Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation #13 New Year's Eve

!! Open for your submissions January 1st at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai 2017. We have had a wonderful year and I am looking forward to host CDHK for you in a whole new year. For this weekend-meditation I have chosen the theme New Year's Eve ...

I had a very busy day so that's the reason why this weekend-meditation is later than planned, this weekend-meditation takes also a day longer, because you can submit your Japanese poetry a day later than I mostly do. This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions January 1st at 7:00 PM (CET).A New Year is within reach ... what are your plans, your dreams, your thoughts and ideas for 2018? Maybe you can share them with us through your posts or through your Japanese poetry. I hope to make CDHK even better than it already is and there are several ideas I am thinking about to make CDHK better than ever. Of course I hope to create several CDHK E-books and we will have again our season retreats in 2018.

!!!! Our CDHK prompt-list for January is ready you can find it above in the menu !!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The theme for this weekend-meditation is New Year's Eve so here are a few haiku for your inspiration.

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 this weekend.

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

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions January 1st at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 8th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend and a wonderful start of 2018.

Carpe Diem Extra December 18th 2017 Last Call For Submissions

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all know I am busy with creating a special CDHK E-book for the holidays. "Christmas Stockings" is getting its form already, but there is still room for a few contributions. So this is the Last Call For Submissions for this special E-book.
I appreciate all your work and there will not be any kind of selection, except this one: the submissions have 'holidays' as theme and that means Christmas, New Year and all that has to do with it.

You can still submit your Japanese poetry until December 19th 10:00 PM (CET). Please send your contribution, your submissions to our e-mail-address: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com  Please write "holidays e-book" in the subject-line.

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host.

Carpe Diem #1267 millionaire

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our festive CDHK luster month October 2017. As I started CDHK back in 2012 I also had the so called "Carpe Diem Specials", as we have had almost every month during these five years. At the start of CDHK those specials were haiku by classical poets like Basho (1644-1694), but the prompt for today points to a wonderful haiku by Yosa Buson (1716-1784):

enjoying three bowls of Zoni *
at the New Year's breakfast
millionaire as he is!

(c) Yosa Buson

* 'Zoni' is a soup containing mochi (rice cakes), vegetables and other ingredients. To cook zoni was very expensive for the common people in the Edo period (1603-1868). To eat three bowls of 'zoni' at a time for breakfast was beyond all imagination of theirs.

Zoni

If Buson was a millionaire in his days I don't know, but he could afford to eat zoni. Buson is not only renown for his haiku, but also for his haiga (image + haiku). He illustrated a first edition of Basho's "Narrow Road Into The Deep North", that renown haibun (prose + haiku) which we have read together last year (2016).

millionaire
without the beauty of nature
just poor

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but I think what this haiku says is true. What would I do with millions of money if there was no nature's beauty to become inspired by? Nothing ... my life would mean nothing.

By the way, if you would like to read the post of 2012 than find it through clicking HERE.

As a haiku poet, living with nature, I don't need lots of money. I am grateful for all I can do, but especially finding my inspiration in nature ... is all I need.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 10th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, shuntoo (spring lantern), later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #659, Servant's Day (Yabu-iri)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This is our last episode of January and I haven't published our new prompt-list, because it isn't ready to publish. I hope to publish the new prompt-list tomorrow. It will be another nice month I think and to tell you a little bit more about our new month ... it's all about Impressions.

As I am preparing this new episode I realize that I had to do a "Time Machine" episode ... well that new "Time Machine" episode I migrate to February 7th, the first Saturday of the next month. Ok ... back to our classical kigo for New Year of today. Today our prompt is Servant's Day (Yabu-iri). 

