Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry forms like haiku and tanka. It’s a warmhearted family of haiku poets created by Chèvrefeuille, a Dutch haiku poet. Japanese poetry is the poetry of nature and it gives an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. ++ ALL WORKS PUBLISHED ARE COPYRIGHTED AND THE RIGHTS BELONG TO THE AUTHORS ++ !!! Anonymous comments will be seen as SPAM !!!
First my apologies for being late with this last episode of July 2019, I had a busy evening shift. Here it is the last episode of our Summer Love month and in this last episode you can choose your own Summer Love prompt. So this is a "free-styling" episode. Feel free to choose your prompt, feel free to create any kind of Japanese poetry and share it with us all here at our wonderful Kai.
This month was a joy to create and I hope you all did enjoy it.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 6th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our first episode of August later on ... I don't have decided what theme we will have ... so that will be a surprise for us all.
Share your Japanese poetry with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai.
Welcome at the penultimate episode of this wonderful CDHK "Summer Love" month. All the prompts were in a way connected to summer love and you all did a great job on this theme. Today I have chosen an episode of one of our not so renown special features, "Full Circle".
Let me tell you what the goal is of this feature "full circle": The goal is to write haiku with twelve (12) words I will give. It's a kind of word-whirl and you have to use the words given in the clock-wise direction. So every word has to come in the line of it's place on the clock e.g. sunflower you have to use for line one (1) and rain storm for line two (2) and so on.
I will give you twelve (12) words (for every ''hour'') one word. The goal is to write haiku using the words as given in the clock wise way.
Here are the 12 (twelve) words for this new episode:
1. summer love 2. rain storm 3. beach 4. sea shore 5. shells 6. making love 7. garden 8. waterfall 9. stones 10. French kiss 11. sunflower 12. shadow
If you follow the words clock wise than you can compose four new haiku.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish the last "Summer Love" episode later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your "full circle" with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Welcome a new episode in our wonderful CDHK month about "Summer Love". Today I have chosen for the theme "twilight" that small period between day and night that I find amazing in summer. The last rays of sunlight against the deep blue nightsky. Stars twinkle and the constellations we all know so well are starting to become visible. An amazing time ...
I remember when I was a youngster (say end teens) I lived in a town close to the North Sea and I had my first date with a beautiful girl. She worked at the same institution for the mentally disabled. She really was a gorgeous girl and one day, we both had a few days off, we decided to take a room at a small hotel close to the North Sea. We had a room with a view on the sea ... It was a wonderful, but hot, summer day. The sky was blue without clouds, the sun was downing and the day ran to its end. It was the most wonderful sunset I had ever seen, maybe because I was watching it with her. We sat on the balcony, a glass of white wine in our hands ... It was there that we made love the very first time and that was fantastic, because it was in that strange moment of the day we call "twilight".
Well ... a nice one I think and now it is up to you. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 4th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your inspired Japanese poetry with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 28th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Welcome at a new weeken meditation her at CDHK. This weekend I love to challenge you to create a new masterpiece ... so our quest continues ... For this weekend I have chosen the theme "sunflowers" I challenge you to create a new masterpiece (haiku or tanka) themed "sunflowers". I will give you an example:
in my garden sunflowers bow their heads in honor of the sun
Sunflower Field (Tuscany, Italy)
only sunflowers those beautiful little suns in my garden
Both haiku I created back in 2012, around the time that I started with CDHK, so these are special to me.
Are these masterpieces? I don't know, for me they are, because of their meaning to me ... the start of CDHK back in 2012.
This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 28th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 4th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!
Share your new masterpiece themed sunflowers with us all and share it here with us all ... have fun!
Welcome at a delayed episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. My excuses for being this late, but today it was to hot to create a new episode. Another weather record has been broken here in The Netherlands. Today it was almost 41 degrees Celsius and that's hot for our Dutch people. It is still hot right now (23:00 hr) almost 30 degrees Celsius and I am sweating as I have never done before.
Today I have chosen a modern kigo from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku", from the section Summer, subsection plants ... today our theme is flowers. I have a nice haiku for you created by Jane and the task is to create a Troiku with it. (More on Troiku above in the menu). Here is the haiku to use for your Troiku:
depth of a flower
flying away with the bee
some mystery
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 1st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... enjoy the beauty of summer flowers.
