Carpe Diem Haiku Kai: Trying to restart: Theme: Create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on a given image #0001

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Every time I try to restart isn't working at the moment. I have a very busy life, and also a lot of problems in my life e.g. with a few of my kids and grandkids, my family is the most important in my life, so that's why every restart is going wrong.

In my last post I told you all that I would restart with a daily theme on monday to friday, but it's not possible for me (at the moment) to post every workday, so I am trying this now for the weekend. My plan for now is to give you a theme every weekend to work with, mostly that will be one of my artworks to inspire you. Here is the first:

This artwork shows you a village somewhere in Italy, create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetryform inspired on this artwork.

Maybe you are familiar with painters, and their style of work. This one shows the influence of Rene Margritte.

Enjoy this challenge. 

This challenge is NOW OPEN and will remain open until next Saturday (August 19) 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your link in the linking widget hidden in our logo below. Have fun!

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a new episode: flower market

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, 

Welcome at a new, week lately than promised, episode of our wonderful haiku Kai. I promised you a week ago to start CDHK again, but ... I was to busy. So here is our new episode. The theme of this month is "summer" and I hope to inspire you with haiku from Jane Reichhold's online Saijiki.

Here is the Haiku by Jane Reichhold:

depth of a flower
flying away with the bee
some mystery

(C) Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

The goal is to create a new haiku inspired on the haiku by Jane and my artwork at the top of this post. I discovered AI Art now more than a year ago ... and I love it.

Here is my haiku inspired on the haiku by Jane and my Art:

On the flower market
A mysterious woman selling -
Her broken heart

(C) Chèvrefeuille

This episode is Now Open for your submissions. Add your haiku, tanka or other poetry form to the linking widget below.

Restarting Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It has been a very long time that I posted something in our Haiku Kai. I had a very busy time and several private issues that withold me from being creative and publishing in here. 

I hope to restart Carpe Diem Haiku Kai next month. That means I hope to start publishing on monday until friday, 5 posts a week. I miss creating and publishing for you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers and I hope you can forgive me.

As you can see above I recently started to create Art with Artificial Intelligence, I love creating with AI and I certainly will use AI-creations (by myself) in our upcoming posts.

July will be a month full of Summer kigo taken from Jane Reichholds Saijiki and I hope to publish our first post Monday July 3rd late evening on Sunday July 2nd. You can respond and add your haiku, tanka, kyoka or other Japanese poetry form in our linking widget.

For now:

finally summer
our family castle
reflects in the pond

© Chèvrefeuille, your host

Have a wonderful week and we will see eachother, hopefully, next Monday July 3rd.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1363: Summer Has Arrived

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Finally Summer has arrived at the Northern hemisphere and I am glad to find time to create a new episode in our wonderful Haiku Kai. It has been a strange time. The World is at stake and all around our wonderful planet we see still the results of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ofcourse there are several ideas according to this pandemic, but ... well that's not our business here at CDHK.

As you all know I am a healthcare worker and at the moment we have a small covid-19 outbreak again, not only our patients, but also a lot of  my co-workers are suffering from it. So that's why I had again to less time to create a new episode. I had promised you to be back soon, but I don't think I can publish an every day episode of our Haiku Kai. Forgive please.

As you can "read" in our post-logo I have chosen the theme Summer 2022, Let The Sunshine In. That theme brought this wonderful song from the musical/movie "Hair" into my mind. A wonderful song that was created back in the sixties as the so called "Flower Power" was running. I really love this song it gives me a feeling of joy. And that ... JOY ... we need!

I remember that we had a "Light Retreat" back in 2014, a period of 30 days to create haiku or tanka themed "The Joy Of Light". One of the haiku I wrote for that retreat fits this episode so well I think.

thousand orange leaves
counting my blessings every day -
I light a candle

© Chèvrefeuille (2014)

Well ... I hope I have inspired you to create haiku, tanka or another Japanese poetry form. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 13th 10:00 PM (CEST). Have fun!

You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1362; Summer Is Almost Here

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to create Haiku, Tanka or other Japanese poetry form. Today I love to challenge you to create a so called "Pi-Ku". Maybe you know that there is an international day about Pi, that mathematical phormula that is known as the Greek letter "Pi" or 3,14. That international day was on March (3rd month) 14th ... so that explains why it is called "Pi-day".

