Yay! Kokako 20 Out Now!

The new issue of Kokako arrived in my letterbox this morning sporting a lovely cover by Ron Moss, "Summer Dreams". Issue 21, due out in September, will have one of my images as cover art, which I'm super excited about!

Back to this issue, here's one of my haiku:

autumn cool his features in the firelight

We haven't started lighting fires yet this autumn, but the mornings and nights are definitely getting pretty chilly!

Here's a tanka of mine that was printed incorrectly in the previous issue, and has been kindly reprinted in KK20:

a rush of tears

at our airport parting . . .

home, I search my luggage

for a last love note

that isn't there

Lot's of great haiku, tanka, haibun and more in Kokako, as well as the details for The 5th Kokako Tanka Competition. Email co-editor Pat Prime for more information. There is also a review of A New Resonance 8. A reminder that copies can be purchased from me - just leave me a message! :-)

100 Tanka by 100 Poets

Cover & inside art by Ron Moss

Yesterday I received my copy of 100 Tanka by 100 Poets of Australia & New Zealand. It's beautiful!

My tanka included in this fine collection is:

planning out wedding
in the hospital chapel
while I have chemo
I am not dying
but a part of me is

Published in Presence #44 and Take Five vol 4


 It was also mentioned in the introduction by Kiyoko Ogawa (co-editor 2010-2011 Poerty Nippon 1967-2011) who wrote:

"Kirsten Cliff's tanka of 'our wedding / in the hospital chapel' sounds sad, yet her shadowed love must be all the more pure and profound."

This fine collection is edited by Amelia Fieldon and Beverley George of Australia and Pat Prime of New Zealand.

Reading through the tanka last night I was blown away. So good, so moving, so delicate. I'm over the moon to be included within the pages. And dare I say that tanka is edging ahead of haiku as my first love . . .

Take Five Tanka

I'm so very excited to have three of my tanka chosen for the latest (and last) volume of Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka. M. Kei and a team of editors from around the world (two of which were New Zealanders! Patricia Prime and Owen Bullock) read over 18,000 tanka published over the course of 2011 and chose the best to come together in this fine anthology.

Although a tanka may be as small as a pebble, it creates expanding ripples in the mind of a receptive reader, ripples that touch far shores, with the polished perfection of the poem as the still center of meaning and experience. ~M. Kei

I'm honoured to be there alongside so many of my friends within the on-line haiku community, and especially two that we've lost to cancer - Svetlana Marisova and Hortensia Anderson. My three tanka to be included are all from my leukaemia journey and I'm grateful that they can now be read by many more people so that they might reach the very souls that need to read them.

browsing

the second-hand books

from my wheelchair

today I decide

not to feel ashamed

Eucalypt 10 (May 2011)

                    planning our wedding

                    in the hospital chapel

                    while I have chemo

                    I am not dying

                    but a part of me is

                    Presence #44 (June 2011)

                                        re-negotiating

                                        my drug regime

                                        with the doctors

                                        I tell them that today

                                        they may see me cry

                                        paper wasp 17:3 (October 2011)


My thanks to M. Kei and his editing team, and to the editors that first published my tanka. You can by your copy of Take Five from Createspace or from Amazon.com.

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 :)

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.

KOKAKO 17 Now Open For Submissions

Kokako is New Zealand's only dedicated magazine of haiku, tanka, haibun and related forms showcasing poetry from Aotearoa (NZ) and around the world. It's edited by Patricia Prime and Margaret Beverland, and is published twice annually, in April and September.

Submissions for the September issue close July 1st, 2012.
All work should be previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere. The editors ask you to please make just one submission of up to 10 pieces during each submission period to kokakonz[at]gmail[dot]com. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be made after the closing date of each submission period.

And don't forget about The 4th Kokako Tanka Competition closing October 31st, 2012. First Prize $NZ200!

The 4th KOKAKO Tanka Competition

The 4th Kokako Tanka Competition

Closing Date: 31st October 2012

First Prize: NZ$200

Second and Third Place prizes of NZ$50 each

Judge: Tony Beyer

Send entries to:

The Kokako Tanka Competition,

Patricia Prime

42 Flanshaw Road

Te Atatu South

Auckland 0610

New Zealand

Please make cheques out to Kokako

Overseas entrants may send cash at their own risk

               Conditions of entry

1. Tanka must be previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
2. Entry fee is NZ$2 per tanka or 3 for NZ$5; for overseas entries: US$1 per tanka, or 4 for US$3. Any number of entries may be sent.
3. Send two copies of each tanka, or group of tanka, with your name, address and email on one copy only.
4. 1st, 2nd & 3rd tanka, 3 Highly Commended and 3 Commended entries will be published in Kokako 18 (April 2013).
5. Winners will be notified by email or mail.
6. Any theme is acceptable.

