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shortlisted for The Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Distinguished Books Award 2019 |
Patient Property gathers together sixty-one haiku and tanka about Kirsten Cliff Elliot’s journey through leukaemia. Though at times challenging in their topics, these small poems reward rereading. They are studded throughout with lines and thoughts that can flip readers’ perspectives and heighten awareness of the world in which we live and sometimes suffer.
From the afterword by Patricia Prime The book communicates the awful sense that something important is changing and becoming lost, in poetry which is wrought with the subtlety we expect and love in these concise forms. For a work to become polished and remain natural-seeming is a challenge which faces all writers, and it’s one that Kirsten Cliff Elliot has met with aplomb. This is brave writing, not just because the poet has faced leukaemia and its recovery period but because she has refrained from self-pity, exploring the human emotions invoked by the experiences, and the questions and answers that arise from them. From the foreword by Owen Bullock |
REVIEWS:
In Patient Property, Kirsten Cliff Elliot gives us poems chiselled from her own mortality. Those who have worked with cancer patients, or walked similar treatment paths with those they love, cannot fail to appreciate the haunting truth within her words. But Elliot’s clear and concise language, as well as fresh imagery and metaphors, means her work is easily accessible to anyone regardless of their background or experience.
Elliot’s keen observances sharpen her haiku and tanka in place and time, and her authentic voice and understanding of Japanese short-forms adds resonance to this perfectly calibrated poetry. She has a keen understanding of the importance of dreaming room to allow the reader to connect intimately with her writing.
This insightful journey through her battle with leukaemia is lyrically sentient and filled with the personal music of blood and dreams.
injecting myself
for the first time
autumn reds
--David Terelinck (AUS), Award-winning poet
Kirsten Cliff Elliot's book beautifully and poignantly reflects her powerful journey and, at times, a steep mountain to climb through her cancer: how she felt about her diagnosis, how she handled it, how she cried about it, how she was afraid and yet gathered the inner-courage to go forward and face this malignant disease with never-ending bravery. And finally to embrace it through all the stages and then transform her essence into pure light.
A must-read for everybody prepared to open their minds, hearts and spirits and connect with another human being on their cancer passage. This collection reminds us that we are all mortal beings, as fleeting as white petals in the wind.
a new awareness
of my inner strength--
free in the wind
these Tibetan prayer flags
frayed, but full of colour
--Pamela A. Babusci (USA), Editor of Moonbathing, & an ovarian cancer survivor for 8 years
In Patient Property, Kirsten Cliff Elliot gives us poems chiselled from her own mortality. Those who have worked with cancer patients, or walked similar treatment paths with those they love, cannot fail to appreciate the haunting truth within her words. But Elliot’s clear and concise language, as well as fresh imagery and metaphors, means her work is easily accessible to anyone regardless of their background or experience.
Elliot’s keen observances sharpen her haiku and tanka in place and time, and her authentic voice and understanding of Japanese short-forms adds resonance to this perfectly calibrated poetry. She has a keen understanding of the importance of dreaming room to allow the reader to connect intimately with her writing.
This insightful journey through her battle with leukaemia is lyrically sentient and filled with the personal music of blood and dreams.
injecting myself
for the first time
autumn reds
--David Terelinck (AUS), Award-winning poet
Kirsten Cliff Elliot's book beautifully and poignantly reflects her powerful journey and, at times, a steep mountain to climb through her cancer: how she felt about her diagnosis, how she handled it, how she cried about it, how she was afraid and yet gathered the inner-courage to go forward and face this malignant disease with never-ending bravery. And finally to embrace it through all the stages and then transform her essence into pure light.
A must-read for everybody prepared to open their minds, hearts and spirits and connect with another human being on their cancer passage. This collection reminds us that we are all mortal beings, as fleeting as white petals in the wind.
a new awareness
of my inner strength--
free in the wind
these Tibetan prayer flags
frayed, but full of colour
--Pamela A. Babusci (USA), Editor of Moonbathing, & an ovarian cancer survivor for 8 years
shortlisted for The Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Distinguished Books Award 2019 |
Haynes seems to open the pages of her journal and place them trustingly in the reader’s hands. There is no putting on airs, no trying to be someone she is not. Instead, quietly and humbly the reader is shown where the poet has been and where she is now. It is not by any means a life free of struggle but rather one from which she strives to heal.
