A small stone I picked up a few nights ago...

as the bath fills

so does the sky

with this moon

 Photography by Cameron Elliot - Poetry by Kirsten Cliff

Call for Submissions: MOONBATHING Issue 6‏

MOONBATHING

A JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S TANKA

 

FROM EDITOR
Pamela A. Babusci  

 

Moonbathing Issue 6 is now accepting submissions. 

 

I have additional copies of Moonbathing issue 5

If you wish to purchase a copy(ies) please e-mail me.
 

Moonbathing will publish two issues a year: Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer.

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:   

Moonbathing will feature only women poets.  

Send a maximum of 10 tanka per submission period. 

Submission deadlines:  

Spring/Summer: In-hand Deadline:  May 15th (spring/summer themes or non-seasonal only) 

Fall/Winter: In-hand deadline:  Dec. 15th ( fall/winter theme or non-seasonal only)

 

No previously published tanka or simultaneous submissions; no tanka that has been posted on-line on a personal website/blog.

SUBMISSION ADDRESSES:

Send your tanka IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to:  

Pamela A. Babusci  

PLEASE NO ATTACHMENTS. E-mail submissions ONLY.

I hope that all tanka poets who have their work accepted will support Moonbathing by purchasing a copy or a subscription. If Moonbathing is to survive it will need your support and I will be most grateful for it. DONATIONS MOST WELCOME

 

DISCLAIMER: Moonbathing does not assume liability for copyright infringement or failure to acknowledge previously published tanka.

 

COPIES/SUBSCRIPTIONS:

 

Subscriptions: $12 for one year (two issues) U.S. and Canada; $6 for single issue. 

International: $16 (two issues) $8 single issue U.S. dollars; send US cash or international M.O.—payable to Pamela A. Babusci to:  

 

Moonbathing Editor

150 Milford Street Apt. 13 

Rochester, NY  

14615-1810  USA    

 

PLEASE NOTE: I will be moving into a new apt. by the end of May, so, please check with me for my new address before mailing me-thanks!

The Editor of Moonbathing is looking forward to receiving your best tanka. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail Pamela A. Babusci 

Respectfully submitted,

Pamela A. Babusci, Editor of Moonbathing

These are a few of my favourite things...

Haiku and dreams. Dreams of the night variety, that is. Both are equally important to me, although I'm not very diligent about writing my dreams down each day, whereas I will almost always write down my haiku. I hope to get much better at this, as I value highly what my dreams are telling me. Below is my favourite quote about dreams that sums up my feelings exactly:

Suppose someone told you

that there was something that spoke to you every night,
that always presented you with a truth about your own life and soul,
that was tailor-made to your individual needs and particular life-story,
and that offered to guide you throughout your lifetime,
and connect you with a source of wisdom far beyond yourself.
And, furthermore, suppose that all of this was absolutely free.
Naturally you would be astonished that something like this existed.

Yet this is exactly the way it is with our dreams.  ~ John A. Sanford (1975), Dreams and Healing, Paulist Press, NY

My blog title actually comes from a dream: In it I was literally swimming in lines of haiku and only awoke, with a sudden start, when I heard hubby's whispered exclamations as he'd hit his leg on the way into the bedroom (or something similar). I love water and swimming, so swimming in lines of haiku was a wonderful experience for me. I'm currently searching out dream haiku for my month as one of The Haiku Foundation's Per Diem: Daily Haiku editor's with my chosen theme of 'Dream Speak', the title of which I took from one of my own haiku: 

          dream speak...

          sunlight on the opening

          tulip's tips

DailyHaiku Cycle 12 (November 4, 2011) 

So, I thought it was about time I wrote a haiku about my above dream, and came up with this on Friday:

          even in my dreams

          swimming in lines

          of haiku

I'd wanted to change my blog's welcome picture ever since I moved last November, as the iconic Mount Manganui and beach scene was now in a different region to my new home. As of Friday, I have a very cool photo of rippling water, which I took some years ago in this region (Waikato) with the well-known Kiwi icon of a silver fern floating under the surface. And I've added my new haiku into the mix to convey my two favourite things as well as to give readers, old and new, some insight into me and my blog's title. I've always liked the image and am happy to be able to give it a fitting home at last.

