience are the really important ones, and to be as supple in meaning and frugal in expression as possible. You feel the really good ones in your body, as a physical impact, as well as in your mind. So maybe my need for haiku is a form of addiction, the way runners can come to crave the endorphin high. Or maybe it's the nuclear physics of poetry – the power to blow the world apart packed into a tiny, seemingly innocuous package.

Read more from Joanna on her blog – A Dark Feathered Art

Owen Bullock's answer: I love the variety that is possible in haiku, and the depth that is sometimes held by such few words. That depth is like a lake, you can swim on the surface or dive deep, chase sticks or skim stones. But it is always about what is real, what is experienced, grounded in sensation. The technique is hidden; the approach of the best haiku so subtle that it is as if no effort goes into it, that it tumbles out of the sky fully formed. Haiku takes me by surprise more often than other forms of poetry.

My own search as a poet is for truth and simplicity. Truth, in this context, means a faithfulness to what actually occurred. The simplicity required to frame the experience is a great lesson and training ground for any and all writing.

waiting . . .

a leaf falls

into my lap

~from wild camomile

Read more from Owen on his website

Goals Or Poetic Leanings?

I'm loathe to make any solid goals poetry-wise this year. I wore myself out in 2011 with my personal challenge "to submit poetry to a publication or competition every week for the whole year". I'm going to write an article about it for the New Zealand Poetry Society magazine, a fine line, so that others might learn from my madness. I think I'll call it: My Year of Submission :)

This year I'm more about leaning in certain directions with my poetry. I want to experiment more, play more with the writing, with the poetry and it's different and wonderful forms. Not that 2011 didn't see me do the most amount of poetry writing I'd ever done in one year. Just the four PAD (poetry-a-day) challenges I participated in alone (all for the first time) produced many haiku, tanka, small stones and longer poems, many of which have since found homes outside of my computer, and my head!

But I definitely need to deal less with submitting in 2012, and so far I've done just one submission a month, letting several "deadlines" pass me by. I'm just not that into it this year. Call it submitter's burn out. And a "so-slow-that-it-might-as-well-be-going-backwards" Internet connection :(

So here's my poetic leanings (not goals!) for 2012, and beyond:

• To make haiku and tanka more a part of my everyday life by putting poems in cards, for example: I've done this in hubby's Christmas and birthday cards, and my parents wedding anniversary card, so far. As I enjoy making my own cards, this practice just adds to the uniqueness of the gift and is always appreciated by those who receive them.
• To write more linked haiku and tanka verses: I did my first solo linked haiku verse as part of hubby's Christmas present, which I framed for the wall. I've also written three tanka sonnets this year, which I really enjoyed and will send off for hopeful publication at some stage. The tanka sonnets in particular really sparked my imagination, and I know I will write more soon.
• To write more haibun and tanka prose: I've written a few of these over the past few years but really want to write more seriously in this area (as I keep promising myself I will!). You see, I have an idea for a poetic memior, which I would write as my thesis for a Master's in Creative Writing. I figure I have a few years to get really good at haibun, or kiss that little "goal" goodbye. I'll be taking two haibun workshops at the Haiku Festival Aotearoa in June, which will give me the inspirational boost that I'm bound to need mid-year.

That's all I've got for now. Feel free to lean along with me...