Carpe Diem Special #44, Kikusha-Ni's "the dusk in rain"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

The end of this Carpe Diem month is almost in sight. We had wonderful kigo on ehich you all have written wonderful haiku. I launched a few new features and they were all very welcomed by you all. The Tan Renga and the Kasen Renga are great and I am looking forward to the result of our first Kasen Renga. The Kasen Renga is still on 'till July 22th and at this moment we are almost halfway with the Kasen Renga. It all looks wonderful.
As you maybe have seen ... the prompt-list for July is already online and I have already found a few wonderful haiku by Jane Reichhold which we will us for the Carpe Diem Specials of July, but ... today we have our last Special of this month. Another beautiful haiku written by Kikusha-Ni. Kikusha-Ni hasn't written a lot in her lifetime, but the haiku which she wrote are all very special.

Credits: Haiga "the dusk in rain"

my body all alone
in this autumn I feel -
the dusk in rain

(c) Kikusha-Ni

A wonderful haiku I think, very sad and in balance ... Kikusha-Ni wasn't all alone, but found her rest in her monastery to meditate and contemplate. This haiku gives me a feeling of deep loneliness, but also a feeling of joy. It's joy lays in the intens feeling of loneliness and the beauty of a rainy dusk in autumn. Feeling deeply alone and one with nature. So my inspired haiku has to have that intens feeling too, but will I succeed? We will see.


the sound of raindrops
on the skylight window of my loft -
the crackling fire


the crackling fire
makes my loneliness stronger -
the sound of raindrops


I like it ... I can feel the same loneliness as in the one by Kikusha-Ni ... nicely crafted haiku I think. What do you think?

Well ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku inspired on the one by Kikusha-Ni with Carpe Diem. This prompt will stay on 'til June 29th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will publish our next episode, himawari (sunflower) & yuuga (moonflower), later on today. !! The Linking Widget for this Special will be open at 8.00 PM (CET) for submissions !!

Carpe Diem Special #43, "the cool of the wind" by Kikusha-Ni

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy it is to prepare all the posts for Carpe Diem and I like how you all are participating in this daily haiku meme You all share such wonderful haiku with us here on Carpe Diem.
Today another nice haiku written by Kikusha-Ni. She is one of the most wellknown classical female haiku poets I know, but she hasn't written a lot of haiku. As I was preparing this episode I sought on the Internet for haiku written by her and I could only find 20-30 haiku written by Kikusha-Ni. So I haven't a brought range of haiku to choose from, but I succeeded I think with this haiku written by her:

there is nothing
like the cool of the wind in this place
blowing down from Mt. Fuyi

Credits: Mt. Fuyi

Mount Fuyi, the Holy Mountain of Japan, in a lot of haiku written by classical and modern haiku poets Fuyi plays the lead. So I was inspired by Mt. Fuyi and I hope my haiku is in the same sense, tone and Spirit as the one by Kikusha-Ni

framed in silence 

cherry blossom embraces Mt Fuyi
even more quiet

Awesome! I like this haiku. Is it in the same sense and tone as the one by Kikusha-Ni? I think so.

This Special will stay on 'til June 23th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode, Aota (Green paddy), later on today around 9.00 PM (CET). !! The Linking Widget for this Special will open at 8.00 PM (CET) !! 

Carpe Diem Special #42, Kikusha-Ni's 'Morning Glory'

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today, on Fathers Day, I love to share a new haiku written by our haiku poetess for this month of Carpe Diem, Kikusha-Ni. She was a contemporary of Chiyo-Ni. As you all (maybe) know Chiyo-Ni wrote a lot of haiku about Morning Glories. Therefore I love to share a 'Morning Glory'-haiku by Kikusha-Ni.

morning glories
in the evening, they let us
admire their buds


(I couldn't retrieve the Romaji translation).

Credits: Pink Morning Glory

As I was preparing this Special episode I realized that it is Fathers Day today (June 16th) so I became inspired to write a haiku in the same sense, tone and Spirit as the one by Kikusha-Ni, but with a reference to Fathers Day.

granddad's grave
overgrown with Morning Glories -
tears in my eyes


Another one:

shadows disappear
Pink Morning Glories open their buds
for only one day


This Special prompt will stay on 'til June 17th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode, Hasu (Lotus), later on today around 8.00 PM (CET). By the way the linking widget opens at 9.00 PM (CET).

