NZPS Feature Article for September: Collaborative Poetry

Inspiration through Collaboration

by Kirsten Cliff

I never thought I'd need a prompt to get me writing. I always seemed to have new ideas, and could easily draw from what was happening around me. Then some dark days arrived – cancer, mostly – and it seemed that the act of writing got harder. I was writing less. Maybe that was okay? But being generally uninspired in my play with words did not feel good. So when a haiku friend (who'd also survived cancer) asked if I wanted to write with her, I welcomed the opportunity to expand my writing world.

Cara Holman and I started writing rengay together: a modern form of linked haiku verse. I found that writing to the prompt of her haiku lead me to write poetry that I wouldn't have penned otherwise. On really hard days – when the chemotherapy was stripping me bare – collaborating was what helped me get out of bed in the morning. Why? Because I knew that the next link in the poem would be waiting in my email inbox.

I quickly became excited about writing again. I was inspired in a way I hadn't been before. My writing was taken in new directions. It was still my writing voice, but it was brought to life through the links of my poetry with Cara's. I got instant feedback on my work, often in the form of her next haiku verse. This was highly positive as it meant I had inspired my writing partner, too. We were on a roll.

The Scent of Pine

Cara Holman & Kirsten Cliff

evening sky

the moon cradled

in the ginkgo's branches

the scratch of pencil

on paper

hushed dawn

bird tracks

in the snow

fallen fence post

counting out pills

for the day

a hawk scatters

the flock of starlings

cloud cover

the scent of pine

from the wood pile

Our first two rengay, “The Scent of Pine” and “Turning a Corner”, were quickly accepted for publication, appearing in the on-line journal A Hundred Gourds (June 2013). Over the course of that year we wrote 13 rengay together, including four on our joint experiences of cancer, and all were well received by editors. Every time we completed a rengay, we'd start another. It was addictive. And so much fun!

Then I got the itch to try a tanka sequence and asked another writing friend, Margaret Dornaus, if she'd like to work with me. We quickly found a subject we could both get stuck into: our overseas travels. We took inspiration from photos of our journeys abroad, and wrote our first sequence of tanka linked by that travel bug. Margaret and I have since written together several times and I find her feedback invaluable. I'm learning all the time in this world of poetry and she is one of my teachers.

So the positives of collaboration continued, and the desire to do more never waned. After each project I'd feel the need for a break – it was time to return to my own writing. But these 'breaks' never lasted long. My hunger for this new type of inspiration would rapidly grow, and before I knew it I'd be emailing a friend with a new idea for a rengay or tanka sequence. I soon grew bolder and began asking others to write with me. I've now written with six different people.

Lost & Found

Margaret Dornaus & Kirsten Cliff

crossing the river

into this new year, alone

I stop

to look at every turn

before I carry on

first dream of the year

diagnosing her pain

as leukaemia . . .

could I find the strength

to do it over again

on the bench

at the foot of her bed

a clutch of tissues . . .

abandoned like the words

she can no longer recall

I hear her say

she's lost the will to live . . .

the waves

keep on cresting

keep on breaking

winter fog—

the lighthouse steps

we climb

to see whatever

we might see

all day long
the peacock's cry

once again
I fail to listen
to my intuition

Part of a tanka sequence published in LYNX (March 2013)

Experimentation was part of the joy. Cara and I played with the rengay form creating what we called 'rengay sequences': four rengay linked together. This developed from that drive to keep writing with one another, and wanting to explore all avenues of a particular theme. Now I'm breaking new ground with Seánan Forbes: we are writing tanka sequences using repeating lines. This occurred the first time naturally when I was so inspired by Seánan's starting tanka verse that I wanted to use one of her lines in my linking tanka. It can be quite a challenge to use your writing partner's first line as your third line, for example, but, once again, I can't seem to say no!

A very different experience was my first time writing face-to-face, and as part of a group, at the June 2012 Haiku Festival Aotearoa in Tauranga. It was a session filled with laughter, and where I realised I wasn't too good at writing haiku under pressure! Sandra Simpson lead ten of us in writing a junicho: a longer and stricter form of Japanese linked haiku verse. It was also a 'competitive' write, which meant that we all contributed verses for each new spot, and Sandra choose the one that linked best. Although this began in real-time, it was completed on-line, which gave me more space to become inspired by the preceding verse. The experience of working face-to-face in a group setting is one I would definitely repeat, though. After all, it is how linked verses were traditionally written in Japan.

