November Calendar Page

Here's the current page of the 2014 calendar my husband and I did for our family. (Click on image to see enlarged view.)

 

 

thoughts of home

the air sharp

with sea salt

 

I didn't think I'd get a calendar done this year, but even with all that's gone on these last several months the itch to create one was still strong. So glad I did it, and my family members that have already seen it are loving it. I hope you've been inspired to create some of your own Christmas presents this year, in whatever form that takes. Maybe even pop a haiku in a card, or two. Enjoy! :-)





Almost

Yes, almost! Our house is almost ready and we hope to move back in next weekend. Wow, what a long 5+ months it has been since what hubby and I called home was severely storm damaged. Now it's all fresh, clean and new and I can't wait to settle in to our country retreat once again.

Here's the September 2014 page from the calendar hubby and I did together for our family last year. Looking forward to getting back to this!

(Click on image to see an enlarged view.)

Hello

Here's a photo that shows the current state of our home: Me standing in my study saying hello to my husband who's standing in his study . . .

where does

the pain go

when I can't feel it —

a lilac sunset     soft

on the year's first day

 

Skylark 2:1 (Summer 2014)

 

I've been a bit overwhelmed by all the insurance claim stuff that needs doing: phone calls, decisions to make, information to send through, things to pick up or drop off. But everyone is being very kind and helpful. And I hear the roof is going on today, which is more than enough to be grateful for! :-)




Gutted

Things are coming together . . .

The house: the architect's plans for the new, reinforced roof of our home were sent through to me this week, and have been sent to council for the required building permit. Also, the house has been gutted - all the walls, ceiling, kitchen, carpets, etc., have been ripped out, and will eventually be replaced once the new roof is on and the building is watertight. It's so good to know that things are continuing on over there in Matamata while hubby and I make another day-to-day life for ourselves in Te Awamutu.

A photo I took from my study last August of the peacocks that roam our country property.

I have no need

of all these peacocks

to teach me how to cry

last night I felt you

in my arms at last

 

Skylark 2:1 (Summer 2014)

The manuscript: my haiku and tanka manuscript did not place in the Snapshot Press Book Awards, but I'm very excited to say that it is now being read by another publisher. Happy, happy, joy, joy! :-)

The store: my online shop Haiku On has taken a backseat for a while now, but today I released a new t.shirt design that I'm really excited about - "What's my sport? Haiku!" This is with thanks to friend and haiku poet Margaret Beverland, who told me about a conversation she had along these lines with fellow haiku poets, and her husband! The bestselling tee "Trust me, I'm a haiku poet" is still available, as well as some beautiful haiku journals, and much more. Come over and take a look at http://www.cafepress.com/haikuon

Brand new t.shirt design at Haiku On available now! http://www.cafepress.com/haikuon

In Situ

Here is the May page of the calendar of haiku and photography that I did with my husband. I've taken a photo of it 'in situ' at our new, long-term temporary accommodation, which we moved into on May 1st. It's so great to have our own place again, even if we don't know for how long we will be living here. And "here" is Kihikihi, Te Awamutu in my brother's recently vacated house, and not far from the support of my parents.

Haiku & Photograph by Cameron Elliot (haiku first published in Kokako)

 

duck flight

this grey stump

no longer unnoticed

 

As far as our Matamata home goes, things are starting to move along. Plans are being drawn up by an architect for a new roof - one that can stand the high winds we catch up on our Hobbit hill. The place is being stripped out - carpets, plaster board, etc. - and then remodelling and decoration will begin from there. I miss the beautiful views of mountain and sky, the ducks laughing away at this time of year, and the places I know so well. Time to make some new memories. :-)



Updates: Haiku, Tanka Prose, House . . .

The first of three of my haiku appears in Pulse: voices from the heart of medicine this week. You can check it out on the site here and take a look around the rest of the issue while you're there. Submission information can be found here (scroll to the bottom for haiku).

I'm currently racing to meet a May 1st deadline for a commentary I'm writing on my tanka prose, The Taste on My Tongue, first published in Skylark. I usually don't leave things until the last minute, but I had been busy for the past six weeks and knew I had time to do this in the last two weeks of April. Then the roof came off, and here I am. The piece is for Haibun Today and will hopefully include reactions re its meaning from those that have since read it. You can read the tanka prose in question here and send me your thoughts by email here. I can't guarantee that what you send me will end up in my article. But if you'd like to be part of it then please send it through by the end of Monday 28th. I'd love to read your response! :-)

Last but not least, an update on my home. Well, we made it to page 3 of the regional newspaper, Waikato Times, as well as our local Matamata Chronicle. Read the web version here, complete with pic. The insurance assessor has been through both our home and contents claims and we're waiting to hear back. Meanwhile hubby and I are still living at my parents, but hope to move into more long-term temporary accommodation next week. It could be months before we get home, and there ain't no poetry coming to me yet . . .

Roofless

9:30 am yesterday the roof was ripped clean off the home I share with my husband in Matamata. It landed in the neighbour's paddock. Both my hubby and I were unharmed, and were evacuated off the property by the Fire Service. After more hours of stormy rain we returned and found the ceiling collapsed in. We're now safely settled at my parent's home in Te Awamutu.



Our kitchen-diner open to the elements and me trying to save what I could.

sun shower outside inside 

 

 

My study where the magic used to happen.

 

My thanks to all who have sent messages of support through Facebook, and offers of books (haiku and more) to replace my sopping wet ones. Special gratitude to my parents who've helped with everything over the past two days. I'll keep in touch . . .