Carpe Diem Special #41, Kikusha-Ni's 'lost in the woods'.

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to share another nice haiku written by our Special haiku poetess Kikusha-Ni. This is our second Special for this month, so I hope this one will inspire you all as did the first Special of this month. I have read wonderful haiku and I am glad that I can and may be your host. It's a honor to be your host.

For this haiku I couldn't retrieve the Romaji translation, so I share the English version only:

lost in the woods

only the sound of a leaf

falling on my hat

What do I see, experience in this haiku? I experience loneliness and the joy of being one with nature. Just the sound of a leaf falling on my hat, a sign for the ending of life, could this one be her 'death poem' (or Jisei)? It could be, but I can't tell you that. My sources aren't that broad that I could find more about Kikusha-Ni.

Well ... now it's up to you ... write a haiku in the same sense, tone and Spirit as the one by Kikusha-Ni. Not an easy challenge this time I think, but well ... you all can do it ... for sure.


in the cobweb
rustling in the Autumn breeze
one colorful leaf


That was my attempt to write in the same sense, tone and Spirit as Kikusha-Ni.

This prompt will stay on 'til June 11th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode, the start of our mid-summer kigo, Suzushi (Cool), later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). So see you later.

Namaste

Carpe Diem Special #40, Kikusha-Ni's 'in the teabowl'

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

When we read haiku, we realise that haiku is a way of living. It offers itself to mankind, not as a substitute for Christianity or Buddhism, but as their fulfilment. It is 'Love one another' applied to all things without exception. And this 'love' is not that impossible love of repulsive and odious things, but something far deeper, an entering into the life of fish and reptile and bacteria through that very emotion of aversion. It is:

"Arouse the mind, without attachment to anything".

Haiku at first sight may seem rather slight or thin. This is partly because they avoid any parade of depth, and indeed mask their profundity under a characteristic humour or apparent simplicity; it is partly because of insufficient cooperation by the reader.
The brevity of haiku is not somethging different from, but a part of the poetical life; it is not only a form of expression but a mode of living more immediately, more closely to life.

Kikusha's parents

Today our first Special haiku written by Kikusha-Ni, (this means 'Hut of the Chrysanthemums'), a nun of the Shen sect of Pure Land Buddhism, ther same sect to which the haiku poetess Chiyo-Ni belonged. 'Ni' in her name means that she is a nun.


tenmoku ni koharu no kumo no ugoki kana

in the teabowl
this motion of the clouds
of 'Little Spring'


'Little Spring' in the last line is another name for Ko-haru (Indian Summer) on which we have written haiku in last December when we had all classical kigo for Winter. 'Little Spring' are those beauteous weeks in November and December, when the burden and heat of the year are over, when the sky is constantly blue and the atmosphere golden, and the maple-trees put on their damask robes.

The goal of these Specials is to try to write a whole new haiku in the same sense, tone and Spirit as the one given. So here I go ...

Let me take a closer look to this haiku by Kikusha-Ni: She holds her tea-bowl filled with tea in her hands. In the tea she sees the reflection of the moving clouds through the blue sky of "Little Spring" or the Indian Summer. This places the haiku in early Winter (or late Autumn).
Kikusha was a Buddhistic nun of the Shen sect of the Pure Land Buddhism. So she lives with her environment without any exceptions. She is one with nature in body, heart and soul, as I am. So I can relate to this verse, this haiku and now I can compose a new haiku in the same tone, sense and Spirit as Kikusha-Ni.

At first I wrote a cascading haiku:

in my mind
I see birds taking a bath
in the fountain

in the fountain
looking at themselves
clouds contemplate

clouds contemplate
thoughts hidden deep in my heart
rise up to my mind

But I wasn't satisfied with these, and asked myself if they were in the same Spirit as the one by Kikusha-Ni. I couldn't give an answer for 100% on that question so I wrote another one.

in the rain puddle
the beauty of moving clouds
beneath my feet

Well ... I hope you all did like this episode, this Special by Kikusha-Ni, and I hope it inspires you to write a whole new haiku in the same sense, tone and Spirit.

This prompt will stay on 'til June 5th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode, Tango (the Boy's Festival or Boy's Day), later on today around 10.00 PM (CET)

Namaste