Share your Troiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai. Have fun!
Welcome at a new episode in our wonderful Kai. I write this episode after a very hot summer day. Today we had tropical temperatures here in The Netherlands, it was almost 40 degrees Celsius, very hot for us dutch people. We survived this hot summer day without a lot of trouble. Yes we had to drank a lot of water and we had to slow down our hard working. Laid back ... was the only thing we could think of today. This high temperatures will be our companion for the next three or four days. Yes we have a heatwave. Tomorrow it will be the hottest day ever here in The Netherlands (as far as I know) 40 degrees and higher ... it will be a tough day ...
This has in a way to do with our theme for today. Today I have chosen "Beach Party" as our prompt and there were and will be a lot of beach parties the upcoming days. Your task today is to create a haibun (or tan-bun (tanka instead of haiku) with a maximum of 250 words. Maybe you have been at a beach party or maybe you will attend a beach party ...
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 31st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have a great beach party!
Share your "beach party" haibun with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai.
Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. This month we have all prompts about "Summer Love". I love summer, but at the moment I "hate" summer because here in The Netherlands we have a heatwave. It's more than 30 degrees Celsius and later this week we will have temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius. For us dutch people this is really to hot ... but we have to deal with it. That's why my wife and I are always seeking for shadow to cool down. That brings me to the prompt for today "shadow".
Today I love to challenge you to create a Troiku with a so called "fusion-haiku", that new haiku created from two given haiku ... a crossroads episode this will be. Here are the two haiku to work with:
blue autumn skies folded into mountains purple shadow
First I have to apologize for being late I had a busy day so I hadn't time earlier to create our new episode in this Summer Love month at CDHK. This will not be a long episode I only will give you the prompt to work with and your task for today.
Today I have another classical kigo for you to work with and create your haiku or tanka with. Today our prompt is "midsummer rain". Let me give you a small explanation of this classical kigo:
Midsummer rain (samidare). The Japanese says 'Fifth Month rain', based on the lunar calendar. Rather than translate 'Fifth Month' as May, since the Gregorian month is really June, we use the traditional English word for the period, which is near the summer solstice.
And now it's up to you to create a haiku or tanka with this classical kigo.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 29th at noon (CEST. I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your inspired haiku or tanka with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Welcome at a new "regular" episode in our wonderful Summer Love month here at our Haiku Kai. Today I love to challenge you to create a (or more) haiku following the classical rules as you can read in our CDHK Lecture 1 (above in the menu). For this challenge I have chosen a classical kigo, extracted from the Shiki Saijiki, "cooling on the porch (hashi-i)", it's part of the section "summer", subsection "humanity".
Cooling On The Porch (Hashi-i)
Today's classical kigo to work with is very clear I think. Isn't it a joy to cool down on the porch with a nice beer or glass of wine after a warm summer day? I for sure would enjoy that, but I don't have a porch to cool down. After a warm (or hot) summer day I enjoy the coolness of my backyard. Sometimes completely naked, but not always of course. Our backyard gives us a lot of privacy, so resting there in the nude isn't a problem.
in the mansion's backyard the breeze cherishes my naked body ah! that sweet coolness ...
Looks somewhat artificial, because I had some trouble to create this haiku in the classical way, as is the goal for today's challenge. Well ... you all know that I am not a big fan of the classical way of writing haiku. So to me this is a real "ordeal", but if I asked it of you I have to do it myself too.
If I would "redo" this one into my way of writing haiku than it would be:
Well ... I hope you all have enjoyed your weekend ... This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 28th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.
Share your classical haiku inspired on this theme with us all here at our Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to create and share Japanese poetry.
