High Risk

          she advises

          I'm at high risk

          of a relapse...

          I breathe in air heavy

          with crushed dreams

Moonbathing #5 (January, 2012)

Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Daydream

daydream...

will you share yours with me?

red dragonfly

Haiku by Kirsten Cliff  -  Photo by Cameron Elliot



News From Haiku News

Greetings Friends!

We would like to announce that after a several month hiatus, Haiku News will be returning in January. As often happens, life got in the way and forced us to prioritize other things. However, we are ready to begin 2012 with a new vision and commitment to publishing excellent poetry that reflects the social and political events of our world.

On January 15^th, we will begin accepting submissions. Please email your tanka, senryu, and haiku to our new address, the4shades@gmail.com.

We would like to thank all of our readers for being patient and supporting our journal through word of mouth and quality poetry. Please be on the lookout for news about site updates, including a new interview project headed by Laurence.

Thanks!

The Haiku News Staff

The One That Got Away

My tanka that didn't make it into Aubrie Cox's The Language of Dragons...

I place on his finger

the wedding band

we chose together

ringed with Celtic dragons

my spirit fire roars

Tanka by Kirsten Cliff - Photo by Cameron Elliot



Haiku Festival Aotearoa 2012

Don't forget about the Haiku Festival Aotearoa happening in Tauranga this June, being organised by Sandra Simpson and Margaret Beverland. These gatherings don't happen that often in New Zealand so if you're curious but not sure then I recommend you go for it!

There will be Haiku and Haibun Master Classes by US haijin Jim Kacian, and workshops by Owen Bullock (Haiku as Performance), Dr Lawrence Marceau (Haiku, Haibun & Everyday Things), Tony Beyer (Better English Haiku & Tanka) and Sandra Simpson (Introduction to Renku).

Also on the programme is a trip to the Haiku Pathway in Katikati and the prize-giving of the bi-annual Katikati Haiku Contest.

You can find all the information at the HFA 2012 website here.

New Year's Dragonfest

A big THANK YOU to Aubrie Cox for sparking my imagination with her call for dragon/water/fire haiku, tanka, haiga and such like!

the water dragon

swimming through

my lines of haiku

flicks a tail at the sight

of his lover's name

                    dragon fire...

                    the way he moves me

                    this night

                              black robes dance

                              around the ritual circle

                              earth - air - water - fire

                              I draw in a dragon's breath

                              to lead the chant

                                        dragon daydream

                                        the streaks of fire

                                        in her hair

The New Year's Day blog post celebrating the beginning of 2012 (which is the Year of the Dragon) can be downloaded from Yay Words! I'm sure you'll enjoy this magical mix of artwork and short form poetry that has become The Language of Dragons.

December Round-Up - Week 52: TICK!

Here's how I'm doing on my 2011 goal of submitting poetry to a publication or competition every week:

• week forty-nine - submitted two haiku for the 2011 Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems
• AND I submitted my third set of ten haiku for DailyHaiku
• week fifty - submitted three tanka and two haiku to Aubrie Cox's New Year's Dragon blog post at Yay Words!, two haiku and two tanka accepted!
• AND submitted six haiku to The Heron's Nest, awaiting outcome
• week fifty-one - submitted one haiku to the Fujisan Haiku Competition (closes 20 January 2012)
• week fifty-two - submitted one haiga to the WHA Haiga Contest (first time submitting here)

And that's it. I've done it! For every week of 2011 I submitted a poem of some kind, some where :) Phew!

It's been a very rewarding year poetry-wise: not just because I reaped the benefits of so many submissions by being published much more, and much more widely, but because I also meet heaps of great haiku-folk through blogging and on Facebook, and through participating in a few PAD (poetry-a-day) challenges (small stones x2, NaHaiWriMo, NaPoWriMo) so that I'm now happily part of the on-line haiku community - a great place to be and to be part of :)

Thank YOU for being part of it with me through Swimming in Lines of Haiku. I'll be back next year with more poetry, and, knowing me, another challenge to be working towards...

Have safe and happy New Year's celebrations!

Christmas Mall

      Christmas mall...
      clouds move slowly
      across the skylight

Notes From the Gean, December 2011 (3:3)

Merry Christmas to all my friends, readers and fellow writers!

May you find some space to move slowly

this busy holiday season :)

Bedbound...

