Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #102 Renga With Basho ... ancient times

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a some what belated weekend meditation. I had other important things to do, so my apologies for being late with this weekend meditation. I hope your weekend started with a wonderful day ... here it was an awesome start of the weekend, because it's my first vacation day. The sun shines bright and we have a nice temperature ... a kind of Indian Summer feeling I should say.

This weekend I have chosen to challenge you (again) to create a Renga With Basho. I will give you a series of haiku by Basho to work with. You can decide which "line-up" you will follow, and add your two lined stanza towards the renga. It's a wonderful opportunity to create a renga with Basho, my sensei.

Here are the six haiku to work with (all translated by Jane Reichhold and taken from "Basho, The Complete Haiku"):

flood waters
stars too will go to sleep
on top of a rock

still summer
the harvest moon too hot
to enjoy the coolness

Japanese Morning Glory

morning glories
in the daytime a lock lowered
on the gate

chrysanthemum flowers
bloom at the stonemason's
between stones

warriors
the bitterness of pickles
in the talk

plum blossom scent
since ancient times the word
has been sorrowful

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Six beautiful haiku by the master of masters, Matsuo Basho, I hope you can create a wonderful Renga With Basho.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 22nd at noon (CEST). Enjoy your weekend.

Carpe Diem #1519 Junicho, the twelve stanza renga (Soliloquy No Renga)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy this month is. It's really a feast this month and that makes me happy. I hope you all like the choice of prompts I have made. Today we have arrived at the letter J and I have chosen the theme "Junicho" and for sure you have heard from Junicho, because that's the kind of renga we are creating in our "Renga With ..." feature, but there is something about the Junicho I didn't know. So therefore I have chosen this theme. Let me give you an explanation of the Junicho.

Junicho--meaning ‘twelve tone’--is a ‘single sheet’ poem that disregards the formal separations of the jo-ha-kyu movement. There is no set seasonal progression, though each season is represented and the poem would be expected to open with the season in which composition takes place. Spring and autumn carry their traditional greater weight, the poem overall dividing more or less equally between season and non-season verses. The typical distribution therefore is: winter - one, summer - one, spring - two, autumn - two, and non-season - six.

cherry blossom road

The Junicho allows for a single blossom verse; this may appear in any season and be any type of flower. The poem will likewise contain a single moon verse that may also appear in any season and be otherwise shorn of classical precedent. 'Love' will be represented by a pair or so of verses that may appear in any position.

Source: Simply Haiku (online haiku magazine)

So for this episode I challenge you to create a Junicho on your own following the above mentioned pattern. As you can read above a traditional Junicho opens with the season in which composition takes place. So if you are living on the Northern Hemisphere, your Junicho has to start with an autumn verse. Are you living on the Southern Hemisphere, your Junicho has to start with a spring verse.

Enjoy rhis challenge!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 17th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!