!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 21st at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. This special feature is meant to meditate and contemplate on a given challenge. For this weekend I have chosen for an episode of "Carpe Diem's Photo Shopping Haiku", that nice special feature in which I ask you to "photoshop" a given haiku. (More about this special feature you can find HERE)
For this weekend I have chosen a wonderful haiku by renown haiku poet (and my master) Matsuo Basho. I think you all will know this haiku:
kare eda ni karasu no tomarikeri aki no kure on a bare branch a crow has stopped autumn dusk
In 1689, five years before his death, Basho wrote this final version of this seminal haiku, which, according to many literary critics, ushered in modern haiku replete with its subtle yet profound power. It represented a revolutionary change from the shallow, pun-ridden, clumsy haiku of the
Danrin School that held sway at the time. In the words of R. H. Blyth, this 'crow' haiku by Basho was the watershed in "the setting up of his own, indeed, the creation of what we now call 'haiku.”
Basho's care in perfecting his crow haiku suggests that he was striving for a breakthrough nuanced innovation that he hoped would chart a new direction for haiku. Judging by the commentary of innumerable Japanese poets, scholars, and Zen practitioners who saw in this haiku a whole gamut of Japanese aesthetic principles and expression, Basho was successful.
And now it is up to you to create a "photo-shopping" haiku from it by leaving a small bit or transfer a small part for another part, other words.
This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 21st at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 28th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!
Share your "photo-shopping" haiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Today I have chsen to give you the opportunity to let your inspiration flow. Awaken your muses and create your free style haiku or tanka with the prompt "ice cold beer". Here in the Netherlands we enjoy ice cold beer in Summer when it is very warm. It gives us the refreshment we need during such a warm day ... but to much "ice cold beer" leads towards other things. Sometimes drunkenness and sometimes it will come to a hot steamy night on the beach or in the garden.
Lovely ideas will come up at this moment I think ... well go for it ... free style your haiku or tanka with the given prompt.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 25th at noon (CEST) I will try to publish our new episode, a new weekend meditation, later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your free styling haiku or tanka inspired on the given prompt and share it with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Today I have a nice challenge for you. I will give you two haiku themed "enjoyment". You have to use the both haiku to create a new "fusion" haiku. With that new haiku you have to ceate a Troiku, that nice creative poetry form (more about Troiku above in the menu). So today's challenge is a "Crossroads" feature.
Here are the two haiku (both by Jane Reichhold) to work with:
outdoor shower bathed in sun colors of hot water slipping into the pool naked divides the night sun-warmed waters
The above music video is part of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons", this part is "Summer". Just for enjoyment.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your Troiku created from your new "fusion" haiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month is themed "Summer Love" and has all to do with the love for summer in all the different ways. Today I have such a lovely summer activity for you to work with. I remember that we have had this prompt somewere back in our rich history, but that doesn't really matter.
Today I have chosen a prompt taken from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary Of Haiku", a modern saijiki, from the section Summer, subsection livelihood: Beachcomber. A beachcomber is a person who participates in the activity of beachcombing, an activity that consists of an individual "combing" (or searching) the beach and the intertidal zone, looking for things of value, interest or utility.
The task for you today is to create a Renga With Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) using the following haiku:
missing the malls on the ocean beach she gathers shells high tide the beach leaves a mark in her book afternoon wind all the beachcomber's words blown out to sea
cold beach walk on sun-warmed car seats two sweatshirts a special beach I put a pebble in my mouth before leaving smelling the light on her tanned shoulder home from the beach
The task? You may choose your own line-up, add your two-lined stanza, and make the renga complete. Enjoy this Renga With Jane Reichhold ... in honor of her.
PS.: I have also published a new episode on Tanka Splendor, see link at the right side of our Kai.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your renga created together with Jane Reichhold with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to create and share Japanese poetry.
I don't know if this prompt is "to much" for CDHK, because here at CDHK ... nudity isn't something to mention, but I think in our modern time ... skinny dipping in the moonlight ... is an accepted activity in the heat of summer. Or maybe ... I could have chosen to use "nude beach" for today, but I just liked the idea of "skinny dipping in the moonlight". So maybe ... this prompt is really "to much" for you, but ... well sometimes you have to take risks.
I love to challenge you to create your haiku or tanka themed "skinny dipping in the moonlight". It's a nice theme I think, but ... you can (ofcourse) decide to choose another theme in the same sense, like "moonlight swimming" or something.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 22nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... enjoy the moonlight swim.
Share your inspired haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend with a lot of inspiration, but most ... I hope you all have taken the time to relax like I did. This month our theme is "Summer Love", so all our prompts have to do with summer love ...