         


          bedbound...
          three finches take turns
          in the bird bath

a handful of stones, Friday, 16 December 2011

There are still a lot of finches flitting around at our new home, but none of these ones are showing any interest in the bird bath. Luckily, in our rural setting, we don't need such an item to attract all the bird life, and we are happily enjoying watching them where ever they may nest, rest, play, fly and feed.

To all my Facebook friends: Although very exhausted from the move, etc., I'm not bed bound just now, thank God! I know you've been leaving me messages of support and I thank you all :) 

Unfortunately, between needing to rest and my dial-up connection, I haven't been able to get back on Facebook. The good news is that I've reached another milestone: only six-months of treatment to go, and the start of my latest 3-month cycle and bone marrow aspirate is being held-off until after Christmas and New Year. Phew!

A very happy Summer Solstice to those in my part of the world :) It's been a rainy summer here so far and I'm loving it as it's filling up our water tank! A happy Winter Solstice to the bulk of my readers over in the Northern Hemisphere. I hope everyone is writing some Solstice haiku...

Onion Tears

          blue moon...
          I hide behind these
          onion tears

Notes From the Gean, December 2011, 3:3

My new rural home is proving to be perfect for moon-viewing: what with no neighbours, being on a hill, panoramic views and no city lights, we really are getting some of the best night skies that New Zealand has to offer. Bring on the first New Year full moon!

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!

Experimental Tanka

outside:
a war, inside:
a death,
and you want me
to choose...



I considered this my 'experimental tanka'. Hubby had no idea what I was on about - although he's not versed in the ways of tanka. (Happy to report that he's been writing haiku and senryu again since our move to the country though:). I knew it was different and submitted it once without success.

When I submitted it again, it was not with much hope, but I thought I'd give it one more go (having learned over the years that editors all have there own tastes and that just because one rejects it, it doesn't mean that that poem should be binned. I now trust in myself and my poetry much more - something that comes with time and experience.)

So, I put my 'experimental tanka' in as number ten of a set of ten tanka. And was surprised and pleased when Notes From the Gean Tanka Editor Michael McClintock chose it (and none of the others!) for the December 2011 Issue.

This was the type of tanka that arrived pretty much fully formed word-wise, but getting the line breaks and punctuation right took a fair bit of fiddling. And I wasn't in a good space when writing it, but these things are better out than in (which I find poetry perfect for). I'm grateful to have it picked up by Notes From the Gean. Who knows where tanka will take me next...

Editing

          editing
          in my mind's eye
          this new tanka...
          the tinker tinker tinker
          of teaspoon against mug

Eucalypt: a tanka journal, issue 11, 2011



November Round-Up - The Hills Are Alive With Haiku

Gosh, so much happened in November that I don't know where to begin! Definitely the busiest month this year, jam-packed with good things. It started with a short honeymoon after my partner and I were wed on 31 October. A week after getting back we bought a house. Then about two weeks after that we moved!

We've been in our new home a week now and are enjoying the quiet and quirks that come with a life lived in the country. One change that we weren't expecting was the downscale to dial-up Internet. Although it is kinda cool to be so rural that we can't get broadband. It means you have to slow down. Perfect!

Here's how I'm doing on my 2011 goal of submitting poetry to a publication or competition every week:

• week four-four - submitted ten haiku to Notes From the Gean, three haiku accepted!
• week forty-five - submitted ten tanka to Ribbons, one tanka accepted!
• week forty-six - submitted five haiku to the Thom Williams Memorial Contest (first time submitting here)
• week forty-seven - submitted five haiku and five tanka to paper wasp (awaiting outcome)
• week forty-eight - submitted five haiku and five tanka to Kokako (awaiting outcome)

November saw my poetry appear in a handful of stones twice, and my first week of haiku published on DailyHaiku, which you can read here. I was very pleased to see that the 'bride-to-be' haiku went on-line the day before I got married!

Only four weeks left now of submitting each week and I would have achieved the goal I set for myself in the first week of January. I won't be keeping it up in 2012 (especially not with dial-up!) but I'm sure I'll find another challenge to excite my senses. There is certainly a lot of haiku to be found around these parts :)

By The Light

          the day after chemo
          he reads by the light
          of his cellphone

a handful of stones, Thursday, 24 November 2011