A "Pi-Ku" has three lines (as every haiku has), but you have to follow another series of syllables. A "Pi-Ku" follows the next rule:

1st line: 3 syllables
2nd line: 1 syllable
3rd line: 4 syllables

Let me give you an example from my archives (Nov 2012) inspired on the above image of Rodin's The Thinker:

the Thinker
lone
no more thoughts

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

It is not really my "cup of tea? But it looks like a nice challenge.

So for this episode the challenge is to create a "Pi-Ku" on the theme "Almost Summer". 

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Friday June 3rd 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1361: A New Month starting off

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It seems that I am not capable of continueing CDHK as I wanted last month. There is always a kind of not having time enough. So I am trying it again. This new month, May 2022, I have chosen the theme "New Horizons". In this month I hope to post new CDHK episodes with a "look into the future" idea.

We are living in a world that is "on fire", not only through the war in the Ukraine, but we are also in a world that is in an endemic called Covid-19. Everywhere on this world we have to deal with this "new" illness and it gives us the opportunity to look into a new future, but what kind of future?

As you all know there are a lot of conspiracies going on and the most important is the silent threat of what is called "The New World Order" initiated by the wealthy Elite and several other worldwide institutions like the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organisation and the European Union and maybe you know a few others.

I am not a conspiracy thinker, but I have my thoughts and concerns about it. 

For today's challenge I have chosen for a so called "Crossroads-Haiku" and a "Troiku". To give you the challenge I have chosen two nice haiku written by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016), one of our best modern haiku poets.

Here are the two haiku to work with:

the night is shortened
by your letters on the pillow
here beside me

the road before us
departing clouds bright
with a rising sun

© Jane Reichhold (extracted from: A Dictionary Of Haiku (online version))

The goal is to create a new (third) haiku from these two haiku. You can fuse the actual lines of the haiku, or create a new haiku through association on the both haiku.

With that new haiku I love to challenge you to create a Troiku (more on Troiku HERE)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will stay open until Friday May 6th 10:00 PM (CEST). Have fun! You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1360: New Life

New Life, Spring Is Here

 Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It has been a while, more than a month, that I published an episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. I really hope to change that from today on, but ... well I can't guarantee that.

As you see I have chosen a new theme for this month: New Life, Spring Is Here. Maybe a bit controversial because of all things happening in the world right now. We have the Covid-19 endemic and we have the Ukraine war. Both are not really things that we could associate with New Life, Spring Is Here, but we have to hope that there will be better times soon.
I pray every day for Unconditional Love and Peace ... and yes it's not always easy to pray for it every day again, but I have, we have to pray. We need positive energy to bring the world back to what it once was ... a place were we can live in full happiness.

Next to all this there is that bigger plan (maybe). All resonating around the globe ... are we walking into what is called the New World Order? I don't know, but everything that is happening ... sounds not okay.

As you all know we also have a haiku-place on Twitter and I really try to tweet sometimes a haiku, but everything what is happening right now in our world seems to keep me busy. So I use our twitter-account to give words to my thoughts and feelings. Sometimes in English, sometimes in Dutch.

Our twitter account was never meant for that, but it helps me to cope with the things I see and hear. There is a lot going on ... is it a positive thing or a negative thing? Again ... I don't know.

As I look at things happening in my own country, The Netherlands, I only have "anger" and "sadness". Our government is creating a totalitarian state, they even use secret surveillance on just normal people. They are following our socials, they "listen" to the critical people and if you don't tell or say what our government wants you to say ... than you are an enemy of the state and they will censure you.

A lot of my fellow dutch are speaking out, without holding back. We try to "awaken" the people that are still "sleeping" and follow only what our government wants. It brings polarisation into our community and that ... that makes me sad and angry.

The Netherlands was once an example for the world, we had a wonderful democratic country, but that ... that is all gone. Ofcourse our government tries to keeping up appearances that The Netherlands are still a democracy, but ... My gut-feeling tells me ... there is something wrong, really wrong.