Today I have a nice theme for you ... "heat wave". Last year the Dutch summer was one long heat wave, but until today we have had a few hot days, but mostly our Dutch summer is normal for our standards ... maybe we will have a heat wave ... but well we cannot be sure of our Dutch weather.
Today's challenge is to create a Troiku (more on Troiku, you can fund above in the menu) starting from the following haiku:
after the summer heat raindrops kissing my naked body Ah! that coolness
And now ... it's up to you all my dear Haijin. Create your Troiku full of the heat of summer ... in all it's ways of existence ...
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 21st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... be inspired!
Share your Troiku with us all here at our wonderful Kai.
!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 14th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. This weekend I have chosen for a new episode of our "Carpe Diem's Utopia" feature, in which I challenge you to create classical haiku or tanka with a modern theme. This weekend the theme to use is "transportation". Let me first reproduce the introduction to this feature here again.
A Utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia. One could also say that utopia is a perfect "place" that has been designed so there are no problems.
Utopia focuses on equality in economics, government and justice, though by no means exclusively, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying based on ideology. According to Lyman Tower Sargent "there are socialist, capitalist, monarchical, democratic, anarchist, ecological, feminist, patriarchal, egalitarian, hierarchical, racist, left-wing, right-wing, reformist, Naturism/Nude Christians, free love, nuclear family, extended family, gay, lesbian and many more utopias [...] Utopianism, some argue, is essential for the improvement of the human condition. But if used wrongly, it becomes dangerous. Utopia has an inherent contradictory nature here." Sargent argues that utopia's nature is inherently contradictory, because societies are not homogenous and have desires which conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. If any two desires cannot be simultaneously satisfied, true utopia cannot be attained because in utopia all desires are satisfied.
It's a dreamworld I think, but it can be of use for our haiku writing skills, because that's the task of this new feature ... creating a utopian (excellent) haiku (or tanka) by using the classical rules as you can find above in the CD Lecture 1.
A nice task from a modern view. The haiku or tanka have to have a modern theme, but has to follow the classical rules.
Here is an example of a "utopian" haiku on "transportation":
cars without a driver moving towards their arrival point in deep silence
Not a very strong example, but I think you understand the goal.
This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 14th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 21st at noon (CEST). Have a wonderful weekend full of utopian inspiration.
Share your "utopian" haiku themed "transportation" with us all here at our wonderful Kai. Have a wonderful and awesome weekend.
Welcome at a new episode in our wonderful "Summer Love" month. This month all our prompts are some way or the other themed "Summer Love". Today I have chosen the prompt "sundown" (or sunset). I love the sunset in summer it gives me always the feeling of romance and the night coming full of love and lust.
Today's challenge is to create a so called "one-bun", a form invented by Jim Kacian. The one-bun is an ultra-short haibun which has just one line of prose (including the title) and a (one-line) haiku. I will give an example of this one-bun written by Jim himself.
The second week
traveling by myself I cross the continental divide, and everything that once ran in one way now runs in another, down and down on the surface of dark water my face
Your task today is to create a "one-bun" themed "sundown". Enjoy this challenge.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 18th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your "one-bun" themed "sundown" with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai.
Welcome at our 1700th regular episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month it's all about "Summer Love" and today I have chosen for that other part of a hot summer ... cooling down. Here are a few haiku by Basho about this:
delightfulness cooling one self in a rice paddy the sound of water a midday nap putting the feet against the wall it feels cool essential to life the little space under my hat enjoying the coolness
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 17th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!
Share your Japanese poetry inspired on the theme of today with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Time for a new episode in our "summer love" month. We all are familiar with hot summer days. Those days that make you sweat like .... But ofcourse there is also that kind of sweating while having sex with the one you love in a hot summer night. That brings us back to the "summer love".
Today I love to challenge you to create a haiku or tanka in which you describe "making love in a hot summer night" ... and please try to not use the words that are used for that pleasure of love. Try to create a scenen that tells it all, but not very clear. You have to bring it like a mystery or a fantasy.
We all know that Tanka was once meant for the cause of secret love affairs. Haiku wasn't meant for that but we have seen it here often that haiku can be a love poem ... so I would say ... "make love visible without mentioning it.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 16th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!
