Carpe Diem Special #164 Lolly's 6th "another anchor thread"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am a little bit sad, but I am also happy ... why? Well this is our last episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai's August 2015. We made a wonderful trip over The Nile and we had (including this CD-Special) six (6) wonderful CD-Specials in which I shared haiku and tanka written by Laura Williams (a.k.a. Lolly of Lovely Things) the winner of our second kukai "summertime".
Lolly had the privilege to be the central person of 6 CD-Specials, because of the length of this month. So for this last CD-Special of August I asked Laura which of her own written/composed haiku or tanka she would like to be the theme for this CD-Special.
Lolly is a very gifted haiku poetess and several of her haiku and tanka were published, of course not only in her e-book which I created for and with her. She emailed me a wonderful tanka and this is why she chose this tanka in particular to share here in her last CD-Special.

sifting through
the personal effects
of a spider's web
an autumn wind loosens
another anchor thread

© Laura Williams (a.k.a. Lolly)

published:

American Tanka; Issue #13

Spider web © Chèvrefeuille

[...] "This tanka was inspired by a Carpe Diem prompt "spider web." I like its dark, gothic mood and the alliteration in the last two lines. It definitely suggests death and grief as we all have to go through a loved one's personal items when they pass. I remember doing so for my mother-in-law as well as my mother and both grandmothers. The last two lines really bring the thought home. After the death of a parent it seems one's "anchor"  or security or a part of what made us feel secure is loosened or even gone.

It's a sad tanka, but I love for it because it expresses what I often feel when I think of all the women in my family that have passed away" [...]

I think Lolly says it in a beautiful way and I can see the beauty of this tanka notwithstanding the sad mood in which it is written. Thank you Lolly for sharing this beautiful tanka with us and all the other beautiful poems you have written and shared here. I am honored that I had the opportunity to bring your poetry here in the CD-Specials of August 2015.

Of course there is the "challenge" to write an all new haiku or tanka inspired on this beauty I have, however, chosen to write/compose an all new dodoitsu, as we learned about recently. It's another nice short Japanese poetry form and I love to try this form more often. So here is my response on this beautiful tanka by Lolly.

frail crystalline beauty at sunrise
hidden between bare branches
a blue butterfly struggles for life
spider waits patiently

© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Cobweb

Well ... this is it, this was our last episode of August 2015. We are going on with a new adventure between the stars ... A Space Odyssey ... 
This CD Special is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 2nd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, the first of September 2015, Andromeda, later on. For now ... have fun!

 

Carpe Diem Special #163 Lolly's fifth a peony bush (tanka)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to present to you Laura Williams' (a.k.a. Lolly) fifth CD Special. Lolly is the winner of our second kukai "summertime" and the following tanka I extracted from her E-book "Lovely Things". It's one of her published tanka (a Spring tanka) and it's a beauty. Lolly is a very gifted poetess and I am honored that she is part of our CDHK family.

The goal of this CD Special is to write/compose an all new haiku (or tanka) inspired on Lolly's given poem.

a peony bush
heavy with flowers ...
trying to pick
from a long list of names
for the full spring moon

© Laura Williams (a.k.a. Lolly of Lovely Things)

Credits: Peony bush

Here is my attempt inspired on the tanka:

pink flowers bloom
between green dewy leaves
a double peony

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a very strong one, but I like it.

This CD Special is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 27th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, a new Tokubetsudesu episode, later on. For now ... be inspired and share your all new haiku (or tanka) with us all, of course you also may respond with a haiku or tanka from your archives. 

Carpe Diem Special #162, Lolly's fourth haiku, a one line haiku

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you have seen our prompt-list of August than you surely have seen that we have two episodes of Carpe Diem today. First the Tokubetsudesu episode on SIJO and this is the second episode of today another nice haiku by Lolly of Lovely Things, the winner of our second kukai "summertime". This CD Special by Lolly is another nice form of haiku and it's close to the original lay-out of haiku.

As you all maybe know, haiku was mostly written in one line, mostly vertical, and in the Western world this phenomenon occurs too. There are wonderful haiku written in "one line", for example this one written by Jim Kacian, as part of a "one-bun":

dark space the red shift of my mind

© Jim Kacian  

In one of the Carpe Diem lectures I wrote about this one-line haiku form, also known as monoku. You can find that lecture HERE.

Back to Lolly's one line haiku which I have chosen for this CD Special to inspire you all:

wind though the gaps in the cabin walls ... an eagle's cry

© Laura Williams (a.k.a. Lolly)

A nice one-line haiku ... I have tried it myself and this is what I came with:

fly like an eagle as free as a bird in the sky living my dream

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... a very nice CD Special I think. This CD Special is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 21th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem Special #161 Lolly's third "new scarecrow ..."

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I love to share another wonderful haiku written/composed by Lolly (penname of Laura Williams), but before I share that beauty I love to tell you a little bit more about Lolly, in fact she has done that her self.

Laura "Lolly" Williams was born and raised in Southern California. She's always been sort of the writerly type (essays, skits, parodies, satire and even some terrible rhyming poetry) but didn't develop her skills until mid life.
Sometime in 2010 - 2011 she discovered two haiku anthologies at a thrift store. One was The Haiku Anthology by Cor van den Heuvel and the other was Haiku Moment by Bruce Ross. Both books offered her a first glimpse at high quality, uncounted haiku. There was something about the tiny three lined poem and all that blank space surrounding it. The minimalism of it. The simplicity. The beauty!  This wasn't your typical western, overwrought, esoteric poetry. It was accessible!
These two books were the impetus of her haiku journey.

