Sandra Simpson lives in Tauranga. Two of her haiku appear on the Katikati Haiku Pathway, and her work appears regularly in journals (paper and online) both in New Zealand and overseas. She was the only Southern Hemisphere haiku poet to be included in A New Resonance 5: Emerging Voices in Haiku (Red Moon Press, US, 2007).

Her haiku appeared in the third New Zealand haiku anthology, the taste of nashi  (Windrift, 2008), which took its name form one of her poems, and Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W Norton & Co, 2013). She is editor of the Haiku NewZ webpages, secretary of the Katikati Haiku Pathway committee, and South Pacific and Africa editor for the annual Red Moon anthologies. Her first collection of haiku – breath – was published at the end of 2011. Contact Sandra.

 

marking Ecclesiastes the flower my grandmother held  

 

spattering rain the pulse in a sparrow’s throat  

 

in the dark part
of her wardrobe –
a snout, eyes

 

summer rain –
finding chocolate frogs
at the back of the shop

 

record heat –
a song thrush beats
against the tomato cage

 

each streetlight
with its own rain –
clock of mah-jong tiles

 

slicing papaya
the swing
of her black pearls

 

first dance –
the moon
in her hair

 

Waitangi –
the parson bird
sings a different song

 

family photo box
how my father smiles
in black and white

 

Publication Notes:

marking Ecclesiastes …: Winner of the Single Island Press Haiku contest, 2010.

spattering rain: Second place, Robert Spiess Haiku Award, 2011.

in the dark part: Famous Reporter (Australia) June 2011.

summer rain – : Daily Haiku, cycle 11 (online journal), 2011.

record heat  – : ibid.

each streetlight: The Heron’s Nest (US) March 2011, an editor’s choice poem.

slicing papaya: The Heron’s Nest, September 2010; Touchstone Award from The Haiku Foundation, 2011.

first dance -: The Heron’s Nest (US) 2004.

Waitangi: breath, 2011.

family photo box: Highly commended, With Words Haiku Contest 2010.