Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a new episode: flower market

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, 

Welcome at a new, week lately than promised, episode of our wonderful haiku Kai. I promised you a week ago to start CDHK again, but ... I was to busy. So here is our new episode. The theme of this month is "summer" and I hope to inspire you with haiku from Jane Reichhold's online Saijiki.

Here is the Haiku by Jane Reichhold:

depth of a flower
flying away with the bee
some mystery

(C) Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

The goal is to create a new haiku inspired on the haiku by Jane and my artwork at the top of this post. I discovered AI Art now more than a year ago ... and I love it.

Here is my haiku inspired on the haiku by Jane and my Art:

On the flower market
A mysterious woman selling -
Her broken heart

(C) Chèvrefeuille

This episode is Now Open for your submissions. Add your haiku, tanka or other poetry form to the linking widget below.

Restarting Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It has been a very long time that I posted something in our Haiku Kai. I had a very busy time and several private issues that withold me from being creative and publishing in here. 

I hope to restart Carpe Diem Haiku Kai next month. That means I hope to start publishing on monday until friday, 5 posts a week. I miss creating and publishing for you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers and I hope you can forgive me.

As you can see above I recently started to create Art with Artificial Intelligence, I love creating with AI and I certainly will use AI-creations (by myself) in our upcoming posts.

July will be a month full of Summer kigo taken from Jane Reichholds Saijiki and I hope to publish our first post Monday July 3rd late evening on Sunday July 2nd. You can respond and add your haiku, tanka, kyoka or other Japanese poetry form in our linking widget.

For now:

finally summer
our family castle
reflects in the pond

© Chèvrefeuille, your host

Have a wonderful week and we will see eachother, hopefully, next Monday July 3rd.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1362; Summer Is Almost Here

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to create Haiku, Tanka or other Japanese poetry form. Today I love to challenge you to create a so called "Pi-Ku". Maybe you know that there is an international day about Pi, that mathematical phormula that is known as the Greek letter "Pi" or 3,14. That international day was on March (3rd month) 14th ... so that explains why it is called "Pi-day".

A "Pi-Ku" has three lines (as every haiku has), but you have to follow another series of syllables. A "Pi-Ku" follows the next rule:

1st line: 3 syllables
2nd line: 1 syllable
3rd line: 4 syllables

Let me give you an example from my archives (Nov 2012) inspired on the above image of Rodin's The Thinker:

the Thinker
lone
no more thoughts

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

It is not really my "cup of tea? But it looks like a nice challenge.

So for this episode the challenge is to create a "Pi-Ku" on the theme "Almost Summer". 

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Friday June 3rd 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem #1736 Corncockle (Agrostemma githago)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last (regular) episode of this month in which we were creating a "bouquet of wildflowers" under the title "field of flowers". I have chosen another nice wildflower ... Corncockle or Agrostemma githago. A beautiful field flower with a wonderful color, magenta.

Corncockle

Let me tell you a little bit more about this beautiful field flower:

'Cuckole hath a longe small lefe, and wyl beare fyve or vi floures of purple colour, as brode as a grote' - Fitzherbert "The Boke of husbandrie" (1523)

A slender pink flower of European wheat fields, the Corncockle was regarded as very common in the 19th century.

Its seeds were harvested and re-sown for the following season, until it began to decrease rapidly, beginning most noticeably in 1952. The plant was seen as a pest by farmers for hundreds of years but is now rarely seen due to the improved seed cleaning techniques and herbicides of modern farming putting it at risk. These days it is only seen occasionally for instance when old pastureland is ploughed, or when it has been sown deliberately in wildflower gardens such as Earlham churchyard in Norwich.

Corncockle is 1 metre tall and covered with fine hairs. It has few branches and they are each tipped with a single deep pink to purple scentless flowers. They are 25 mm to 50 mm across and each petal bears 2 or 3 discontinuous black lines. The leaves are pale green and are 45 mm to 145 mm long. It has been described by Richard Mabey as 'one of the most attractive of cornfield annuals'.

Corncockle

By the way the Corncockle is a poisonous flower, so be aware, it also is an endangerous species, so maybe your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form can be a tribute to the beauty of the Corncockle.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation, the first of autumn, because September 1st is the meteorological start of autumn.

Carpe Diem #1735 Renga With Jane Reichhold -- Chinese Lantern

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month we are creating a "bouquet of wild flowers" and today I have chosen for a Renga With ... episode. Today I will give you six haiku crafted by Jane Reichhold. Your task is to create a Renga with those haiku by adding the two-lined stanza to it. You can choose your own "line-up", but the first haiku I will give has to be the opening verse or "hokku".