In this collection, the poet shares her celebrations and struggles as a young mother with her honest, endearing, sometimes heart-breaking and extremely relatable poems. —Julie Warther, A New Rosonance 11 In leftover ribbon, Tia Haynes takes us on an intimate journey through motherhood, mapped out by a mix of short-form poems including haiku, senryu, haibun and cherita. Here we follow the poet as she navigates through late night bottles and lullabies to changing body image issues and ideas of what a mother should be. Indeed, while many poems explore deep, complex emotions and dark themes, such as “morning cartoons/I shake out/the last pill”—at the core of this collection is an ever-jubilant sense of love, joy, and wonder of being mama, most beautifully expressed in the titular poem. —Caroline Skanne, Founder and Editor of hedgerow: a journal of small poems |
REVIEWS:
One of the most powerful poetry books I’ve ever read. A brilliant combination of haiku, haibun, and other short forms. This book is a stunning and realistic portrayal of the complexities of motherhood that is long overdue. I was truly able to see the experiences of my wife, sister, mother, and every mother I know represented in these poems. Even though the poems are profoundly personal they touch on the universal aspects of womanhood. A must-read from Tia Haynes.
—Bryan Rickert, poet
During the book launch of Tia Haynes’s book, Leftover Ribbon (published by Velvet Dusk Publishing) I won a free copy. And how glad I am that I did! The book is a collection of short-form poems that take us on a journey through motherhood through the eyes of a stay-at-home mom. Tia Haynes’s collection of poems is astute, emotional, vulnerable, and true to life. Mothers will easily relate to her poems. For the rest of us, this collection offers a greater insight into the physical and emotional world of a stay-at-home mom and the unbreakable bond between mother and child. Deeply moving and beautifully written!
—Corine Timmer, publisher and poet
One of the most powerful poetry books I’ve ever read. A brilliant combination of haiku, haibun, and other short forms. This book is a stunning and realistic portrayal of the complexities of motherhood that is long overdue. I was truly able to see the experiences of my wife, sister, mother, and every mother I know represented in these poems. Even though the poems are profoundly personal they touch on the universal aspects of womanhood. A must-read from Tia Haynes.
—Bryan Rickert, poet
During the book launch of Tia Haynes’s book, Leftover Ribbon (published by Velvet Dusk Publishing) I won a free copy. And how glad I am that I did! The book is a collection of short-form poems that take us on a journey through motherhood through the eyes of a stay-at-home mom. Tia Haynes’s collection of poems is astute, emotional, vulnerable, and true to life. Mothers will easily relate to her poems. For the rest of us, this collection offers a greater insight into the physical and emotional world of a stay-at-home mom and the unbreakable bond between mother and child. Deeply moving and beautifully written!
—Corine Timmer, publisher and poet
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sumi-e mountains a blackbird tries to fly from the drying ink —Darrell Lindsey Sometimes, you must read more than 10,000 short poems before you find one like the opening poem of Darrell Lindsey’s stunning collection. This haiku has a complex architecture of images and meanings. At first reading, the poet tells us about a sumi-e painter, maybe an apprentice. A remarkable scene takes place when the brush leaves its traces. The paper moves slightly under the weight of the brush and the ink changes the brightness of the reflected light. For a moment, the bird seems to flap its wings. Deepening our reading, we discover that the bird trying to fly over the mountains is nothing but the aspiration of this apprentice to detach himself from his teacher and find his own way. In a version of Genesis, both the author and his character (the painter or the poet himself) have the gift to repeat the act of creation in new ways. — Eduard Tara, Poet A Master of Stick Figures contains haiku and tanka that reflect upon and question a life. With a studied balance of light and darkness, the poems speak to things unsaid. Like in a painting, the poet tries to “handcuff the light.” These are poems of the past, poems of place, poems that attempt to round out a life through introspection. The master presents his stick figures in a way that readers will find memorable, even familiar, and most of all poignant and sincere. Lindsey’s use of figurative language is highly effective, opening up these poems to deeper insights with each reading. — Carole MacRury, Poet |
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Susan Burch’s new collection, Keeping Score: Angry Tanka, answers the question: Why do we need angry tanka? We need angry tanka because they are better than the alternatives—violence or passive-aggressive pretense. Angry tanka do not mince words. They do not hide behind innuendo or avoid hurting. They are honest and release emotional truths we can no longer mask. A good venting through an angry tanka clears the air and makes way for the start of a new day. Sometimes, after a storm, there’s no other way to let yourself find the peace and joy of life you deserve.
—Randy Brooks, Teacher, Poet, & Editor Keeping Score: Angry Tanka by Susan Burch is a must-read for anyone interested in modern Japanese poetry. In a society where we associate general anger as solely negative versus basic human emotion, Burch provides us with a healthy coping mechanism and a reminder that resentment and irritation are normal reactions we all experience. Angry tanka is a unique take on the classic form and is essential for expansion within poetry as well as society. If you’ve ever needed validation for your feelings or to write about them, this collection is for you! —Lori A. Minor, Editor of #Femku Mag and Bleached Butterfly |
REVIEWS:
Angry tanka is a knockout of a book. Susan captures her honest, gut reactions, her painful musings, her past trauma and present frustrations with simple yet searing imagery. There is a powerful authenticity to her voice which comes out of her willingness to be vulnerable with us; choosing to forgo every barrier or pretense and opting for transparency instead. After I read it I had to immediately go back and re-read it several more times. I love that this book is part of my collection.