Any queries, email: Patricia Prime

Cicada Song

cicada song

replaces the heavy traffic

of home

Haiku and photographs © Kirsten Cliff 2011

From Spider's Strand in Lynx: A Journal for Linking Poets

(scroll down to find Spider's Strand: a linked haiku verse with Patricia Prime, Catherine Mair, Margaret Beverland, Steve Cordery, Owen Bullock, Sandra Simpson, George Swede and myself) 

June Round-Up - Visual Arts In Abundance

June has been a big and busy month. At week 26 of 2011, I'm half-way through my goal of submitting poetry to a publication or competition every week. You can read my post about that here. And thanks to fellow Facebookers, I got to see my haiku on the HSA Haiku Wall in Bend, Oregon. You can see some pics of mine and New Zealander's Pat Prime and Svetlana Marisova here.

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

• week twenty-two - submitted two senryu to Excellent Writing, both accepted for July issue (with accompanying image)
• AND submitted two haiku to the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2011 Haiku Invitational (first time submitting here)
• week twenty-three - submitted two haiga to Notes from the Gean (first time submitting here & first time submitting haiga!), one accepted for September issue
• AND submitted seven haiku to The Heron's Nest (first time submitting here), awaiting outcome
• week twenty-four - submitted three haiku to The 6th Kokako Haiku and Senryu Competition, closes October 31st 
• AND submitted a further two haiga to Notes from the Gean, awaiting outcome
• week twenty-five - submitted one haiku to Wednesday Haiku @ Issa's Untidy Hut
• week twenty-six - submitted six tanka to Eucalypt, awaiting outcome

June was absolutely a month of visual art making and creating. I began putting together a vision board early in the month, which you can read about and see photos of here, with an update here. I did no other collage making this month; one collage haiga is still on hold waiting for some IV tubing that I hope to get next week.

Photography - I went autumn leaf spotting with a side of graveyard visiting several times in June and got some wonderful shots. One quickly became the image to sit alongside my two senryu accepted for the June issue Excellent Writing: my first time putting a border around an image and changing it to sepia. Love the look! Will put it up on my Photography page once it's published.

I created some more photo haiga this month and submitted them to a publication for the first time (and had one accepted! Notes from the Gean). Then I embarked on a haiga calendar for my family for Christmas. This was great fun to do and a lot easier than I expected (using Vistaprint). It was fun choosing images from my own well-stocked (though terribly catalogued) photo library and thinking about what my family would enjoying seeing, and how that could fit with my haiku, instead of having literary merit in mind. A very freeing experience.

And addictive for some time as well! I would get up each day and work on it a little more; even found myself thinking about it at night before sleep: composing new haiku to fit seasonal images or fiddling with placement of words. I soon realised that I had little in the way of spring images so will have to wait until I can get a few early spring shots before I can finish this project off. I know my family will love it, and I look forward to holding a copy in my hands very soon :)

July sees me once again taking part in the River of Stones challenge, plus completing my vision board and that poor little collage haiga that's been waiting all month to be finished. Otherwise, I'm concentrating on my treatment: many blood tests, a haematology appointment and a bone marrow biopsy to get through in July. I'll see you in the river! (And don't forget that I'm giving away a book here during July: details here.)

Photos Of The HSA Haiku Wall in Oregon

(Please click on photos to see a larger image.)

Photo by Ted van Zutphen on June 4, 2011.
Mine is the 2nd one down on the right-hand side:

navigating
these country roads
the curl of her hair

My haiku on the HSA Haiku Wall on exhibit in the historic Liberty

Theatre Gallery at the National Haiku Society of America

Meeting in Bend, Oregon on June 3-5, 2011 as part of the

downtown Bend Oregon First Friday June Art Walk.

Photo by Ted van Zutphen on June 4, 2011.
Pat Prime's haiku on the top right-hand corner, which had a typo.
The correct version reads:

tossed bouquet...
a shower of rose petals
on the chapel steps

Special thanks to Ted van Zutphen for taking the photos

and Svetlana Marisova for getting them to me. It was so cool

to see these, and other New Zealand haiku writers' poems

on the wall when I never thought I would!

Photo by Ted van Zutphen on June 4, 2011.
Svetlana Marisova's haiku:

crashing waves -
almost believing
it's forever

Submitting to Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka

Prune Juice is an online publication appearing twice annually and edited by Liam Wilkinson. Submissions for Issue 6 are open now: deadline June 1st 2011. You can find all the submission guidelines here. Issue 6 will be published in July 2011.

