Call for Submissions: Australia-New Zealand Haiku Anthology

In honour of the late John Knight, Paper Wasp is producing a joint trans-Tasman haiku anthology, open to residents of Australia and New Zealand, as well as Australians and New Zealanders living in other parts of the world.

Send up to 10 haiku, published or unpublished with a cheque for $A10 or $A10 in cash. That amount will then be deducted from orders for the final cost (including postage and handling) of the anthology. Poets must also include brief biographical notes to a maximum of 50 words, as well as publication and/or prize details of previously published haiku. Paper Wasp reserves the right to make selections for the anthology based on established conventions of merit.
 
Go here for details of where to send your submissions. Deadline: October 20. 
 

Decemeber Haiku Share: The Week That Was #1

The first week of Cara Holman's December Haiku Share has finished. Below are the links to the seven days of posts, and the haiku I have shared each day. I hope you enjoy reading all the haiku as much as I have been, and maybe you'll come and join us this week! (Here's the link to the latest prompt - night sky)

December Haiku Share - Day 1

coming home
to an empty house
so many stars
– Kirsten Cliff

Kokako 12, April 2010
evolution: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2011)

December Haiku Share - Day 2

suspended
from an evening cloud
the mountain
–Kirsten Cliff

the taste of nashi: New Zealand Haiku (Windrift, 2008)
Bay News, Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Waiariki Institute of Technology 2010 Calendar

December Haiku Share - Day 3

drifting fog
where does the dream end
and I begin
–Kirsten Cliff

“Dream Catcher” rengay with Cara Holman, Fox Dreams, April 2012 (edited by Aubrie Cox of Yay Words)

December Haiku Share - Day 4 

extinguished
after love-making
a single candle
– Kirsten Cliff

paper wasp 17:3 (October 2011)

December Haiku Share - Day 5

summer again
the dress I wore
to hospital
– Kirsten Cliff

‘All the Words that Mean Cancer’ rengay sequence with Cara Holman, LYNX 27:3 (October 2012)

December Haiku Share - Day 6

as I begin to sing
in my head
the sparrows scatter
– Kirsten Cliff

Kokako 9, September 2008
Waiariki Institute of Technology 2010 Calendar

December Haiku Share - Day 7

fallen blossoms –
loading empty beehives
on the truck
– Kirsten Cliff

Kokako 8, April 2008

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.

What Are YOU Reading?

March is NZ Book Month in New Zealand - a celebration of books and reading and words. I thought I'd let you know what I'm reading this March: I always have at least one book each of poetry, fiction and non-fiction on the go at any one time so that I have something to read no matter what mood I'm in.

Poetry:

• Stepping Stones: a way into haiku by Martin Lucas (British Haiku Society, 2007)
• And poetry journals that have arrived in March - Kokako 16, paper wasp: a journal of haiku 18:1, Ribbons 7:4.

Fiction:

•  The Carpathians by Janet Frame (First published in 1988)
• And I have just finished reading The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster UK, 2009)

Non-fiction:

• Dreams and the search for meaning by Peter O'Connor (Methuen Haynes, 1986)
• And I'm reading aloud to hubby Marie-Louise von Franz: The Classic Jungian and The Classic Jungian Tradition edited by James A. Hall and Daryl Sharp (Inner City Books, 2008)

I've also bought five books so far this month (all 2nd-hand). At the NZ Book Month website you can download a $5 book voucher to discount your next book purchase. That’s for ANY book you choose priced over $10 from participating bookstores. Get all the details here.

I'd love to hear about what you're reading. Please feel free to share in the comments section, whether it's a book, journal or blog!

New Dress

          shopping

          for a new dress... 

          blisters

  

paper wasp, 18:1, summer 2012

  Photo & senryu © Kirsten Cliff

November Round-Up - The Hills Are Alive With Haiku

Gosh, so much happened in November that I don't know where to begin! Definitely the busiest month this year, jam-packed with good things. It started with a short honeymoon after my partner and I were wed on 31 October. A week after getting back we bought a house. Then about two weeks after that we moved!

We've been in our new home a week now and are enjoying the quiet and quirks that come with a life lived in the country. One change that we weren't expecting was the downscale to dial-up Internet. Although it is kinda cool to be so rural that we can't get broadband. It means you have to slow down. Perfect!

