breakfast with epiphanies

This year Owen Bullock started his own e-newsletter called The Greensplat Newsletter to keep those he has worked with in the poetry world in touch with what he's up to with his workshops, mentoring and other events. In his first issue he showcased one of my tanka, and I wrote a bit about his involvement in my poetry career:

It's a pleasure for any teacher to see a Former Student go on to enjoy success and publication. One such name that makes me glow with pride is Kirsten Cliff. She has kindly allowed me to re-print one of her tanka and a few comments which she sent me:

re-negotiating

my drug regime

with the doctors

I tell them that today

they may see me cry

Kirsten Cliff (first published in paper wasp 17:3)

"You have certainly played an instrumental part in my developing as a poet: being the first to say my haiku was good and that I should submit to Kokako, then teaching me through the Waiariki course and again recommending I seek publication for some of my poems, right through to your tanka workshop with the Papamoa Poets group, which got me firmly on the tanka trail." Kirsten

Kirsten is now one of New Zealand's most frequently published poets in the genres of haiku and tanka, appearing in a range of journals internationally. Her work was anthologised in the taste of nashi - New Zealand Haiku.

I'm now pleased to tell you about his newest haiku collection, breakfast with epiphanies.  

  

                                           two attempts

                                           at the trouser leg

                                           New Year's Day 

“Reading breakfast with epiphanies reminds us again why Owen Bullock is one of New Zealand’s most accomplished haiku poets. Owen’s haiku makes its impact quickly with a minimum of words. The haiku enter our minds the way experience of the physical world does, through our senses. In each of his finely-crafted poems, he directs our attention to specific moments, helps us to celebrate them and to let them go. Owen’s finely honed haiku explore a range of ideas, from the self, to his innermost thoughts about relationships, to his delight in nature.”

Patricia Prime, Co-editor of Kokako

                                            log split
                                            a moth
                                            flies out


Owen Bullock began writing haiku in 1999 and since then his work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, such as Presence, The Heron's Nest, Magnapoets, Red Moon, etc, in seven countries. This is his second collection of haiku, following wild camomile (Post Pressed, Australia, 2009). He also publishes tanka, haibun and renga, as well as longer forms of poetry, and fiction. Owen has been an editor of Spin, Kokako, Bravado and Poetry NZ, and was one of the editors of Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume IV.

Copies of Owen Bullock's new collection of haiku, breakfast with epiphanies, can be purchased direct from him by cheque to: 890 State Highway 2, RD1, Katikati 3177, priced NZ$20 (plus $2 p&p; $4 outside NZ). Or email him to arrange a direct transfer. Find out more at: http://www.owenbullock.com/