Carpe Diem Special #145, Shida Yaba's "no strength left"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you maybe can recall from the promptlist of May (above in the menu) I will have Carpe Diem Specials this month in which I will introduce disciples of Basho and challenge you to write a haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one given.

Basho had a lot of disciples and they were all very happy with him. Our haiku poet for this CD-Special is Shida Yaba (penname Yaba) who was born in 1662 and died in 1740. He was impressed by Basho's Karumi style of writing and became one of the masters of that style.

The following haiku by Shida Yaba he wrote when he heard the news of Basho's death (1694):

chikara na ya hiza o kakaete fuyugomori

no strength left -
I wrap my arms around my knees
in winter solitude

© Shida Yaba

Yaba's Grave in Osaka

 After the death of Basho, Shida Yaba moved to Osaka were he became a haiku master. It is said that he had more than 1000 disciples. He tried to bring Karumi to the haiku poets to honor his own master Basho.

bursting into tears
touched by the spring breeze
first cherry blossom

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like this CD-Special and I hope that it will inspire you all to write/compose haiku.

This CD-Special is open for your submissions at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 5th at noon (CET). Have fun!