Yabu-iri, literally "thicket-entering," is an obscure season marker in haiku for spring (or late New Year). On about the sixteenth of the first month, servants and apprentices were allowed to go home for a short visit. This would have meant that the holiday started  with the full moon. In Issa’s haiku:

yabu-iri no waza to kureshi ya kusa no tsuki

Ending the Servant’s Holiday
on purpose ...
sliver moon

© Issa

the final slip of moon means the holiday is over, which tells us it lasted less than two weeks (Lanoue, 1991-2009: moon,1803). There also was a second servants’ holiday on the sixteenth of the sixth or seventh month, but yabu-iri in haiku was codified as an early spring kigo (or late New Year kigo).

And here is a haiku composed by Buson on the same kigo:

yabu- iri ya  mamori- bukuro o  wasure kusa

Apprentice’s holiday:
a good-luck amulet
forgotten in the grass

© Buson

This is really a classical kigo, because I think this kind of custom will not be in use anymore, but maybe I am wrong ....

farewell cherry blossoms,

the servants have abandoned me,

will you bloom again?

© Chèvrefeuille

Pff ... that wasn't easy to compose ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 2nd at noon (CET). I will try to post our new episode, ??????, later on.

Carpe Diem #658, First Dream (Hatsuyume)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

For every new year there are first things (following the ancient ideas of Japan) there is a first meal, a first calligraphy and there is, as is our prompt for today, a first dream or Hatsuyume. The first dream of the New Year was, as the ancient Japanese thought, a dream in which you could see what the new year would bring you. So the Japanese people were sometimes anxious to have their first dream of the new yera, because of the fortunetelling idea behind it.

Dreams are sometimes telling you the future, but they are sometimes just a kind of lesson to show you what you have to deal with or have to change. Sometimes dreams can be very lively, that kind of dreams are called lucid dreams. Lucid dreaming was the first thing which came in mind as I was preparing this episode so I love to tell you a little bit more about this phenomena which is called "lucid dreaming".

Credits: Dreams are natural

A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. In relation to this phenomenon, Greek philosopher Aristotle observed: "often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream". One of the earliest references to personal experiences with lucid dreaming was by Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys.

The person most widely acknowledged as having coined the term is Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik (Willem) van Eeden (1860–1932). In a lucid dream, the dreamer has greater chances to exert some degree of control over their participation within the dream or be able to manipulate their imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can be realistic and vivid. It is shown that there are higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band (13–19 Hz) brain wave activity experienced by lucid dreamers, hence there is an increased amount of activity in the parietal lobes making lucid dreaming a conscious process.
Skeptics of the phenomenon suggest that it is not a state of sleep, but of brief wakefulness. Others point out that there is no way to prove the truth of lucid dreaming other than to ask the dreamer. Lucid dreaming has been researched scientifically, with participants performing pre-determined physical responses while experiencing a lucid dream.

Did I experience this? I don't know it for sure. The only thing I know is that I am not aware of my dreams and I never can tell about the dreams I had simply because I forget them. Is there another way of dreaming? For sure there will be another kind of dreaming. I once experienced what I call an "astral trip" and I love to tell you something about that experience.

As you all know I am a big fan of Basho and once I thought "I would love to meet him in life". Of course that isn't possible, but in that "astral trip" I really met him and I could have a conversation with him. It brought me more insight in his life, but he also learned me more about how to write haiku. I recall a haiku which I wrote that time ... a strong one and in tune with his teaching

Ah! that fragrance
delicate cherry blossoms
in the spring rain

© Chèvrefeuille 

In this one really can feel the influence of Basho, my haiku master, and I am so proud that he is my haiku master.

Cherry Blossoms (woodblock) (couldn't retrieve the credits)

Was the above mentioned experience an "astral trip" or was it a kind of "lucid dream". I don't know, but it was an awesome experience.

Back to our prompt for today. Hatsuyume is the Japanese word for the first dream had in the new year. Traditionally, the contents of the dream would foretell the luck of the dreamer in the ensuing year. In Japan, the night of December 31 was often passed without sleeping, thus the hatsuyume was often the dream seen the night of January 1. This explains why January 2 (the day after the night of the "first dream") is known as Hatsuyume in the traditional Japanese calendar.