—Tia Haynes, poet
Susan Burch is a prominent composer of English Language Tanka. She began writing tanka in April 2013 after reading winning contest poems on the Tanka Society of America website. She loved the brevity of the form and submitted to Ribbons, which published her first tanka and encouraged her to keep writing. Since then she has placed in Mandy’s Page’s tanka contest, the World Tanka Competition, Diogen contests, the Haiku Poets of Northern California contests, the British Haiku and Tanka Awards, the TSA’s Sanford Goldstein tanka contest, and most recently, the Fleeting Words tanka contest. Her most recent collection is keeping score: Angry Tanka.
At first, keeping score seems like a typical tanka collection. As with most English Language Tanka, the poems are in five lines, and are dependent on tight, compact imagery and revealing juxtapositions. For example:
tug of war--
when will you
realize
my vagina
doesn’t belong to you
This works as a tanka, certainly. The imagery is there, as well as the emotional resonance that one expects from the form. It’s certainly angry, as the title of the collection would suggest, but the passive reader might not see it as horror, per se.
However, closer reading reveals a darker character in the speaker, one much more violent and murderous. While the tanka themselves explore the horrors of a woman in the 21st century surviving emotional and patriarchal abuse, the content gets very dark very quickly. What makes Burch such a talented poet is the subtlety which she brings to her work, subtlety that connotes something horrific without actually stating it directly. For example:
a pin cushion
full of pins--
I don’t want to know
her name
this time
The phrasing of this poem is so subtle and poignant, as the best tanka are. The last three lines allude to an affair, one of multiple affairs even, while the first two lines add a domesticity to the scene. However, the choice of image — the pin and pin cushion — clearly point to a darker violence. There’s no explicit statement of torture or even voodoo, but the connotations of violence and the angry, vengeful tone are readily apparent, enough that a reader is forced to make a much more horrific connection than what is explicitly stated.
This vengeful violence can be seen in other poems in this collection. For example:
the recoil
from a shotgun--
don’t act like
it was hard for you
to leave me
Here the violence is more explicit. The first two lines, while not directly stating a murder, certainly allude to a murderous attempt with a specific weapon. The last three lines, again, connote a less than amicable parting, possibly even another affair when paired with other poems in the collection. The rage the speaker feels is palpable here, echoed in the kinesthetic image of the first two lines. This leads to a homicidal violence that, based on the actions of the “you” figure in these poems, might easily be justified by an empathetic reader.
At its best, a good tanka will use its imagery and tone to invoke a mood in the reader. As stated in the title of this collection, keeping score: Angry Tanka will invoke moods of rage in the reader. And while there is no directly stated horror or gore in these pages, the implied violence connoted by the images and strong juxtapositions creates scary scenarios in the mind of the reader, which is much more haunting and longer lasting. Overall, any fan of poetry should thoroughly enjoy reading keeping score: Angry Tanka by Susan Burch.
--Joshua Gage, poet
Susan Burch's Keeping Score: Angry Tanka is a collection that will make you blush, squirm in your seat, smile wickedly, & feel the deep satisfaction that can only come from venting one's anger. As fiery as these poems can be, they are not merely thoughtless scribbles from a journal. Here is one of the many standout poems: at the outlets/ a pair of Levi's tagged/ flawed.../ my step-mother says/ they're a perfect fit/ Each of the tanka drips with the nuance, wordplay, & wealth of meanings that one would expect from an experienced poet. Reading Angry Tanka is a cathartic experience that any fan of Burch, tanka, & poetry should have.
—Jonathan Roman, poet/storyteller
Angry tanka is a knockout of a book. Susan captures her honest, gut reactions, her painful musings, her past trauma and present frustrations with simple yet searing imagery. There is a powerful authenticity to her voice which comes out of her willingness to be vulnerable with us; choosing to forgo every barrier or pretense and opting for transparency instead. After I read it I had to immediately go back and re-read it several more times. I love that this book is part of my collection.
