Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #104 Photo-shopping Haiku "Camellia" (Yosa Buson)

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 29th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. This weekend I have chosen for an episode of our so called "Photo-shopping Haiku", that wonderful special feature in which I challenge you to "photo-shop" a renown haiku to make it (maybe) better.

For this "photo-shopping" episode I have chosen a (not so) renown haiku by Buson (1716-1784). Buson is one of the so called big five (next to him we have Basho, Issa, Shiki and Chiyo-ni) and he has written wonderful haiku. He was also an awesome haiga painter and he illustrated the first official print of Basho"s "Small Road Into The Deep North".

Illustrated version of Basho's "Narrow Road Into The Deep North" with haiga by Buson

What a wonderful haiga Buson created for this printed version of Basho's "Narrow Road Into The Deep North", but the haiku to photo-shop is not taken from this haibun by Basho, but a haiku by Buson.

Here is the haiku to "photo-shop":

tama-suri-no zayu ni hiraku tsubaki kana

Unfolding at the
hand of the glass polisher:
a camellia!

© Buson (1716-1784)

More about "photo-shopping haiku".

Well .... a nice challenge I think. This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 29th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 6th at noon (CEST). Have a wonderful weekend full of inspiration and joy.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #101 Photoshopping Haiku "Criket Silence"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 8th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at our new (belated) weekend meditation. This weekend I love to challenge you to "photoshop" haiku. Let me give you all the "short" explanation of "photo-shopping haiku":

Photo-shopping sounds awfull but, I think it's possible to "photo-shop" haiku and tanka too. Just a little change can make the difference between a good haiku (or tanka) and an excellent haiku (or tanka).

I love to make photos, but I am not a photographer that likes color. I am more of the black and white and sepia photos, because in my opinion the photos are more beautiful ... more vintage.
Maybe it's because of my age (56 yrs) or of my melancholic mind I don't know, but I do know that we can re-make "photo-shop" a haiku (or tanka) into a vintage one just by retouching of a small part. So this new feature, that I first titled "vintage haiku", I have "re-titled" into "photo-shopping haiku".

Let me give you an example:

autumn has come
visiting my ear on
a pillow of wind

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

As I start "photo-shopping" this haiku by my master, Matsuo Basho, than I think 'I can bring more softness, tranquility, into it by changing a small part of this haiku into:

whispering into my ear
on a pillow of wind

In this example I only let the first line un-touched:

autumn has come
whispering into my ear
on a pillow of wind

© Chèvrefeuille

I think this "small" re-touch makes this haiku more soft, lovely and tranquil.

I think, no I know that you all understand the goal of this "photo-shopping haiku", try to create a "better" version of a given haiku. Maybe you only change a few words or maybe you think this haiku becomes "better" as "re-make" it into a tanka. You are free in the choices you make.

Autumn Silence

This weekend I love to challenge you to "photo-shop" an autumn haiku created by Jane Reichhold and taken from her online version of "A Dictionary of Haiku".

cricket silence
between scraping sounds
autumn begins

© Jane Reichhold (Source: A Dictionary of Haiku; Section Autumn, subsection Celestial)

A wonderful haiku by our beloved Jane, she is still missed. "Photo-shop" her haiku to honor her.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 8th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 15th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend full of inspiration.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #94 Crow (Photo-shopping haiku)

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 21st at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. This special feature is meant to meditate and contemplate on a given challenge. For this weekend I have chosen for an episode of "Carpe Diem's Photo Shopping Haiku", that nice special feature in which I ask you to "photoshop" a given haiku. (More about this special feature you can find HERE)

For this weekend I have chosen a wonderful haiku by renown haiku poet (and my master) Matsuo Basho. I think you all will know this haiku:

kare eda ni karasu no tomarikeri aki no kure
on a bare branch
a crow has stopped
autumn dusk 

© Basho (Tr. Stephen Wolfe)

And a little background on this haiku:

In 1689, five years before his death, Basho wrote this final version of this seminal haiku, which, according to many literary critics, ushered in modern haiku replete with its subtle yet profound power. It represented a revolutionary change from the shallow, pun-ridden, clumsy haiku of the
Danrin School that held sway at the time. In the words of R. H. Blyth, this 'crow' haiku by Basho was the watershed in "the setting up of his own, indeed, the creation of what we now call 'haiku.”

