Carpe Diem #1817 Renga With ... Jane Reichhold ... Moonlight Moving

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are counting down to the end of this wonderful month full of Love. Only four days left (regular episodes) and than we will start a new month full of exciting words and views ... next month we will do a reprise visit at Shikoku Island.

Today however we are still in the Love mood and with love we know there comes ... desire ... Today I love to challenge you to create a Renga With Jane Reichhold, our beloved and so missed co-host of CDHK may she rest in peace.

The goal of this feature, Renga With ..., is to add your two-lined verses / stanza through association on the scenes in the given haiku ... together with Jane Reichhold you are creating in that way a so called "Junicho" (a 12-stanza renga).

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Here are the six (6) haiku by Jane Reichhold, extracted from her online Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", section Spring, sub-section Moods:

morning fog
dreams not buried
deep enough

spring sunshine
the strangeness of his perfectly
normal thumbnail

kids laughing
in the neighbor's house
the childless couple

moonlight moving
with the gate as the servant girl
takes an evening

Desire In The Moonlight

Saturday rain
desire by a warm stove
for an affair

waterfall
delicate forms
for a spirit

© Jane Reichhold

As always you can choose your own "line-up", but ... your Renga With ... has to start with the following haiku:

moonlight moving
with the gate as the servant girl
takes an evening

What an awesome series of haiku on desire to work with ... love cannot exist without desire ... Create your Renga With Jane Reichhold ... enjoy!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Wednesday #13 Winter Chrysanthemum

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Tan Renga Wednesday, that nice special feature about Tan Renga. Your goal is to create a Tan Renga with a given haiku by adding your two-lined stanza through association.

Here is the haiku to work with:

Winter chrysanthemum,
Wearing nothing
but its own light

© Mizuhara Shūōshi (1892-1981)

Winter Chrysanthemum (Japanese Woodblock print by Kono Bairei)

This episode of our Tan Renga Wednesday is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 18th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #114 Renga With ... beach diamonds

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday February 2nd at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, that nice special feature for the weekend. I think you all have noticed that I didn't publish on last Thursday and Friday, my excuses for that, I had a very busy (and tough) week, so I hadn't time to publish on those days.

This weekend I love to challenge you to create a Renga with several haiku poets. Your task is to add the two-lined stanza towards it. You can choose your own "line-up", but have to start with the haiku I will give first. So this Renga With ... is a kind of Hineri, with a twist.

Here are the six haiku to use, the first given haiku has to be your hokku (starting verse) and is a beauty created by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016).

beach diamonds
a new day crystallized
in sunny surf foam

© Jane Reichhold

cold spring breeze
makes the cherry blossom shiver
one heartbeat long

© Chèvrefeuille

The wind from Mt. Fuji
I put it on the fan.
Here, a souvenir from Edo

© Basho (Tr. Ryu Yotsuya)

watch birth and death:
the lotus has already
opened its flower.

© Soseki Natsume (Tr. Soiku Shigematsu)

dervishes whirling
- seeking a higher consciousness
third eye opens

© Chèvrefeuille

flute melodies
across green ocean waves
spring meadows

© Jane Reichhold

Six wonderful haiku to work with I think, not an easy task, but I think and belief that you all can do it. Enjoy this Renga With ...

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday February 2nd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 9th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend.

Carpe Diem #1654 Tan Renga Challenge (1) Smoldering Fireplace

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This is the first episode of May 2019. This month it's Tan Renga Challenge Month again. So this month all the prompts are haiku by modern and classical haiku poets to create Tan Renga with.

Tan Renga looks like a tanka, but instead of being written by one poet the Tan Renga is written by two poets. Tan Renga is a short chained verse of two stanza. The first stanza has three lines and the second stanza has two lines. More about Tan Renga you can find above in the menu, but I think that you all know how Tan Renga is created.

For this first Tan Renga Challenge of May 2019 I have chosen a haiku that I recently created. It's up to you to create the second stanza (approx. 7-7 syllables) through associating on the scene(s) in the given haiku.