 

Mindful Writing Challenge – day 24

arriving home
to the scent of last night's roasted red peppers


Find out more about the January Mindful Writing Challenge here.

Damaged goods

When you have a car accident (although emergency services don't believe in accidents, so they call them car crashes) if the damage to your vehicle is greater than its perceived worth, then it is written off. As I drain my savings account, and that of my parents, seeking to fix what is broken within me, I wonder: is my damage greater than my perceived worth? Maybe nothing is ever an accident . . . 

low moon
the drive home
in silence 

Contemporary Haiku Online October 2013, vol 9, no 3

Share a Haiku-a-Day for December

Cara Holman has come up with a great haiku sharing event on her blog Prose Posies for this month. As she points out, there's many haiku out there that we miss seeing because there is so much to read, or maybe it was published before our time, or in a journal in a country far from our own.

What Cara is inviting us to do is to share a haiku each day in the comments section of her blog that relates in some way to the haiku she posts each day. Easy peasy, and heaps of fun. Get into it folks! Here's the first post (sign up to her blog and receive her posts directly to your email inbox).

a stranger in the crowd
that looks like you
blue mist

Cara Holman

(Shiki Kigo Kukai, November 2012)

coming home
to an empty house
so many stars

Kirsten Cliff

Kokako 12, April 2010
evolution: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2011)

Driftwood

August 21st NaHaiWriMo prompt is "driftwood", provided by Kathabela Wilson. 

journey's end . . .

taking only the driftwood
that is smooth

...And one from hubby again today, Cameron Elliot:

thoughts of home
the air sharp
with sea salt

Find out more about the 31 Different NaHaiWriMo Prompters for August 2012 here.

My Most Beautiful Thing

...Is those few minutes at day's end when the mountain range glows orange, lilac, pink or gold in the glory of the setting sun. I speak to the mountains every day from somewhere deep inside of me and each evening, just for a moment, I know my prayers have been heard when I watch Nature's gift of illumination.

  

(I live in the valley of the majestic Kaimai Range in Waikato, New Zealand. My husband and I have a beautiful view of them from our home, however this photo was taken by hubby from just down the road. Please click on the image to see it larger.)

Today I'm taking part in the My Most Beautiful Thing Blogsplash to celebrate beautiful things - inspired by Fiona Robyn's new novel, The Most Beautiful Thing. Bloggers from all over the world are taking part and writing or posting pictures of their most beautiful things today. Find out more here and see everyone else's blog posts here. 

When A Poem Finds Its Home

I'm beginning to believe more and more that every poem has a home, which will be found eventually. Prune Juice is a place where senryu of mine (some written back when I began in 2007) are finally finding their kin and I'm so pleased that these poems, which I was starting to think just didn't fit anywhere, are now being enjoyed by an audience who can appreciate my humour.



          at the lookout
          we view pics
          on his camera



                    valentine's day
                    buying tampons
                    on special



                                        the size of this bathroom
                                        with me in it
                                        as well as the fly



This third senryu is relatively new having been written during NaHaiWriMo last year. But even so, it was still rejected its fair share of times before finding a place in Prune Juice's pages. NaHaiWriMo 2012 starts in just a few days, where people all over the world will be writing a haiku a day for the month of February. Check out all the information here. And who knows what place your haiku will eventually call its home...

Away With the Birds

          rushing thoughts...
          the speckled breast
          of this thrush

Notes From the Gean, December 2011, volume 3, issue 3

I haven't seen any thrushes here at my new home in Hobbiton, but many, many other birds that will stop me in my tracks; mind and body. Some I saw daily in suburbia, like blackbirds (a favourite of mine and hubby's), finches (partial to these wee ones, too) and sparrows (of course!).

Then there are the beautiful array of new birds for my viewing palette, like the ever loud and proud peacock, the majestic pair of hawks, the magpie's with a nest in our gum tree, the native pukeko that drink from the cow troughs, beautiful swallows, cheeky minors, and various brightly coloured parrots. It's a busy place!

Needless to say, much haiku is being written about the birds and our amazing rural views. I just sent in a new batch of ten haiku for my third set on DailyHaiku Cycle 12. My second week-long set is running now and looking great :) I'm also getting a submission ready to send in to The Heron's Nest by 15 December.

And to my surprise, I had a great session over the weekend writing dragon haiku and tanka for Aubrie Cox's New Year's Day post over at her blog, Yay Words! I'd never written about dragons before, but once I got going I had heaps of fun. Check out the submission info here. It's going to be fantastic!

Cicada Song

cicada song

replaces the heavy traffic

of home

Haiku and photographs © Kirsten Cliff 2011

From Spider's Strand in Lynx: A Journal for Linking Poets

(scroll down to find Spider's Strand: a linked haiku verse with Patricia Prime, Catherine Mair, Margaret Beverland, Steve Cordery, Owen Bullock, Sandra Simpson, George Swede and myself) 

A Small Crop of Vegetable Ku

        sunday brunch
          with the in-laws
          the taste of pepperwort

          returning home
          all the lettuces
          have gone to seed

          pulling up
          the last few carrots
          chimney smoke

All haiku and photographs © Kirsten Cliff 2011
Haiku appeared in the Sketchbook Vegetables Haiku Thread, May/June, 2011.

Winding Roads

homeward bound

the car driven fast
round winding roads
a feeling in my stomach
that's not car sickness

Kokako 14 (March, 2011)

Tanka and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011