Carpe Diem #914 Time

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I say it often "lack of time", "time is not at my side" and more likely. In this episode we will look at "time" as part of the senses.

Introduction

Maybe you can remember that we had a month with quotes from Khalil Gibran's "Sand and Foam". In one of the episodes I spoke about "time". As I was preparing this episode another nice piece of poetry came in mind, also by Khalil Gibran. I love to share that poem here with you all.

And an astronomer said, "Master, what of Time?"
And he answered:
You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.
You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.
Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.
Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.
And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.
Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?
And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not form love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds? And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?
But if in you thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,
And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

© Khalil Gibran

Time

changing tides
my restlessness has gone
time is at my side

© Chèvrefeuille

Hamish on time

Sense of time is said to be the most cultural of all senses. A Brazilian's sense of time is completely different from say, a Swiss's sense of time, and in fact closer to the culture of the Qatari, for example. Some of us always arrive early, and have an innate sense of what time it is. Others do not have a good sense of time, and anyway come from a culture where the notion of time is not given the same values.

Maybe say it is never too late, for example, while the saying in Switzerland is it is never too early. If you invite a Finnish person to your house at say 6:00 pm, he or she is likely to turn up at 5:30 pm, a dire insult for the French, who make a point of being half an hour late, which is altogether too optimistic for a Brazilian or Gulf Arab.

While the Swiss or Finnish may have a well-developed notion or sense of time, other nations place emphasis on developing other senses in society, like the tactile sense among people of the Mediterranean. In fact most Europeans like to arrive on time, even if not all their trains do. The Japanese are also innate time-keepers, though Thai people are much more approximate, and do not have the same sense  of time as their Asian counterparts.

The goal is to bring "time" as a sense into your haiku or try to create a haiku (tanka or other Japanese poetry form) in which you try to catch "time".

Credits: Strings of Time

My response

Time ... to me isn't that important. I live with the day and (of course) I am on time at work, but that's all to say about me according to time. Time isn't always at my side, but that's my problem and not that of others.
I often feel ashamed as I am not on time with publishing the episodes here at CDHK, but ... well that's me.

I am a wanderer, a vagabond, a nomad ... time is not important to me ... when the first sunbeams caress the earth I rise from my bed ... the day goes by ... and as the sky becomes dark and the stars are visible in their deep blue background of the universe ... it's time to go to sleep. That's my day.

I have tried to catch that in a haiku, not a new one, but I think it fits the idea of time very well.

wandering along the sea
in the footprints left an oyster
shimmering of a pearl

© Chèvrefeuille

And ... I just had to write an all new one:

first sunlight
the whole day birds praise
'til the night falls

© Chèvrefeuille

strings of time
pulling every day again
becoming grey

© Chèvrefeuille

(inspired on the above image)

Take your time ... meditate on time ... feel time, see time, hear time, taste time and ... touch time in your haiku.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 10th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, a new CD Special by Hamish, our featured haiku poet, later on.