I've since gone on to create collaborative haiga (putting haiku with a photographic image) with two of my haiku friends. I was also part of Ruth Arnison's 'Poems in the Waiting Room' fundraiser, which saw the haiku of North Island poets paired with South Island artists. In this collaboration I was a silent partner, but was excited by the artists' interpretations of my haiku. I look forward to future collaborations with other people outside the world of haiku, as well as those within it.

First published in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society (September 2013); reprinted at NorthWrite

Persistent Rain

bone marrow biopsy --
through my internal tears
a doctor talks
of the persistent rain
on his summer holiday

Kokako 19 (September 2013)

Thankfully all my treatments (and related procedures!) for leukaemia ended a year ago this month. Although I'm still considered high risk, a label that will stay with me for life, I have remained in remission for three years now, so all is looking good. I have also finally completed my collection of haiku and tanka that explore my journey through this experience. It is now with some very generous readers, and then I hope to enter it in the Snapshot Press Book Awards.

My work has just come out in Kokako, A Hundred Gourds and A Fine Line. I've recently had work accepted for Skylark, Presence and Contemporary Haibun Online. And have submitted work to The Heron's Nest, A Hundred Gourds, and the Australia-New Zealand Haiku Anthology. Now I'm getting my entry ready for the Kokako Haiku and Senryu Competition, as well as making haiku cards to take to the fair. Collaborations are still continuing, with Seanan Forbes writing haiku and tanka for some of my photos from Fiji. Never a dull moment!

Don't forget about the Svetlana Marisova Memorial Kukai 2013 (closing September 14th), which marks two years since Sveta's passing from cancer.

waking 
from a dream --
on my lips
I find the word
arohanui*

*Maori for with love/deep affection
RIP Svetlana Marisova

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!

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth #4

'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 March 2012 issue, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Laurice Gilbert, Sandra Simpson and Ernest J. Berry. 

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth

I asked award-winning haiku poets, Sandra Simpson and Ernie Berry, 'What's it like to send your haiku out into the world?'

Sandra Simpson's answer: Selecting haiku to send to an editor or judge can be difficult – they’re all my babies, I love them equally.

As it turns out though, I love some more equally than others. With experience comes the knowledge that while some are “publishable” (but not outstanding) some are altogether better (and some we don’t discuss!).

Most editors like a set of 5-15 haiku which means I can try some poems that are a bit “different” in the mix. Re-reading submissions a month later is a good practice – the haiku often turn out to be not so great as I thought and go back through the editing process.

Getting to know a journal’s ethos helps, although editors can often surprise with their choices.

This haiku, for which I never had high hopes (thinking it was a bit obvious), was published in The Heron’s Nest and won a Touchstone Award for one of the best haiku published in English in 2010:

slicing papaya –

the swing

of her black pearls

The poems to which editors and judges respond are almost invariably (the above example notwithstanding) the ones where I have strived to be honest about the moment.

This haiku came complete while visiting Otago Museum and was a runner-up in last year’s HaikuNow! Contest (limit one haiku; a tough ask):

in the cabinet marked Mesopotamia a broken face

But I also have plenty of haiku that will never be published … and that’s okay. To write the good ones I accept that I have to write the bad ones.

Ernie Berry's answer: My first foray into the world of poetry was about age 5 when Aunt Haysl of Hay's Ltd in Christchurch saw fit to publish one of my poems in her weekly children's page of the Christchurch Star-Sun. 60 years later I started dabbling in poetry again as a retirement project in Mexico where the kindly editor of an American journal targeting snowbirds* was so impressed with my work that he appointed me 'poetry editor' and insisted I supply a new poem for every issue forthwith and recruit other poets from Mexico and California.

After returning to Godzone in 1993, a friend gave me a book of poetry titled Haiku Menagerie which proved a life-changer for me because it consisted entirely of 'haiku' a genre I'd never heard of till then but which catered nicely to my predilection for poetic brevity. I took to haiku like a duck to a frogpond and my first haiku was accepted for publication by an Aussie mag, Paper Wasp in 1995 and within 2 years I was being published in haiku journals in NZ, USA, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Croatia and Argentina, etc., etc. Being published 'world-wide' and winning the odd contest was quite a thrill and has kept my nose to the grindstone of octogenarianism...

petrified forest
a child inspects
my legs

~second place in the ukiaHaiku Festival Contest 2008

* people from northern USA who migrate south annually to escape winter.

 

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.

My Year of Submission

IT BEGAN LAST YEAR on 7^th January when I made the bold statement on my blog: I've decided to submit to a poetry publication or competition every week in 2011. 