Smoldering Fireplace

Here is the haiku to work with:

smouldering fireplace
the sweet perfume of burned herbs
loneliness grabs my throat

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I think this one is great to work with, but it will not be an easy task ... have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 7th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new Tan Renga Challenge later on.

Carpe Diem #1650 Breakfast (modern kigo)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are exploring the beauty of classical and non-classical kigo for spring. Today I haven't enough time to create a large episode, but I think I can make you all happy with a new "Renga With ... Jane Reichhold" episode.

Today I have chosen a modern kigo taken from her modern saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku" ... We have to do it every morning, but as I speak for myself ... I do not take breakfast every day. So today I challenge you to create a Renga With Jane Reichhold by adding your two-lined stanza between the haiku of Jane. In her modern saijiki she gives us six examples of haiku with the modern kigo "breakfast" and those six haiku I will give you to create your Renga With Jane.

Here are the six "breakfast"-haiku by Jane. You may choose your own "line-up":

flood waters crest
someone by the river puts water
in a coffee pot

breakfast coffee
the excitement of an ocean
in my cup

threads of smoke
breakfast fires of neighbors
tied together

pale spring sunshine
spread over breakfast toast
quince jelly

beating egg yolks
two yellow butterflies
twist in the fog

early morning rain
the dry sound inside the cabin
of oatmeal cooking

© Jane Reichhold (Extracted from "A Dictionary of Haiku")

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1640 Light (modern kigo)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a wonderful month this already is, but it can become even better. Today I have a nice modern kigo for you taken from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku", a modern saijiki. Today I have chosen the modern kigo "light", maybe not special for spring, but in my opinion is the light of spring the most beautiful light I know.

In her "A Dictionary of Haiku" Jane gives several examples for this kigo. That brings me to the challenge for today. I have chosen six haiku by Jane from her saijiki, spring section, subsection celestial. The challenge is to create a Renga With Jane by adding your two-lined stanza. Ofcourse you can choose your own "line-up" as is usually for this feature.

Here are the six haiku to work with:

a range of light
morning colors flow
out of the high Sierras

morning light
the sound of waves
on your sleeping face

without lights
the brightness of a blue sky
full of stars

Blue Sky (image© rmosesbvb)

dawn's faint hour
squeezes in heart-run veins
light in every limb

light touching
where only rain goes
trespassing

tides
light comes and goes
as ocean

© Jane Reichhold (extracted from "A Dictionary of Haiku")

Isn't it wonderful to create a renga together with Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #78 Renga With ... Jane Reichhold ... springtime

!! This episode is open for your submissions next Sunday March 31th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. That special feature I started a while ago to have some time off for being your host. It has given me the balance and peace I need to stay in tune with nature, and in tune with my muses.

This weekend here in The Netherlands the so called "summertime" is on again. That means that we, the Dutch, will set our clocks one hour forward. That means also that you will see the CEST abbreviation instead of the CET abbreviation. Several of you will live also in that same timezone, but the most of you will stay in their own timezone.

As you all know Jane was a very dear friend of CDHK and of me. She has meant a lot for our Haiku Kai and she is still missed. You also will know that she was one of the most renown modern haiku poets. Her own website AHApoetry.com is still online and will provide you with a lot of knowledge about our beloved haiku.

This weekend I love to invite you to create a renga with Jane Reichhold. Take this opportunity to create a renga together with her, to honor her and give tribute to her wonderful spirit.

Here are the six haiku by Jane to work with and create your renga with Jane Reichhold:

beach diamonds
a new day crystallized
in sunny surf foam

forgotten brook
running the centuries down
locked in rock

white pussy willows
above a muddy swollen river
fat raindrops

White Pussy Willow

rippling grass
wind moves up the hill
light waves

flute melodies
across green ocean waves
spring meadows

floating clouds
down from the mountain
a puddle of rain

© Jane Reichhold

A wonderful series of haiku chosen from the section spring from her modern saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku". It fits our theme I think ... so enjoy this challenge. You may as always choose your own "line-up" and by adding your two-line stanza you create a renga together with our beloved and so missed Jane Reichhold.