During my dream haiku search, I came across the book Inside Out: Haiku and Dreams by Joseph Kirschner (Deep North Press, 2003). I was overjoyed when, on contacting Joseph and telling him what I was up to, he kindly sent me a copy of his book as a gift! Gosh, how I LOVE our haiku community :) I am thoroughly enjoying reading Inside Out and am grateful to read the haiku, dreams and explanations within it. (You can read a review by Modern Haiku here.) I will certainly look at writing more haiku from my dreams: It could definitely be a good way to get me to write at least some of my dream/s down each morning! After all:

Jung observed that dreams perform restorative, corrective, compensatory, prophetic, and developmental roles in our psyche; that to attend to our dreams is to attend to the cry of the soul.        ~ From The Art of Dreaming by Jill Mellick (Conari Press, 2001)

My 2nd Cancerversary

Yep, today is the day that I was diagnosed with leukaemia two years ago. I'm still in remission (yay!) and I have about five months of maintenance treatment left (double yay!) so almost at the end of it all now. If you haven't already, you can read a bit about my leukaemia journey here on the Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand website (don't worry, there are no gory details!).

I wanted to take a moment to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has been part of my treatment and recovery over the past two years: my family and friends, my doctors and nurses, my fellow writers, bloggers, Facebookers and haiku poets. I greatly appreciate your support and encouragement, your kind words and friendship :) You all have made this journey a much easier one to get through. THANK YOU!



          as I'm driven

          to the Cancer Centre

          an old man

          sits on his porch

          playing the guitar 

Ribbons 7:4 Winter 2011

Writing haiku and tanka over the past two years has also helped me enormously in processing my journey through leukaemia. I was so pleased to get an email yesterday telling me that I had four tanka short-listed for this year's Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 4, all of which are part of my cancer collection. (And yes, it was one of my secret 2011 goals to get in this anthology:) Maybe this time next year I will have my book (with the working title, Patient Property) ready and published: my third anniversary would be the perfect time to launch it! 

How Did Your NaHaiWriMo Go?

I quietly wrote my haiku-a-day for NaHaiWriMo this February: I didn't follow the prompts by Michael Dylan Welch on the NaHaiWriMo Facebook page, and I didn't blog about it. Unfortunately, I did miss two days mid-way through due to illness, but as I wrote two haiku a few of the days throughout the month, I have come out with more than 29 at the end of it all, and am pretty pleased with my lot.

March 1st signals Autumn in New Zealand, and so it's time to share the March page of my calendar... 

March 2012 - Kirsten's Calendar of Haiku & Photography

The photo was taken at McLaren Falls near Tauranga last year, and the haiku was written on this blog during April's NaPoWriMo last year. You can click on the image for a larger view. Enjoy!

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth #1

'Straight From the Haijin's Mouth' is one of the features that makes up my haikai column in a fine line, The Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry. This edition is from the September 2011 issue, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Laurice Gilbert, Joanna Preston and Owen Bullock. 

Straight From the Haijin's Mouth

I asked this year's NZPS International Haiku Competition Judges, Joanna Preston (Open) and Owen Bullock (Junior), 'What is it about haiku that keeps you coming back for more?'

Joanna Preston's answer: It's less a case of ‘what keeps me coming back’ than haiku refusing to let me go in the first place! Every few years I decide I want to leave the genre alone for a while, but something will happen that just can’t be expressed in any other form, or that announces itself to me that way. And then I'm astounded all over again at the depth and complexity of the genre. For me it's that shock of recognition, of purpose, of rightness, that’s crucial in all poetry, but most powerfully concentrated in haiku. And there’s no better training for a poet – to be precise, to be good at recognising exactly what elements of a scene or experience are the really important ones, and to be as supple in meaning and frugal in expression as possible. You feel the really good ones in your body, as a physical impact, as well as in your mind. So maybe my need for haiku is a form of addiction, the way runners can come to crave the endorphin high. Or maybe it's the nuclear physics of poetry – the power to blow the world apart packed into a tiny, seemingly innocuous package.

Read more from Joanna on her blog – A Dark Feathered Art

Owen Bullock's answer: I love the variety that is possible in haiku, and the depth that is sometimes held by such few words. That depth is like a lake, you can swim on the surface or dive deep, chase sticks or skim stones. But it is always about what is real, what is experienced, grounded in sensation. The technique is hidden; the approach of the best haiku so subtle that it is as if no effort goes into it, that it tumbles out of the sky fully formed. Haiku takes me by surprise more often than other forms of poetry.