Here are the six haiku by Jane Reichhold to work with:

Chinese lantern
the brightness within
a bee

barbed wire
the best berry bushes
double-thorned

in foggy moonlight
blackberries float in cream
her nails are blue

Blackberries

flowers by the door
nameless except for the color
of these blue days

late summer grasses
above their roots the seeds
nearly touching

sheaves of grass
water that does not break
flows in ripples

© Jane Reichhold (taken from: A Dictionary of Haiku)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 4th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1733 Sunflowers & #1734 Foxglove

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this "double" episode, 1733 Sunflowers & 1734 Foxglove, I hadn't time yesterday to create our episode, so today I have chosen to give you two episodes in one. As you all know we are creating a "bouquet of wildflowers" and today I have chosen for "sunflowers" and "foxglove". I will give you for every episode only the theme and an mage of the wildflower.

a butterfly
sleeping on a sunflower
shall he have a dream?

© Chèvrefeuille

Awesome scene ... wish I could be that butterfly and have my dream about Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and its future.

toxic beauty
fragile rose like porcelain
foxglove

© Chèvrefeuille

For both episodes I have just one linking widget, so you can link your verses for both themes.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open unitl September 3rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1732 Baneberry

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month is running towards it's end. We have only five regular episodes to go. This month we have created a wonderful bouquet of wildflowers of summer and today I have another beauty for you to work with.

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. I had a busy weekend, but I enjoyed it very much. We had one of our grandchildren visiting so we ahd our hand full. The vacation is over and today Monday our grandchildren have to go to school again, so back to normal life.

Baneberry

What a gorgeous wildflower this is. The above image shows you the Baneberry and that is our new prompt for today.

fragile beauty
along the path to the castle
white baneberry

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 1st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1731 Cahaba Lily

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our wonderful month of creating a bouquet of wildflowers. Today I have a wonderful field flower for you to work with. I have to say I had never heard of this beautiful wildflower, Cahaba Lily, This wildflower looks so fragile and beautiful ... and for sure it would be an awesome part of our bouquet of wildflowers.

Cahaba Lily (photo © Keith Boseman)

Cahaba Lily
a small star shining bright
in the meadow

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 29th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun and enjoy the beauty of the Cahaba Lily.

Carpe Diem #1728 Columbine

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our wonderful month about "field of flowers" ... we are creating a bouquet of wild flowers (or flowers from the field). We have had already wonderful wild flowers this month and today another beauty will be shown ... Columbine (or Aquilegia).

Columbine (Aquilegia)

Look at this beautiful wild flower ... its nice pink color and their shape, like bells, wonderful.

between summer grasses
the sweet sound of pink colored bells
columbine praises

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a very strong haiku, but I like the "personality" that is given to the Columbine.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 26th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... be inspired and have fun!

Carpe Diem #1726 Peony (troiku)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our bouquet of wild flowers grows every day, but today I don't have chosen a real wild flower, but more suitable for your garden, but it can be used in bouquets, so I think today's summer flower fits really good in our bouquet of wild flowers.

Today I have chosen for the Peony, a wonderful flower that comes in a lot of varieties. The challenge for today is to create a haiku themed Peony and create a Troiku with it. (More on Troiku you can find above in the menu).

Peony

Well ... I think no need to say more. I am looking forward to your wonderful inspired Troiku. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 22nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on today.

Carpe Diem #1722 Yarrow ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend, full of inspiration. I had a very busy weekend at work, so I will not share a very large episode today.

This month we are creating a bouquet of field flowers and today I have chosen (again) for a not so well known summer flower ... the Yarrow. The Yarrow (or Achillea millefolium), is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe, and North America. It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in places like New Zealand and Australia, where it is a common herb of both wet and dry areas, such as roadsides, meadows, fields and coastal places.

In New Mexico and southern Colorado, it is called plumajillo (Spanish for 'little feather') from its leaf shape and texture. In antiquity, yarrow was known as herbal militaris, for its use in stanching the flow of blood from wounds.

Yarrow or Achillea millefolium (photo © Thayne Tuason

wounded soldier
white petals turn red -
mooing of a cow

© Chèvrefeuille

A not so commonly way of creating haiku, but I tried to catch a few of the uses of this Yarrow in the haiku. I think I succeeded (how immodest).

