This year
Owen Bullock started his own e-newsletter called The
Greensplat Newsletter to keep those he has worked with in the poetry
world in touch with what he's up to with his workshops, mentoring and other events. In his first issue he showcased one of my tanka, and I wrote a
bit about his involvement in my poetry career:
It's a pleasure
for any teacher to see a Former Student go on to enjoy success and
publication. One such name that
makes me glow with pride is Kirsten Cliff. She has kindly allowed me
to re-print one of her tanka
and a few comments which she sent me:
re-negotiating
my drug regime
with the
doctors
I tell them
that today
they may see
me cry
Kirsten
Cliff (first published in paper wasp 17:3)
"You have
certainly played an instrumental part in my developing as a poet:
being the first to say my haiku was good and that I should submit to
Kokako, then teaching me through the Waiariki course and again recommending I seek publication for some of my poems, right through
to your tanka workshop with the Papamoa Poets group, which got me
firmly on the tanka trail." Kirsten
Kirsten is now
one of New Zealand's most frequently published poets in the genres of
haiku and tanka, appearing
in a range of journals internationally. Her work was anthologised in
the taste of nashi - New
Zealand Haiku.
I'm now pleased
to tell you about his newest haiku collection, breakfast
with epiphanies.
two attempts
at the trouser leg
New Year's Day
“Reading breakfast with epiphanies reminds us again why Owen
Bullock is one of New Zealand’s most accomplished haiku poets. Owen’s haiku
makes its impact quickly with a minimum of words. The haiku enter our minds the
way experience of the physical world does, through our senses. In each of his
finely-crafted poems, he directs our attention to specific moments, helps us to
celebrate them and to let them go. Owen’s finely honed haiku explore a range of
ideas, from the self, to his innermost thoughts about relationships, to his
delight in nature.”
Patricia
Prime, Co-editor of Kokako
log split
a moth
flies out
Owen Bullock began writing haiku in 1999 and since then his work
has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, such as
Presence,
The Heron's Nest, Magnapoets, Red Moon, etc, in seven countries.
This is his second collection of haiku, following
wild camomile
(Post Pressed, Australia, 2009). He also publishes tanka, haibun and
renga, as well as longer forms of poetry, and fiction. Owen has been
an editor of
Spin, Kokako, Bravado
and
Poetry NZ,
and was one of the editors of
Take Five: Best
Contemporary Tanka, Volume IV.
Copies of Owen Bullock's new collection of haiku,
breakfast
with epiphanies, can be purchased direct from him by
cheque to: 890 State Highway 2, RD1, Katikati 3177, priced NZ$20
(plus $2 p&p; $4 outside NZ). Or
email him
to arrange a direct transfer. Find out more at:
http://www.owenbullock.com/