My own search as a poet is for truth and simplicity. Truth, in this context, means a faithfulness to what actually occurred. The simplicity required to frame the experience is a great lesson and training ground for any and all writing.

waiting . . .

a leaf falls

into my lap

~from wild camomile

Read more from Owen on his website

First Published Haiku

I recently took Sandra Simpson's advice from her January 2012 Haiku NewZ article, Turning Over a New Leaf, and created a 'published' file on my computer for all my haiku and tanka. I thought I'd better get on to it before too many more years went by and the task became unmanageable and undesirable! Now it's all done, I'm enjoying the fast and easy access to my haiku, and where they've all been published. While undertaking this task, I was reacquainted with my first published haiku and thought, "Why not share!"

Papamoa Dwellings

motor camp

grass struggles

against sandy soil

                    cleansing the mind

                    glasses misty…

                    sea spray

following sandy footprints

too big to fill

                    frisky waves –

                    white foam

                    chasing my toes

in summer skies

green kites flutter –

corporate giveaway

                    laughing

                    with the rushing wind…

                    dune flowers

enveloped by sand –

my feet…

warmed

                    discarded nylon –

                    a fisherman was here

empty beach –

but for the waves…

hushed

                    suspended from

                    an evening cloud –

                    our mountain 

 

This Side of the World: Tauranga Writers Celebrating 40 Years (Tauranga Writers, 2007) Edited by Sue Emms and Jenny Argante

The last haiku is this sequence went on to be published (with a slight change, see below) in the taste of nashi: New Zealand Haiku (Windrift, 2008) Edited by Nola Borrell and Karen Peterson Butterworth

suspended 

from an evening cloud –

the mountain 

 

It has also appeared in:

Bay News, Wednesday, May 21, 2008 
Waiariki Institute of Technology 2010 Calendar

and on my THF Haiku Registry page here

 

2012 'River of Stones' Anthology: submissions wanted

Fiona and Kaspa will be putting together an anthology of small stones from this year's river. They'd love to have a submission from everyone who took part, so do send them your small stones whether or not you think they'll be included in the book. As last time this collection will be edited by the pair and they'll choose the small stones that resonate most with them.

Submission details: Email up to FIVE small stones and your name as you'd like to be included in the book to this address with the subject 'river book'. Submissions will close on Sunday the 19th of February. All contributors will receive a free PDF of the finished book as a thank you.

Fiona and Kaspa won't be acknowledging receipt, but they'll let you know whether your small stone will be included or not by the end of March. If you haven't heard from them either way by then do let them know and resend your submission.

2011 'River of Stones' Anthology

I didn't officially participate in the January River of Stones: I didn't blog about it or write one each day. But I did still spent time during the month, when I could, noticing moments and writing them down, usually in my preferred style of haiku. I asked Fiona if I should submit to the anthology or not and she said yes! So I'll be sending in a few of my observations from last month.

I look forward to reading all of the stones in the book when it comes out in a few months time, and hope I'll see some of my favourites from the regular bloggers I read who took part.

DailyHaiku call for submissions for Cycle 13

I've had an amazing time being a contributor for DailyHaiku Cycle 12: it was one of my 2011 haiku highlights, for sure. I encourage my readers to make a submission to this excellent journal as there is nothing to lose and much to gain from the experience! My time is almost at an end: I have one more week-long set to appear, and then I hope to see your work there.

cutting

the last rose stem...

woodsmoke

By Kirsten Cliff

DailyHaiku, November, 2011

Dear Readers, Friends, and Past Contributors,

We are thrilled to announce that submissions are open for DailyHaiku's thirteenth publishing cycle! This represents the start of our seventh year of publishing as an online daily periodical.

We now invite you to submit some of your best work for consideration. Your submission, if selected, will grant you one of six spots on our roster of Cycle 13 contributors. It will also become your first set of haiku that will appear on the site. At the end of the 6 month publishing period, each contributor will have four weeks of published haiku, and will receive a copy of our yearly print addition that features their work.

If you are interested in becoming a contributor, please read our submission criteria detailed on this webpage: http://www.dailyhaiku.org/info/#contribute 

Feel free to forward this call to any other haiku enthusiasts that may be interested in participating.

Thank you for helping to make DailyHaiku a lively and dynamic environment to showcase contemporary short form poetry!

All the best, 

Patrick and Nicole 

Editors---DailyHaiku

Goals Or Poetic Leanings?

