Carpe Diem Theme Week #2 Color Your Life Introduction

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first episode of the second Carpe Diem Theme Week. This week (March 20th until March 26th) I love to bring some "Color into Your Life". We are going to explore the deeper meaning of the colors which we know from the rainbow. As I started CDHK back in 2012 I had a week full of prompts about the colors of the rainbow and maybe ... this feels for a few of you ... like a reprise, but ... well our Haiku loving family has grown since we started so there will be new family members who love to be inspired by the colors of the rainbow.

As I did in our first Theme Week I will gather all the posts of this Theme Week including your haiku and other Japanese poetry forms you will submit to create a new e-book, but that's ... not for now.

Introduction:

As I was preparing this first introductory episode the first thing which cam in mind  was God's covenant with Noah after the Flood. That story is told in Genesis and in the following verses from Genesis we can read that covenant:

[... ] God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud.” [...] Genesis 9: 12-14 (NIV)

I think you all have seen at least once a rainbow. It's a huge arch of colors in the sky. It's caused by the light from the sun being broken up by water droplets in the atmosphere. The sun's light is "white", but the water droplets break it up into seven different colors, always in this order: RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, VIOLET

It's really a wonderful sight to see the rainbow and it's always a joy to know why it was once placed there according to Genesis, however in our time we know why this colored arch can be seen it is just how nature works ... the rainbow is magical and mysterious and the colors ... well the colors have a deeper meaning. That deeper meaning is the theme of this week that's why I have chosen the title of this Theme Week "Color Your Life". I think through haiku (and of course every other poetry form) we can color our life.

That was my introduction to close this introduction the posts this week are following the order of the colors of the rainbow. So today I start with RED.

Color Your Life ... Red:

The color red is one of the most vibrant colors in the spectrum. Red color has the longest wavelength in the visible color spectrum. It is also the visible light nearest to infrared in the electromagnetic spectrum. Infrared waves produce heat and objects that are very heated eventually become visibly red. It comes as no surprise then to learn that red is associated with fire, burning, heat and warmth.

Being the color of blood, red is also connected to life and that which sustains life. It is associated with living life at to its fullest.

Generally the positive sides of the color red include action, courage, a strong will, honesty, confidence, spontaneity, vibrancy and gratitude.

Everything is in balance in our world, so just as there are positive aspects of the meaning of red, there are negatives associated with this color as well.

Red is associated with danger. Stop signs, stop lights and fire trucks are red.

How to color your life ... with red? Well ... there are so many wonderful red flowers, or the red leaves of autumn, the redness of the sunrise or sunset ... nature's red colors are really gorgeous.

sunset

My response:

Red ... the color of blood ... Red ... the color of love (however in chakra-colors the color for love is green) Red ... a wonderful sunset or sundown ... red peppers, red radishes, well you name it ... must be easy to write a few haiku on Red heh ...

red roses
between gypsophila
on a new grave

"look! a big red balloon"
the little child reaches
to the setting sun

together as one
on a lettuce bed
radish and peppers

© Chèvrefeuille

Well .... I hope you did like this first episode of our second Carpe Diem Theme Week. And remember as I did in our first Theme Week instead of three days you have two days to respond. So this first Theme Week episode of this month is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 21st at 7.00 PM (CET). Have fun!