The TRUTH IS OUT THERE ... and I really hope these thoughts and feelings are wrong. I really hope that it is all very different than we thought.

clouds moving
caressing the meadows
raindrops fall

© Chèvrefeuille

What are your thoughts about what is happening in the world? Will there be New Life, because Spring Is Here?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 10th 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below. Enjoy!

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1358 Clouds

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. I will try to post more regular, but it is not always possible to create a new post. We have still cases of Covid (mostly Omicron) at the health facility were I am working, Today we have two, maybe three, new cases, so we have to test a very big group next day. 

Today I have chosen to give you a haiku written by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) to inspire you. As you (maybe) know Jane has compiled a nice dictionary of haiku-kigo for our times. The "modern" kigo for today is "Clouds" and it is taken from the Winter kigo, sub-category Celestial.

The goal for today is to create a Tan Renga inspired on the given haiku by Jane. That means, you have to use the haiku by Jane and you have to create the "second" stanza of two lines with approx. 7 syllables.

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Jane, once, was a co-owner of our Haiku Kai and she taught us a lot about haiku (and other Japanese poetry forms). She is still missed and her spirit is still here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Here is the haiku to work with:

roaring down the beach
at the height of winter waves
mist clouds

© Jane Reichhold (source: A Dictionary Of Haiku, online version)

A wonderful haiku to work with I think.

You can submit your Tan Renga inspired on this haiku through the linking widget hidden in our logo below. This submission can be done until February 7th 10:00 PM (CET). Enjoy this excercise.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1857: Another try to get restarted, a meditation.

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Every time I am trying to restart our wonderful Haiku Kai there is always something else coming inbetween. So I give it a try again.

Today, January 27th 2022, I am reflecting on times coming. As we all know the world is still in a pandemic "war" with Covid-19. At this moment we see an increase of Omicron cases here in the Netherlands, but there are also a few tiny lights at the end of the tunnel. A lot of restrictions are ended, so our community is starting to come alive again, but there is still that threat of the QR-code, that eID. That threat is becoming stronger and stronger here and we, the Dutch people, are uncertain about what our Government will decide. And ofcourse it's one of the biggest discussion going on between groups of people who are positive and negative about this eID.

As we look around in our society a lot of children, teenagers, young adolecents and adults are starting to become depressed and fearfull ... we have an enormous increase of suicides and mentally illness. Covid-19 is not only a physical virus, but also a mental virus. A lot of our new generations have missed a lot during all the lockdowns in the last two years, e.g. closure of primary schools, highschools and universities. They really have missed a lot.

It's so sad to see this happening around me and it has influence on me too. It really makes me sad to see what this pandemic has done and still does ..., but I have a little hope that it will all become better ...

dark clouds gather, 

a downpour breaks loose -

ray of sunshine 

© Chèvrefeuille, your host.

I really hope this "dark time" will become better soon ... we need a new rising of light to look forward ... to have a better future for our children, teenagers, young adolescents and adults. 

I pray every day for relief and new hope and love ... and I hope our Creator will bring us a new future.

These are just my thoughts, my heart is crying, but there is sometimes a smile ... one sunbeam ... is enough.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1856: Restarting?

 Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First of all this: Happy New Year. I hope this new year, the 3rd in a global pandemic, will become a far better year than 2021.

The world is on fire. Everywhere on the Earth we see people rising up against their governments. All are up to make the world a better place than it is right now. Our world is no longer that world we know off, where we live in.

Every day again I wake up asking the same questions: What is going to happen with our wonderful world? Will the pandemic finally come to an end? Or ...

It makes me sad to see how our world is changing into one big battlefield of communities within communities, vaxxed and non-vaxxed stand up to each other. Families are ripped apart, our world is no longer a place of freedom and peace, but public ground of the wealthy few that are striving for The Great Reset. Covid-19 ... that global pandemic ... is orchestrated by just the wealthy few. And it's not from a recent date, no ... far before the WHO called out for the Covid-19 pandemic, this was already on the agenda.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory? Maybe it is, maybe it is not. I don't know. It gives me, as the germans call it "ein unheimliches gefull". 

As I read posts on several socials it gives me the chills. And again that question comes in mind: What is going on in the world.