It is considered to be particularly good luck to dream of Mount Fuji, a hawk, and an eggplant. This belief has been in place since the early Edo period but there are various theories regarding the origins as to why this particular combination was considered to be auspicious.
One theory suggests that this combination is lucky because Mount Fuji is Japan's highest mountain, the hawk is a clever and strong bird, and the word for eggplant (nasu or nasubi) suggests achieving something great (nasu). Another theory suggests that this combination arose because Mount Fuji, falconry, and early eggplants were favorites of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Although this superstition is well known in Japan, often memorized in the form Ichi-Fuji, Ni-Taka, San-Nasubi (1. Fuji, 2. Hawk, 3. Eggplant), the continuation of the list is not as well known. The continuation is as follows: Yon-Sen, Go-Tabako, Roku-Zatō (4. Fan, 5. Tobacco, 6. Blind Musician). The origins of this trio are less well known and it is unclear whether they were added after the original three or whether the list of six originated at the same time.

I found a nice haiku written by my haiku master, Basho at the age of 34, which I love to share here with you:

Fuji no yuki Rosei ga yume o tsukasetari

snow on Mount Fuji -
Rosei creates the world
in his dream

© Basho (age 34)

He compares the fresh white snow of mount Fuji to the mountain of silver which the young Rosei saw in his dream.

Mount Fuji

And I found a nice one composed by Issa in which the positive first dream is scattered:

nanno sono jô hatsu yume mo naku karasu

you've wrecked
my year's first dream!
cawing crow

© Issa

Well .... a lot to think about ... dream your dream with Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and share your "first dreams" with us all. Here is my haiku inspired on this prompt:

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

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 1st at noon (CET). I will try to post our new episode, Servant's Day (Yabuiri), later on. For now, have fun!

Carpe Diem #657, Zooni

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

January is almost over and I am already busy with creating our new promptlist for February and I think February will (again) be an awesome month. As I told you in earlier posts the classical kigo for New Year (the classic fifth season) are sometimes a little bit strange and today our prompt is also a little bit strange. Today we have Zooni for prompt and there isn't really a good description for this classical kigo for New Year, but I have found an explanation of this kigo.

Zooni is a kind of mixed vegetable soup for the new year and is eaten on January first in the morning, usually after the first shrine visit and prepared with .. the first well water (wakamizu) of the year drawn at the double-hour of the tiger (tora no koku, from four to six in the morning) . This water was supposed to bring health and wellbeing to the people who drink it. It is also renown for bringing back youth to the people ("young water" waka mizu).

Zooni (picture taken from a Japanese website)

The water is drawn only by chosen "men of the year" (toshi otoko, but referring either to the "man of the house" or to men who are born in the animal sign of the coming year) which are thought of as having special heavenly power with them. This ceremony is the very first male activity of the New Year. Women had to stay away from the well. Is some parts of Shikoku island, however, it is the lady of the house who fetches the first water.
From simple farmers to temple priest to tea ceremony masters, all took this custom very seriously. The well where this water was drawn is usually decorated with New Year decorations.
In Western Japan, it is the custom to add a lot of yellowtail (buri) to the broth of vegetables. People greet each other on the first of January: What did you eat in your zooni? After that, no hot food was eaten until January 4, to give the housewife and the kitchen and hearth deities a short holiday.

I have found a nice haiku written by Issa with this kigo in it:

waga io ya ganjitsu mo kuru zooni uri

to my hut too
New Year's arrives...
the zooni vendor

© Issa (1817)

Note: In Japan it’s not usual to work three or four days around New Year, but the Zooni-vendors are busy like bees on those days.

Maybe you have a special kind of food around New Year. And that can be a nice item for your haiku inspired on Zooni.

fetching water
for my first ever home made soup -
New Year's Eve

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a strong haiku ... but I felt that I had to write/compose one.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 31st at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, First Dream (Hatsuyume), later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #654, Sheperd's Purse (Nazuna); Carpe Diem #655, First Calligraphy (Kakizome); Carpe Diem #656 Isle Of The Blessed (Hoorai)

!! This is a extra long post in which I will publish THREE prompts each with it's OWN LINKING WIDGET, because I take a weekend off as you could have read in our last Carpe Diem Extra !!