 

What can I say? I love poetry! 

 

Plus I hadn't submitted much in 2010: I had my hands full, and my spirit clouded, with leukaemia. In this first week of the New Year I was also hyped up on writing a poem-a-day (PAD) for the first International Small Stones Writing Month (A River of Stones) and my inspiration had kicked into overdrive. I wanted to get back out there. Observing, tasting, trying, writing, reading, submitting...

The first four weeks went by and four poetry submissions were sent off. Without pause, I was participating in another PAD in February: the first NaHaiWriMo (National Haiku Writing Month). 

 

A further four weeks past and this time I sent out seven submissions. I was getting bolder. I sent poetry to competitions I'd never seen before, and haiku to a journal that I'd previously been too nervous to approach. I got a rejection. Another was the A River of Stones anthology. I got an acceptance:

loading the dishwasher:

remembering

how he likes the teaspoons

in a particular slot

and how he said today

when we sat in the garden

"I like the shapes of the leaves on our trees."

Through March my spirits remained high and making weekly submissions was proving manageable. My first month with five weeks and five submissions were sent off. 

 

April, and yep, I did a third PAD challenge. This time it was NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) and another first for me. More poetry was written, read, shared and submitted. Following a set of daily prompts this time, I tested my skills with triptych, concrete poetry, rhyming- and free-verse, as well as my favourite Japanese short forms. 

 

The months went on and I faithfully submitted poems every week, and I wrote a lot, too. Work that I'm really proud of regardless of whether or not it has found its home in a publication, or stayed at home with me. I thought about quitting my self-imposed challenge several times. Why was I doing this again? But something within just made me keep on going. Some weeks, if I wasn't very well, or just seriously over it, I'd quickly submit a haiku to one of the free entry competitions with an on-line form. So easy! Then I'd sigh: Another week complete. Other weeks would see me submit to two or three different places. 

 

Week 26: I've never before been waiting on so many editors' verdicts and competition results: currently awaiting replies from seven publications (on-line and in print), two anthologies and five competitions. Phew!

I was spurred on by my successes, and the growing number of poets I was meeting on-line after four PAD challenges (A River of Stones again in July) and my blog and Facebook posts. Through these social media interactions I discovered new places for my poems. I also got to read lots more great poetry as I found other writers' blogs and Facebook pages: names I now recognised from these new journals I was reading and sending my work to. 

 

I entered the most competitions I ever had during this year. But sadly had no success, except for my Commended in the NZPS International Haiku Contest with:

tears

the doctor shifts

in his seat

Any fear of rejection I might have had about submitting my little poems from NZ to some of the big US journals went right out the window. It had to. This was my year and I wanted to make the most of it. I was delighted when this haiku was accepted to The Heron's Nest after my first time submitting there:

first winter's day

I slip into

his gumboots

Getting an acceptance was always exciting news, especially from the journals that were new to me. My ultimate high came from being accepted as a contributor for Cycle 12 of DailyHaiku, where 28 of my haiku have appeared over a six-month period:

cherry blossoms...

the bride-to-be offers

a sun-kissed cheek

As the end of the year drew near, I got busy. Nothing too strenuous, just getting married, buying a house, relocating to another region, all while having maintenance treatment for leukaemia (I'm still in remission!). December was the hardest month overall. Half unpacked, only dial-up Internet access, exhausted: I'd had enough. But I still somehow struggled through my submissions each week, then welcomed the end of my year. Week 52: TICK! 

 

It's satisfying to have been published in twenty-two publications over the past twelve months. An even better reward is when fellow writers from across the world tell me that I inspire them; sending me messages that my poems have touched them or brought a tear to their eye. I'm extremely grateful for these moments. I'm honoured to have my work read and enjoyed by so many people. I'm happy to be back in full force on my poetry journey.

This article was written for, and first published in, a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society, March 2012.

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth #2

'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 November 2011 issue, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Laurice Gilbert, Nola Borrell and Karen Peterson Butterworth.

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth

I asked the co-editors of the latest national haiku anthology the taste of nashi, Nola Borrell and Karen Peterson Butterworth, 'What is the most valuable piece of advice you have ever received about writing haiku?'

