A Tanka for Leukaemia Appeal Week

This week is Leukaemia Appeal Week (Nov 1-7) in New Zealand so I'm sharing the first tanka I wrote in hospital while having chemotherapy for Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia (APML). This tanka was first published in Kokako 13, September 2010

walking to work
they kiss
before parting:
the nurse turns left
the doctor turns right

Copyright © 2010 Kirsten Cliff



This photo was taken as part of the Leukaemia Appeal Week campaign, photographed by TJ Alderson in conjunction with the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation. It's of me with my mum and sister in my favourite second hand bookshop, Browsers, in Hamilton.

You can see other leukaemia survivors and read their stories by following this link, as well as some facts about leukaemia and details of how to donate online and go into the draw to win a Farmers gift card worth NZ$100!

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!