Carpe Diem #337, Kanpai!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at our first episode of Carpe Diem's new month of daily haiku writing. This month all the prompts are (as we did earlier this year with the music of Karunesh) music-pieces for your inspiration. Let me tell you first why I have chosen the Celtic Crosses in the Snow for our December Carpe Diem logo.
First this month in the Northern part of the world it will become winter, the snow. And second ... the music for this month is mostly based on Celtic Culture. Our featured musician, a young promising one, Adrian von Ziegler is a Swiss musician born on the 25th December 1989. He composes various styles of mostly gothic and celtic music His group of fans is called "The Pack'' as in wolf pack and I am proud to be part of his pack. He composed a wonderful piece of music especially for his fans and that composition will be coming along also this month.

I 'ran into' his music as I was searching for new musical videos for Carpe Diem. I hadn''t heard of him, but I was immediately a fan of his music so I asked him permission to use his music and he, thank God, gave me that permission on September 12th. So I had time to prepare the promptlist and discover his music during the months before December.

Adrian von Ziegler, our featured musician this month

Adrian has composed (in my opinion) wonderful music ... and I think you all will like it as much as I do. So ... let us start with our first music-piece composed by him for this month. To start this new month of Carpe Diem I have chosen his 'world-music'- piece Kanpai!. He was inspired by all the Japanese Festivals and composed this piece of music with that in his mind.
The video shows us Japanese Festival Lanterns. Here it is:

What do you think of this music? I liked it a lot, but ... well I am a big fan of his music of course (smiles). It inspired me to write the next haiku.

Taiko drummers
in the midst of the night
chasing ghosts

chasing ghosts
with their strong drumming sound
Taiko drummers

Well ... I hope you all liked this episode ... our new Carpe Diem month has started with a drum-roll and I hope to read wonderful haiku inspired on the music-videos by Adrian von Ziegler. Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku, inspired on the music, with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
This episode will stay on until December 2th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode, Qi (or Chi), later on today around 7.00 PM (CET). !! This first episode of Carpe Diem December is open for your submissions at 7.00 PM (CET) today (11/30) !!

Share your haiku inspired on Kanpai! with us all here at our haiku kai. Have fun, be inspired and enjoy the music.

1.	opie houston	7.	Steph	13.	Maggie Grace
2.	Bjorn	8.	Wabi Sabi	14.	A Creative Harbor
3.	Managua	9.	HA	15.	Sara McNulty
4.	4joy	10.	jazzbumpa	16.	Sun
5.	Haiku Plate Special	11.	Lovely Thing
6.	Magical Mystical Teacher	12.	Georgia aka Bastet

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XXX, Flatfroghaiku's "harbour moon'

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today our Tan Renga Challenge is coming to an end. It was really a joy to prepare every episode of this Tan Renga Month for you all my dear friends. I am so happy that you all were so much involved with this Carpe Diem Month, not the least by all of your wonderful haiku which I might use for the Tan Renga Challenges this month. I hope that you all did like this month and maybe ... next November I will do this another time ... we will see.

I am looking forward to our next month's challenge to write haiku inspired by the wonderful (mostly) Celtic music composed by Adrian von Ziegler, a promising young musician. And I hope it will be a joy for you all to write haiku again (smiles).

Back to our last Tan Renga Challenge of this month. Today's Tan Renga is started by Joe of Flat Frog Haiku. He wrote this haiku in response of our Kamishibai episode 'lighthouse' and I think this is a really beautifully composed haiku to start a Tan Renga with. So here it is:

harbour moon
the loneliness of fishermen
under lighthouse cliff

(c) Joe of Flat Frog Haiku

And here is my attempt to complete this wonderful Tan Renga started by Joe's haiku:

harbour moon
the loneliness of fishermen
under lighthouse cliff                                          (Joe of Flat Frog Haiku)

in their pub along the harbour
they become drunk to forget                                (Chèvrefeuille)

I think this is a nice completed Tan Renga in which I have tried to tell a short story about loneliness and forgetting. And with this Tan Renga completed by your host ... our Tan Renga Challenge Month is over. I hope you all did enjoy this month and I hope to see you here again next month in which we will be using music for our inspiration.