Nola Borrell's answer: At the risk of being contentious (or not published!), I think 'challenge' is a more useful word than 'advice'. Good haiku depend so much more on a way of seeing, or as Martin Lucas (Editor, Presence) says:

'To begin writing haiku, and to make progress to any significant extent, requires two gifts:

• The ability to be alert to the subtleties of sensory or psychological experience (i.e. to notice things)
• A sensitivity to the subtleties of language (i.e. to be able to express things).'
  

http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/460

A challenge from Martin Lucas stimulated me to look more critically at my haiku. He talks about making a 'magical utterance' or a 'poetic spell', something archetypal/ rare/ essential, and in poetic language (4th Haiku Pacific Rim Conference, 2009, Terrigal, Australia). This seems more likely to reduce the human focus frequently dominant or at least intrusive in many current haiku, as well as prosy statements masquerading as haiku. http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/node/456

A specific suggestion (just to keep in with Co-ordinator Kirsten!): Early in my writing I received this comment on a mainstream poem: How about avoiding weak endings to lines, such as 'of', 'the',' in'. Of course. Why hadn't I seen it! Thanks Harry Ricketts (V.U.W., Co-Editor, New Zealand Books). This makes even more sense in haiku - where each word and line ending is that much more significant.

Karen Peterson Butterworth's answer: First the foundation. My artist mother who trained my eyes. When a boring (to me) visitor arrived, ‘Watch her hands and do me a drawing afterwards.’ With her water colour tubes laid out on a white enamel tray, ‘Which colours would you mix for that sunset?’ Five minutes later, ‘Now which?’ My music teacher. ‘When it says “staccato”, leave a tiny gap between each note, and for “legato,” make the notes flow into each other.’ My Dad who sang while he turned the separator handle for the cream on our porridge. My bout with polio which gave me five months with nothing to do but read and observe. 

Then meeting haiku in my 50s. Reading, listening, attending workshops. No single piece of advice springs to mind, but gradually three pivotal messages crystallized. 1. Learn to recognise a haiku moment. 2. Note it down straight away. 3. Choose, change, chop, and chisel your words till you make them sing. 

Copies of the taste of nashi: New Zealand Haiku (Windrift Haiku Group, 2008) are still available for sale. Find all the deatils here.

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth #1

'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 September 2011 issue, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Laurice Gilbert, Joanna Preston and Owen Bullock. 

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth

I asked this year's NZPS International Haiku Competition Judges, Joanna Preston (Open) and Owen Bullock (Junior), 'What is it about haiku that keeps you coming back for more?'

Joanna Preston's answer: It's less a case of ‘what keeps me coming back’ than haiku refusing to let me go in the first place! Every few years I decide I want to leave the genre alone for a while, but something will happen that just can’t be expressed in any other form, or that announces itself to me that way. And then I'm astounded all over again at the depth and complexity of the genre. For me it's that shock of recognition, of purpose, of rightness, that’s crucial in all poetry, but most powerfully concentrated in haiku. And there’s no better training for a poet – to be precise, to be good at recognising exactly what elements of a scene or experience are the really important ones, and to be as supple in meaning and frugal in expression as possible. You feel the really good ones in your body, as a physical impact, as well as in your mind. So maybe my need for haiku is a form of addiction, the way runners can come to crave the endorphin high. Or maybe it's the nuclear physics of poetry – the power to blow the world apart packed into a tiny, seemingly innocuous package.

Read more from Joanna on her blog – A Dark Feathered Art

Owen Bullock's answer: I love the variety that is possible in haiku, and the depth that is sometimes held by such few words. That depth is like a lake, you can swim on the surface or dive deep, chase sticks or skim stones. But it is always about what is real, what is experienced, grounded in sensation. The technique is hidden; the approach of the best haiku so subtle that it is as if no effort goes into it, that it tumbles out of the sky fully formed. Haiku takes me by surprise more often than other forms of poetry.

My own search as a poet is for truth and simplicity. Truth, in this context, means a faithfulness to what actually occurred. The simplicity required to frame the experience is a great lesson and training ground for any and all writing.

waiting . . .

a leaf falls

into my lap

~from wild camomile

Read more from Owen on his website

Goals Or Poetic Leanings?

I'm loathe to make any solid goals poetry-wise this year. I wore myself out in 2011 with my personal challenge "to submit poetry to a publication or competition every week for the whole year". I'm going to write an article about it for the New Zealand Poetry Society magazine, a fine line, so that others might learn from my madness. I think I'll call it: My Year of Submission :)

This year I'm more about leaning in certain directions with my poetry. I want to experiment more, play more with the writing, with the poetry and it's different and wonderful forms. Not that 2011 didn't see me do the most amount of poetry writing I'd ever done in one year. Just the four PAD (poetry-a-day) challenges I participated in alone (all for the first time) produced many haiku, tanka, small stones and longer poems, many of which have since found homes outside of my computer, and my head!