I'm loathe to make any solid goals poetry-wise this year. I wore myself out in 2011 with my personal challenge "to submit poetry to a publication or competition every week for the whole year". I'm going to write an article about it for the New Zealand Poetry Society magazine, a fine line, so that others might learn from my madness. I think I'll call it: My Year of Submission :)

This year I'm more about leaning in certain directions with my poetry. I want to experiment more, play more with the writing, with the poetry and it's different and wonderful forms. Not that 2011 didn't see me do the most amount of poetry writing I'd ever done in one year. Just the four PAD (poetry-a-day) challenges I participated in alone (all for the first time) produced many haiku, tanka, small stones and longer poems, many of which have since found homes outside of my computer, and my head!

But I definitely need to deal less with submitting in 2012, and so far I've done just one submission a month, letting several "deadlines" pass me by. I'm just not that into it this year. Call it submitter's burn out. And a "so-slow-that-it-might-as-well-be-going-backwards" Internet connection :(

So here's my poetic leanings (not goals!) for 2012, and beyond:

• To make haiku and tanka more a part of my everyday life by putting poems in cards, for example: I've done this in hubby's Christmas and birthday cards, and my parents wedding anniversary card, so far. As I enjoy making my own cards, this practice just adds to the uniqueness of the gift and is always appreciated by those who receive them.
• To write more linked haiku and tanka verses: I did my first solo linked haiku verse as part of hubby's Christmas present, which I framed for the wall. I've also written three tanka sonnets this year, which I really enjoyed and will send off for hopeful publication at some stage. The tanka sonnets in particular really sparked my imagination, and I know I will write more soon.
• To write more haibun and tanka prose: I've written a few of these over the past few years but really want to write more seriously in this area (as I keep promising myself I will!). You see, I have an idea for a poetic memior, which I would write as my thesis for a Master's in Creative Writing. I figure I have a few years to get really good at haibun, or kiss that little "goal" goodbye. I'll be taking two haibun workshops at the Haiku Festival Aotearoa in June, which will give me the inspirational boost that I'm bound to need mid-year.

That's all I've got for now. Feel free to lean along with me...

Avoiding

 

          avoiding
          my old doctor
          at the Cancer Centre
          afraid to meet her
          as a person not a patient

Presence #45 (January, 2012)

Tanka & photograph © Kirsten Cliff

Saying Hello, Saying Goodbye

Today marks the beginning of NaHaiWriMo which will see poets all over the globe writing a haiku a day for the month of February. You can find all the information here. I've written two today while out (using the pen and post-it notes I keep in my handbag) and think I might have gotten hubby on board, too :)

To welcome in the new month, here is the February page from my haiga calendar. The haiku placed Highly Commended in the 2008 NZPS International Haiku Contest and was published in the NZPS anthology, Before the Sirocco. The photograph was taken near my parents house in Kihikihi, Te Awamutu, and is very similar to the view I now get to see every day from my hill in Hobbiton, Matamata. (You can click on the photo to see a larger version.)




February 2012 - Kirsten's Calendar of Haiku & Photography

February 1st was also a day to say goodbye: The Grandfather of haiku in New Zealand, Cyril Childs, passed away on 27 January and his funeral was today in Dunedin.

I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Cyril at my first Haiku Conference in Christchurch in 2008. I remember his kind eyes and warm smile, the encouragement he gave me, and his passion for haiku. My condolences to his family and friends, and his haiku family and friends in New Zealand and around the world.

You can read some of Cyril's haiku on his Haiku NewZ Showcase page here and read the tributes to this wonderful haijin here. May he rest in peace.

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...

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

Chinese New Year

January 2012 - Kirsten's Calendar of Haiku & Photography

Regular followers of this blog might remember that I actually set myself a second goal last year: to make a calendar of haiku and photography to be given as Christmas presents to my family.

Well, I did it, and everybody loved it! :)

With the Chinese New Year celebrations upon us, I thought it was about time I showed my readers some of what my calendar turned out like. Above is my January page: a shot I took near my old home of Papamoa Beach, from one of my favourite spots, and the haiku is one that was published in the NZPS Anthology in 2008, Before the Sirocco.

It's probably one of my favourite haiku by me: it was my first play around with form in haiku, and I still think of it every summer when I stretch out my toes and feel that first rush of cool breeze.

I hope the sunny scene warms those of you in the Northern parts of our Earth. And Happy New Year once again!