Yesterday I posted a haiku on our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai twitter-account and I love to reproduce it here again:

A New Day Rises

a world in flames
reaching to regain freedom
a new day rises

© Chèvrefeuille, your host

In every haiku ... there can be a silent hope for a new world, a new day. Let us pray that this world fire will end soon ..

Feel free to submit your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on this blog. You can add your submission to the linking widget below.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, November 2021: Follow The Dream: #1855 "I Have A Dream", (Martin Luther King, 1963)

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. I hope you all are into another month of wonderful challenges to create Japanese Poetry. Ofcourse I hope to publish more regular than I had thought recently. 

This month I have chosen a nice theme to work with "Follow The Dream". As you all maybe know, I have always followed my dreams. Back in time I had a dream to create a fantasy novel, and I did. Once I had a dream to create a daily haiku meme and ... as you are aware of ... that dream came true too.
Do I have more dreams? Yes ofcourse. I hope to be part of a world in which Peace and Love are the most important emotions. Ofcourse I know that thought is an Utopia, but you never know what the future will bring us. Until this dream will become true ... I will dream about it.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

The most famous man who is still known after a long time who had a dream is Martin Luther King Jr. He stated "I Have A Dream" back in 1963 and was assasinated for it in 1968. He is still the man that is an example for everyone who cares ... who also dreams of Peace and Love.

He followed his dream too, but at the highest costs.

The challenge for you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers of today create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on Martin Luther King's Dream. Maybe you have dreams? Feel free to share them and if you want ... you can create a haiku or tanka inspired on your own dream.

I had and have still dreams, small dreams and large dreams, but it are all dreams. I wish that all our dreams will become true once.

As I am creating this post a quote from "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho comes in mind:

"People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them." (Source: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho)

Dreamtime
inner feelings and emotions
come alive

© Chèvrefeuille

Keep on dreaming ... without dreams we are lost ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 8th at 10:00 PM (CET). You can add your submissions to the linking widget hidden in our logo below. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1848 Harvest

 

Dear haijin, visitors and travelers,

Golden crops swaying
Sickles flash under the sun
A rewarding year

© Laila S

What a beautiful haiku. I ran into it while I was doing some research for our theme this month, Harvest. As I entered "harvest" as a search option into Google Search, and added haiku to it, there were a lot of haiku about the Harvest Moon (the full moon of September), but not that much about Harvest itself.

Harvesting crops is an activity we see at the life of farmers. It goes back to the ancient times that the harvesting took place at the end of Summer and start of Autumn to have enough to eat during Winter. Harvesting ... yeah it's a busy time for the farmers.

Oat Harvesting

In our "rich" regions, harvesting is done with machines, but in the less rich regions harvesting is done manual and will take a lot of time and hands to do the work.

harvest time
sickles flash in the sunlight -
reciting prayers

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I imagine this scene. How I wish to be part of such a scene, enjoying the sun while harvesting for winter.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 5th at 10:00 pm (cest). You can add your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form to the linking widget hiding in our CDHK logo here below.

Carpe Diem Extra - July 31st 2021 - August 2021 will be our return.

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Again I broke my promise to publish here again. We have another Covid-19 outbreak here, that Delta Mutation, and that gives us healthcare workers a lot of work, but ... I miss creating posts for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, so I am going to give it a try again, notwithstanding the busy times at work.

Next Sunday August will start. Here in The Netherlands we call that month  Harvest Month, so it has to do with the agriculture business here. So I choose the theme "Harvest" for August. I don't have a list of "kigo" for this month, but I will try to give every day (except in the weekends) a post with a connection to our month theme "Harvest".

I created the above logo for this "Harvest" month, August 2021. I will publish our first post for August right now.

Here is one "harvest-haiku" from my archives:

at dawn
farmers harvesting their fields -
overcoming winter

© Chèvrefeuille (2018)

Well ... I hope to see you all again here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and I hope that I can hold my promise this time.

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Carpe Diem #1847 Renga With Jane Reichhold +++ Dancing Lights (Renga: Juunichoo)

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Well ... I am getting the vibe again and I hope you all will have fun and joy again here at our wonderfull Haiku Kai. Earlier today I published our first episode for July 2021 and I hope to be here every day again, except de weekends.

