Carpe Diem #1692 Summer Love ... extreme haibun

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first regular episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai of July 2019. July the Heart of Summer. For this new month I have chosen a wonderful theme: Summer Love. All the prompts this month will have to do with (summer) love in all the ways we know them.
As you all (maybe) know one of the Japanese poetry forms was once mentioned to be the poem of love, mostly secrative love. That form, we know nowadays as Tanka, but formerly it was called "waka". It is a five lined verse following the syllables (onji) scheme 5-7-5-7-7. The Tanka "falls" apart in two parts mostly, the first three lines and last two lines. Sometimes we say a kind of question/answer relation in the two parts, but that's not a rule. Sometimes we see a so called "pivot" in the third line. A "pivot" is a change in sphere or scene and that makes Tanka the best way of writing a love poem.

Summer Love

This month we will see a lot of examples of love in Japanese poetry, but for starters I have chosen to challenge you with the creation of a so called "extreme haibun". An "extreme haibun" is a short story in which you may use a maximum of 50 words including the poetry. So it's really a short story.

For this first episode the theme of the month is also the theme for the day "Summer Love".

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

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #89 Extreme Haibun ... rain

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

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. The place to be if you like to create and share Japanese poetry. This weekend I have chosen to challenge you with an extreme haibun.

An extreme haibun is, as you maybe remember, a haibun is prose and poetry together, a kind of symbiosis so to say. I will give you a theme and than I challenge you to create an extreme haibunwith a maximum of 100 words including the poems.

For this extreme haibun I have chosen the theme "RAIN". Create a haibun themed rain and share it with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

Rain

Enjoy your weekend. This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday June 16th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 23rd at noon (CEST).

Carpe Diem #1527 Rustling Leaves (extreme haibun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our festive 6th anniversary month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This month all themes are following the alphabet and today we have arrived at the letter R. Today I have a nice challenge for you.

This episode I have titled "Rustling Leaves" and rustling we can use for spring and for autumn, so the whole world can easily sense the meaning of this theme. I love to challenge you to create an extreme haibun. What does that mean ... an extreme haibun?
Well let me tell you ... to create an extreme haibun I have a few rules you have to use:

1. Your haibun may have a maximum of 60 words (tenfold our 6th anniversary) including your haiku or tanka;
2. Your haiku or tanka has to follow the classical rules as you can find above in the Carpe Diem Lecture One (1).
3. Try to create your haibun with a lay-out of leaves (of course this rule is free to use, if you don't want to use this 3rd rule than that's okay.)

Rustling Leaves

I have tried to create a haibun titled "the voice of the wind":

"Listen, listen. Do you hear that mysterious sound? It's the voice of the wind, the gods are talking with us. Listen to the sound of the wind, the birds, the young leaves, listen with your heart not with your mind.
The rustling leaves have something to tell you ... do you hear them whisper?"

rustling leaves
the voice of the wind ... listen
"love each other"

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... it's just a small story, a small haibun and now it is up to you. Listen to the voice of the wind ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 29th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... just listen to the voice of the wind.

Carpe Diem #1421 desert (extreme haibun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last episode of our story telling month. Today we end a wonderful month full of marvelous stories, or better said ... marvelous haibun. The last prompt for this month it desert and I love to challenge you to create an extreme haibun ... meaning that your haibun may have a maximum of 55 words (including the haiku).

To help you to awaken your muse I have a few images of the desert.

Caravan in the desert

African desert

Love in the desert

I remember it well. It was my first visit to the desert. I was part of a caravan and I met a gorgeous woman. She looked like a goddess. In the middle of the desert we fell in love.

desert heat
arouses the senses
sand on buttocks

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... this was our Kamishibai month. Next month we will go on a journey straight through the Andean Mountains.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 6th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, the first of May 2018, later on.

Carpe Diem #1412 Daisies (extreme haibun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. This mnth it's all about haibun and this month got the subtitle "go and tell your story". And you really did and (i hope) will do this. You have told your stories ... you are all wonderful storytellers and that makes me proud, but also humble, because I am not that good with haibun.

Today I have a new task for you all. The prompt for today is "daisies" and you are invited to create an extreme haibun or in other words "your haibun may have a maximum of 55 words including the haiku (or in this task ... tanka).

thousand daisies
around the farmer's house -
lowing of a cow

© Chèvrefeuille

A nice haiku I would say extracted from my archives, maybe it will help you a little bit to become inspired.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until April 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, loneliness, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1409 Broadway (extreme haibun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today we will make a trip to Broadway. I think you all are familiar with Broadway, the place to be if you like musicals and more.

Broadway theatre, commonly known as Broadway, refers to the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.

The great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. Historian Martin Shefter argues, "'Broadway musicals,' culminating in the productions of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, became enormously influential forms of American popular culture" and helped make New York City the cultural capital of the nation.

Broadway by Night

I haven't been there, but I hope it will once be one of my visits at the USA. I am not a big fan of musicals, but Broadway sounds like a legend. So I think Broadway can inspire you to create an "extreme haibun", with a maximum of 55 words including the haiku (or tanka).

To inspire you I have a nice piece of music for you taken from the musical "West Side Story" (1957):

Well ... it is up to you now ... create an "extreme haibun" inspired on Broadway. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 18th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our nex episode, Rainbow, later on.

Carpe Diem #1405 New Life ("extreme" haibun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies if you have fun they say and I think that's true. At the start of this month I already talked a bit about "new life" as introduction to our Easter episode. I just realized today that I had another prompt "lined-up" in the same week with the same idea. But well .... it had to be that way I think.

Today I have an "extreme" challenge for you I challenge you to create a haibun extreme and that means you can use a maximum of 55 words including the haiku. Maybe this sounds crazy, but I think it can. I once created such a haibun for another website I was a regular visitor of. I love to share that haibun with you, but it's not about "new life" as is the theme for today, but it's just to give you an idea that it is possible to create such an "extreme" haibun.

A wondrous place. Trees and streets covered with snow. The bright sunlight. Roofs like crystal.
Love is warming our bodies in front of the fireplace. Drinking red wine, eating marshmallows. This is paradise. Our legs entwined. Lost in each others eyes. Together you and I.

making love
in front of the fireplace -
winter feeling

© Chèvrefeuille

This "extreme" haibun I created back in 2012. I loved creating it. It was a real challenge, because I had to use a maximum of 55 words ... as I ask of you this episode.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until April 12th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now ... have fun!