—Tia Haynes, poet
Susan Burch is a prominent composer of English Language Tanka. She began writing tanka in April 2013 after reading winning contest poems on the Tanka Society of America website. She loved the brevity of the form and submitted to Ribbons, which published her first tanka and encouraged her to keep writing. Since then she has placed in Mandy’s Page’s tanka contest, the World Tanka Competition, Diogen contests, the Haiku Poets of Northern California contests, the British Haiku and Tanka Awards, the TSA’s Sanford Goldstein tanka contest, and most recently, the Fleeting Words tanka contest. Her most recent collection is keeping score: Angry Tanka.
At first, keeping score seems like a typical tanka collection. As with most English Language Tanka, the poems are in five lines, and are dependent on tight, compact imagery and revealing juxtapositions. For example:
tug of war--
when will you
realize
my vagina
doesn’t belong to you
This works as a tanka, certainly. The imagery is there, as well as the emotional resonance that one expects from the form. It’s certainly angry, as the title of the collection would suggest, but the passive reader might not see it as horror, per se.
However, closer reading reveals a darker character in the speaker, one much more violent and murderous. While the tanka themselves explore the horrors of a woman in the 21st century surviving emotional and patriarchal abuse, the content gets very dark very quickly. What makes Burch such a talented poet is the subtlety which she brings to her work, subtlety that connotes something horrific without actually stating it directly. For example:
a pin cushion
full of pins--
I don’t want to know
her name
this time
The phrasing of this poem is so subtle and poignant, as the best tanka are. The last three lines allude to an affair, one of multiple affairs even, while the first two lines add a domesticity to the scene. However, the choice of image — the pin and pin cushion — clearly point to a darker violence. There’s no explicit statement of torture or even voodoo, but the connotations of violence and the angry, vengeful tone are readily apparent, enough that a reader is forced to make a much more horrific connection than what is explicitly stated.
This vengeful violence can be seen in other poems in this collection. For example:
the recoil
from a shotgun--
don’t act like
it was hard for you
to leave me
Here the violence is more explicit. The first two lines, while not directly stating a murder, certainly allude to a murderous attempt with a specific weapon. The last three lines, again, connote a less than amicable parting, possibly even another affair when paired with other poems in the collection. The rage the speaker feels is palpable here, echoed in the kinesthetic image of the first two lines. This leads to a homicidal violence that, based on the actions of the “you” figure in these poems, might easily be justified by an empathetic reader.
At its best, a good tanka will use its imagery and tone to invoke a mood in the reader. As stated in the title of this collection, keeping score: Angry Tanka will invoke moods of rage in the reader. And while there is no directly stated horror or gore in these pages, the implied violence connoted by the images and strong juxtapositions creates scary scenarios in the mind of the reader, which is much more haunting and longer lasting. Overall, any fan of poetry should thoroughly enjoy reading keeping score: Angry Tanka by Susan Burch.
--Joshua Gage, poet
Susan Burch's Keeping Score: Angry Tanka is a collection that will make you blush, squirm in your seat, smile wickedly, & feel the deep satisfaction that can only come from venting one's anger. As fiery as these poems can be, they are not merely thoughtless scribbles from a journal. Here is one of the many standout poems: at the outlets/ a pair of Levi's tagged/ flawed.../ my step-mother says/ they're a perfect fit/ Each of the tanka drips with the nuance, wordplay, & wealth of meanings that one would expect from an experienced poet. Reading Angry Tanka is a cathartic experience that any fan of Burch, tanka, & poetry should have.
—Jonathan Roman, poet/storyteller
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The Comfort of Crows arrives like a perfect thirty days of November. I find this spare and wind-driven set of poems, in truth, a source of great comfort.
— John Stevenson, Managing Editor, The Heron’s Nest The extraordinary beauty of Hifsa and Alan’s collaborative poetry captures a mystical darkness, where mosaic rain is gently woven into velvet raven shadows. Their poetic path is elegantly crafted and brings together the classic haiku tradition with contemporary aesthetics. — Anna Maris, Board Member of the Swedish Haiku Society Crows are intelligent, wild birds who will form strong relationships with humans. I admire everything about them. The poems are thought-provoking and elegant, and embrace the different facets of life: illness, loss, death, and the courage and strength to carry on. — Kris Tsujikawa, Crow Journalist | ||
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Frameless Sky occupies a unique space in the publishing world by combining Japanese short-forms, art, and music into a multisensory experience that is both encompassing and enchanting. Its first anthology, into the warp and woof, hand-plucks the strongest threads that comprise the mesh framework of its first ten issues, creating a delightful experience where poets have approached a seemingly endless range of subject matter. While the topics are widely varied, there are common threads twisting and turning in, out, and around, that knit together the many perspectives inside. These common threads reflect excellence, innovation, the human experience, and the natural world.
— Robin Ann Smith, Founder/Editor-in-Chief of Human/ Kind Journal and Human/Kind Press |