Today I was reading in one of Jane Reichhold's Poetry Collections and immediately thought "It's Time Again For A Renga With Jane". So I took a dive into her wonderful dictionary of haiku and extracted a nice series of haiku from "Summer", "Celestial". I gathered six (6) beautiful haiku about clouds to challenge you all with.

Renga, or chained poem, is a nice way of collaborate poetry. The goal is to add your six(6) two lined strofes to the given haiku written by Jane through association.

I will give you six(6) haiku, you can decide which haiku you use to start with, the hokku. Remember that the goal of a renga is to create a "closed circle" of haiku, so the ageku (closing verse) has to be related to the first haiku you used.

Here are the six (6) haiku by Jane Reichhold:

beach tent billows
in the summer blue
white clouds

desert sounds
out of the sun's way
clouds moving

morning downpour
raised to new heights
afternoon clouds

dancing lights
clouds sprinkle the sun
across water

clouds
colored by open wall
a driftwood lair

curving with the land
a rainbow of clouds
moves out to sea

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

By adding your two-lined strofes you create a so called "Juunichoo", a 12 verse renga.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 9th at 10:00 pm (CEST). You can add your Juunichoo, your Renga with Jane, to the linking widget hidden in our logo below. Enjoy!

Carpe Diem #1846 Trying to restart again

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Haiku Kai. This time I hope really to restart our Haiku Kai by posting on weekdays.

For this episode I have chosen the title "Trying To Restart Again" and I really hope it will be that way. Restarting is something we all know or have had experiences with I think. For example: After the bankrupcy of the hospital were I was working I had to restart at a new facility of healthcare. It took some time to adjust to that new workplace, but now (2,5 years further) I have adjusted and I even could change several things in the policy of the facility.

Or ... after the death of my mom I had to adjust to a new kind of living. That took more of my time, because I am the only one left now of my family, say "an orphan" now. Ofcourse I have my own family together with my wife and children, but the family in which I grew up isn't no longer there.

Two examples of restarting your life. That's the idea behind this theme for today's episode.

a new day rises
birds praising their Creator -
the cry of a baby

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 9th at 10:00 pm (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem #1845 Troiku Challenge: Summertime

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Sorry it didn't go very well. I had hoped to post every day again, but don't have time enough. So today I decided to create you a new Troiku Challenge. More about Troiku you can find in the menu above.

I have chosen the theme Summertime for this Troiku Challenge, because here in The Netherlands we have a very warm, say hot, time with temperatures rising above 30 degrees Celsius, so yes it is Summertime here.

Summertime: Sun bathing, warm weather, heatwave, beaches and more to associate with Summertime. But for this episode it's just a haiku written by me, your host, to work with.

at the seashore

wind of summer through my hair

the shortest night

© Chèvrefeuille

The shortest night will be this weekend, than summer really starts on the Northern Hemisphere.

I think this haiku is great to create a Troiku with. Enjoy my dear Haijin.

This Troiku Challenge will be open until June 23rd 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget below, hidden in our logo.

Carpe Diem #1844 Returning Back To Normal (I Hope)

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Long time no see. yes I know the Covid pandemic made me decide to set our wonderful Haiku Kai on hold, but now ... 

Here in The Netherlands slowly we return to a normal life. Covid seems to be going away slowly and finally we can go to a pub or restaurant again. 

It has been a strange time and a tough time for me (and a lot of other healthcare workers), but now I think I can create our Haiku Kai again and I hope you all will be with me again.

Today, June 7th, I hope to start again with my daily posts, except the weekends. No special theme this month just trying to bring back the happiness of creating Haiku. So today ... we are going on a quest for a (new) Masterpiece.

Maybe you remember this feature, maybe not, but the goal is to create an all (new) Masterpiece, as for ecxample that world famous haiku by Matsuo Basho, the frogpond.

Today I love to share the above haiku with you all to inspire you. I think it fits our theme for today "Returning Back To Normal". Isn't that the goal of a pilgrimage? To find your way back to your Inner Self?

Enjoy the quest for a new masterpiece!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 12th 10:00 PM (CEST). Have fun! Add your link to the linking widget below in our Logo.