This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month will be on until December 2nd 11.59 AM (CET) and is open for your submissions today at 7.00 PM (CET). Have fun be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I will publish our first musical prompt of December 'kanpai!' Later on today (30/11) around 7.00 PM (CET)

Share your completed Tan Renga with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

1.	opie houston	8.	4joy	15.	siggiofmaine
2.	Amrit Sinha	9.	kaykuala	16.	kalpana solsi
3.	Lovely Thing	10.	jazzbumpa	17.	becca givens
4.	Wabi Sabi	11.	Haiku Plate Special	18.	SaFire
5.	Magical Mystical Teacher	12.	bodhisattvaintraining	19.	Sara McNulty
6.	GenesMusings	13.	Georgia aka Bastet
7.	Bjorn	14.	Panchali

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Carpe Diem's Revise that Haiku #3, Buson's "a hand-ball"

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another episode of Carpe Diem's "Revise that Haiku'. Another challenge to look at a different way to a haiku of the classical haiku-poets. This time I have choosen a haiku written by Yosa Buson (1716-1783), one the great four haiku-poets next to Basho, Issa and Shiki.
Buson was, next to being a poet also a painter of Haiga. In his haiku he paints with words sometimes even better. He illustrated once Basho's "Oku no Hosomichi" in the late 18th century.
The haiku to revise is the following:

a hand-ball,
wet with the spring rain falling
on the roof

(c) Buson

Credits: Bonobo with Orange Ball

And this is the scene which inspired Buson to write this haiku:

[...] All day the rain has continued. It seems that it has never begun and will never stop. The poet goes to the verandah and stands looking out at the melancholy scene. Caught in the gutter of the roof opposite is a ball made of cloth that children were playing with and that lodged there by accident. The rain pours down relentlessly upon it as upon everything else, soaking its pretty design and colours. The rain continues meaninglessly, uselessly to beat down on the ball. The ball continues meaninglessly, uselessly to be beaten on by the rain. The poet suddenly sees, almost without knowing it, a 'meaningless' meaning in this ball, in this rain, in all things. The ball grows sodden, and still the rain falls upon it, as though it were a thing that the rain could make blossom.[...]
This is the poetical life of the verse, the sheer lack of relation between the rain and the ball and the roof, - other than that of proximity.

And now ... I have to try to revise that haiku ... not an easy task I think. This haiku by Buson gives me not so much to work with, but the scene gives me something to work with. And I came up with the following haiku:

spring rains falling
suddenly the cherry trees bloom -
the sound of a windchime

in the gutter
after the pouring rain of spring
plum blossom petals

Hm .. not an easy one to revise, a real challenge this is ... let me re-think this verse again and try another revision.

all day spring rain falls
soaking the dried out grounds -
field flowers blossom

Another attempt:

a ball left alone
in the muddy puddles -
fading colors

Well ... it's fun to look at an ancient haiku and try to revise that haiku. It's a way to learn to write haiku. So ... try it yourself.

This episode of Carpe Diem "Revise That Haiku" will stay on until Christmas Eve 11.59 AM (CET) and is NOW OPEN for your submissions. Have fun, be inspired and share your revised haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Share your revised haiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

1.	opie houston	4.	Bjorn	7.	sun
2.	GenesMusings	5.	Haiku Plate Special	8.	Pirate
3.	Georgia aka Bastet	6.	bodhisattvaintraining

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Carpe Diem "Make the Haiku Complete" #4, "rising up to heaven?"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to share with you all a new episode of Carpe Diem Make the haiku complete. This new episode will be a bit different than the other episodes of this feature. In those episodes we had to complete the haiku by writing the last line, but in this episode ... I love to challenge you all to complete the haiku by writing the first line of it.
It's a wellknown haiku by one of the classical haiku-masters and the only thing I will give you here is the scene on which the haiku was inspired.

[...] The moon is hazy, and the faint sweet scent of the plum blossoms rises up towards it. The halo of the moon is to the eye what the scent of the blossoms is to the sense of smell; the whiteness of the flowers and that of the halo reflect each other, and are one in that faint sweet perfume [...]

 

And here it is ... the haiku to complete by writing the first line.

 

.................................................
is it not the scent of plum-blossoms
rising up to heaven?

Of course this isn't  easy, but it's worth a try and so here is my attempt to complete this haiku.

mysterious full moon,
is it not the scent of plum-blossoms
rising up to heaven?

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not that strong I think, but I think it was worth the effort to try and share it with you all here at our haiku-community.

This episode of Carpe Diem Make The Haiku Complete will stay on until December 24th 11.59 AM (CET) and is NOW OPEN for your submissions.

Share your completed haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

1.	Tarun Mazumdar	4.	Bjorn	7.	SaFire
2.	opie houston	5.	Haiku Plate Special	8.	Sara McNulty
3.	Lovely Thing	6.	bodhisattvaintraining

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XXIX Moondustwriter's ''I Hear You Speak''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This is the before last episode of this month of Tan Renga ... it was a joy (and a struggle) to prepare these episodes for you all. I am so glad that you all did like this Tan Renga Challenge Month, maybe I will do this another time again ...
It's a joy to tell you all that our new prompt-list is ready and published. You can find it HERE.