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 18th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1721 Canna Lily

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to create Japanese poetry and share it with the world. This month we are creating a bouquet of field flowers and today I have another nice flower for you, which not always is seen in wild nature, but often in gardens, but it can be used in a bouquet. Today I have chosen "Canna Lily", and it is a gorgeous flower.

Canna Lily "Firebird"

The cannas in your garden will keep you ensured of colour around you from spring right through to the end of summer. And the colour that semi-dwarf Canna 'Firebird' provides is one you will want to be there for a good long while. This plants tall spikes bear a clump of bright red blooms at the top which open in succession. Cutting old stems will ensure that the flowering continues as long as possible. Canna 'Firebird' has long upright blue green leaves which set off the flowers to perfection.

fireworks in my garden
canna lillies blooming in bright colors
I feel rich

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submisisons and will remain open until August 15th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun and enjoy the "fireworks" in your garden.

Carpe Diem #1687 Troiku Month (16) Heat Waves

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Troiku Month. I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration and that your muses have helped you to create your weekend meditation. Today here in The Netherlands we have had the first day of a heat wave. Tropical temperatures are normal here nowadays. Today it was at least 30 degrees Celsius and some parts of my country almost 35 degrees Celsius. This week that kind of temperatures will be here every day with a top on next Wednesday were they even expect 40 degrees Celsius. Not my kind of heat by the way, but well ... the weather does what it wants.

For today's Troiku I have chosen a nice haiku by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) themed "heat waves". I thought that it fits the weather here in the Lowlands.

heat waves
bringing to the desert
an ocean view

© Jane Reichhold (extracted from "A Dictionary of Haiku", the online version)

Heat Waves

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 30th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #63 The Quest For A New Masterpiece Continues ... winter

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday December 16th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize for being late with publishing our new weekend meditation. I hadn't time to publish it yesterday, because of trouble traveling from work to home.

This weekend has already begun, but that doesn't mean that I will not publish our weekend meditation. This weekend I love to challenge you again to create your masterpiece. As you all know a while ago we started our quest for a new masterpiece and I have seen a lot of masterpieces.
There are several classical and non-classical haiku (or tanka) that have become evergreens. For example the "crow" haiku by Basho:

on a withered branch
a crow is perched
autumn evening

© Bashō (1644–1694)

Basho wrote this haiku in the year 1680, and it is often considered to be a marker of the beginning of Bashō’s mature style.

Or what to say of that beauty by Chiyo-Ni:

morning glory!
the well bucket-entangled,
I ask for water

© Chiyo-Ni (1703-1775)

Two real masterpieces, everlasting beauty ... or an evergreen so to say.

For sure you will know other masterpieces by classical (and non-classical) haiku (or tanka) poets, but the goal of this new feature isn't the quest for known (renown) masterpieces, but to create masterpieces, it's a real challenge, because you, my dear haijin, visitors and travelers, have to challenge yourself to create your masterpiece.

What makes a haiku (or tanka) a masterpiece? Well ... I will give it a try to tell you what a haiku (or tanka) makes a masterpiece in my opinion:

First: It has to describe a moment that got your attention.
Second: You have to use the right words. Words that describe the moment in its true way.
Third: Maybe ... use the classical way of creating haiku (or tanka) (as mentioned in CDHK Lecture One above in the menu).
Fourth: It has been written right from the heart or soul not the mind.
Fifth: It's (maybe) in the sense and tone of the classical haiku (tanka) poets.
Sixth: It has to be ... how shall I say it ... be your child, your creation ... in a masterpiece we can read, between the lines, the poet who created it.

For this weekend meditation I challenge you to create your new masterpiece themed "winter", because here on the Northern Hemisphere it's winter (almost). I f you are living on the Southern Hemisphere than you may try to create your new masterpiece themed "summer".

Of course I had to try it myself, but wasn't inspired enough, so I have chosen one of my "masterpieces" from my archives:

a last rose
more fragile than ever
clothed in snow

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... a nice weekend meditation I think. I am looking forward to all of your new masterpieces. By the way I hope to create our first Carpe Diem Quest For A New Masterpiece (exclusive) E-book January 2019.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday December 16th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 23rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode along the Pan American Highway later on. For now .... have a wonderful weekend!

Carpe Diem #1477 Walking Down to the Beach

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's again a very hot day here in The Netherlands, temperatures are rising above 30 degrees Celsius. Maybe the already the result of the global warming, but I think that's a to big word for it. At least until halfway August the weather will stay this way in The Netherlands. There are even weather forecasts that say that we will have temperatures rising until 40 degrees Celsius ... I hope not of course, but you never know.

