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.)

October's in the Air

October page: 2013 Calendar of Haiku & Photography (click to enlarge)

See other pages from my 2013 calendar here and my 2012 calendar here. It really is time to start on 2014 . . .

cool spring morning (haiga)

Chrysanthemum 13, April 2013 (click to enlarge)

Welcome to Spring!

September 2012 - Kirsten's Calendar of Haiku & Photography

September 1st marks the beginning of Spring in New Zealand and above is the page I did for my family's calendar. The haiku first appeared with another photo last year in Notes from the Gean here (Sept, 2011), and appeared again this year in Kathy Nguyen's August Blog Bash! with her commentary here. However, the photo in this version was taken at the start of the Papamoa Hills walking track, near my old home, and was later printed in the local paper in the weather shots section. (Click on image to enlarge.)

August was a super busy month with writing, posting and reading haiku daily for NaHaiWriMo. It also was a month of medical appointments for me with several visits to the dentist (a 2nd tooth extraction tomorrow and then hopefully I'm done for a good long while!), a check over of all my moles before summer (no cancer lurking:), and most importantly, seeing my Haematologist at Waikato Hospital. I have now officially finished all my drug treatments for leukaemia. Unfortunately, I will continue my three monthly bone marrow biopsies for a further year because of the risk of relapse. But all signs point to it being done and dusted by next spring. Yay! :)

This month I've already had super news: I've been nominated by the community of New Resonance Poets to enter my work into consideration to join them in A New Resonance 8. Apparently, my haiku have been deemed outstanding and worthy of a wider readership, and I've been invited to submit 50-100 poems. 17 finalists (out of more than 40) will then be chosen to appear in the book. I am so excited and honoured and wowed! And already working on putting my large submission together! :)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my haiku-a-day challenge ready to go for this month, but watch out for it coming soon! Enjoy your spring (or autumn!). This is my first spring in my new home and I'm loving seeing the countryside come to life again after winter with birds, green growth, and baby animals. Happy haiku writing!

Fence

August 30th NaHaiWriMo prompt is "fence", provided by Terri L. French. 

spring moon

a tuft of lamb's wool

caught in the fence

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

Wishes

August 28th NaHaiWriMo prompt is "wishes or dreams", provided by Pamela Cooper. 

spring shoots

so many wishes

I've misused

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

Seam

August 24th NaHaiWriMo prompt is "seam", provided by Susan Murata. 

she tugs at the seam spring storm

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

A Spring 'ku for my Northern Hemisphere Haikuists

                    first spring star...

                    the part of me

                    that wants to cry

Kokako 16 (April 2012)

  Photo & haiku © Kirsten Cliff

 

 

Simply Haiku, Simply Tanka, Simply Svetlana

When I first heard the news that Svetlana Marisova was to be the new tanka editor at Simply Haiku it gave me courage; I knew I should try sending some of my work there for the first time.

Unfortunately, our dear Svetlana passed away before she could fully embrace this role. In honour of her, I sent in my submission anyway, knowing that she wouldn't be there to receive it.

I'm grateful that two of my tanka were chosen in the end to be part of this latest issue of Simply Haiku, which is in loving memory of Svetlana. You can read an in depth piece on her and her poetry by Robert D. Wilson here.

          on the morning 

          of her death, I sit

          searching

          for the small differences

          between these wild finches

          why couldn't I

          have let myself love her?

          the sun's warmth

          as I sit in the graveyard

          this spring morning




A posthumous book, Be Still and Know: a journey through love in Japanese short form poetry, by Svetlana Marisova, and her dear friend Ted van Zutphen, is out on-line now. You can read it free here. Print copies with be available for purchase soon.

Having been given the honour of reading a preview of the book, I can say that I've never read or seen anything like it before. It's a beautiful conversation between two haiku poets across the page, across time zones, across seasons, genders, age groups... It works extremely well as their voices balance and blend throughout the book.

I look forward to holding a copy in my hands very soon and savouring the unique voices of these two haijin.

Tanka and photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Tanka appeared in Simply Haiku (Autumn/Winter 2011) here

Book cover © Ted van Zutphen

Under the Rain

          under the rain

          of cherry blossoms

          a rusting pickup

Notes from the Gean, volume 3, issue 2

Haiku and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011

spring sunlight haiga

Notes from the Gean, volume 3, issue 2

(click on image to view larger)

The Ink Fading

a new thought
my gaze shifts
from the page


*


the ink fading
as I print a haiku
about spring's end



Excellent Writing (July, 2011)

Senryu and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011