Our Tan Renga today is started by Leslie Moon of Moondustwriter''s blog and she composed this haiku in response on ''shell''.

I hear you speak
waves tumble half a world away
conch’s song

(c) Leslie Moon

Well ... have fun. During lack of time I will not give my attempt here.

This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will stay open until December 1st 11.59 AM (CET).

Share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai.

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	5.	A Creative Harbor	9.	4
2.	Haiku Plate Special	6.	opie houston	10.	siggiofmaine
3.	Lovely Thing	7.	bodhisattvaintraining	11.	sun
4.	Bjorn	8.	Georgia aka Bastet	12.	Atreyee

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Carpe Diem's Tan renga Challenge Month #XXVIII, Imaginator's ''with light in your eyes''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are counting of ... still three days to go with this Tan Renga Challenge Month and today I have a nice haiku written by The Imaginator of Blog of the Imaginator is sharing his haiku in response on ''embrace'' as the starting verse for our next Tan Renga Challenge. It''s (in my opinion) a beautiful haiku/senryu and I think it can inspire you all to write a nice continuation.

With light in your eyes
You embrace me in your arms
Our hearts beat as one

(c) The Imaginator

Embrace

What a wonderful photo of embracing people, two guys, two races ... awesome ...

My attempt to complete this Tan Renga:

With light in your eyes
You embrace me in your arms
Our hearts beat as one                                                (The Imaginator)

no more boundaries to solve
finally they may love each other                                     (Chèvrefeuille)

A nice continuation of the romance in the first stanza ... makes the painted scene more intense and natural. Love has to be unconditional ...

This episode will stay on until November 30th 11.59 AM (CET) and is open for your submissions later today at 7.00 PM (CET). Have fun, be inspired and share your continuation of this Tan Renga started by The Imaginator.

Share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai.

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	7.	Haiku Plate Special	13.	Atreyee
2.	GenesMusings	8.	JRBHaiku	14.	Lovely Thing
3.	Bjorn	9.	bodhisattvaintraining	15.	sun
4.	4joy	10.	Reading Pleasure	16.	siggiofmaine
5.	Steph	11.	PositiveKismet
6.	opie houston	12.	Kristi

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XXVII, Kaykuala's ''rustling leaves dancing''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to present to you a new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month. Today I love to share a haiku by Kaykuala of Rainbow. Kaykuala wrote this haiku in response on our CD Extra episode 3 in which I introduced to you all this Tan Renga Challenge Month.
As I read this response I was very happy ... it's a marvelous haiku to start our Tan Renga with, here it is:

Rustling leaves dancing
Light breeze brushing rosy cheeks
Young hearts aflutter

(c) Kaykuala

I hope to read wonderful continuations on this starting verse by Kaykuala ... No attempt of me this time, because of lack of time.

This episode will stay on until November 29th 11.59 AM (CET) and is NOW OPEN for your submissions.

Have fun!

Share your continuation of this Tan Renga with us all.

1.	Bjorn	6.	A Creative Harbor	11.	Haiku Plate Special
2.	Sun	7.	Wabi Sabi	12.	JRBHaiku
3.	becca givens	8.	SaFire	13.	angie inspired
4.	bodhisattvaintraining	9.	Lovely Thing	14.	Atreyee
5.	Magical Mystical Teacher	10.	Dorianna	15.	siggiofmaine

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XXVI, Opie Houston's ''O sweet October''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today a new challenge for this Tan Renga Month. Today I love to share another haiku as starting verse for our Tan Renga inspired on Frost's October (Carpe Diem's Distillation). Today our Tan Renga is started by Opie Houston and is called ''O, Sweet October''. Opie shares his/her haiku on Facebook and he/she writes a lot ...

This is the haiku for starting the Tan Renga:

oh, sweet october...
spare thy frost on yonder grapes
our sweet summer wine

(c) Opie Houston

October Grapes

What a nice haiku to start this Tan Renga with ... and the above photo is going so well along with it ... I am not a drinker of wine, but I can appreciate sometimes a good wine ...

Here is my attempt to complete this Tan Renga:

oh, sweet october...
spare thy frost on yonder grapes
our sweet summer wine                                         (Opie Houston)

on the verandah with friends
playing cards and drinking wine                              (Chèvrefeuille)

Playing Cards

And now it's up to you my dear friends. This episode of Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month is open for your submissions today at 7.00 PM (CET) and will stay on until November 28th 11.59 AM (CET). Have fun, be inspired and share.