Carpe Diem #654, Sheperd's Purse (Nazuna)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's a bit strange to prepare this post, because I haven't done this earlier, taking a weekend off, but I am in need of a little bit rest ... so I have chosen to take a weekend off. Of course I will not leave you without the prompts from our prompt-list for these days, so in this post I will publish three prompts (each with it's own linking widget). And the first prompt is Sheperd's Purse (Nazuna) it's one of the seven sacred herbs which are use the make a porridge around New Year.

Credits: Sheperd's Purse (Nazuna)

Sheperd's Purse is a little herb which flowers whit little white flowers and it's leaves look like a little purse that's why it's called Sheperd's Purse. It's a fragile little herb and mostly it's overlooked, but (as we will see) it came under the attention of Matsuo Basho once and he wrote a nice haiku about it. This haiku is a kind of tribute to the beauty of Sheperd's Purse and it shows us how we have to look at nature (as haiku-poets). Even the little creatures/creations are worth writing a haiku about ... as we all know from our "Little Creatures" feature.

furu hata ya nazuna hana saku kakine kana

if you look closely
a Sheperd's Purse flowering
underneath the hedge

© Matsuo Basho (1686)

Really a beautiful haiku if I may say so, because it's really a tribute to the beauty of Sheperd's Purse. To write a haiku about it ... will not be easy.

"look granddad"
my granddaughter shows me Sheperd's Purse
"a money-purse".

© Chèvrefeuille

A nice one ... This part of this episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 26th at noon (CET). Have fun! Come on let us go further to our next part of this post, First Calligraphy (Kakizome).

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Carpe Diem #655, First Calligraphy (Kakizome)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I remember that I have mentioned this tradition of writing the first calligraphy earlier here at CDHK, but I can't really say when that was, but it doesn't matter (at least not to me) to do a prompt several times. As I told you in one of the earlier posts of this month the kigo for New Year (the fifth season) are for the main part all things which are done for the very first time.
The First Calligraphy (Kakizome) is also such a tradition. I have found a few nice haiku by Issa on this first calligraphy which most times was written in the mud with a cane, and of course later on paper. Every haiku written as the first haiku of the New Year is special, but the ones I love to share here by Issa are really beautiful.

kakichin no mikan mii mii kissho kana

looking, looking
at the mandarin orange...
year's first calligraphy

tsui-tsui to bô wo hiite mo kissho kana

swish, swish
writing with my cane...
year's first calligraphy

ko-dakara ga bô wo hiite mo kissho kana

the treasured child
writes with a cane...
year's first calligraphy

© Kobayashi Issa

calligraphed haiku

In ancient Japanese times it was a great honor to write the first calligraphy so that third haiku is very special, because of the fact that this first calligraphy is done by a child, a treasured child. Maybe one of his own children, who sadly all lost their life at a young age.

I haven't really written a haiku with this kigo in it, but I love to share my "first calligraphy's" of 2013, 2014 and 2015 here with you all:

first day of year
bad spirits and ghost defeated
royal fireworks

© Chèvrefeuille (January 1st, 2013)

lives collide
Inner Fire burns
in the Aleph

© Chèvrefeuille (January 1st, 2014)

looking back
2014 has passed away
nice thoughts remain

© Chèvrefeuille (January 1st, 2015)

A nice tradition I think, maybe I have to create an anthology of the first calligraphy's (first haiku) of our haiku family here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

This part of this episode is open for your submissions Saturday January 24 at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 27th at noon). Have fun! Now ... let us go on to the last (third) part of this episode, Isle of the Blessed (Hoorai).

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Carpe Diem #656, Isle of the Blessed (Hoorai)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here it is our third part of this weekend-post, because I take a weekend off. It's not easy to write a post about this New Year kigo, because it's so specific for Japan, but well I have chosen to use it so I have to write it.

