Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
I am a bit speechless today ... I read all your wonderful comments on "buried in moss" and they made me blush. Who am I to get such compliments, such nice and loving words. I am just a man who more than 25 yrs ago fell in love with haiku a little poem from a far eastern country ... Japan. In a way I have felt always a connection with something ... and now ... more than 25 years later, still writing haiku, I know for sure haiku has enriched my life ... I needed and still need that wonderful little verse in which I can fit my deepest feelings and thoughts. I am just your humble host and I am striving for making haiku well known over all the globe ... our wonderful Earth needs haiku ...
At the moment I am in a kind of personal crises because of a conflict with my work, but I always can "write my way out" with haiku. Maybe that makes my haiku stronger, because I am an emphatic guy ... stick a knife in my heart for my work, my family and my being as a haiku poet and I will recover with unconditional love also to the one who stabbed the knife in my heart ... This personal crises looks to occur every eight year ... not a coincidence I think. A music octave has eight notes and every "ninth" note resonates an octave higher ... every octave I have passed until now has brought me new insight and this new octave, this new personal crises, will bring me even more insight. Why? I am a spiritual being and I need this to place the first step into a new level of consciousness ... maybe this is what the Cosmos had in mind for me ...
Everyone needs sometimes a crises in his/her life ... than you can sit back, looking back to the past, bringing that past to the Now, this moment, and in this Now ... you can look into the future, the near future it makes you human ...
This is how I see Basho, not only as my haiku master, but also as my personal mentor. Through his haiku (and his life) I learn new insights who are fitting into my life ... every moment again, every day, every week, every month and every year. I think (call me a nut case or some fool) that's why haiku came into my life to bring me joy, but also sorrow, and to help me to overcome the sorrow and the sadness of things and happenings in my life to let me see and appreciate the little things in life. Those little things together becoming one big thing, one big heart, on big heart overflowing with unconditional love ... that's what haiku made me ...
Sorry guys for this long intro to this new episode of Carpe Diem in which we are this month on the trail with Basho. And today I have a nice haiku for you, and I hope (I think it was Lolly who wrote that in her comment on this months prompt-list) it has that joy in it, that it will amaze you ... Why for god's sake (my excuses for this strong use of a word) did Basho wrote a haiku about a cookie? What kind of cookie he meant? Certainly not our cookies, those little apps bound to websites. Was it a fortune cookie? With a great thought hidden in it? Or was it just a cookie, just common ... We will see.
With this haiku "buying a cookie" came a preface which I will share too.
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| Credits: Atsuna Shrine (nowadays) |
I visited the Atsuna Shrine. The buildings were in ruins, the earthen walls had crumbled and were hidden in a field of weeds. Sacred straw ropes had been put to mark the site of the lesser shrine and rocks piled up to show the shrine itself. Ferns and mosses, growing as they will, only made the place more sacred and captured one's heart.
buying a cookie
even the ferns are withered
at a rest stop
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
As we read the haiku again than in the last line we can read that Basho took a stop to rest and eat something, so he was just eating a cookie, but in this haiku (with the preface) he makes this eating of a cookie almost a holy sacred moment ... what a man this Basho a true Saint.
tired of spinning
the cat takes time for itself
and washes his face
© Chèvrefeuille
Well I hope you did like this episode, notwithstanding the long start, and that it will inspire you to compose an all new haiku.
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 9th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, a wandering crow, later on.
I really like the idea of "writing your way through," using haiku. May your writing be fruitful to body and spirit!
ReplyDeleteYou have great patience to be working among people - who can always be difficult, as well as in a taxing job like you have, but what a positive analysis about the octaves. Fine words, really fine words..
ReplyDeleteTo know that you're struggling makes my heart ache -- and no, you're not a nut case. (But a little madness is a very good thing, in my opinion. That's where the brilliance lies.) I'm really, really hoping this crisis will lessen soon. And we're all rooting for you --
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful choice in this haibun! One to mull over, for certain. It will be interesting to see what it inspires.
With greatest respect, Chevrefeuille ---
I'm so glad to be here again.. and I'm so glad for you being here.. and yes I agree, poetry written from darkness is often stronger than when writing from joy i think.
ReplyDeleteI agree that crisis in life allow us to grow, but writing pushes that growth a bit further. I am sending you hugs and courage and you know your CP family here is so connected. I am so happy I joined this talented but genuine and caring family.
ReplyDeleteThis week I published a haibun in response to two of your prompts, No Strength Left and If Taken in Hand entitled: A time to heal http://wp.me/p3ia4v-4e9 . One comment I received says he read Basho as well, but did not succeed in writing such a great haiku as I had. I know I have grown since last year under your guidance, Kristjaan, and encouragements. I am so pleased I found this blog through Georgia as it is helping me more than you know as I grieve my recent loss. Le chapeau est la votre cette fois-si et les éloges vous appartiennent...merci.
The way you have written about haiku as a way through personal crisis is very interesting. Although I have only been writing them for a year or two I am finding the process healing. For me haiku writing is becoming a kind of spiritual discipline that helps me process events in my life. Thankyou very much for your insightful prompts and for the deep and honest way you guide us along this path. I hope your work crisis eases very soon. These are very intense times we are living through.
ReplyDeleteI just tried to leave a comment but it disappeared. Thank you very much for your deep and spiritually orientated site. Your haiku prompts are wonderful. Although I haven't been writing haiku all that long I agree that it can be a way through crisis. I hope your problems find resolution very soon
ReplyDeleteReally sad to hear about the crisis you are going through. Our best wishes and prayers are with you. Hope it goes away soon and ushers better happier times. I agree that writing helps us through our darkest hours. May you emerge even stronger indomitable one.
ReplyDeleteRespect and Regards.