Share your completed Tan Renga with our haiku-family here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

1.	Lovely Thing	8.	GenesMusings	15.	opie houston
2.	Bjorn	9.	becca givens	16.	Panchali
3.	theinnerzone	10.	kaykuala	17.	Wabi Sabi
4.	Haiku Plate Special	11.	JRBHaiku	18.	SaFire
5.	Magical Mystical Teacher	12.	The Imaginator	19.	sun
6.	bodhisattvaintraining	13.	Reading Pleasure
7.	Steph	14.	Georgia aka Bastet

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Carpe Diem's Tan renga Challenge Month #XXV, Gene's "October Forest''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies when you have fun ... it's a phrase we use often here in The Netherlands, but it's very true. We are almost at the end of this Tan Renga Challenge Month and it was fun ... don't you think so? It was a different month, but a joy to make.
Today our 25th Tan Renga Challenge of this month ... I have chosen a wonderful haiku to start the Tan Renga with. This haiku was inspired on the poem ''October'' by Frost, which we had for our 4th Carpe Diem ''distillation'' episode and it's written by Gene of Gene's Musings.Today's Tan Renga starts with:

October forest
With amethyst enchantment
Frost greeting sunlight

(c) Gene

Not an easy one to complete I think, but I am looking forward to your completion of this Tan Renga.

October Forest

All those wonderful colors of autumn ... at their most beautiful time in October. Really this looks like a festival of colors, celebrating Mother Nature ... Awesome.

Here is my attempt to complete this Tan Renga:

October forest
with amethyst enchantment
frost greeting sunlight                                                  (Gene)

the silence of an auutmn morning
rejoicing Mother Nature's love                                   (Chèvrefeuille)

Ah! Autumn ... Autumn ... my season.

Now it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers to complete this Tan Renga in your own way. Have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month will stay on until November 27th 11.59 AM (CET) and is open for your submissions today at 7.00 PM (CET).

Share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai. Have fun, be inspired and share.

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	6.	theinnerzone	11.	bodhisattvaintraining
2.	Bjorn	7.	4joy	12.	Late but Lovely
3.	Wabi Sabi	8.	Dorianna	13.	SaFire
4.	A Creative Harbor	9.	becca givens	14.	Sun
5.	Haiku Plate Special	10.	darkcirclesetc	15.	siggiofmaine

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XXIV, Sun's ''gathering seashells''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a lovely day it is here, a nice sunny day, not to cold (around 7 degrees Celsius), no wind ... really it feels like a soft winter's day. Our Tan Renga Challenge for today however has nothing to do with the weather or winter. It's a nice haiku written by Sun of Simply Charming and it was her response on ''shell'' one of our prompts in our first anniversary month.
Today one of her haiku is the starting verse of our Tan Renga ... here it is:

gathering seashells
while ocean tide rise and falls
two sisters bicker

(c) Sun

Conch shells

Awesome photograph of Conch Shells on a beach of the Bahama's. This kind of shells we don't find here on the beaches of The Netherlands ... I wish they could be found here ....

My attempt to complete this Tan Renga started by Sun:

gathering seashells
while ocean tide rise and falls
two sisters bicker                                                           (Sun)

the soothing sound of the waves
day dreaming of the Bahama's                                         (Chèvrefeuille)

I hope to visit the Bahama's once, but until than I only can dream about those islands. Nice dream isn't it? 

Now it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers to complete this Tan Renga in your own unique way. Have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with us. (By the way: I am still behind with commenting, hope to catch up soon).

This episode of Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month will stay on 'til November 26th 11.59 AM (CET) and is open for your submissions today at 7.00 PM (CET).

Share your completed Tan Renga with us all at our Haiku Kai.

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	7.	becca givens	13.	JRBHaiku
2.	Bjorn	8.	Wabi Sabi	14.	Haiku Plate Special
3.	Lovely Thing	9.	Dorianna	15.	theinnerzone
4.	4joy	10.	angie inspired	16.	sun
5.	bodhisattvaintraining	11.	Amrit Sinha	17.	Atreyee
6.	Steph	12.	kalpana solsi

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XIII, Off The Tippet's ''echoes of the past''

Good day dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It seems that some of you are a bit anxious to participate in this Tan Renga Challenge Month, because I haven't seen a few contributors to our daily haiku meme. Of course they can have several reasons to not participate in this Tan Renga Month, or they are of for a while. But ... you are free to participate and enjoy the challenge, but no obligations, just feel free to participate and share.
As for today's Tan Renga Challenge ... the starting verse is written by Off The Tippet (his/her weblog has the same name) in response on our prompt ''shell'' last month. ''Shell'' was provided by Lolly and I have read wonderful haiku than in response to it. So our starting verse is inspired on ''shell'' and here it is:

echoes of the past
resound into the present
a dream of the sea

(c) Off The Tippet

Shell on the Beach

I think this haiku, our first stanza of our new Tan Renga, is gorgeous and has a nice deeper layer. Such a deeper layer I can surely appreciate. 