My goal of submitting to a poetry journal or publication every week this year is making me seek out new avenues for publication and I'm really enjoying myself. Submitting to Prune Juice was my poetry submission for week 18 of 2011 (that's last week) and it was my first time submitting here. I was very pleased to have two senryu accepted for publication!

One of the great things about Prune Juice is that it doesn't consider poems that have appeared on social networking sites or blogs to be in the "previously published" category. This from their Submissions page:

* NOTE ON THE TERM ‘PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED’: Here at Prune Juice, we believe ‘previously published’ poems are those that have been previously selected for publication by another editor. Therefore, any work that you yourself have submitted to social networking sites, blogs and microblogs are still considered here at Prune Juice. In short, if your poem has only appeared publicly in your Twitter stream or on your personal blog, we will still consider it as we believe this is not considered as a previously published piece.

You can check out previous issues here, which are a lot of fun to read. The most recent issue has work from New Zealand's own Andre Surridge and Patricia Prime.

Prune Juice Issue 5 Winter 2011
Edited by Liam Wilkinson

Submissions Now Open For Kokako 15

Kokako is New Zealand's only dedicated magazine of haiku, tanka, haibun and related forms showcasing poetry from Aotearoa and around the world. It's edited by Patricia Prime and Joanna Preston, and is published twice annually, in April and September.

Submissions for the September issue close July 1st, 2011.
All work should be previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere. The editors ask you to please make just one submission of up to 10 pieces during each submission period to kokakonz[at]gmail[dot]com. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be made after the closing date of each submission period.

Kokako 15 will feature one of my photographic images on the cover so I'm really looking forward to this issue! If you'd like to subscribe, please use the above email address to contact Pat. Cost of annual subscription is NZ$22 for two issues within New Zealand; Overseas AU$20/US$20 for two issues, posted airmail.

And don't forget to about The Sixth Kokako Haiku and Senryu Competition closing October 31st, 2011. First Prize $NZ200!

Klostar Ivanic International Haiku Contest - FREE entry!

The Klostar Ivanic International Haiku Contest is my submission for this week (that's week 16 of 2011). I entered for the first time in 2009, but took a break in 2010 due to illness, and am pleased to get back to it this year. Here's all the details:

Klostar Ivanic International Haiku Contest

Organised by the Tourist Community of Klostar Ivanic, Croatia,

and Three Rivers Haiku Association.

Entry is FREE

Cash prizes totalling $US100

Deadline: May 31, 2011

Limit of 3 haiku which must contain "nature and man as part of it".

Results on the internet by November 1.

Send entries by email with the subject line "For the contest",

with haiku in the body of the email to:

dvrozic (at) optinet (dot) hr

Or by post (include addressed envelope with 1 IRC for results) to:

Haiku Association Three Rivers,

Kolodvorska 44,

10310 Ivanic Grad,

Croatia.

In 2010 New Zealander's did very well, with Pat Prime receiving Third equal, Catherine Mair receiving an Honourable Mention, and Margaret Beverland and Owen Bullock both receiving Choice of Haiku placings. I'm very pleased with the haiku I submitted and hope I can live up to the New Zealand standard!

Submitting to Haibun Today

I submitted my first ever piece of tanka prose (which is like haibun but with tanka instead of haiku) to Haibun Today last week. This was my submission for week 15 of 2011. It was my first time submitting work to this on-line publication, edited by Jeffrey Woodward, with New Zealand's own Pat Prime as Assistant Editor.

I received a quick email reply from Jeffrey, which was unfortunately a rejection, but a very encouraging one. And I will be submitting work here again in the future. You can find the submission guidelines here, and lots of helpful articles and interviews here. And don't forget to check out the current issue!

January Round-Up - What a Month!

A warm welcome to my new readers and all those that have popped in over the course of January - international small stones writing month. I greatly appreciate your comments, and ticking of the 'like' and 'cool' boxes at the bottom of my posts :)

I've loved writing a small stone a day and adding it to the river, and have benefited greatly both mentally and spiritually from doing so. At the same time, I wrote up my small stones in my Mslexia Writer's Diary: a diary I bought for the first time this year and am so glad I did; highly recommend!

I've also enjoyed stopping into other stoners' blogs who I may not have found if it wasn't for this challenge, and I thank you all for sharing your stones. I look forward to submitting my ten best stones this month, and eventually reading many others' in the book to be put together by Fiona Robyn.