This also is such a kigo which looks strange as a kigo for New Year. What has Isle of the Blessed (Hoorai) to do with New Year? I will try to explain that.

Isle of the Blessed is the Japanese equivalent of the Western Elysian Fields or Heavens. In myth and legend, heavenly abodes are abundant. There is the Isle of Avalon where King Arthur still sleeps; the Isle of the Blessed ruled over by the giant Cronos; or the Elysium Fields, a place of incomparable beauty where virtuous Romans went after death. For the ancient Celts, there was the Otherworld, a place hidden from human eyes by a magical mist and visible on only one day of the year, the Feast of Samhain (November l), when the gates to both worlds were open and the souls of the dead were said to roam the earth.

Then, of course, there is the Eden story, the Paradise lost by man with the fall from grace of the first two humans, Adam and Eve. This is a concept shared by the world’s three great monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — though it, too, is subject to much variation.

Credits: Isle of the Blessed (Hoorai)

Interestingly, the most ancient of human civilisations, the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian, did not believe in the existence of either an afterlife or a heaven. In these technically advanced societies, humans were believed doomed to remain forever in the “house of dust” or darkness, which “none who enters ever leaves”. In this house, the inhabitants find that “soil is their sustenance” and “clay their food” where, clad in bird feathers, they see no light but “dwell in darkness”.

Why is this "Isle of the Blessed" a New Year kigo? I think this had to do with remembering the ones who passed away in the last year, a kind of Halloween, but than on January 1st. Are we not all doing that as New Year's Eve is there? Looking back to what had happened in the last year? And look forward into the future. What a feeling to know that there will be an afterlife ...

I found a nice haiku on "Isle of the Blessed" composed by Narayanan Raghunathan (co-founder of Wonder Haiku Worlds):

I enter the Isle of
the Blessed - a distant
flute plays Bhairavi

© Narayanan Raghunathan

I wasn't inspired enough to write a haiku myself about this "Isle of the Blessed", but I sought through my archive and found another nice haiku about a kind of "Blessed Isle", Holy Isle. Holy Isle is a Buddhist Isle at the Northern waters of the United Kingdom.

painted on rocks
the devote Buddhist monk
Holy Isle

Holy Isle
the Kagyan Tradition
painted on rocks

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this "Triple-episode" and remember every part of this post has it's own Linking Widget. This last part is open for your submissions Sunday January 25th at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 28th at noon (CET). Well ... have fun! I will publish our new episode, our last haiku by Sogi, our featured haiku-poet, later on.

Carpe Diem #653, Yuzuriha

!! This post will be published earlier, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As I told in episode 652 I ran into several "strange" kigo and today such a kigo is our prompt. Today our prompt is Yuzuriha (or Daphniphyllum Macropodum)
Yuzuriha is a plant with long broaded evergreen leaves and it was very common in ancient Japan to use it as an ornament for New Year to celebrate the good relationship of old and new generations . There is no English-name for it. Here is a small description of this plant:

Daphniphyllum macropodum is a shrub or small tree found in China, Japan and Korea. Like all species in the genus Daphniphyllum, D. macropodum is dioecious, that is male and female flowers are borne on different plants. The timber is used in China in construction and furniture making. It is grown as an ornamental plant, chiefly for its foliage.

Credits: Yuzuriha (in it's habitat)

As I look at this photo of Yuzuriha it looks somewhat similar with the rhododendron in my backyard, but as you can see in our next photo it's blossoms/flowers are looking very different than the blossom/flowers of the rhododendron.

 

Credits: Yuzuriha flowers (cultivated)

It's a very beautiful plant and those flowers/blossoms are really gorgeous. And as you can see at it's "construction" than you can understand the meaning of Yuzuriha, to celebrate the good relationship of old and new generations, it's very complexed. 