Here is my attempt to complete this Tan Renga with a second stanza:

echoes of the past
resound into the present
a dream of the sea                                               (Off The Tippet)

the sound of breakers
puts me in ecstasy                                                (Chèvrefeuille)

Ah! That roaring surf ... a soothing sound to lighten the spirit and my mind. I love that especially when storms are raging ... really a wonderful experience ... leaning against the wind ... wow ....

Well ... now it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers to complete this Tan Renga started by Off The Tippet in your own way ... Have fun, be inspired and feel free to share your inspired second stanza and the completed Tan Renga with our haiku family here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month will stay on until November 25th 11.59 AM (CET) and is open for your submissions today at 7.00 PM (CET). Have fun!

Share your completed Tan Renga with us al here at our Haiku Kai. Feel free to submit and participate.

1.	Lovely Thing	6.	kaykuala	11.	SaFire
2.	4joy	7.	Magical Mystical Teacher	12.	becca givens
3.	moondustwriter	8.	theinnerzone	13.	lynndiane
4.	Wabi Sabi	9.	JRBHaiku	14.	sun
5.	Bjorn	10.	Haiku Plate Special	15.	Atreyee

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month # XXII, The Inner Zone's "sheets of waves cover''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today the haiku to start the Tan Renga with is written by ''the Inner zone'' of ''The pigments of life'' and is written in response of one of our Kamishibai episodes "lighthouse''. She/he wrote only a haiku, but it was really a nice haiku. And I think that you can write a wonderful second stanza towards this Tan Renga.
Here follows the first stanza of our new Tan Renga Challenge:

sheets of waves cover
asleep sea, lighthouse rotates
sparkling lullabies

(c) The Inner Zone

Roker Lighthouse

And here is my attempt to complete this Tan Renga:

sheets of waves cover
asleep sea, lighthouse rotates
sparkling lullabies                                                   (The Inner Zone)

waves thunder and break
against the foot of the lighthouse                              (Chèvrefeuille)

And now it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers to complete this Tan Renga in your own unique way. This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month will stay on until November 24th 11.59 AM (CET) and is open for your submissions later on today around 7.00 PM (CET). So ... have fun, be inspired and share.

Share your completed Tan Renga with our haiku-family here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

1.	theinnerzone	6.	Bjorn	11.	becca givens
2.	Lovely Thing	7.	Haiku Plate Special	12.	gillena
3.	SaFire	8.	Wabi Sabi	13.	sun
4.	Atreyee	9.	A Creative Harbor	14.	Sara McNulty
5.	moondustwriter	10.	JRBHaiku

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XXI, Cathy Tenzo's "the Buddha Himself"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another day in haiku paradise and especially in Tan Renga Paradise this month. Another wonderful haiku to start a Tan Renga Challenge with. Today it's a haiku in response on October's prompt "Buddha" and it's written by Cathy Tenzo of Haiku Plate Special. I think it's an awesome haiku in which the Buddha is be seen as also just a human who had to go his way and fins his own path to Enlightenment. Here it is:

the Buddha himself
did not start enlightened
he walked the path

(c) Cathy Tenzo

I am not a Buddhist, but as a haiku-poet I am a Buddhist, ... do you understand that? ....
Haiku is strongly connected with Buddhism and Zen-Buddhism and therefore I have to think sometimes as a Buddhist. In one of our upcoming episodes of "back to it's roots" I will tell you all more about the Buddhistic influences in haiku ... and of course in next January and February for sure as we are going on a Buddhistic Pilgrimage.
OK ... back to this episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month. Here is my attempt to complete this Tan Renga started by Cathy:

the Buddha himself
did not start enlightened
he walked the path                                          (Cathy Tenzo)

following the signs along the path
the lotus comes to full bloom                          (Chèvrefeuille)

What a joy to make this Tan Renga complete and I wonder .... I wonder ... how you all will make it a complete Tan Renga .... so now it's up to you ... have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai.
This episode will stay on until November 23th 11.59 AM (CET) and is now open for your submissions.