PS. Last weekend I used the linking widget of "blenza", but there are troubles with using it. So this weekend I am going back to our old widget. Sorry for those who prefer the Mister Linky.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday March 31st at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until April 7th at noon (CEST). Enjoy your weekend together with Jane Reichhold.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #74 Renga With ... Jane Reichhold

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

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first weekend meditation of March and also of Spring that's why I have created a new logo for our weekend meditation. For this first weekend meditation I have chosen an episode of our special feature "Renga With ..." And this weekend I love to honor Jane Reichhold (again) by challenging you to create a Renga with Jane Reichhold.

As you all know creating a Renga With ... gives you six (6) haiku and you have to add the six (6) two lined stanza between them. Ofcourse you can choose your own "line-up" and you have to try to create a closed chain of twelve (12) stanza. Try to let your "closing verse" (ageku) and the "starting verse" (hokku) be in a kind of symbiosis.

For this Renga With Jane Reichhold I have chosen six (6) haiku from her online Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku". Here are the haiku to work with:

beach diamonds
a new day crystallized
in sunny surf foam

white pussy willows
above a muddy swollen river
fat raindrops

light carried in my arms
apple blossoms from a neighbor
on my doorstep

Tai Chi On The Beach

Tai Chi on the beach
one gull watches
with outstretched wing

between the fields
a break in the evening mist
three lilac bushes

shades of art deco
lying on the beach
abalone shells

© Jane Reichhold (extracted from "A Dictionary of Haiku")

I think this series of haiku is really gorgeous and I think it will give you all satisfaction to work with them and honoring Jane. Take your chance to create a renga together with the best haiku poetess of modern times. Have fun!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday March 3rd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 10th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new (regular) episode around that same time too. For now ... have an awesome weekend.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #73 Renga With Basho ...

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday February 24th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

February is an awesome month it's wonderful to read all of your responses in our Tan Renga Challenge Month. This month it's all about Tan Renga, but this weekend meditation I have another nice way of creating Renga.

For this weekend I have chosen for a new "Renga With Basho ..." episode that special feature in which I give you the opportunity to create a Renga together with Basho. For this episode of "Renga With Basho ..." I have chosen six (6) beautiful haiku created by Basho. All the haiku I extracted from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku", so all the haiku are translated by Jane Reichhold.

Basho wrote around 1000 haiku during his lifetime and the haiku for this "Renga With Basho ..." he wrote in the last 10 years of his life. In these haiku you can see Basho's "Karumi" (or lightness) his Haiku Writing Technique. (More about Karumi HERE).

Here are the haiku I have chosen for you to work with. You can choose your own "line-up" and add your two-lined stanza to create the Renga With Basho. Try to create a "closed chain" by referring towards your "hokku" (starting verse) in your last stanza "ageku" (closing verse).

first frost
when mums start to feel chilly
I get a cotton waist warmer

moon and flowers
the stupidity pricked by a needle
entering the colder season

slowly spring
is making an appearance
moon and plum

Chinquapin flowers

crane and feathers
in a black robe
clouds of flowers

a traveler's heart
it also should look like
chinquapin flowers

moon past full
the beginning of a little more
darkness

(C) Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold. Extracted from "Basho, The Complete Haiku".

A wonderful series of haiku to work with I think. Have a great weekend!

This Weekend Meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday February 24th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 2nd at noon (CET). Enjoy creating a Renga with the Master of All Times ... Matsuo Basho.

Carpe Diem #1603 Tan Renga Challenge Month 2019 (7) phoenix

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologise to you for bein glate with publishing our new regular episode. My excuses for being late, but that said ... time to go on with a new Tan Renga Challenge, because that's what we are doing this whole month ... Tan Renga Challenges.

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and that your weekend was one of inspiration and joy. Today I have chosen a wonderful haiku to work with created by one of our family members. I haven't ask her yet, but I think she will not have a problem with using her haiku here at our wonderful Kai. I have chosen a haiku created by Dolores of Ada's Poetry Alcove. She wrote this haiku in response on the "rebirth" of our Time Glass feature last week.

rebirth
tendrils of love spread
through poetry

© Dolores

The Phoenix by Evolvana (DevianArt; image found on Pinterest)

A wonderful haiku to work with I think, I hadn't inspiration to create the 2nd stanza to this Tan Renga, but I love to share a haiku from my archives:

phoenix spreads its wings
after the dark cold winter night
finally spring

© Chèvrefeuille (2015)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 17th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... be inspired!