She had heard of haiku in school. She saw it again on the website Tiny Words back in the early 2000s, but it wasn't until she started doing web searches to find out more that she discovered Fiona Robyn's website called "Writing Our Way Home." Robyn would host an annual month-long writing challenge in January in which participants would write a "small stone" or haiku or poem-ish thought and post it to a designated website to share.
The Small Stone challenges eventually ended around 2012 which is probably what lead Laura to Carpe Diem although she can't remember exactly. She found Carpe Diem around the time it began in the fall of 2012.

And she's been writing haiku, and later tanka, ever since.

A wonderful biography and now we are starting to know her a little bit more and that makes me happy, because we are a family of haiku lovers, so it's really a joy to get to learn you all a little bit more.

Laura "Lolly" Williams

Here is the haiku to inspire you. It fits the theme humor very well, because of the scene she describes. I hope this haiku by Lolly will inspire you and will bring a smile on your face.

new scarecrow ...
already a field mouse pokes
around its fly

© Laura "Lolly" Williams (published in Lovely Things, CDHK- e book)

I like the humor in this one, but I am not that great with bringing humor in my haiku so I hope that this haiku I wrote inspired on Lolly's haiku is ok too.

old scarecrow
lost his battle with the storm
in the field

in the field
pieces of old clothes and paper
birth of scarecrow

© Chèvrefeuille

Scarecrow

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 15th at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, papyrus, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Special #160 Lolly's 2nd bedside vigilance

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I have a nice new CD Special by Lolly, our "summertime"- kukai winner, for you all. It's an "oldie, but a goodie", as Lolly says herself. I think she is right.

This, however, will not be a very long post, because I need to prepare my interview for a new job as an Advanced Nursing Practitioner Oncology for tomorrow, Friday August 7th. It's a complete new challenge in which I will become the "right hand" of the Oncologist. For example I have to write new protocols and create new ways for the treatment of cancer and I will take over part of the nursing and care issues from the Oncologist . So I am a bit excited, I hope (of course) they will give me that chance to grow in my job as an oncology nurse, we will see.

Ok back to our CD Special of today "bedside vigilance" by Lolly. Lolly wrote this haiku back in November 2013 and she recently posted it here at CDHK in response on our new feature "Modern Times Haiku".

Credits: scarf

Here is her haiku to inspire you to write an all new haiku or tanka:

bedside vigilance

the scarf she never finished
slowly unravels

© Lolly

In this haiku I sense the love for a past away loved one, her scarf cherished as a gem, a diamond ... maybe there is even a faint scent of this loved one's perfume ... A very strong haiku with a lot of emotions in it ...

Here is my inspired haiku:

times long gone
faint touch of eau de Cologne
grandmother's shawl

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 9th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, Karnak, later on. By the way I promised you the list for our Renga Party, but it's not ready yet, I hope to publish it tomorrow. Sorry.

Carpe Diem Special #159 Lolly's 1st "spring tidings"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai full of wonderful prompts and adventure. This month we are exploring "in the footsteps of the pharaohs" The Nile and are going deep into Africa to find its source.

As you all know the winner of our CDHK kukai is granted with a prize, next to an e-book, the winner becomes the featured haiku poet/ess of CDHK. This month our CD Specials will all be haiku or tanka composed by Laura Williams a.k.a. Lolly of Lovely Things. You can find her e-book "Lovely Things" at the right side of our Haiku Kai. Its free for download. I think Lolly and I have done a great job with this e-book. As you can see I have chosen the cover of her e-book as the logo for the CD Specials this month.

Lolly won our second kukai "summertime"with the following haiku:

gathering seashells
the sound of summer jingles
inside my pockets

© Lolly

This is a wonderful haiku in which she has touched the deepest feeling of "summertime" I think and I really think she had to be the winner.
Lolly is a very talented haiku poetess and I am glad that she is part of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. She writes wonderful haiku and tanka. I even think that her tanka are more beautiful than her haiku. She has truly mastered this wonderful Japanese poetry form. 

Credits: Bee on a Sunflower

For this first CD Special by Lolly I have chosen a tanka to inspire you.

spring tidings ...
a message of the flowers
to decipher
a secret little alphabet
that begins with a bee

© Lolly

This tanka is awesome. In this tanka Lolly has touched the deepest intention of bees, finding their way to those tasteful places of honey ... without thinking they find their way and make us happy, because as they are gathering honey they are the start of our fruits ...
Do they have their own language? Can we find that tiny little alphabet?

The goal of these CD Specials is to write a haiku or tanka in the same sense, mood and spirit as the one given. I have chosen an oldie, a haiga which I made several years ago and which I love to share here another time.

photo-haiga © Chèvrefeuille

Well .... this was our first episode of our new CDHK month. I hope you did like this episode in which we got inspired by a tanka of our featured haiku poetess Lolly.

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until August 4th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, a reprise of The Lighthouse of Alexandria, to start our journey over The Nile in our papyrus-boat, later on. For now have fun!