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

• week four-four - submitted ten haiku to Notes From the Gean, three haiku accepted!
• week forty-five - submitted ten tanka to Ribbons, one tanka accepted!
• week forty-six - submitted five haiku to the Thom Williams Memorial Contest (first time submitting here)
• week forty-seven - submitted five haiku and five tanka to paper wasp (awaiting outcome)
• week forty-eight - submitted five haiku and five tanka to Kokako (awaiting outcome)

November saw my poetry appear in a handful of stones twice, and my first week of haiku published on DailyHaiku, which you can read here. I was very pleased to see that the 'bride-to-be' haiku went on-line the day before I got married!

Only four weeks left now of submitting each week and I would have achieved the goal I set for myself in the first week of January. I won't be keeping it up in 2012 (especially not with dial-up!) but I'm sure I'll find another challenge to excite my senses. There is certainly a lot of haiku to be found around these parts :)

Covered

          I lie still
          covered in pain & exhaustion
          busyness all around
          and in my mind
          poetry happens

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

Tanka © Kirsten Cliff 2011

My Body

          so many ideas
          that'll never be realised
          my body
          always fighting
          with itself

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

Tanka © Kirsten Cliff 2011

With Good News

                    each time

                    with good news

                    seems to come bad

                    the wind snatches thoughts

                    of our future

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

 

Tanka © Kirsten Cliff 2011

Photograph by Cameron Elliot

Re-negotiating

          re-negotiating
          my drug regime
          with the doctors
          I tell them that today
          they may see me cry

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

Tanka © Kirsten Cliff 2011

Photograph by Cameron Elliot

Thinking Twice

          winter sun
          I think twice about
          destroying this web

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

Haiku and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011 

New Neighbour

          new neighbour

          a peony blooms

          through the fence

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

Haiku and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011 

Extinguished

          extinguished
          after love-making
          a single candle

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

Haiku © Kirsten Cliff 2011

Photograph by Cameron Elliot

Hoping

               hoping
               my head will clear
               hazy moon

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

Haiku © Kirsten Cliff 2011

Photograph by Cameron Elliot

July Round-Up - A Month Of Gratitude

July: the second River of Stones month for 2011, where people all over the world took time out each day to pay attention to something fully and write it down. My practise of this observational exercise was enhanced by adding gratitude to the process: it made me more grateful of the things in my life as I looked around, listened, touched, tasted, photographed, read and rested. Why small stones of gratitude? See here.

As part of my practise of gratitude and abundance, and as July was my birthday month and the 2nd anniversary of my engagement, I decided to have a draw to give away two haiku books. The post about that here and the winners here. It's cool to have so many new people join me on Swimming in Lines of Haiku and great to be sending out two New Zealand haiku books to readers and writers in America. I think I'll run a haiku competition for my 2012 birthday so stay tuned!

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

• week twenty-seven - submitted one haiku to Wednesday Haiku @ Issa's Untidy Hut - accepted!
• week twenty-eight - submitted seven tanka and seven haiku to paper wasp, awaiting outcome
• AND submitted a tanka to Red Dragonfly (Melissa Allen's blog) mushroom feature post - accepted!
• week twenty-nine - submitted ten senryu to Prune Juice, three accepted!
• week thirty - submitted one previously published haiku to Pin-ku, awaiting outcome
• AND resubmitted three haiga to Notes from the Gean (due to change in editor)

Me with my haiku on the Papamoa Poetry Walk
for New Zealand's National Poetry Day 22/7/2011

July was a fruitful month as I reaped the rewards of my past poetry and prose labours -

• Four of my haiku appeared in 'poetry walks' around parts of Tauranga as part of National Poetry Day on Friday 22nd July
• Prune Juice (Issue 6, Summer 2011) came out with two of my senryu
• a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society, came out with my feature article A Haiku Journey
• Melissa Allen's Mushroom Harvest post came out with my tanka
• Excellent Writing (July Issue) came out with two of my senryu and the final of three Quick Tips For Freelance Writers
• Three of my haiku appeared in the May/June Sketchbook “vegetable(s)” haiku thread (#07, #40, #48). “sunday brunch” was named "Editor's Choice" by John Daleiden, and “sunday brunch” and “pulling up” were named "Guest Editor's Choice" by Bernard Gieske, and "returning home" and "sunday brunch" were named "Editor's Choice" by Karina Klesko. This means all three of my entries were highlighted in the judging process; not bad for my first time participating.

