Day of the Dead #3: A photo-haiga with Cara Holman

Haiku by Cara Holman / Image by Kirsten Cliff (click on image to enlarge)

See Margaret Dornaus' full Day of the Dead post on her blog Haiku-doodle.

Day of the Dead #2: A photo-haiga with Cara Holman

Haiku by Cara Holman / Image by Kirsten Cliff (click on image to enlarge)

See Margaret Dornaus' full Day of the Dead post on her blog Haiku-doodle.

Day of the Dead #1: A photo-haiga with Cara Holman

Haiku by Cara Holman / Image by Kirsten Cliff (click on image to enlarge)

See Margaret Dornaus' full Day of the Dead post on her blog Haiku-doodle.

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #9

lost

in that deepest green . . .

the mountain alone

has left its imprint

on my psyche

Fern Pass, Austria, 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.

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.

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #5

still showing me

the blessings of survival . . .

an ancient oven

and a stone wheat-grinder

in this deserted city

Pompeii, Italy, 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.

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #3

crumbling brickwork

echoes across the canal . . .

with every bridge

I renew my faith

in a boundless sky

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

Forever Home: A Tanka Sequence with Margaret Dornaus #1

Recently, my friend and fellow poet Margaret Dornaus and I decided to write a series of tanka based on travel pictures we'd taken over the years. The result, our tanka sequence "Forever Home," was published in the October issue of LYNX, where you can find our alternating verses in their entirety. We thought it might be fun, however, to share the verses and the accompanying pictures that inspired them on our blogs simultaneously, which we'll be doing, one by one, over the course of the next several days. Here is my first tanka that started it all. To see Margaret's tanka and pictures for "Forever Home", visit Haiku-doodle.

decorating our first home

our forever home

with photos of travels past . . .

will I ever explore the beauty

of these landscapes with you

My travel photo albums - clockwise from top: Arundel, West Sussex, England 1997; Fern Pass, Tyrolean Alps and Innsbruck, Austria 1998; Mount Fuji, Japan (from Fujikyu Highland theme park) 1999. (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

October Oops!

The beginning of another month and I'd usually be showing readers the corresponding page on my 2012 calendar of haiku and photography, but . . . I unfortunately got the last two months in the wrong order, missing out a winter page! So I've now put all the months, up to October, on a separate page, which you can view here. By the end of the year the whole calendar will be up and you can view them at your leisure.

Please click on the image to see full screen.

In place of my October calendar page I've posted the above haiku and image. The haiku is part of a rengay I wrote with Cara Holman on dreams, which was published in one of Aubrie Cox's Yay Words! projects. You can read the full rengay, "Dream Catcher" here, and download your own pdf copy of the ebook that it appeared in, Fox Dreams here. The photo is of the Kaimai Range (or My Mountain as I affectionately call it:) and was taken from my home on a misty spring morning last month.

Tomorrow begins a week of tanka and images here in collaboration with Margaret Dornaus and her blog Haiku-doodle. Our recently published tanka sequence, "Forever Home" (LYNX, October 2012) was written from our respective travel photos, and now we'll bring you the photos along with the tanka. Tune in each day as we bring you a pair of tanka and images between us. We hope you'll enjoy a further insight into our first tanka sequence together, as much as we enjoyed writing it. :)

September was a busy one for me: writing an essay on my favourite haiku for Haiku NewZ, sending in my huge submission of 100 haiku for A New Resonance 8, writing my November haikai column for a fine line, submitting to the 20th Anniversary Rengay Anthology, entering The 4th Kokako Tanka Competition and participating in a further two kukai. Hoping October will be quieter!

Tanka Sonnets

I first heard about tanka sonnets last year when I read two on Claire Everett's blog, At the Edge of Dreams. You can read her beautiful examples lifting the veil and a crow's wing by clicking on the titles. Seriously, go and read them. They are amazing!

I started experimenting with tanka sonnets in January, writing three at that time and really enjoying the form. I plan to send two into New Zealand's Kokako magazine for consideration next month. The third saw the light of day when it appeared on Margaret Dornaus' blog Haiku-doodle yesterday as part of her National Poetry Month: Guest Post series.

You can check out The day the willow spoke by clicking on the title, and also read a bit about why I write haiku once you're there. Margaret is hosting many poets over the course of April so do check in regularly to learn more about writers you already know, and to meet new ones too.