Unless stated otherwise, all poetry on Swimming in Lines of Haiku is Copyright Kirsten Cliff and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from the author. kirsten(DOT)cliff(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Showing posts with label doctor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doctor. Show all posts

Friday, September 13, 2013

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


Saturday, February 4, 2012

Avoiding



 






          avoiding
          my old doctor
          at the Cancer Centre
          afraid to meet her
          as a person not a patient






Presence #45 (January, 2012)
Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Tears in Ice Diver





            tears
            the doctor shifts
            in his seat




Commended, New Zealand Poetry Society International Haiku Contest 2011
Appeared in Ice diver, New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology 2011


Monday, October 17, 2011

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

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Kiss


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

Kokako 13 (September, 2010)


Tanka and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011