Carpe Diem #1523 H.F. Noyes' ... rusty toy truck (Renga With ...)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I had some trouble with finding a theme / prompt for today, but after some surfing over the WWW I found a wonderful modern haiku poet, H.F. Noyes (1918-2010). I honestly had never heard of him, but as I ran into his haiku I was immediately caught by the beauty of his poems. So let me share a little bit background about him. (Source: The Living Haiku Anthology)

H.F. Noyes

H. F. Noyes (1918 – 2010)

The poet, editor, and psychotherapist H.F. "Tom" Noyes was born in 1918 on a farm in Oregon to which he attributes his love of nature. He attended Yale and Columbia, majoring in Anthropology and Social Psychology. He also studied Developmental Psychology at the Rousseau Institute and the University of Geneva. Immediately after graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as an ordnanceman and torpedoman, and then as an ensign in the Scouts and Raiders (U.S.Marines). After the war he obtained a Doctorate in Counselling, as well as training in Gestalt Therapy and Jungian Psychoanalysis. He practiced psychotherapy in New York City for 25 years, retiring in 1970 to live the simple life in Politia, outside Athens, Greece.

Tom’s interest in haiku began through study of R. H. Blyth’s four-volume Haiku. Noyes' work appeared in poetry journals worldwide and in many anthologies, including collections published in the USA, Canada, Slovenia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, India, Romania, Italy, Portugal, Greece, and England. His favourite authors were Thoreau, D.H. Lawrence, and Dostoevsky, and his favourite poets were Frost, Jeffers, Yannis Ritsos, Francis Ponge, the T'ang and Sung Dynasty poets, and the old masters: Basho, Buson, and Issa of Japan. In Modern Haiku (2008, 39:1, p.125) H. F. Noyes wrote: “Re definitions of haiku, I honor Basho’s, ‘Do not follow in the footsteps of the ancients. Seek what they sought.’ If they could speak from beyond the grave, Basho, Buson and Issa would caution that a haiku is not a product of mind, but of heartmind. The most precious ingredient in a haiku that ingratiates itself with us is likely to be spontaneity . . . an unselfconscious catching of the haiku spirit as it flies. The depth reflected is chiefly through afterthought in readers’ minds. The writer is content to convey a sense of wonder.”

chain

This episode I love to challenge you all to create a renga together with H.F. Noyes as we do in that special feature "Renga With ..." I have chosen six haiku to work with. You can make your own "line-up" and than add your two lined stanza to make it a wonderful renga in honor of Noyes.

Here are the six haiku I have chosen:

as if nothing happened
the crow there
the willow here

rusty toy truck
stuck on the mudbank
a cargo of blossoms

full moon rising
nowhere on the empty beach
to hide our love

Empty Beach in the Moonlight

raking aside leaves
on the backyard pond
I release the moon

bright fall day
the brook wanders off 
its shimmer lingers

evening walk
the creak of my boots 
invades the stars

© H.F. Noyes

A wonderful series of haiku to work with I think. You may decide your own "line-up" and try to complete the "circle" with a nice "ageku" (closing verse).

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... enjoy the challenge!