Share your completed Tan Renga with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	7.	Wabi Sabi	13.	4joy
2.	HA	8.	theinnerzone	14.	SaFire
3.	Atreyee	9.	JRBHaiku	15.	becca givens
4.	Haiku Plate Special	10.	bodhisattvaintraining	16.	The Imaginator
5.	look for a lovely thing	11.	paul scribbles	17.	sun
6.	Bjorn	12.	jazzbumpa	18.	darkcirclesetc

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Carpe Diem's Tanka Shrine #2, Ishikawa Takuboku's ''on the white sand''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

A new episode of our Tanka-feature ''Carpe Diem's Tanka Shrine". Several weeks ago I started this new feature and I became really happy to read all your wonderful responses on this Tanka feature. Tanka looks very similar with the Tan Renga, but there's a difference. Tan Renga is a chained poem written by two poets and Tanka is written by one poet. So this 'form' looks familiar I think.
The goal of the Tanka Shrine is to write a new Tanka inspired on the one I gave ... just as we are doing in our Carpe Diem Specials.

For this episode I have chosen a Tanka by Ishikawa Takuboku. Takuboku Ishikawa (1886 –1912) was a Japanese poet. He died of tuberculosis. Well known as both a tanka and "modern-style" (新体詩 shintaishi?) or "free-style" (自由詩 jiyūshi?) poet, he began as a member of the Myōjō group of naturalist poets but later joined the "socialistic" group of Japanese poets and renounced naturalism.(Source: Wikipedia)

Statue of Ishikawa Takuboku at Hakodate, Hokkaido

I love to share this Tanka written by Takuboku for your inspiration:

On the white sand
Of the beach of a small isle
In the Eastern Sea
I, my face streaked with tears,
Am playing with a crab

(c) Ishikawa Takuboku

It's a very sad poem, full of intense emotions, so it will not be an easy task to write a new Tanka in the same tone, sense and spirit as Ishikawa, but ... I have to try:

lost in the woods
desperate and anxious
elderly people
just seeking for a bit of privacy
to live their newly found love

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... I don't know, this looks more like a Kyoka, but I like this poem a lot. It's full of intense emotions. Yes ... this is a good poem (how immodest). And now it's your turn. Have fun, be inspired and share your Tanka in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one by Ishikawa Takuboku. 

This episode of Carpe Diem's Tanka Shrine will stay on until December 10th 11.59 AM (CET) and is NOW OPEN for your submissions.

Share your Tanka, inspired on the one given in this episode, with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Have fun!

1.	GenesMusings	7.	JRBHaiku	13.	SaFire
2.	Reading Pleasure	8.	look for a lovely thing	14.	Magical Mystical Teacher
3.	moondustwriter	9.	Atreyee	15.	Sara McNulty
4.	The Imaginator	10.	Bjorn	16.	sun
5.	kaykuala	11.	Dorianna
6.	Steph	12.	Managua Gunn

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XX, WabiSabi's ''old beacon''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have to share a wonderful haiku as the starting verse of our new Tan Renga Challenge. As read this one I was immediately caught by it, maybe it was the haiga, or maybe just the words, but it caught me ... It's a haiku/haiga written/made by Wabi Sabi of ''Wabi Sabi -- poems and images''. I had to use this one for our Tan Renga Challenge. Here it is, the haiga:

Haiga "Old Beacon'' (c) Wabi Sabi

A wonderful haiga, don''t you think so too? Awesome landscape with a very strong haiku included. This haiku is our starting verse for today's Tan Renga Challenge Month episode and here it is:

old beacon
hailing all strangers -
mind the land

(c) WabiSabi

A great response on our prompt Strangers as provided by Patricia in our first anniversary month, last October. I had to think this one over and over again to compose a second stanza to it, but I think I have succeeded.

Here is my attempt to complete this Tan Renga started by WabiSabi:

old beacon
hailing all strangers -
mind the land                                                   (WabiSabi)

a soothing thought emerges
the lighthouse through the mist                      (Chèvrefeuille)

A nice one I think. Now it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers to complete this Tan Renga in your own style ... have fun, be inspired and share.
This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month will stay on until November22th 11.59 AM (CET) and is open for your submissions today at 7.00 PM (CET).