But I definitely need to deal less with submitting in 2012, and so far I've done just one submission a month, letting several "deadlines" pass me by. I'm just not that into it this year. Call it submitter's burn out. And a "so-slow-that-it-might-as-well-be-going-backwards" Internet connection :(

So here's my poetic leanings (not goals!) for 2012, and beyond:

• To make haiku and tanka more a part of my everyday life by putting poems in cards, for example: I've done this in hubby's Christmas and birthday cards, and my parents wedding anniversary card, so far. As I enjoy making my own cards, this practice just adds to the uniqueness of the gift and is always appreciated by those who receive them.
• To write more linked haiku and tanka verses: I did my first solo linked haiku verse as part of hubby's Christmas present, which I framed for the wall. I've also written three tanka sonnets this year, which I really enjoyed and will send off for hopeful publication at some stage. The tanka sonnets in particular really sparked my imagination, and I know I will write more soon.
• To write more haibun and tanka prose: I've written a few of these over the past few years but really want to write more seriously in this area (as I keep promising myself I will!). You see, I have an idea for a poetic memior, which I would write as my thesis for a Master's in Creative Writing. I figure I have a few years to get really good at haibun, or kiss that little "goal" goodbye. I'll be taking two haibun workshops at the Haiku Festival Aotearoa in June, which will give me the inspirational boost that I'm bound to need mid-year.

That's all I've got for now. Feel free to lean along with me...

NZPS Special Call For Submissions

Call for submissions for a special edition of haikai café to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch (22 February) and Japan (11 March).

This will appear in the March 2012 issue of a fine line - The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society.

Please send up to five haiku and/or tanka for consideration to Kirsten Cliff with 'HAIKAI CAFE' in the subject line. (NZPS members only)

Unpublished poetry is preferred, but previously published works will be considered (if credit supplied).

Deadline: 31 January 2012


(Note: a fine line is always looking for Feature Articles "to encourage informed debate, and to assist readers to improve their understanding of poetry." See the submission guidelines here.)

September Round-Up - An Inspiration of Cherry Blossoms

Two activities hit my personal poetry Refresh button in September: an afternoon with my local poetry group 'Pacific Poets' in Papamoa and a brief spot of cherry blossom viewing in Greerton Village. I came back reinvigorated from both with a steady flow of poetry for days afterwards. It always amazes me how a small change in my routine or environment can make such a positive difference to my writing. I'm grateful to have been well enough to appreciate the experience.

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

• week thirty-five - submitted ten haiku to The Heron's Nest, awaiting outcome
• week thirty-six - submitted ten tanka to Notes from the Gean, one tanka accepted!
• week thirty-seven - submitted ten haiku to Notes from the Gean, one haiku accepted!
• AND submitted six tanka to Simply Haiku (first time submitting here), two tanka accepted!
• week thirty-eight - submitted two haiku to the HIA Contest
• week thirty-nine - submitted ten haiku to DailyHaiku (first time submitting here), awaiting outcome

Lots of submitting this month, but not much coming out as Notes from the Gean and haijinx are still working on getting their respective issues out. I look forward to seeing my poetry in these journals, both for the first time, in a matter of days; and in Chrysanthemum and Simply Haiku in mid October, also both for the first time.

At the beginning of September I had one haiku appear in The Heron's Nest, an image feature as cover art on Kokako and my first haikai column in a fine line. I've been working on my second column throughout September and am almost ready to put it to bed. Happy October 1st all and a warm welcome to my new readers!

Greerton Village Square - September 27, 2011
Both photos by Kirsten Cliff

August Round-Up - It Was All In The Cards

August saw me getting crafty making birthday cards for family members: see my mum's one here and the ones for my niece and nephew in Canada here. I also began on a card project of a different kind: thinking about a collage I could make with all the cards I received while in hospital. You can read my post about that here, and I will keep you updated on my (very slow) progress.

I had a haiku appear in Melissa Allen's Red Dragonfly blog post about dragonflies: see my contribution here and the full post in all it's glory here. A recommended read, for sure! And speaking of reading: I'm doing a daily one from Martin Lucas' Stepping Stones: a way into haiku. The haiku are top drawer and I'm learning new things all the time. You can get your copy here.

