Carpe Diem #222, Kakitsubata (Blue flag or Rabbit ear Iris)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy it is every day again to prepare the Carpe Diem episodes and to read all of your wonderful haiku. It looks like this month you're all on a roll. The classical kigo are inspiring I think. I have read such wonderful haiku already and there are still a lot haiku to come (I hope). As I read all the haiku, several prompts are more liked then others and sometimes the haiku are almost all about the same theme. It looks like being one symbiotic group or something. There are several themes which occur on a regular base and it feels like we are in a way connected with eachother. I like that, I love to see that happen. We are a wonderful, creative, haiku community and that makes me proud and humble. I am honored that I may be your host on Carpe Diem.


a little verse
from a far away place
binds together


Today we are having a prompt that is of mid-summer and it came to me through a haiku of Matsuo Basho. I can't recall that haiku by the way, but I know I read a haiku by Basho with Rabbit ear Iris in it so I had to use that haiku. Maybe it will come back in mind later. Then I will share it with you all.

Credits: Rabbit Ear Iris (Kaju-ji Temple Kyoto)

I have found the haiku which I meant above and I love to share it here. It's a nice haiku about Rabbit Ear Iris

kakitsubata kataru mo tabi no hitotsu kana

rabbit ear iris
talking about a trip
is one of its delights

(tr. Jane Reichhold)

Credits: Woodblock Blue Flag Iris

While preparing this episode I did some research (as I do, by the way, for every episode) and ran into another haiku by Matsuo Basho. That haiku has the same theme as the other one, but now with Blue Flag in it:

kakitsubata ware ni hokku no omoi ari

blue flag iris -
thoughts of a hokku
in my mind

(tr. Gabi Greve)

This is also a wonderful haiku and in this one we can see Basho in front of us staring at a Blue Flag Iris which inspires him to write a hokku (the starting verse of a Renga, or chained poem).

OK ... let me do some haiku composing on this prompt for today.

at the waterfront
the reeds coloring blue-purple
rabbit ear irises

blue flag iris -
preparing a month of Carpe Diem
on a classical summer

Sorry I couldn't help it. I had to write that last haiku (smiles).

I hope this episode inspires you all to compose your own haiku on Blue Flag Iris. This prompt will stay on 'til June 16th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode, another nice Special haiku by Kikusha-Ni, later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). !! The Linking Widget opens at 10.00 PM (CET)  !!

I will reproduce the haiku by Kikusha-Ni here already. This time I have chosen for a haiku on Morning Glory, because Kikusha-Ni was a contemporary of Chiyo-Ni, and as we know, Chiyo-Ni wrote a lot of haiku on Morning Glory.

morning glories
in the evening, they let us
admire their buds

(I couldn't retrieve the Romaji translation of this one)