Carpe Diem Special #195 Hamish Managua Gunn's first "full snow moon"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first CD Special of February. As you all know Hamish Managua Gunn (a.k.a. Pirate) won our "winter-kukai". Winning the kukai means that you are the featured haiku poet for a month at CDHK. Today is the first CD Special in which I will tell you a little bit more about Hamish and his poetry.

This is what Hamish says about himself (I found this at Smashwords):

"I am a hermit here in Lappland, a tinker by origin from the Orkney Isles, with simple messages: a view from a peak must be earned by a climb, a night in the desert gives the best sleep, and stories are found deep in forests.

For me, hospitality is sacrosanct – high up on a mountainside when the winds gather, or in the desert when the mirage is no longer real, and especially just after dawn among pine needles, sheltered by mighty branches.

And those who shared their bread with me shared more. What I share in writing is always a tale from one of the four corners of the world, a street corner, souk, ship or café; somewhere I went to in purchase of pure copper for my small copper shoppe. Then the scenes come with me on walks in my forest far in Lappland; there the story forms among trees in storms and soft breeze.

But I travel because I write: if you want to climb a mountain, you must start at the top".

And this is what Hamish says about his writing process: "I visit my forest every morning - and blog only about that also. Words are found in trees. I collect them, a bit like a crossword puzzle".

Hamish Managua Gunn

I think that Hamish, as he says it himself, is really a great thinker and gifted with a great talent to write novels and haiku. Hamish is a steady visitor of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and he even has been several times my co-host. As you all know ... Hamish is the creator of our prompt-list for this month and has an important role in the episodes of this month.

I am very proud that I can say that Hamish is a very good friend and a very gifted haiku poet as we already saw in our CDHK kukai "Winter" which he won with the following haiku:

midwinternight
a dark sky's lights dance
in the wolf's eyes

© Hamish

This is really a beautiful haiku and I think it was the only choice to be the winner, but that's just my opinion.

I came in contact with Hamish through CDHK and I appreciate what he is doing for CDHK, but more than that I appreciate him for his honesty and clearness in all his writings. He is a poet who stands very close to nature, as we all know he finds his inspiration in his forest and on all his travels. He also is a spiritual guy, as we could read in his essay about shaman-haiku and in his winning haiku.
Hamish is a haiku poet 100%

I have a few haiku to share here for your inspiration. He emailed his own choice of haiku and gave me the opportunity to choose from them. Here is a nice one:

one snowflake and I

share the end of autumn
in silence

© Hamish

This haiku fits also the theme of today's Tokubetsudesu episode and could be easily written for that episode too. In this haiku I sense the devotee of nature ... oneness with nature ... awesome.

Photo provided by Hamish (© DVS Williamson)

With this beautiful full moon image came a wonderful haiku which Hamish emailed earlier ... Another nice haiku written by a gifted haiku poet:

full snow moon
stirs the ladybug
on cold bare branches

© Hamish

Awesome ... in this one the silence is prominent and strong present ... thank you Hamish, ny friend, that you have given me the opportunity to choose from your oeuvre of haiku ... I am honored to host these CD Specials with all your wonderful poetry.

As you all know the goal of the CD-Specials is to try to create an all new haiku or tanka in the same spirit as the one given ... so try to catch the spirit of Hamish's haiku ...

Here is my response, and I can only hope that it is in the same spirit:

bare branches
against the deep blue night sky
moving shadows

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but I like this one.

This CD-Special is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 5th at noon (CET). Have fun!