Carpe Diem #1751 Lough Derg, Donegal (Ireland)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month we are following our spiritual path through walking several different pilgrim's routes around the world. Yesterday we were in Peru and today we are back in Europe, in Ireland. Ireland, that beautiful small country next to the UK. Ireland is known for it's deep mystic history ... but there are also several pilgrim's routes in Ireland. Just like in Australia, these pilgrim's routes are young.

In 2013 a group of people started to create pilgrim's routes through Ireland and one of those routes we will walk today ... Lough Derg, Donegal. Let me tell you a little bit more about this pilgrimage.

The Lough Derg pilgrimage route from  Station Island Visitor Centre to Saints Island, Co. Donegal is a timeless pilgrim route that is far removed from roads, houses and other signs of modern day living. It has many echoes of its early Christian past along the 12 Km (7 miles) long path. The old pilgrimage road to Lough Derg follows in the footsteps of the medieval pilgrims — not to Station Island where pilgrims normally go today, but to the threshold of the larger Saints Island, which acted as its gateway several hundred years ago. The focus of the legendary St Patrick’s Purgatory, Station Island, was a deep pit in which those who spent a day and a night would allegedly be purged of their sins, experiencing both the torments of the damned and the delights of the blessed. The walk starts at the visitor centre near the pier where boats bring pilgrims across to Station Island. Information about the pilgrimage may be obtained at the centre.

Lough Derg, Donegal

At about 1.15km, there is a wooden fingerpost pointing down to the right along a stepped path to St Brigid’s Chair, a naturally weathered boulder of banded gneiss. A little further along the route, another sign points to St Daveoc’s Chair. Associated with a local hermit, the ‘chair’ is partially natural, but seems to have had one or two large blocks added to it, hinting that it may once have been a Bronze Age burial place. This is the point where the modern route joins the old pilgrimage road that would have brought the medieval pilgrims from Templecarne.

At 1.75km, a fingerpost points down to St Brigid’s Well, marked by a modern metal cross which is festooned — like the bush above it — with pilgrims’ votive rags. The goal of the pilgrimage is the edge of the lake opposite Saints Island where one can still see the stones that formed the foundation of the wooden bridge that would have brought medieval pilgrims across to Station Island. The path continues full circle to the visitor centre where the walk began.

deep silence
heart and soul bound together
Lough Derg

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like this small pilgrimage ... and I hope it will inspire you to create Japanese poetry. This "an act of devotion" month is running towards its end ... soon we will celebrate our 7th birthday and I hope you all will celebrate this anniversary with me.

By the way, as I told you last week, next Wednesday we will not have a regular episode, because of the fact that I am celebrating my summer vacation.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 30th at noon (CEST). I will publish our next episode (for Thursday) later on. For now ... be inspired and have fun!

Carpe Diem #1500 Where the rivers flow, Irish folkmusic

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend and that our new weekend-meditation has awakened your muses. I had a good weekend, for the biggest part by the way in my bed, because I am on the nightshift.
I have tried to catch up with commenting, but didn't catch up with the Summer Retreat, maybe that I will do this night or this week.

Before the weekend started we visited Afghanistan and now we are traveling back to Europe, to be precise ... we are traveling to Ireland. In my salutation I use "travelers" every day and it happens to be that travelers, a kind of gypsies, are original from Ireland, so maybe they influenced the traditional folkmusic of Ireland too. This is by the way our 1500th regular episode here at CDHK. Another nice milestone I would say.

Irish Music Group

Let me tell you a little bit more about traditional Irish folkmusic. Of course I have used the online source of knowledge at Wikipedia, partially re-written or shortend.

Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland.

In A History of Irish Music (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there were at least ten instruments in general use. These were the cruit (a small harp) and clairseach (a bigger harp with typically 30 strings), the timpan (a small string instrument played with a bow or plectrum), the feadan (a fife), the buinne (an oboe or flute), the guthbuinne (a bassoon-type horn), the bennbuabhal and corn (hornpipes), the cuislenna (bagpipes), the stoc and sturgan (clarions or trumpets), and the cnamha (castanets). There is also evidence of the fiddle being used in the 8th century.

