Thursday, September 3, 2015

Carpe Diem #811 Camelopardalis (Giraffe)


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First this: During circumstances there will not be an episode of "My favorite haiku by ..." this week, sorry.

Of course there is our regular prompt which I will always try to publish, notwithstanding any circumstances, so today I have another nice constellation for you to explore. Remember, these prompts are just for inspiration, and of course for the read.
Today we are exploring Camelopardalis (Giraffe) and here is a nice picture (a historical one) of this not so well known constellation.

Credits: Camelopardalis (Giraffe)

Camelopardalis or the Giraffe constellation is a large, faint grouping of stars in the northern sky. The constellation was introduced in 1613 by Petrus Plancius to represent the animal Rebecca rode to marry Isaac in the Bible. One year later, Jakob Bartsch featured it in his atlas. Johannes Hevelius gave it the official name of "Camelopardus" or "Camelopardalis" because he saw the constellation's many faint stars as the spots of a giraffe.
According to traditional Chinese uranography, the modern constellation Camelopardalis is located in Three Enclosures. The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is “lù bào zuò”, meaning "the leopard-deer constellation".

What a story. I never had heard about this constellations, so to me this was also an adventure as this month will be too, because I have chosen several not so well known constellations to inspire you. I hope that this constellation, 
Camelopardalis (Giraffe), will inspire you to write an all new haiku or tanka. I have given it a try and this is what I came up with:

in the twilight
a giraffe watches its reflection
in the stars


© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but in a way I like this one a lot.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 6th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, Capricornus (Sea Goat), later on. For now ... have fun!


2 comments:

  1. Learned something new here! Enjoyed your haiku also :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi every one, i'm taking some time out from prompts.
    When i started my blog, i did spontaneous posts, then i started visiting friends, then i went on to what i like to call blog hopping where i would share posts,
    Every so often though, i like to go back to my center, and that is what im doing this September so i am not responding to any prompts at my blog Lunch Break,

    Our Carpe Diem Renga is going nicely and i keep checking to read verses and also to keep alert as to when its my turn to add a verse

    Wishing all my Carpe Diem friends the best this September.
    I will return to responses to prompts in October

    much love...

    ReplyDelete