Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Welcome at the first episode of our 8th anniversary. Carpe Diem Haiku Kai celebrates its 8th anniversary this month. I started CDHK back in 2012, just for fun and to promote haiku, the Japanese poetry form to which I am addicted since 1988.
The goal was to give visitors the possibility to create haiku (and tanka) by giving them a theme or prompt. I remember that I published my first post on the same date as today, so our celebration should start today, but ... well October 1st 2012 ... was the official start of CDHK.
streaming through the leaves
lightening my path
© Chèvrefeuille
Haiku, the shortest poem on Earth, at least as far as I know, caught me back in 1988. I never had heard about it until a fellow student told me about haiku. She gave me a Dutch book about Haiku ... I read that book several times, even that often, that the book is almost falling apart.
young moon
reflects on the pages
a touch of haiku
reflects on the pages
a touch of haiku
© Chèvrefeuille
The above image shows you the cover of that Haiku Book I told you about. It's written by the Dutch haiku poet J. van Tooren and is titled "Haiku, een jonge maan" (Haiku, a young moon).
That book was (and still is) my "bible" for haiku, next to the four books by H.G. Blyth, haiku.
Without those books I would never have started with writing haiku. Haiku ... yeah it's my poetry. That love for Haiku was the reason to start CDHK ... I had never thought that CDHK would be still online after 8 years. Awesome!
I don't have a real theme for this episode, but maybe you can write a nice festive haiku or tanka:
a new day rises
the song of birds awakening me
brings joy to my heart
© Chèvrefeuille
Celebrate this month, our 8th anniversary, with us all. Let us create a wonderful festive month ...
cherry blossoms bloom
nature's beautiful celebration -
enjoying the view
nature's beautiful celebration -
enjoying the view
© Chèvrefeuille
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 4th at 10:00 pm (CEST). Celebrate our 8th anniversary. You can add your submission by clicking on our logo hereafter.
Happy 8th anniversary Kristjaan and thank you so much for all that you do here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai to celebrate the spirit and beauty of haiku. I love J van Tooren's own writing and her insightful translations direcly from Japanese too.
ReplyDeleteLove the sunbeam haiku.
ReplyDeleteCDHK is one of the islands of light in an ocean of darkness, so I produced a celebratory haibun for this episode despite the gloom of living in a nation whose government is dominated by a bumbling fascist and his enablers.
Enjoying your posts. I've not gotten them finished in time to post but am doing so on my website.
ReplyDelete