August Blog Bash, Day 13 - Kirsten Cliff

Welcome to the Debut
of the August Blog Bash 2012!

I am very much excited and honored to be hosting this new feature series... and it is a great way to end the summer!  This Blog Bash is an impressive talent showcase of poets, artists, and writers/authors from all walks of life.  For each day of this month, one individual will be featured here on this blog, at Origami Lotus Stones, my Twitter (hashtag will be #augblogbash), my Facebook community page, and on my blog page on Writing Our Way Home.  Please be patient while I post on all platforms. 

**Please note that all authors/artists have given me permission to post their work on the following platforms/sites I have just mentioned.  Please do not plagiarize, modify, reproduce, or distribute any work without permission from the original authors/artists.  Thank you!**

If you are interested in participating in this Blog Bash, feel free to check out the details here.

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Today's Feature:  Kirsten Cliff

Where nature is concerned, this is a beautiful haiga.  The photo is perhaps a place the poet (speaker of the poem) has many fond memories of during her childhood and now has gone back to visit it and share it with the reader.  I love how "soft" this haiga feels from "spring sunlight" to "forest's scent" to the way how lush this particular part of the forest is (from the photo).  All of these images linger as do one's own memories, particularly when it comes to positive childhood memories.  Just as a haiku typically exhibits the present moment, so too can a memory be experienced again within the present moment as the poet thinks of it.

This is a powerful haiga--one that will never be forgotten.  I have not read very many Japanese form poetry or short form poetry related to suicide, so this one for me is those special few.  Nevertheless, this haiga demonstrates that suicide (a very sensitive and painful topic) can be explored in art and poetry just as Cliff has done here.  The haiku/senryu has a subtle irony to it in that there is a funeral put together for the person who had committed suicide (someone who had already planned his own "funeral").  At the same time, there is the harsh fact of reality in that "we all bring daffodils / to the funeral" anyway, grieving that loss of the deceased.  The image paired with the haiku leaves the reader wondering if it is the design of a bridge, but the reader does not know because the image is like abstract art embellished with cobwebs furthering that mysterious effect.

Stunning work, Kirsten!  Thank you so much for sharing and being one of the contributors! 

(NB:  Text arrangement on MS PowerPoint by Kathy Uyen Nguyen.  Please note that text/graphics will be in this format.)

To check out more of Kirsten's work, you can click on the following link(s):

Swimming in Lines of Haiku (blog)
Kirsten Cliff's Website (website)


Please do promote this new feature on Facebook, Twitter, etc.!  Thanks so much for all the support!  And look, my blog now has buttons (see below) to make your life easier!  Come back tomorrow for a new artist/author feature!