 

I have sought for an example of haiku with this Yuzuriha in it, but I couldn't find one, so I have to write one myself with this New Year kigo:

yuzuriha blooms

together with my kids and grandkids

picking the flowers

celebrating New Year

an Ikebana piece on the table

adoring it's beauty

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but I think these haiku are nice examples of this Yuzuriha. Yuzuriha must be an awesome flower to use in an Ikebana piece as you look at the bright green leaves and the complexity of it's flowers. Just one branch with flowers is already gorgeous.

 

Credits: Ikebana piece (sadly without yuzuriha) for New Year

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 25th at noon.

 

Carpe Diem #652, Pheasant's Eye (Fukujusoo)

!! I publish this new episode earlier than I normally do, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As I was preparing the prompt-list for this month I ran into several classical kigo for (the fifth season) New Year with very rare/strange things. On of them was our prompt for today, Pheasant's Eye (Fukujusoo), I even thought for a while that it was a joke or something, but it really is a kigo for New Year and I will try to explain it to you.

It turned out to be a flower which was special for New Year. Pheasant's eye, fukujusō, New Year's Day Plant. It grows in many mountainous areas of Japan. It begins to show new leaves in February or March and flowers with small bright yellow blossoms of 10 to 20 petals with a strong glow. Since the flowering time fell in the New Year season according to the lunar calendar, it was used as a decoration for the New Year, and so it came known as Pheasant's Eye or New Year's Day plant. Even now some farmers grow it especially to flower for the First of January.

In the Edo period, it was already artificially grown and sold in small pots, with petals of white, cream and red flowers, even double-petals. The name actually means : Plant of good fortune and long life, "prosperity grass" or "longevity grass", so it was very auspicious for the New Year celebrations.

Pheasant's Eye (Fukujusoo)

And I found a few really beautiful haiku with this wonderful Pheasant's Eye as theme. Here they are:

ôyuki o kabutte tatsu ya fukuju kusa

covered by the big snow

yet they stand...
New Year's grasses

© Issa

asahi sasu rooshi ga ie ya fukujusoo

morning sunshine

on the old Zen teacher's home -
Pheasant's eye in bloom

© Buson

jimen kara sora ga hajimaru fujukusoo

from the earth

the sky begins ...
Pheasant's eye

© Miyasaka Shizuo (1937 - )

hi no ataru mado no shooshi ya fukujusoo

the sun shines bright

on the window panes ...
Pheasant's eye

© Matsui Kafuu (1879 - 1959)

All great haiku I think. I especially the one by Miyasaka Shizou, because of it's image and the spiritual meaning of it as I look at the "meaning" of Pheasant's Eye (good fortune and long life). It will not be an easy task to write/compose an all new haiku for today's prompt, but ... yes you are right I have to try ... (smiles).

Credits: Pheasnat's Eye (Fukujusoo)



Pheasant on the run
as the first day of the year is celebrated -
colorful fireworks

© Chèvrefeuille

And I have tried to write a classical haiku following the classical rules, but I can not get that third line with it's 5 syllables, so maybe you can help me with that ...

Pheasant's Eye reflects
looks at it's beauty in the mirror -
she arranges her corsage

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 24th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, Yuzuriha, later on.

Carpe Diem #651, Picking Young Greens (wakanatsumi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As we are closing in to the end of January our New Year kigo will be more looking like Spring kigo as we have today Picking Young Greens (wakanatsumi) for prompt than we see that spring is coming closer. In this kigo with the "young greens" are meant the seven sacred herbs as we have seen in earlier posts here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. 
Today it's all about Jinjitsu (January 7th) on this date there is the Festival of Seven Herbs or Nanakusa no sekku on which the Japanese cook a special seven-herb rice porridge. 

The Festival of Seven Herbs or Nanakusa no sekku is the long-standing Japanese custom of eating seven-herb rice porridge (nanakusa-gayu) on January 7 (Jinjitsu).

