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