Carpe Diem #791 Karnak

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

My interview for a new job as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner Oncology has gone great. Next to me there were three other nurses who did apply for this new job. So I have a chance of 1 : 4 (25%) to get the job. Of course I hope to the one they choose, but that's not up to me. I have given my best performance and it felt great .... so keep your fingers crossed. I will hear more after the weekend ... very exciting. Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts ... I really hope to tell you all after the weekend if I have the job.

Ok ... back to our journey over The Nile. We are sailing towards Karnak, The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak, comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings. Building at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic period, although most of the extant buildings date from the New Kingdom. The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places") and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes. The Karnak complex gives its name to the nearby, and partly surrounded, modern village of El-Karnak, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 miles) north of Luxor. (Source: Wikipedia)

Credits: Karnak

This temple complex holds the Sacred Lake of Precinct of Amun-Re, that's by the way what you see on our CDHK logo this month. Karnak was a "dynamic" temple complex, because several pharaohs built their temples there. As for example Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) did in the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. Akhenaten was the pharaoh from whom there is not much recovered, because of his "revolte" against the priests of Egypt (the most powerful group of Egyptians in ancient Egypt) who were polytheistic and Akhenaten introduced monotheism with his religion of The Aten (or Aton), the only god to worship, the Sun, to Egypt. There are even scientists who say that Akhenaten created this Atenism, to become the only and most powerful ruler of Egypt, because he saw his self as The Sun. Other scientists says that Akhenaten created his religion from the example of Judaism, the religion of Israel.
Because of the powerful (polytheistic) priests, Akhenaten built his temple for the sun in a place known as Amarna (or El-Amarna) about 400 km North of Luxor. After Akhenaten's death Amarna and it's complexes were destroyed as was the part of Karnak built by him.
Akhenaten (and his monotheistic religion Atenism) by the way was my model for creating a religion in my first fantasy novel which was published in 2007.

only the sun
high above Karnak
seems to know

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but I think it's a haiku in which is described in just a few words what I wrote above.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 10th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Akhenaten, later on. For now .... have fun!

!! PS. There will be no Tan Renga episode this week !!

Carpe Diem #790 The Great Pyramid of Giza

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First this: You cannot register anymore for our first Renga Party. I will start with preparing the list of participants in this Renga Party I hope to have it ready tomorrow.

It's my pleasure to welcome you at a new episode of our daily haiku meme Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This month we are traveling over The Nile in our papyrus boat with full sails. We are following The Nile to its source, hidden in secrets.
Today we are visiting The Great Pyramid of Giza, better known as the Pyramid of Khufu or Cheops. Its one of the seven ancient world wonders and in a way this episode is a reprise. Back in the history of CDHK we visited the seven ancient world wonders and earlier this we revisited another one of the seven ancient world wonders, The Lighthouse of Alexandria were our journey started.
There are a lot of theories about the Great Pyramid you will all know at least one of them I think. There were scientist who said that the Pyramids are build by aliens and not by humans. There are others who said it was build by the Israeli people while they lived in Egypt during the time of Moses. Others have looked at the Pyramids with a mathematical eye and that made me happy, because from the mathematical way of looking to the Pyramids it occurs that the Pyramids are following the Fibonacci sequence.

The Great Pyramid isn't just one pyramid, but three pyramids who all are perfectly aligned with the stars of the Belt of Orion. Those ancient architects were very clever and more than wise, because of this fact. Isn't it awesome that a long way back in history it was possible to create such big pieces of art as the Great Pyramid?

Credits: Great Pyramid at Giza

In that earlier prompt "Pyramid of Giza" I remember that I wrote the following haiku:

highway to the gods
pharaohs trip to eternity -
Leo shines above

© Chèvrefeuille

A nice one I think, but for this new episode, this "reprise" of the Great Pyramid of Giza I love to challenge you to write a so called "Fibo-ku". In that special haiku form, which I created last year (2014), you have to follow the Fibonacci sequence in your haiku, as follows:

1st line 1 syllable; 2nd line 1 syllable; 3rd line  2 syllables; 4th line 3 syllables and so on as is the Fibonacci sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 and so on.

Here is an example of such a "Fibo-ku":

sun
moon
star light
the breeze
this summer morning
birds singing their beautiful songs -
young sparrows playing hide and seek in the dry sand of the garden

© Chèvrefeuille

But ... that's just the challenge. If you like to write a haiku or tanka in response on this episode than that's also ok ... it's up to you. Our episodes (and the given prompts) are for inspiring you.

secrets
hidden inside
now outside

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 8th at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, our 2nd CD Special featuring Lolly, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem's Kamishibai #2

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to publish another episode of Carpe Diem's Kamishibai, the place of story-telling and writing haibun. In the last weeks I have written a lot of haibun-like posts for our Tarot-Journey and I enjoyed it very much.

Kamishibai (紙芝居), literally "paper drama", is a form of storytelling that originated in Japanese Buddhist temples in the 12th century, where monks used emakimono (picture scrolls) to convey stories with moral lessons to a mostly illiterate audience. 

Kamishibai endured as a storytelling method for centuries, but is perhaps best known for its revival in the 1920s through the 1950s. The gaito kamishibaiya, or kamishibai storyteller, rode from village to village on a bicycle equipped with a small stage. On arrival, the storyteller used two wooden clappers, called hyoshigi, to announce his arrival. Children who bought candy from the storyteller got the best seats in front of the stage. Once an audience assembled, the storyteller told several stories using a set of illustrated boards, inserted into the stage and withdrawn one by one as the story was told. The stories were often serials and new episodes were told on each visit to the village.

For this episode of Carpe Diem's Kamishibai I have chosen a wonderful photograph to use for your inspiration to write a haibun. So I challenge you all to write a haibun inspired on the photograph.

Well ... let it happen, let your inspiration flow and write your haibun inspired on this wonderful Ancient Magic Egypthian Art-work.