Recent publications

Kokako 33 landed in my letterbox yesterday – 76 pages of good reading. The editors have recently changed to PayPal to receive overseas payments for journal subscriptions so a year’s sub (2 copies) now costs $NZ36 for Australia and $NZ40 for the rest of the world, airmail post included. Contact Margaret for details.

winter the snow white sheets in the ambulance

Catherine Mair

laundry day
pairing the matching socks
wondering why

kjmunro

Embed from Getty Images

shearing day –
the men take turns
with the moccasin needle

Sandra Simpson

flu jab wind whirls the pine needles

Nola Borrell

As well as haiku, there are tanka, linked verse, haibun and book reviews.

Presence 67 is another recent arrival, this time from the other side of the world so the image of a frigate bird on the cover – the photo by managing editor Ian Storr – seems entirely appropriate. This is another journal that contains a wide variety – haiku, tanka, linked verse, haibun and book reviews, plus a featured poet in each issue and short articles.

This issue of Presence also includes a tribute to Stuart Quine, the English poet who died of Covid-19, with underlying health complications, in March.He was 57. Kokako notes his passing as well, in the context of Stuart having a boulder poem on the Katikati Haiku Pathway.

always alone
the white-faced heron
in the river

Elaine Riddell

overcast sky
a goldfinch leaves behind
her song

Claire Everett

a jumble of books
outside the old police station
the odd summer cloud

John Barlow

mango season
licking the juice
to my elbow

Adjei Agyei-Baah

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Haiku anthology launch

Ordering details are in the post below.

Bouquet: Co-editors Margaret Beverland (left) and Sandra Simpson (right) with haiku supporter Elaine Fisher of Katikati. Photo Keith Frentz

Ladies at lunch: From left, Anne Curran (Hamilton), Jenny Pyatt (Napier) and Moira Cursey (Raglan). Photo: Sandra Simpson

Bearded haiku poets: Andre Surridge (Hamilton, front) and Harry Frentz (Tauranga). Photo: Sandra Simpson

Pals: Cathie Bullock (left, Waihi) and Jenny Fraser (Mt Maunganui). Photo: Anne Curran

Haiku advertisements: Ruby Robertson (left), Dave Robertson (both Tauranga) and Jenny Pyatt (Napier). Photo: Sandra Simpson

Chat time: Shirley May and Eric Dodson, both Tauranga. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Sales table: Harry Frentz (left) and Keith Frentz. Photo: Anne Curran

Official: Margaret Beverland speaks. Photo: Keith Frentz

Poet profiles: From left, Andre Surridge, Margaret Beverland (Katikati) and Elaine Riddell (Hamilton). Photo: Sandra Simpson

Long table lunch: From right, Deryn Pittar (Papamoa), Moira Cursey and her partner Jenny (Raglan) and Bob Orr (Thames coast). Photo: Sandra Simpson

Catching up: Catherine Mair (Katikati) and Andre Surridge. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Car pool buddies: Anne Curran and Elaine Riddell, both from Hamilton. Photo: Sandra Simpson

 

Butterflies

Watching four or five monarch butterflies dance around our swan plant (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) last evening was a delight – sadly though, unless I intervene, there likely won’t be a new generation as nesting wasps consume any caterpillars until about the end of February when the predator’s diet changes.

Leaving that unfortunate thought aside, I thought I’d browse my bookshelves for butterfly-related haiku and there in the first book I opened, on the first page I looked at was …

on the manuscript
the shadow of a butterfly
finishes the poem

Nick Virgilio
from naad anunaad, an anthology of contemporary world haiku (2016)

Heartened, I continued …

summer butterfly
between my fingers the thickness
of a playing card

Katsuhiro Takayanagi (tr Koko Kato)
from A Vast Sky, an anthology of contemporary world haiku (2014)

 

Monarch  butterfly. Photo: Sandra Simpson

Two from the internet:

my son noticing . . .
the attention i pay
to butterflies

John Stevenson
from The Heron’s Nest 1.1 (1999)

黄色組白組蝶の地どりけり
kiiro-gumi shiro-gumi [chô] no chidori keri

yellow gang, white gang
the butterflies claim
their turf

Kobayashi Issa, written in 1820 (tr David Lanoue)

At his website, David Lanoue notes: Chidori is an old word, a form of the verb chidoru, which means to measure out a lot on which to build a house.

And back to the bookshelf …

blue butterflies
a knife without a handle
on the lichened stone

Peggy Willis Lyles, 1939-2010
from Haiku 21 (2011)

Long-tailed blue butterfly (Lampides boeticus). Photo: Sandra Simpson

first white butterfly
my cabbages
not yet planted

Elaine Riddell
from the taste of nashi (2008)

traffic lights
all eyes follow
the butterfly

Belinda Broughton
from Third Australian Haiku Anthology (2011)