Carpe Diem #1224 dunes

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and I hope I have inspired you with our "weekend-meditation". Today we will go on with our Summertime month full of classical and non-classical kigo (seasonwords).
There are a lot of classical and non-classical kigo for summer and today I love to share another nice one, a modern one this time extracted from Jane's "A Dictionary of Haiku". Today I love to challenge you with dunes.

the cry of a seagull
resonates through the dunes
waves pounding the beach

© Chèvrefeuille

As I was preparing this episode the first thing which came in mind had nothing to do with summer. I thought of the novel series by Frank Herbert, Dune. I remember that I read this complete series (6 volumes) as a teenager and I loved it, loved it dearly. It inspired me to write my own novel several years later.

Dune (part 1) Frank Herbert cover

Let me tell you a little bit more about this beautiful series of novels by Frank Herbert:

Dune is a 1965 epic science fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, originally published as two separate serials in Analog magazine. It tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966, and it won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. It is the first installment of the Dune saga, and in 2003 was cited as the world's best-selling science fiction novel.

Set in the distant future amidst a feudal interstellar society in which noble houses, in control of individual planets, owe allegiance to the Padishah Emperor, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides, whose noble family accepts the stewardship of the desert planet Arrakis. As this planet is the only source of the "spice" melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe, control of Arrakis is a coveted—and dangerous—undertaking. The story explores the multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the forces of the empire confront each other in a struggle for the control of Arrakis and its "spice".

Herbert wrote five sequels: Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune. In 1984 Dune The Movie was created. A great movie which followed (in my opinion) the novels in an awesome way.

Virginia Beach Dune

Okay ... back to our prompt for today, dunes, a modern summer kigo. Here are a few haiku by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) to inspire you.

rain-wet dunes
scraped with yellow light
of sunset showers

noon shadows
following the contours
of desert dunes

living in desert dunes
the ups and downs
of curved sand

© Jane Reichhold

Three beauties ... Jane was really a great haiku poetess. Here is another one by her. I think this one is one of her best on dunes:

the shape of wind
writing in dunes
loneliness

© Jane Reichhold

It will not be an easy task to create haiku or tanka in the same brightness and beauty as the ones shared here by Jane, but  ... I had to try.

hot summer day
seeking for relief and shadow
between the dunes
exchanging body fluids with the one I love
while seagulls cry

© Chèvrefeuille

Hmm ... nice tanka I think. What is your opinion on this tanka?

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 28th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, cool, cool evening, cool wind (Suzushi,Ryofu), later on. For now .... have fun!