Share your completed Tan Renga with our haiku-community here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

1.	look for a lovely thing	6.	Wabi Sabi	11.	Atreyee
2.	Bjorn	7.	Steph	12.	SaFire
3.	Haiku Plate Special	8.	JRBHaiku	13.	becca givens
4.	A Creative Harbor	9.	gillena	14.	sun
5.	Magical Mystical Teacher	10.	like an apple	15.	siggiofmaine

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Carpe Diem''s Tan Renga Challenge Month #XIX, Carol's ''tickling ivories''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today our Tan Renga ''to complete'' is started by Carol of ''a creative harbor'' and it was her response on the prompt ''Ivory'' last month. It's a nice haiku and it caught me as I read it. Up to you is the challenge to complete this Tan Renga by composing the second stanza of Carol's starting verse:

tickling ivories
scintillating music sound
filling the inner soul

(c) Carol

Credits: Windchime

And this is my attempt to complete this Tan Renga with my second stanza:

tickling ivories
scintillating music sound
filling the inner soul                                               (Carol)

walking through the neighborhood
the fragile sound of a windchime                           (Chèvrefeuille)

Ah! That sweet, fragile and soothing sound of a windchime ... the song of angels ...

Now it's up to you to complete this Tan Renga with a second stanza. This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month will stay on until November 21th 11.59 AM (CET). Have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai. !! Submission starts at 7.00 PM (CET) !!

Share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai. Have fun!

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	8.	Haiku Plate Special	15.	gillena
2.	Siggi Of Maine	9.	like an apple	16.	Sumana Roy
3.	jazzbumpa	10.	Atreyee	17.	Sara McNulty
4.	theinnerzone	11.	kaykuala	18.	becca givens
5.	Wabi Sabi	12.	SaFire	19.	Sun
6.	Bjorn	13.	JRBHaiku
7.	look for a lovely thing	14.	Georgia aka Bastet

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XVIII, Joanne's "by the shallow pond"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another day has gone by and I have to challenge you again with a nice wonderful starting haiku for a Tan Renga ... I love this work of preparing and I really enjoy it. Today I have a nice haiku for starters composed by Joanne of 4Joy. Joanne wrote this haiku in response of our classical kigo Kari (or Goose) last September. As I read this haiku I was in awe ... and responded to Joanne with the question if I might use this masterpiece. I was honored that she gave permission to use it. Here it is ... Joanne's masterpiece on goose:

by the shallow pond
reflection drawing northern fowl
a warm sun shimmers

(c) Joanne

My attempt to complete this Tan Renga started by Joanne:

by the shallow pond
reflection drawing northern fowl
a warm sun shimmers                                                               (Joanne)

she looks at herself in the mirror
around her eyes ... a few wrinkles                                       (Chèvrefeuille)


This episode will stay on until November 20th 11.59 AM (CET) and is now open for your submissions. Have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with our haiku-community.
PS. I am hopelessly behind with commenting I hope to catch up ASAP (smiles)

Share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai.

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	7.	theinnerzone	13.	like an apple
2.	Haiku Plate Special	8.	Wabi Sabi	14.	Atreyee
3.	Bjorn	9.	JRBHaiku	15.	Sara McNulty
4.	look for a lovely thing	10.	GenesMusings	16.	siggiofmaine
5.	Steph	11.	gillena	17.	sun
6.	A Creative Harbor	12.	Sumana Roy	18.	becca givens

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Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge Month #XVII, Jazzbumpa''s " my little green lawn''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today our Tan Renga Challenge is started by Jazzbumpa of Retirement Pastels. Jazzbumpa wrote it in response on our classical kigo 'Susuki, Pampasgrass' in last September. It's a nice haiku and it touched me in someway. Here it is, the haiku which starts our new Tan Renga Challenge:

my little green lawn
dreams about the pampas grass
i dream of the stars

(c) Jazzbumpa

I haven't time enough to respond on this Tan Renga Challenge myself, so it's up to you. I am looking forward to your completions.

This Tan Renga Challenge Month episode will be open for your submissions at 7.00 PM (CET) and will be staying open for submissions until November 19th 11.59 AM (CET).

Have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai.

Share your completed Tan Renga with our Haiku Kai.

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	6.	theinnerzone	11.	becca givens
2.	look for a lovely thing	7.	jazzbumpa	12.	Sun
3.	Wabi Sabi	8.	kaykuala	13.	Sara McNulty
4.	Bjorn	9.	Atreyee	14.	siggiofmaine
5.	Haiku Plate Special	10.	like an apple

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Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge Month #XVI, Managua Gunn's ''in hidden places''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another busy day. I have already published a new episode of our feature ''distillation'' and I have prepared a few new episodes of other features and I was busy with completing the prompt-list for December. And now I have to write the new Tan Renga Challenge episode ...

Today our Tan Renga is started with a haiku written by Managua Gunn of Coffee with yer buccaneer. Managua wrote this haiku in response on the episode about Kireji of our ''back to Roots'' feature. That episode you can re-visit HERE. For sure worth reading I think.