Carpe Diem #1601 Tan Renga Challenge Month 2019 (5) the weight of a butterfly

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This month it's Tan Renga Challenge month so every theme / prompt is a haiku by a modern or classical haiku poet and the goal is to create a Tan Renga with it by adding your two-lined second stanza of approximately 14 syllables. The second stanza you can create through association on the scene(s) in the given haiku.

Today I have a wonderful, not so well known haiku by female haiku master Chiyo-Ni. I think you all know her at least from her wonderful Morning Glory haiku. That Morning Glory haiku however is not the haiku to work with today.

Here is the haiku to work with:

waterweed
floating away, despite 
the butterfly's weight on it

© Chiyo-Ni (Tr. Ueda)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 13th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1599 Tan Renga Challenge Month 2019 (3) garden at sunrise

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry. This month it's Tan Renga Challenge month and that means that I challenge you to complete a Tan Renga.
A Tan Renga is a short chained verse created by two poets and looks in it's final form very much alike with the tanka. Tanka is another nice short Japanese poetry form but instead of 3 lines it has 5 lines. There is little difference between the Tanka and the Tan Renga ... a tanka is written by one poet and the Tan Renga is written by two poets.

For today's Tan Renga Challenge I have chosen a wonderful masterpiece by Ken Gierke, better known as RivrVlogr. Last weekend I challenged you to create a new masterpiece and this one Ken wrote is a real masterpiece in my opinion. So I have asked him for permission to use his haiku for this new Tan Renga Challenge.

Sunflower Field At Sunset (image found on Flickr)

The theme for our last weekend-meditation was Sunflower and Ken has created a wonderful haiku to work with and create a Tan Renga with. You have to add the second stanza (2-lines approx. 14 syllables) through association on the scenes in the haiku. Here is that beauty by Ken:

garden at sunrise
shadows erased by first rays
sunflowers turning

© Ken Gierke (RivrVlogr)

Wow ... what a gorgeous haiku. Here is my attempt to complete the Tan Renga:

garden at sunrise
shadows erased by first rays
sunflowers turning                             © Ken Gierke

while a nightingale sings
an aubade for the Creator                     © Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... I like this completion (how immodest) it makes the scene created by Ken even more stronger and intense.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 11th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1598 Tan Renga Challenge Month 2019 (2) bright enough

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new week in another wonderful month of Carpe Diem. This month it is Tan Renga Challenge (TRC) Month so I will challenge you to make a Tan Renga complete with a given haiku.

I hope you all have had a nice weekend. And that you all are ready for a new week. For today's TRC I have chosen a haiku by Jane Reichhold to create a Tan Renga with:

bright enough
to write a poem
the cold moon

© Jane Reichhold

Bright Moon

Well .... it's your turn to create a Tan Renga with this beauty by Jane Reichhold.

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

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #68 Tan Renga With Jane Reichhold "her gentle spirit"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday 20th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation, that special feature for the weekend here at CDHK. Today, January 18th, Jane would have become 82 yrs. You all know that she decided to end her life herself, because she couldn't longer live with the pain of fibromyalgia ... so this weekend I will reshare an episode of our month in honor of Jane back in 2016:

Today I have chosen another nice modern kigo extracted from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku", a complete saijiki in which Jane gathered modern kigo and gave examples of all those modern kigo by creating wonderful haiku. Today I hope to inspire you with calm through the following haiku by Jane:

a certain calm
in summer's passing
flowers

flat seas
with the butterfly's flight
a certain calm

the hour silent
before the birds awake
waves on sand

© Jane Reichhold

These haiku are wonderful and I can read Jane's fingerprints all over them. In a way Jane Reichhold created the "western" haiku without losing the respect for the Japanese haiku. She created beauty and shared it with the world. Without her the "western" haiku had died long ago, but that's my humble opinion.

