Mindful Writing Challenge – day 23

sun haze
these bees in & out
of the cornflowers


Find out more about the January Mindful Writing Challenge here.

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 . . .

Of Summer's Past . . .

return journey --

I fill my sunhat

with ripe tomatoes

Kokako 19 (September 2013)

spring equinox (haiga)

Chrsyanthemum 13, April 2013 (click to enlarge)

cool spring morning (haiga)

Chrysanthemum 13, April 2013 (click to enlarge)

Cold Sun junicho

The first junicho I've participated in creating is now online in the new issue of A Hundred Gourds. You can view the whole piece here, and click on 'next renku' at the bottom of the page to read the Tomegaki for Cold Sun by our sabaki Sandra Simpson. My main contribution was the hokku, which also gave the junicho its title, and is considered an honoured position.

We started writing this at the NZ haiku conference in June where Jim Kacian was our distinguished guest and presenter of two Masterclasses. Jim was also a participant in the junicho. You can read a full write up of the Haiku Festival Aotearoa 2012, including Jim's workshops, in the fearture Sandra has written for AHG here.

Enjoy our junicho, and the rest of the December issue of AHG! :)

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!

Love

August 13th NaHaiWriMo prompt is "love", provided by Gillena Cox. 

just before the sun-shower his 'I love you'

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. 

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

Thinking Twice

          winter sun
          I think twice about
          destroying this web

paper wasp, volume seventeen, number 3, winter 2011

Haiku and photograph © Kirsten Cliff 2011 

In Memoriam, Svetlana Marisova

Haiku written for friend and fellow haiku poet Svetlana Marisova,

during her illness, and on her passing 7/9/2011

winter sun...
my thoughts again
turn to you

winter breeze...

your haiku song in

these wind chimes

                 winter's end...

                         the world through this

                         blackbird's song

Please do take the time to read some of Svetlana's haiku on her website here and as Featured Poet in Simply Haiku here.