Global warming it's a worldwide theme and it's a problem, not a little problem, but very big problem. Can we fight against this global warming? Or will there be only desert ...

Today I hope to inspire you through a beautiful image I found somewhere on Tumblr. In my opinion it's a nice image to work with. So are you ready?!

Walking down to the Beach

I wish I could dive into this image and dive into the cool water. Finding the coolness after a hot summer day would be awesome along the beach. The beach ... a place to meditate and contemplate, but also to make love ...

after the heat
together with my love
our own heat

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku/senryu)

With this love-poem I hope to insoire you to create also a love poem, a haiku or tanka? That's your own choice. Try to catch love in your poem.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1474 path into oblivion

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our beautiful inspiring Haiku Kai were we are having a great time with our July -theme "Imagination Without Limits" or in other words ... creating Japanese poetry inspired on a given image.

path into oblivion (photo (c) Chèvrefeuille)

Another nice scene from one of the many parks in my hometown. Look at that light play through the leaves, the fading colors of the pond and the disappearing of the blue sky into a kind of vague white. It's a crossroad ... which direction will I take? Were does that path lead me to? Does that path lead me into oblivion? It's up to you now ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, a new weekend-meditation, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your Japanese poetry with us all.

Carpe Diem #1450 Moonflower (yuugao)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was very busy, because I was on the nightshift. Our weekend meditation is now open for your submissions and I am looking forward to all of your wonderful responses.

For today's prompt I have another beautiful classical summer kigo for you, this time it's taken from the sub-division "plants". I remember that I have done this prompt earlier here at CDHK, so maybe you can find your inspiration back in our history. Today's classical summer kigo is "moonflower (yuugao)".

Here are a few haiku written by Basho, the first one he wrote at the age of 21:

yuugao ni mitoruru ya mi mo ukari hyon

by moonflowers
a fascinating body
floats absent-mindedly

© Matsuo Basho age 21 penname then 'Sobo'.

Maybe you are familiar with the idea of "moon love" it was very common several decades ago, that homosexual man could only show their affection and love at night "when the moon was shining". If you are familiar with that idea, than maybe this haiku by Basho (than writing under the penname "Sobo") says more about the hidden layer.

Moonflower (yuugao)

And this one he wrote in 1681 at the age of 37:

yuugao no shiroku yoru no kooka ni shisoku torite

the moonflowers are white
in the night by the outhouse
candle in my hand

© Basho (age 37)

In this haiku you can also find a hidden layer about Basho's preference for man. Is he looking for his male lover in the outhouse? Or is he admiring the beauty of the moonflowers? Well ... we will never know. The only thing we know is that this scene appeared in summer as we can see in the use of the classical kigo "yuugao".

And here is a tanka from my archives:

fragile beauty
climbing against the fence
moonflower straightens
with her snow white blossom
to the Summer moon

© Chèvrefeuille

Enough inspiration I think. For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have also a classical kigo to work with, only this time it's chosen from the winter division's sub-division "plants": winter grove (fuyu kodachi).

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 17th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, young maple-leaves (waka kaeda), later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1447 new tea (shincha)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Summer kigo ... our theme for this month "One Sunny Day" ... is all about seasonwords that point to a specific season, this month I hope to inspire you with the classical kigo for Summer as used by the classical haiku poets. Today I have chosen a kigo that is used in "early summer": new tea (shincha).

Shincha is the very first picking of the sencha harvest. The name, shincha, literally means new tea. Shincha is harvested in late May and that means (according to Japanese calendar) at the end of June. So in this month we are right now this "new tea" is harvested and that makes it a kigo for early summer. Shincha (new tea) is taken from the "humanity" division of Summer of the classical Saijiki.

Shincha (new tea) harvesting in Mariko

Here is an example of a classical haiku in which this kigo is used:

Bōfu mede shi hakuji jawan ni shincha kumu

I pour shincha
into the white porcelain
tea bowl he loved

© Mitsu Suzuki

And here is another example in which this kigo is used (I couldn't find the Romaji-translation):

New day dawns misty
Tea leaves await their harvest
Fuji-san watches

© T Ching

This haiku captures the essence of a morning in early summer in the midst of the Shincha harvest.