As I read the above trio of haiku I felt Jane's presence and that inspired me to create the following haiku:

her gentle spirit
the calm of an early morning
a bird's song

© Chèvrefeuille

I love this haiku ... one of my best I would say (how immodest) ... Jane and I are connected in a very nice spiritual way and I hope to feel her presence forever.

The challenge for this weekend meditation is to create Tan Renga with the above three given haiku by Jane Reichhold. A Tan Renga looks like a Tanka, but is written by two poets instead of one poet. It's a kind of chained poem. You have to create the second stanza of each Tan Renga. (See also above in the menu)

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 20th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 27th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together (III) (9) between dusty cars

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are having our 3rd edition of our special feature TRC, or Tan Renga Challenge. This month I challenge you to create Tan Renga, a kind of chained verse written by two haiku poets, from a given haiku (or "hokku").

Today I have a nice haiku for you to work with. It's a haiku written by Kim M. Russell in response on one of our Quest For A New Masterpiece as featured in a Weekend Meditation in August 2018. I commented on this haiku:

[...] "Nice juxtaposition in this one; and also a kind fragment and phrase. Very well done … Your haiku paints a wonderful scene with the beauty of the classics like Onitsura and Basho. This is a haiku that will survive time … a masterpiece."[...]

And I think you all will think (or say) the same. Here is the haiku by Kim to work with:

between dusty cars
an orange butterfly flits
the traffic rumbles

Kim M. Russell, 26th August 2018

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge 2018 #1 shadows on a sunny porch (Jane Reichhold)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope your weekend started with a smile on your face. My weekend started certainly with a smile, because I have a week off. That gives me some time to challenge you a little bit more. Maybe you can remember that I had a "tan renga challenge" back in our rich history. We even created a few months full of Tan Renga. The Tan Renga Challenge started once on every Friday and I love to bring that challenging feature back here at our wonderful Kai. So today I have a Tan Renga Challenge for you, but let me first tell you what the goal is.

The goal is to create a Tan Renga from a haiku. A Tan Renga is a short chained verse written by two poets. One wrote the haiku (3-lines) and one wrote the second stanza (2-lines) through association on the scene of the haiku.

For this first "rebirth" of the Tan Renga Challenge I have a wonderful summer haiku by our beloved Jane Reichhold. Your task is to create a Tan Renga with it. A Tan Renga looks similar with the tanka, but instead of written by one poet it's written by two poets.

Shadows On A Porch (image found on Pinterest)

between boards
shadows on a sunny porch
a slender coolness 

© Jane Reichhold (taken from her online dictionary of haiku)

Read the haiku several times and than create your two-lined second stanza with approximately 7-7 syllables. Have fun!

This episode is Now Open for your submissions and will remain open until July 21st at noon (CEST).
I hope to bring a weekly Tan Renga Challenge for you.

Carpe Diem Renga Challenge #3 Chrysanthemum Dew

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am under the impression that you all love this Renga Challenge feature and I think it's awesome to write a renga together with one of the classic masters. For this third episode I have again six beauties written by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) in a translation by Jane Reichhold. I still miss her, but I know that her spirit is still dwelling here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. As I think of her I only can smile and be gratefull that I have known her and have worked with her.

The goal is to create a renga with a minimum of six stanza and a maximum of 12 stanza. You can use the haiku I give in any order, the only thing you have to do is create the two-lined stanza between the haiku through association on the images/scenes in the haiku.

A Girl Collecting Chrysanthemum Dew by the stream (woodblock print)

Here are the six haiku by Basho to work with:

the image shows
an old woman weeping alone
my friend the moon

passing through autumn
a butterfly seems to lick
chrysanthemum dew

five or six
sitting with tea and cakes
a fireplace

Skylark

a skylark sings
the pheasant's voice is
the instrumental music

how glorious
young green leaves
flash in the sun

early summer rains
falling so heavily they cover up
the waterfall

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold, taken from "Basho, The Complete Haiku")

 All great haiku ... enjoy your renga-party together with Basho.

This Renga Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 24th at noon (CEST). Have fun!