Here is the starting verse of this Tan Renga Challenge:

in hidden places

under the porch floorboards-
cherry blossoms

(c) Managua Gunn

And here is my attempt to write a second stanza to this Tan Renga:

in hidden places

under the porch floorboards-
cherry blossoms                                                (Managua Gunn)

in the light of the full moon
making love under the cherry                             (Chèvrefeuille)

Hm ... not a strong completion, but the first stanza brought this imagery in my mind, so I had to use it. And now it's up to you my dear haijin, visitors and travelers.

This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month will be open for your submissions until November 18th 11.59 AM (CET) and you can start submitting tonight at 7.00 PM (CET). So have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Share your completed Tan Renga with our haiku-community Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

1.	look for a lovely thing	5.	JRBHaiku	9.	becca givens
2.	HA	6.	theinnerzone	10.	Sumana Roy
3.	Bjorn	7.	PositiveKismet	11.	Sun
4.	Haiku Plate Special	8.	kaykuala	12.	Sara McNulty

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Carpe Diem's Distillation #5, Ezra Pound's ''The River-Merchant's Wife''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to share a new episode of our ''Distillation''-feature in which the goal is to ''distil'' haiku from another poem. This month I have chosen a poem written by Ezra Pound (1885-1972), a modern poet who also was interested in the Chinese and Japanese poetry. I will give a brief biography here-after.

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

Ezra Pound is generally considered the poet most responsible for defining and promoting a modernist aesthetic in poetry. In the early teens of the twentieth century, he opened a seminal exchange of work and ideas between British and American writers, and was famous for the generosity with which he advanced the work of such major contemporaries as W. B. Yeats, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, H. D., James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and especially T. S. Eliot. His own significant contributions to poetry begin with his promulgation of Imagism, a movement in poetry which derived its technique from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry - stressing clarity, precision, and economy of language, and foregoing traditional rhyme and meter in order to, in Pound's words, "compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of the metronome." His later work, for nearly fifty years, focused on the encyclopedic epic poem he entitled The Cantos.
Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho, in 1885. He completed two years of college at the University of Pennsylvania and earned a degree from Hamilton College in 1905. After teaching at Wabash College for two years, he traveled abroad to Spain, Italy and London, where, as the literary executor of the scholar Ernest Fenellosa, he became interested in Japanese and Chinese poetry. He married Dorothy Shakespeare in 1914 and became London editor of the Little Review in 1917. In 1924, he moved to Italy; during this period of voluntary exile, Pound became involved in Fascist politics, and did not return to the United States until 1945, when he was arrested on charges of treason for broadcasting Fascist propaganda by radio to the United States during the Second World War. In 1946, he was acquitted, but declared mentally ill and committed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. During his confinement, the jury of the Bollingen-Library of Congress Award (which included a number of the most eminent writers of the time) decided to overlook Pound's political career in the interest of recognizing his poetic achievements, and awarded him the prize for the Pisan Cantos (1948). After continuous appeals from writers won his release from the hospital in 1958, Pound returned to Italy and settled in Venice, where he died, a semi-recluse, in 1972.

His poem ''The River-Merchant's Wife'' is a translation of a poem by Li Po (an ancient Chinese poet)

River Merchant's Wife - woodblock 

Well ... let us take a look at this poem by Ezra Pound:

While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.

At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.

At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the lookout?

At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.

You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Cho-fo-Sa.

Merchant's Wife at Tea - Boris Kustodiev 1918

A wonderful poem I think and because it's a translation from a Chinese poem it's easy (I think) to distil from this poem a haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka. I have given it a try and this is my haiku distilled from the poem by Ezra Pound.

youngsters playing
in the backyard garden -
cherry blossoms bloom

falling in love
feels like a waterfall of joy -
newly weds dreams

married youngsters
eyes blinded by their love -
weeping willows

love remains strong
she is turning grey without him -
leaves are falling

finally winter
once she was a young woman -
still waiting for him

I like these a lot, I think these haiku are telling in a short way what the poem tells, but that's how I see it of course. I like this feature it learns you new things ... for example ''looking towards other poetry forms can be fun too''.

Well .... it''s up to you now ... Share your distilled haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka inspired on the poem by Ezra Pound with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This episode of "distillation'' will stay on until Decmeber 15th 11.59 AM (CET). This episode of ''distillation'' is now open for your submissions.

Share your 'distilled' haiku from the poem by Ezra Pound with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

1.	Magical Mystical Teacher	4.	JRBHaiku	7.	Bjorn
2.	HA	5.	Atreyee	8.	moondustwriter
3.	look for a lovely thing	6.	Managua Gunn	9.	sun

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