And here is another nice haiku with new tea in it as the kigo for today:

tsuma nakushi hitori no yo no shincha kana

I lost my wife ...
alone at night I drink
new green tea

© Horiguchi (Tr. Gabi Greve)

Shincha (new tea)

after a long walk
the taste of new tea
in the moonlight

© Chèvrefeuille

What a joy to create this episode. I am not of tea, but sometimes I love the smell and taste of a nice warm bowl of green tea.

For our participants on the Southern Hemisphere I have another beautiful kigo of winter. I hope that the Southern Hemisphere's participants like these winter kigo. Here is your kigo for today:

Quilt (futon). Japanese-style, refers to a pair of quilts placed on the floor for sleeping, the thicker one underneath.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 12th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

PS. I have created a new edition of our first ever CDHK exclusive E-book "The Divine Tarot". Back in May 2013 I created a month full of the Tarot, especially the so called "Great Arcana" the 22 first cards of the Tarot. In that month we discovered that the Tarot is not occult, but divine. "The Divine Tarot 2nd edition" is now available. You can find the link to download at the right side of our Kai. (The image used isn't the cover by the way.)

Carpe Diem #1445 cooling on the porch (hashi-i)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of joy, pleasure, peace and inspiration. Welcome at a new episode of our Kai. This month we are exploring classical kigo (seasonwords) of Summer (and Winter). As you can remember in the first new episode of this month I mentioned to also give a Winter kigo for our participants on the Southern Hemisphere. For those participants I have chosen the following classical winter kigo: winter seclusion (fuyugomori), it's from the same saijiki-part, humanity, as our summer kigo. I will try to do that every episode.

Cooling On The Porch (hashi-i)

Today's classical kigo to work with is very clear I think. Isn't it a joy to cool down on the porch with nice beer or glass of wine after a warm summer day? I for sure would enjoy that, but I don't have a porch to cool down. After a warm (or hot) summer day I enjoy the coolness of my backyard. Sometimes completely naked, but not always of course. Our backyard gives us a lot of privacy, so resting there in the nude isn't a problem.

in the mansion's backyard
the breeze cherishes my naked body
ah! that sweet coolness ...

© Chèvrefeuille

Looks somewhat artificial, because I had some trouble to create this haiku in the classical way, as is the goal this month too. Well ... you all know that I am not a big fan of the classical way of writing haiku. So to me this is a real "ordeal", but if I asked it of you I have to do it myself too.

If I would "redo" this one into my way of writing haiku than it would be:

in the backyard
the evening breeze
coolness

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #35 Troiku Challenge "summer solstice"

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 3rd at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first CDHK weekend-meditation of this month and summer 2018. I have created a new logo for this special weekend feature and I have chosen a few new "challenges". In this first weekend-meditation of June 2018 I have chosen to challenge you to create a Troiku, that creative way of haiku-ing. (more about Troiku above in the menu).

Maybe you can remember one of our last episodes of "crossroads". I challenged you to create a so called "fusion"-haiku from two given haiku and to create a Troiku with your "fusion'-haiku. I was glad to see that you liked that challenge, so that's the reason why I choose "Troiku Challenge" for this weekend-meditation.

I will give you two haiku to create a "fusion"-haiku with and to create a Troiku from that "fusion"-haiku. For this first "Troiku Challenge" I have chosen two haiku created by myself (how immodest).

Shinto Summer Solstice at the Wedded Rocks

between the wedded rocks (*)
the sun rises to her highest throne
summer solstice

mountain stream
the ice has melted - dances in the sun
crystal waterdrops

© Chèvrefeuille

(*) Meoto Iwa, or the Loved one-and-loved one Rocks, are a couple of small rocky stacks in the sea off Futami, Mie, Japan. They are joined by a shimenawa (a heavy rope of rice straw) and are considered sacred by worshippers at the neighbouring Futami Okitama. According to Shinto, the rocks represent the union of the creator of kami, Izanagi and Izanami. The rocks, therefore, celebrate the union in marriage of man and woman. The rope, which weighs over a ton, must be replaced several times a year in a special ceremony. The larger rock, said to be male, has a small torii at its peak.
The best time to see the rocks is at dawn during the summer, when the sun appears to rise between them. Mount Fuji is visible in the distance. At low tide, the rocks are not separated by water.

And now it is up to you to create a "fusion"-haiku and with that "fusion"-haiku a Troiku. Have a wonderful weekend full of inspiration.

This episode is open for your submissions next Sunday June 3rd at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new regular episode later on. I hope to publish our new prompt-list also later on. For now ... have fun!