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

• week thirty-one - submitted five haiku, seven tanka and one haibun to Presence, one tanka accepted!
• week thirty-two - submitted ten haiku/senryu to Chrysanthemum (first time submitting here), one haiku accepted!
• week thirty-three - submitted ten tanka to Ribbons (first time submitting here), awaiting outcome
• week thirty-four - submitted five haiku to the Katikati Mural Festival collaborative arts project

August was a very low energy month for me so lots of resting was done.
This is a sight I saw often: the shadow of the trees and a bird ornament
with a crystal casting many shapes and rainbows on the drawn curtains.

September is already in full swing: the September issue of Kokako has come out with my paper cranes image on the cover, the new edition of The Heron's Nest has been released containing one of my haiku, and my first column as editor of the haikai section of a fine line (the Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society) is in NZPS members' in-boxes and mailboxes. Happy haikuing to you!

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!

A Haiku Journey

I walked unannounced into the world of haiku. I’d never encountered it before, never been taught it at school. Even when living in Japan for six months I never crossed paths with haiku.

Haiku for me now is like an old friend: comfortable to be with, always there for me through the good times and the bad, with an honest heart which will still challenge me when I need it.

My haiku journey began when I moved to Bay of Plenty in 2005, joined Tauranga Writers' a year later and heard about the Katikati Haiku Pathway.

On New Year’s Day 2007, I was alone with a longing to begin my year with something new. I felt a need to discover the external world, yet at the same time explore the world deep within myself. So when everyone else was heading to the beach hungover, I drove forty-five minutes to the calmness of the Katikati Haiku Pathway.

I strolled, I sat, I listened, I looked, I touched, I smelled: I wrote my first haiku. I absorbed all that was on offer that day and found what I'd been searching for: a new way to express myself.

Haiku just seemed to ‘fit’ me. It was concise, to the point, I felt I knew where I stood with it. There were no long descriptions, no flowery language to get lost in. Just good honest observations, where every word and line break was important, and carried a depth that would reward the present reader.

Most of my poetry at that time stemmed from observations: moments in time that stayed with me and begged to be created into something. Sights, sounds, and sensations that enticed my body to grasp pen and paper, and then record the occasion in its rawest and truest form. Haiku allowed me the opportunity, gave me the tools to do justice to my experiences.

I read all I could about haiku in print and on-line. It wasn’t long before my first haiku were published. Then six months after my visit to the Katikati Haiku Pathway, I set myself a challenge: from my 30^th birthday on 31 July I would write one haiku, every day, for a year. It was this huge task that really taught me the craft of haiku, and elevated all my writing to the next level.

It did this in two main ways: honing my observation skills, and refining my ability to clearly convey what I wanted to say.

Writing haiku means living life using all your senses. Not just listening to what a person says, for example, but looking at the way their eyes light up over certain topics, the way the sunlight picks up different colours in their hair, the smell of their perfume, the temperature of the room, the background noises. Taking in all these aspects when interviewing someone for an article (which is what makes up half of my prose writing work) brings to life your experience of your time with that person. The reader gets a more rounded view of the interviewee, and your article is more enjoyable to read as it is richer, deeper. Working and playing with haiku has made me become more observant to the world around me, and this can’t help but enrich all of my writing.

Writing haiku involves capturing the beauty and fullness of a moment, in about 10 words or less. Working with haiku has improved my ability to convey what I want via the written word. I enjoy wordplay more since reading and writing haiku: it's taught me the value of each word and it has expanded my vocabulary as I’ve searched for the right words, in sound and in meaning, to form those few short lines. The challenge of writing haiku has lead me to an uncluttered writing style, in both my poetry and prose.

I've only been writing creatively for six years but much of that time has been spent on the art of haiku. I see so many possibilities with this form and I’m experimenting with it and extending my knowledge all the time. My latest project is developing a collection of collage-style haiga (haiku with images) about my experiences of going through treatment for leukaemia. Yes, my old friend haiku was there for me then, too.

This piece appeared as the feature article in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society (July, 2011).

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



Sharing a Haiku for NaHaiWriMo - day seventeen

I'm writing a haiku a day for NaHaiWriMo offline. Here at Swimming in Lines of Haiku I'm sharing one of my published haiku each day:


silence at the halfpike
the skateboarders
sunbathing


Published in a fine line (July, 2008)

Sharing a Haiku for NaHaiWriMo - day ten

I'm writing a haiku a day for NaHaiWriMo offline. Here at Swimming in Lines of Haiku I'm sharing one of my published haiku each day:


walking to therapy -
her step slows
past the rose bush


Published in a fine line (September, 2009)