Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Carpe Diem #1554 Haunted Houses (modern kigo)


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

"Listen to the wind", he whispers. "Listen ... do you hear them? The weak voices of my ancestors in this ancient family home". I tried to listen hard and than ... there it was a soft whisper "leave this house, leave this house". I looked at him and he nodded. "Yes ... it's one of my ancestors ... my roots are in the native races here in the US". "Do you mean ...?" "Yes I am an indian. Here in this house my ancestors stayed for a while, but than soldiers came and the owners of the house saved us".

Haunted House (photo © Seph Lawless)

Just a small (impromptu) story to introduce our modern kigo, haunted houses, to you. This modern kigo I have extracted from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku", from the section autumn and the sub-section autumn occasions.

And here is my challenge for you today. Create a haibun, haiku or other Japanese poetry form inspired on the following two haiku by Jane Reichhold:

deserted house
wild roses still have a view
of the remote coast

vacant stares
from the vacant house
no one looks

© Jane Reichhold

I love those old houses were you can hear the wind blow through the chimney, bare branches knock on the windows ... spooky ... ghostly maybe ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until December 4th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!


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