Mindful Writing Challenge – day 14

summer morning chill
I find a patch of sunlight and become a cat


Find out more about the January Mindful Writing Challenge here.

Mindful Writing Challenge – day 3

summer market
the way each stall holder looks up as we pass


Find out more about the January Mindful Writing Challenge here.

Welcome to 2014!

What better way to start the new year than with the first page of my calendar of haiku and photography, which I did jointly with my husband this time round. Below is actually the view from our lounge at this time of year, often complete with a herd of dairy cows chewing their cud. Just click on the image to see an enlarged view and to read Cameron's previously unpublished haiku. Didn't he do well?

January 2014 haiku & photo by Cameron Elliot

If you're a regular reader of Swimming in Lines of Haiku you'll probably notice that I've changed the look of the blog for 2014: a fresh, clean slate to start as I mean to go on. And before I do I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to all my readers and supporters, to the editors that have accepted and published my work, to those I've written and celebrated with, to those who bought my desk calendars and New Res anthologies: Thank you so much! Let's do it all over again.

Wishing you all the best for a year ahead of reading and writing, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the festive season. If you're looking for a way to kick-start your writing year then join in the January 2014 Mindful Writing Challenge. Maybe I'll see you there! :-)

Kirsten's 2013 Calendar of Haiku & Photography: First Quarter

We're a quarter of our way through the year already and I haven't revealed any of the pages from my 2013 calendar yet! So here's a catch up of the first four months (click on images to enlarge):

January 2013 Haiku & Image by Kirsten Cliff

February 2013 Haiku & Image by Kirsten Cliff

March 2013 Haiku & Image by Kirsten Cliff

April 2013 Haiku & Image by Kirsten Cliff

As with last year's calendar (see here) I used images that I thought my family would enjoy, and haiku that I thought they'd 'get'. I hope you've enjoyed this taster of what's to come throughout 2013. More soon! :)

Mindful Writing Challenge: Day 24

summer steps another day forward

the grass turns another shade toward brown

in the distance, the cows moo in another warm evening

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #7

the angular roof

beneath marshmallow clouds . . .

an old Chocolat factory

          enveloped, even now

          in the sweet breath of summer 

                              

                    Berne, Switzerland, 1998 (click on image to enlarge)

Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Tanka appeared in LYNX XXVII: 3 (October, 2012)

in "Forever Home" a tanka sequence with Margaret Dornaus

To start with the first post in this sequence click here.
To see Margaret's tanka and pictures for "Forever Home", 
visit Haiku-doodle.

Summertime childhood memory

August 25th NaHaiWriMo prompt is "summertime childhood memory", provided by Cara Holman. 

midnight frog song from the swimming pool

Find out more about the 31 Different NaHaiWriMo Prompters for August 2012 here.

Heat

August 23rd NaHaiWriMo prompt is "heat", provided by Pris Campbell. 

telling him

it'll be okay

summer heat

Find out more about the 31 Different NaHaiWriMo Prompters for August 2012 here.

The Night He Left...

                    the night he left...

                    the many sounds

                    of summer rain

DailyHaiku Cycle 12 (November 2011)

Haiku & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

 

Chinese New Year

January 2012 - Kirsten's Calendar of Haiku & Photography

Regular followers of this blog might remember that I actually set myself a second goal last year: to make a calendar of haiku and photography to be given as Christmas presents to my family.

Well, I did it, and everybody loved it! :)

With the Chinese New Year celebrations upon us, I thought it was about time I showed my readers some of what my calendar turned out like. Above is my January page: a shot I took near my old home of Papamoa Beach, from one of my favourite spots, and the haiku is one that was published in the NZPS Anthology in 2008, Before the Sirocco.

It's probably one of my favourite haiku by me: it was my first play around with form in haiku, and I still think of it every summer when I stretch out my toes and feel that first rush of cool breeze.

I hope the sunny scene warms those of you in the Northern parts of our Earth. And Happy New Year once again!