There are several collections of Irish folk music from the 18th century, but it was not until the 19th century that ballad printers became established in Dublin. Though solo performance is preferred in the folk tradition, bands or at least small ensembles have probably been a part of Irish music since at least the mid-19th century, although this is a point of much contention among ethnomusicologists.

Irish traditional music has endured more strongly against the forces of cinema, radio and the mass media than the indigenous folk music of most European countries. This was possibly because the country was not a geographical battleground in either of the two world wars. Another potential factor was that the economy was largely agricultural, where oral tradition usually thrives. From the end of the second world war until the late fifties folk music was held in low regard. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (an Irish traditional music association) and the popularity of the Fleadh Cheoil (music festival) helped lead the revival of the music. The English Folk music scene also encouraged and gave self-confidence to many Irish musicians. Following the success of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem in the USA in 1959, Irish folk music became fashionable again. The lush sentimental style of singers such as Delia Murphy was replaced by guitar-driven male groups such as The Dubliners. Irish showbands presented a mixture of pop music and folk dance tunes, though these died out during the seventies. The international success of The Chieftains and subsequent musicians and groups has made Irish folk music a global brand.

 

Historically much old-time music of the USA grew out of the music of Ireland, England and Scotland, as a result of cultural diffusion.

 

I love this kind of music it makes me happy.

pot of gold
not at the end of the Rainbow
lucky music

(C) Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I am late with publishing, but I hadn't enough time to create an episode. So this episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 26th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1287 Ireland

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First my apologies for being late with publishing. I had a very busy day at work ... so I first had to recover from that before I could start creating this new episode of our luster month October 2017.
As you all know Basho was a traveling haiku poet and we have wandered along the paths he went, but we also wandered through Europe. Back in the summer of 2016 I had our first Ginko, or "haiku-walk". We visited several European countries to find inspiration in the beauty of those countries. Today's "memory lane" trip is back to that ginko. We visited Ireland (June 19th, 2016) and it was a joy to find haiku poets in that wonderful country.

Ireland

high above the waters
a bird's nest destroyed -
a rough sea

© Chèvrefeuille

Ireland is a very spiritual and mystical country. I think you all know Stonehenge ... in Ireland you can find similar stone circles ... one of them, Drombeg Stone Circle, County Cork, is such a stone circle. As excavations prove it was certainly used for religious ideas. It is proven that the stones are aligned on the Winter Solstice.

Dromberg Stone Circle

greener than green

everywhere I look, as far as I can see,

greener than green

© Chèvrefeuille

I couldn't come up with a new haiku, so I reproduced a few haiku from the original post back in June 2016.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 30th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, abalone shells, later on. Have fun! 

PS. I have created a CDHK Forum, you can find the link at the right of our Kai.

Carpe Diem #980 Ireland

Dear haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you could have read yesterday (or early this morning) I had a major PC crash, so I couldn't publish on yesterday. So today I will give you two (regular) episodes. The new episode of our special feature Utabukuro will not be published.

First we will go on with our Europe Ginko Today we visit Ireland, a member of the EU since 1973. Ireland extends over an area of about fivesixths (70,273 km2 or 27,133 sq mi) of the island of Ireland(84,421 km2 or 32,595 sq mi), with Northern Ireland constituting the remainder. The island is
bounded to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the northeast by the North Channel. To
the east, the Irish Sea connects to the Atlantic Ocean via St George's Channel and the Celtic Sea to
the southwest.

The western landscape mostly consists of rugged cliffs, hills and mountains. The central lowlands areextensively covered with glacial deposits of clay and sand, as well as significant areas of bogland andseveral lakes. The highest point is Carrauntoohil (1,038 m or 3,406 ft), located in the
Macgillycuddy's Reeks mountain range in the southwest. The River Shannon, which traverses the
central lowlands, is the longest river in Ireland at 386 kilometres or 240 miles in length. The west
coast is more rugged than the east, with numerous islands, peninsulas, headlands and bays.

