The Chosen One

I am delighted (especially after a terrible migraine yesterday) to find out that one of my haiku has been chosen for the 2013 Red Moon Anthology, which collects the best English-language haiku published each year and puts them together in book form.

true north
the eucalyptus sheds
a length of bark 

The Heron's Nest Volume XV, Number 4: December 2013

I haven't had any haiku chosen for this annual anthology since 2010, when the below appeared within its pages:

coming home

to an empty house

so many stars

First published in Kokako 12 (April 2010) 

But between 2010 and 2013 I was lucky enough to have work represented in other anthologies that also strive to gather the best haikai published in that calendar year.

2012 saw my haibun 'hair ties' appear in Contemporary Haibun 14, and in 2011 three of my tanka were honoured to be amongst those in the forth and final volume of the Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka series. 

So I'm travelling well, and in good company. Let's see what 2014 brings . . .

 

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 #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

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

Mushroom Haikai Collecting

Melissa Allen put a call out on her blog, Red Dragonfly, last month for mushroom haiku, tanka and haiga. She was planning to gather the haikai in an illustrated post dedicated to the humble mushroom. I answered the call with what turned out to be the only tanka -

winter cemetery:
careful to tread between
the headstones
& these small clusters
of white mushrooms




Tanka and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011
Read the full Mushroom Harvest post here and delight your senses!