Share your love poem with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Welcome at a new episode in this "Summer Love" month. This month we are celebrating summer and all that belongs to the time of year. Today I have chosen to challenge you with an Imagination episode. As you all know in an imagination episode I will give you a photo for your inspiration. Ofcourse if you love to use a photo or image made by yourself than that's okay too.
Here is the photo to inspire you. You can choose your own Japanese poetry form this time ... so go for it. Create a Troiku, a haiku, a haibun or other Japanese poetry form inspired on the given (or your own) photo.
A beautiful photo I think to work with. I respect every kind of love, because it's not up to me to disrespect the choices people make.
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 15th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!!
Share your inspired Japanese poetry with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. This month it's all about "Summer Love" in the broadest sense of the word. So I hope this month will trigger you to create wonderful "summer love" poems.
The weekend is almost over and I hope you all have had a great weekend full of inspiration. I had a busy weekend, because I had to work at the nursing home for the elderly people were I am working since the start of this year after the bankrupcy of the hospital were I was working. It's still a strange feeling that a hospital can go in bankrupcy, but well I have still the work that I love ... being an oncology-nurse. At this new workplace I have the responsibility for the care for our oncology patients and I am responsible for the implementation of the oncology care. A wonderful challenge I can say, but it takes a lot of my time, but ... it gives me a lot satisfaction.
For this new regular episode I have chosen to challenge you to create a "Renga with Jane Reichhold". I have extracted six haiku from her "A Dictionary of Haiku", Summer section, to work with. I hope you all will enjoy this challenge and (of course) I hope your Renga With Jane will be a tribute for her to honor her. She is still missed dearly ...
Here are the six haiku I have chosen:
wind perfumed from a woman's shoulder desert night dancing on the beach I jab a stick into the sky to break up the blue days so complete words become the calls of birds the high tide wind
placing the flute against her lips something slips into place I'm not old all night my eyes have held the ancient stars moon white water lovers in the secret cove Saturday night
Six beautiful haiku to work with. You can chose your own "line-up", add your two lined stanza (approx. 7-7 syllables) and try to make the "chain complete". The first (hokku) and the last (ageku) haiku have to have a slight connection.
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 14th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, full of summer love, later on. For now ... have fun!!
Share your created Renga With Jane Reichhold with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. Have fun!!
!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 7th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Welcome at a new (belated) weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. This weekend I love to challenge to create a new masterpiece ... our quest continues. This weekend I love to challenge you with creating a new masterpiece that follows the classical rules. (See above in the menu CDHK Lecture 1)
Of course I will give you a theme too. This month we are creating all poems themed "Summer Love", so for your masterpiece I give you the following theme: Sun Rays.
I am looking forward to all of your wonderful (new) masterpieces.
This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 7th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until Sunday July 14th at noon (CEST). Have a wonderful weekend full of inspiration.
Share your masterpiece with us all here at our Haiku Kai. Enjoy your weekend.
Welcome at a new episode in our wonderful Haiku Kai ... Summer Love. All the themes have to do with summer and the best part of summer ... love. Today I have chosen a nice theme I think. Today I love to challenge you to create Tanka (only tanka) on Beach Love ... As you all know the summer beach is one of the places were coupl es find each other in love. Not only just love but also sex. So this is a challenge. Create a Tanka themed "Beach Love", and try to bring in that sexuality, sensuality or erotic feeling.
You know I am not a good Tanka poet, but I had to try ... to create a Tanka with our theme for today.
lying on the beach I hear the whispering surf while I dream of her memories of steaming love with sand on our buttocks
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 11th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... enjoy your Beach Love.
Share your Tanka on Beach Love with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Welcome at a new episode in this new CDHK month July 2019, about Summer Love. This time I have chosen for another nice summer theme, Ice Cream. Of course ice cream isn't specific for summer, because you can eat ice cream whole year, but in summer the ice cream gives us the coolness we need on a warm summer day.
I found a nice haiku themed "ice cream" written by S.D. Tiwari:
snow fall in belly adding lusciousness to feast vanilla ice cream
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have a taste .... of Vanilla Ice Cream.
Share your Troiku created from the given haiku with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai.