Credits: Nanakusa-gayu

On the morning of January 7, or the night before, people place the nanakusa, rice scoop, and/or wooden pestle on the cutting board and, facing the good-luck direction, chant "Before the birds of the continent (China) fly to Japan, let's get nanakusa" while cutting the herbs into pieces. The chant may vary.

The seventh of the first month has been an important Japanese festival since ancient times. The custom of eating nanakusa-gayu on this day, to bring longevity and health, developed in Japan from a similar ancient Chinese custom, intended to ward off evil. Since there is little green at that time of the year, the young green herbs bring color to the table and eating them suits the spirit of the New Year.

This is the song mentioned above: 

tōdo no tori to,
nihon no tori to,
wataranu saki ni,
nanakusa nazuna,
te ni tsumi-ire te,
kōshitochō to naru        

China-land's birds and
Japanese birds,
earlier than bring on their coming,
seven species wild herb,
I pluck them to the hand and
it becomes Neck, Turtle Beak, Dipper and Extended Net.

By the way "Neck", "Turtle Beak", "Dipper" and "Extended Net" are all Chinese constellations.

I found a nice haiku written by Narayanan Raghunathan (co-founder of Wonder Haiku Worlds) with this prompt in it:

cool dawn -
an old Indian picking
young greens

© Narayanan Raghunathan

I found a nice Waka written by Emperor Koko Tennoo

  

It is for your sake
That I walk the fields in spring,

Gathering green herbs,
While my garment's hanging sleeves
Are speckled with falling snow.

© Emperor Koko Tennoo

Credits: Chickweed, one of the Seven Sacred Herbs

And I have found a nice trio of haiku written by Kobayashi Issa with wakanatsumi as theme:

kusa-tsumi no kobushi no mae no irihi kana

sun sinking
just beyond the fist
of the herb picker

kake-nabe mo asahi sasunari kore mo haru

dawn sun shining
even on my chipped pot --
this, too, New Year's

waga haru ya tadon hitotsu ni kona ichiha

my New Year's --
one ball of charcoal
a bunch of stunted greens

© Issa

And here is my attempt to write a haiku inspired on this prompt:

late at night

picking young greens in the kitchen garden -

the almost full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... a nice post I think. This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 22nd at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, a new episode of our special feature on Haiku Writing Techniques, later on.

Carpe Diem #650, First Rooster Crowing (hatsutori)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all know every new year starts with fireworks, but in haiku every new year starts with kigo like "first moon rising", "first dream" and so on. Today we have such a kigo for prompt. This time it's about Hatsutori, the first rooster crowing. After New Year's Eve and after the fireworks we go to bed, because life starts all over ... and after a festive New Year's Eve it's nice to go to sleep and dream about the future or the past, but than .... the first rooster crows as it starts to become light again. What a short night we had, but that first rooster crowing does help us to remember that life goes on ... nothing has changed, only the year has changed ...

As I was preparing this episode I couldn't find a proper haiku example for this prompt, but after quit a while of searching around on the internet I finally found a wonderful haiku written by Narayanan Raghunathan, one of the co-founders of Wonder Haiku World (a great website).

first rooster -

then one after another
three more

© Narayanan Raghunathan

Credits: Rooster

And another one which is composed by Kobayashi Issa, it's not really a haiku for the New Year's season, but I just had to share it here, because of the scenery it paints:

yûdachi no ura ni naku nari yane no tori

at the tail end
of the cloudburst crowing...
rooftop rooster

© Issa

Isn't it a wonderful scene? I can see that rooster upon the rooftop, he has a mighty overlook on the property of his boss, he sees the hens and chickens walk around the house ... and than he crows .... awesome scene ... 

daylight brightens

the rooster crows his sun greet -

the silence deepens

© Chèvrefeuille

In this haiku I just saw that rooster in front of my eyes while I was performing the sun greet, a yoga exercise. And than, as I ended my exercise and the rooster stopped crowing that silence was overwhelming ... an awesome way to start the day.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 21st at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, Picking Young Greens (wakanatsumi), later on.