Carpe Diem #1843 Troiku Challenge 1: Mist Clouds

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It has been a while that I posted here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, but that had to do with being very busy in health and because of circumstances in my family. Now I am trying to "re-start" our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like Japanese Poetry forms such as Haiku and Tanka.

To "restart" I have chosen to first publish only once a week. Mostly that will be on Wednesday, but it can be that I post on another day.

As you noticed ... today I introduce to you all a new feature titled "Carpe Diem Troiku Challenge". As you all know several years ago I invented this new creative way of writing haiku. Troiku comes from two words "troika" and "haiku".

The Troika is a Russian sledge pulled by three horses and a haiku has three lines. The goal is to create a Troiku, that means you have to create a new haiku with every separated line of the haiku. So you start with a haiku as the "sledge", with every line you create a new haiku, that means three haiku "the horses". More about this creative way of haiku-ing you can find above in the menu.

For this first episode of our new feature Carpe Diem Troiku Challenge I will give you a haiku to work with. In other words "I give you the sledge" and you have to create the "horses". I have chosen a beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold.

roaring down the beach
at the height of winter waves
mist clouds

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Your task is: Create a Troiku with this haiku ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Tuesday February 9th at 10:00 PM (CET). Have fun!

You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem #1842 End Of Year

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

The year 2020 is almost over. What a year it was. The pandemic, corona, and the tough times healthcare had (and still has). Even here at our wonderful Haiku Kai, we have had our lockdown and, how sorry I am for it, we still have that lockdown here at CDHK.

As you all know I am an oncology nurse and covid-19 takes all my energy and now it is even more worse, because my Mom has Covid-19 too. She is almost 91 and I am worried about her. As you (maybe) know, my Mom lives in a nursing home for the elderly, because of her dementia, and she lives in the nursing home were I am working myself.

In our nursing home we have a very big covid-19 outbreak and that makes that I really don't know how and when I can start posting our daily posts again.

It makes me sad, but ... well it is out of my hands, I cannot control what is happening at the moment in the world and in my personal life.

If I look back ... than 2020 is a year we will always remember as the "corona-year" and as I look at myself, 2020 will be a year full of loss. At the nursing home we have lost a lot of our patients to Covid-19 and a lot of my co-workers, are suffering of Covid-19 too. We just have to do our work with almost one third less co-workers. So it is tough, very tough.

I really hope that 2021 will be a year in which we all can return to a (more) normal life without Covid-19. I really hope that you all, my dear Haijin, are okay and in good health. Take care my dear Haijin ... take care.

I wish you all a wonderful new year and I hope that 2021 will bring us joy again.

In classical Japan (following the Lunar calender) there was a fifth season ''New Year", and this season was from approximately 20 december 'til 20 January. I have a few haiku which have been written for this season:

the Great Morning:
winds of long ago
blow through the pine trees

© Onitsura

The Great Morning is the morning of New Year's Day.

for this New Year's Day
the sight we gaze upon shall be
Mount Fuji

© Sokan

And a last one:

the first sunrise
there is a cloud
like a cloud in a picture

© Shusai

All wonderful haiku on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

And here are a few haiku by Issa and Basho:

my shadow too
in good health...
"Happy New Year!"

New Year's gift of tea--
where did you go
on your journey back to me?

© Issa

Both are wonderful "new year" haiku. Let me look at a few haiku by Basho on New Year:

has spring already come?
I feel wealthy this New Year
with five sho of old rice

New Year's Day
I feel lonely just like
an autumn evening

And what do you think of this one by Yozakura, the Wandering Spirit?

nothing changes
every day will be the same
this new year

A wonderful series of haiku about New Year's Eve of New Year's Day. Let those haiku inspire you:

after New Year's Eve
life hasn't changed a bit -
another year gone

listen! listen!
the sweet silence
the day after

New Year's Eve
fireworks enlightens the sky -
bad ghosts flee

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you enjoyed this episode of our Haiku Kai. And I hope you are inspired to create your own haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 7th at 10:00 PM (CET). Enjoy your New Year's Eve and I hope that 2021 will bring us more joy ...
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