January saw me make a goal of submitting poetry to a publication or competition every week for 2011. Here's how I'm doing:

• week one - submitted six tanka to Eucalpyt (first time submitting here) won't hear outcome until after March 31st submission deadline for Issue 10
• week two - submitted one senryu to Haiku News (second time submitting here) was accepted, you can read it here
• week three - submitted five haiku and three tanka to Kokako; had two haiku and one tanka accepted for Issue 14, April 2011
• week four - submitted to Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition (first time submitting here) results will be announced March 31st

I also created a 'My Photography' page here at Swimming in Lines of Haiku, and submitted images to (all for the first time):

• Four and Twenty (online short form poetry journal) - my image was chosen as the cover art for the January issue
• The Bay News 'Weather Photo' Page
• The Bay News 'Holiday Photo Competition' - closes Feb 4th
• And I'm very excited to have been asked to provide cover art for the next issue of Kokako (Issue 15, September 2011) Many thanks, Pat :)

I've continued making collage-style haiga for my collection: four this month, to make a total of twenty-three. I have written two new tanka so far this year for the collection, and still have several haiku and tanka already written to turn into haiga.

I had the opportunity to show them to my local fellow haiku writers at a small gathering in Tauranga on the 29th, which resulted in some good feedback. I'll carry on with this project while it still has meaning for me and the creative process brings me great joy.

January is extra special too because I made it to my first 100 blog posts! Thanks again to all those who have come along for the ride :)

So as you can see, there has been lots of great things happening for me, alongside my continuing treatment for leukaemia. Roll on February!

Submissions for Kokako 14 close February 1st, 2011

Kokako is a New Zealand magazine of haiku, tanka, haibun and related forms. It's edited by Patricia Prime and Joanna Preston, and is published twice a year in April and September.

Submissions should be previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere. Editors ask you to please make just one submission of up to 10 pieces during each submission period to kokakonz@gmail.com

I'm currently getting my submission of haiku and tanka ready to send to Kokako. This will be my submission for next week, which is the third week of 2011. This week (week two of the year) I submitted to Haiku News, which I will tell you more about soon!

Frogpond Submissions Open

Frogpond, the Journal of the Haiku Society of America, is open for submissions for it's Winter Issue. The cut off date is November 15. See full submission guidelines here. And you can connect with the HSA on Facebook.

I had the pleasure of meeting, and writing with, editor George Swede in 2009 when he came to New Zealand. A linked haiku verse that was written over lunch with George Swede, Catherine Mair, Pat Prime, Owen Bullock, Steve Cordery, Margaret Beverland, Sandra Simpson and myself is published in Lynx (scroll down to find 'Spider's Strand').

Kokako Tanka Competition

The 3rd Kokako Tanka Competition

Closing Date: 31st October 2010

First Prize: NZ$200

Second and Third Place prizes of NZ $50 each.

Judge: Richard von Sturmer

Send entries to:

The Kokako Tanka Competition,

Patricia Prime, co-editor

42 Flanshaw Road

Te Atatu South

Auckland 8

New Zealand

Please make cheques out to Kokako

Overseas entrants may send cash at their own risk

               Conditions of entry

1. Tanka must be previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
2. Entry fee is NZ$2 per tanka or 3 for NZ$5; for overseas entries, US$1 per tanka, or 4 for US$3. Any number of entries.
3. Send two copies of each tanka, or group of tanka, with your name and address on one copy only.
4. Winning tanka, highly commended and commended entries will be published in Kokako 14 (April 2011).
5. Winners will be notified by mail.
6. Any theme is acceptable.

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!

Bravado - now with haikai pages!

Bravado 18 is out now with the first, of what will be a regular feature, of four haikai pages in the magazine's centre.

This issue's haikai pages were edited by Owen Bullock, and showcase haiku by Nola Borrell (2), Sandra Simpson (3), Tony Beyer (1), Barbara Strang (3), Patricia Prime (1) and karen peterson butterworth (2). There is also tanka from Andre Surridge (1), Tony Beyer (2) and karen peterson butterworth (1).

The next editor of Bravado's haikai pages is Barbara Strang, recent editor of moments in the whirlwind, the New Zealand Poetry Society's 2009 anthology. I look forward to seeing who and what appears in the mix!

Bravado 18 has an interview by me of cover artist Timo Rännäli, my last as Bravado's 'roving arts reporter'. You can see more of Timo's work here: http://timodesign.co.nz/

A photograph of mine also appears in Bravado's pages - angel - the colour version of which won 2nd prize in the 2009 Creative Te Puke Forum Photography Competition, man-made structures category.