An update on the state of affairs re my various artistic projects -

• I finished my haiga calendar and had one printed so I could see how it looked in the flesh. I'm really happy and excited about it so will now get several more printed out for family Christmas gifts. Sorted!
• I haven't made any new collage haiga this month and I still have an unfinished one on my art table from May! Hopefully I can get that completed in August and then I will have two full albums of collage haiga that have haiku and tanka from my collection exploring my leukaemia journey.
• I did manage to finish my vision board around finding a new home, and what a mammoth task that was! Now it's time to make the magic happen :)

My completed vision board!

March Round-Up - The Three "P"s: Poetry, Prose & Photography

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

• week nine - submitted two tanka and eight haiku to paper wasp (first time submitting here) awaiting outcome
• week ten - submitted an experimental haiku to the HaikuNow! Innovative Haiku Contest (first time submitting here) results out in April
• week eleven - submitted one senryu and three previously publsihed free-verse poems to the 2011 Jacar Press LOVE Anthology (first time submitting here) closes April 30th
• week twelve - submitted a haiku to the HaikuNow! Contemporary Haiku Contest (first time submitting here) results out in April
• week thirteen - submitted eight haiku to the New Zealand Poetry Society International Haiku Competition, closes May 31st

March saw me attend to some prose, and write up an account of my paranormal experience, which was published as a guest post "To Help Or To Haunt?" on Marvellous Mable. Then I was asked by Lorraine Holloway-White (A Skeptical Medium) if I'd give my permission for the story to be used in a book she's currently writing. A very unexpected opportunity which I said yes to right away!

I also submitted an article to a fine line, the magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society, which will be published as a feature article in the July issue. Super pleased about this as I've wanted to see an article of mine there for some time (about time I submitted one!). It's about haiku, of course :)

I completed one haiga for my collection exploring my journey through leukaemia, making a new total of 26 pieces, and wrote four new tanka. I'm starting to think about getting the poetry collection together to enter into chapbook competitions, but I'm not sure yet if that is where I want to head with it. As I'm still writing and have over a year of my leukaemia journey left, it will be a while yet before I would seriously consider a complete publication.

For now, I'm sending most of the haiku and tanka I wrote late last year out to journals so I can be sure that it's of a high standard and can stand alone without needing the context of the collection. So far one tanka has appeared in Kokako and three tanka are forthcoming in Presence. I'm awaiting news of submissions to other journals.

I've done a lot more with my photography this month than my writing, and that's just the way it goes sometimes. After two straight months of writing one-a-day, I got to worrying in the second week of March that my poetry writing had stopped short! All I needed was to remind myself that as long as I'm having fun and doing something to quench my creative thirst then all is well with me.

I submitted some images to Four and Twenty for consideration as cover art and editor, Vinnie Kinsella, accepted one for the June issue. :) Yay! I also submitted my cover image for Kokako, which was accepted by the editors, so that's all go for September.

St Patrick's Day saw me spend the afternoon taking my sister's pregnancy photos. We had fun and got some great shots. I'm sure she won't mind me sharing this one seeing as I'm not showing faces or mentioning names (yes, I have more than one sister! more than two, in fact! and two out of the three are pregnant, due a mere six weeks apart!).


Photo by Kirsten Cliff (c) 2011



Submitting to Paper Wasp Magazine

I submitted ten poems to paper wasp, an Australian magazine, for the first time recently (it was my submission for week 9 of 2011).

paper wasp publishes haiku, senyru, renga, and tanka, and is edited by Katherine Samuelowicz. You will find the full submission guidelines here.

I admit to not knowing much about paper wasp or Katherine, only what I've read on the website. So all I can do is wait to hear if any of my work is accepted. Katherine did sent me an email back quickly though, to acknowledge receipt of my poems, and this is something I like.