Flag of Ireland

Before the arrival of the first settlers in Ireland about 9,000 years ago, the land was largely covered 

by forests of oak, ash, elm, hazel, yew, and other native trees. The growth of blanket bog and the
extensive clearing of woodland to facilitate farming are believed to be the main causes of
deforestation during the following centuries. Today, about 12% of Ireland is forested, of which a
significant majority is composed of mainly nonnative coniferous plantations for commercial use. Ideal soil conditions, high rainfall and a mild climate give Ireland the highest growth rates for forests in
Europe. Hedgerows, which are traditionally used to define land boundaries, are an important
substitute for woodland habitat, providing refuge for native wild flora and a wide range of insect,
bird and mammal species.

As said above, Ireland is a very green country and its nature is really wonderful. I love to share a few images of the beauty of Ireland here and of course I will try to create haiku towards the images too.

Ireland (countryside)

high above the waters
a bird's nest destroyed -
a rough sea

© Chèvrefeuille

Ireland is a very spiritual and mystical country. I think you all know Stonehenge ... in Ireland you can find similar stone circles ... one of them, Drombeg Stone Circle, County Cork, is such a stone circle. As excavations prove it was certainly used for religious ideas. It is proven that the stones are aligned on the Winter Solstice.

Drombeg Stone Circle, County Cork, Ireland

hidden in the mist
circle of megalithic stones
winter solstice

© Chèvrefeuille

Ireland ... a wonderful country rooted in the Celtic Culture, but also the country with the wonderful landscapes. You can see long distance and the green beauty, which the Irish are very proud on. 

Ireland amazing landscape green nature.

greener than green
everywhere I look, as far as I can see,
greener than green

© Chèvrefeuille

Awesome country. Will there be haiku poets in this beautiful and green country of the Irish?

The first Irish poet to write haiku as we know them was Juanita Casey. A traveling woman born in
England of Irish parents. She started composing haiku in late 1960s, and a few of them appeared in
her 1968 collection titled Horse by the River (1968), followed by a few more that found their way to her 1985 collection, Eternity Smith. Just one example: 

The pickers
have left one plum...
hey, wind

Plum

Patrick Kavanagh wrote, around 1969-1970, single  haiku,  evidently  not  even  suspecting  that  it was a haiku – and a worthy one ! This piece appeared in The Lace Curtain magazine in 1971. We restore here the original version of 

the poem that was slightly altered in the magazine, so the first line became the title.

Corn-crake
a cry in the wilderness
of meadow

Seamus Heaney also tried his hand at haiku writing. The following piece, in a slightly different
version, appeared in his 1991 collection titled Seeing Things:

Dangerous pavements…
But this year I face the ice
with my father’s stick

In 1985, Michael Hartnett published his collection titled Inchicore Haiku. It comprised 87 haiku and senryu written according to the 5-7-5 format, and was the first collection of haiku and senryu by an Irish poet, so Hartnett can be regarded as a trailblazer. The poet Mark Lonergan in his essay that
appeared in Shamrock No 15 asserted that “Inchicore Haiku can’t serve as a model for a modern-day haiku writer. Only one of these poems passes the time’s test and stands up as a perfect haiku, if a 5-7-5 English-language haiku can be perfect.” He clearly refers to the following piece:

In a green spring field
a brown pony stands asleep
shod with daffodils

Daffodils

In 2006 the Irish Haiku Society was founded. Here are a few other examples of Irish haiku:

maidin ghlas -
lilí ina chéile
go tláith

chilly morning -
lilies gently
in each other

© Gabriel Rosenstock (an Irish haiku poet who writes mostly in Irish)

miotas is ea an t-am -
sliabh
sa loch

time is a myth -
a mountain
in a lake

© Gabriel Rosenstock

Well ... I hope you did like this episode about Ireland and that I have inspired you all.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 24th at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode immediately hereafter, that will be our third CD Special of this month by Joyce Lorenson.