Basho's care in perfecting his crow haiku suggests that he was striving for a breakthrough nuanced innovation that he hoped would chart a new direction for haiku. Judging by the commentary of innumerable Japanese poets, scholars, and Zen practitioners who saw in this haiku a whole gamut of Japanese aesthetic principles and expression, Basho was successful.

And now it is up to you to create a "photo-shopping" haiku from it by leaving a small bit or transfer a small part for another part, other words.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 21st at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 28th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #85 Photo-shopping Haiku (2) Cherry Blossom

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday May 19th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new CDHK Weekend Meditation. That special feature that gives you the opportunity to meditate and contemplate before you can submit your response. Before I give you the new "weekend meditation" task I have an announcement to make.

As you maybe remember ... last month I took a week off ... That gave me the opportunity to take a rest and have more time for those around me. I also told you last month that I will take a week off every month and next week is that week. This weekend meditation is the start of this week off and next Friday May 24th I will publish our new weekend meditation. So next week I will not publish our regular episodes. It gives you also time to take your time to respond without the pressure of a new episode every day.

Okay back to this weekend meditation. Several weeks ago I intoduced to you a new feature here at CDHK "Photo-Shopping Haiku". (description of this new feature HERE).

Cherry Blossom

For this weekend meditation "Photo-Shopping Haiku" I have chosen a beautiful haiku to "photo-shop" by Kobayashi Issa:

even an old man
has New Year's eyes...
cherry blossoms

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)

Give it a thought and try to 'photo-shop" it to a "better version of itself" just by "a little change". Have fun!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday May 19th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 26th at noon (CEST). Have a wonderful weekend!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #82 Introducing a new feature ... "photo-shopping haiku"

!! open for your submissions next Sunday April 28th at 7:00 PM (CEST)  !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Introducing a new feature. "A new feature again?" I can hear you almost say or think that, but I think it's time for something new as you also will see soon in the lay-out of our wonderful Haiku Kai. I have chosen a more modern look and I hope you all will like it.
Why this upcoming change? Well ... I took a week off for the very first time at CDHK, but that doesn't mean I wasn't busy with CDHK, however ... I did like this week off and I will do that every month from now on. Maybe you think "The end of CDHK is near", but that's not what this means. It gives me the opportunity to improve CDHK. CDHK was once, according to Jane Reichhold, the best website on haiku around the globe, and that's my dear CDHK-family members, my goal ... to stay "on top of the world" so to say.

As you all know I see, Matsuo Basho, as my master and I just hope that I am worthy to be his apprentice.

Basho once said: "I tried to give up the way of fuga (poetry) and stop writing verses. But each time I did so, a poetic sentiment would tug at my heart and something would flicker in my mind. Such is, the magic spell of the life of poetry".

And that's my feeling right now. I am on a, say ..., crossroad but cannot decide which road I will take.
My dilemma is: "Do I go on with my poetry or do I leave the road of poetry. Do I go on with CDHK or will I stop and close the website. It's really a dilemma, because I love what I am creating with CDHK, but it takes a lot of my time. Creating CDHK takes from my personal time to create haiku. Back in the late eighties I discovered the beauty of haiku ... I was immediately caught by this beautiful small poem. During the years my haiku writing skills evolved to a certain quality and (how immodest) my haiku arose to the quality of Basho, but since I started CDHK it feels that I just create haiku commercially and that's for sure not how I saw haiku back in the late eighties.
Ofcourse sometimes I create haiku with quality like those by Basho, but it doesn't give me the pleasure anymore that I felt. This makes me sad, this is why I chose to take a week off. This week brought me a lot of insight. It gave me the insight that creating CDHK is my passion and I can't live without it. So I am back on track ... or like Basho I am under the magic spell of the life of poetry.

Back to the "root" of this episode "introducing a new feature".

A new feature at CDHK not easy to create, but I have found a new idea and I am trying to make it fit for our new modernised (soon the kay-out will change) CDHK.
Not so long ago I saw an episode of the TV-show "America's Next Top Model". In that episode the producers showed the public how photos are retouched to make the model look more beautiful and attractive. Something like "photo-shopping" I think or revising.
Photo-shopping sounds awfull but, I think it's possible to "photo-shop" haiku and tanka too. Just a little change can make the difference between a good haiku (or tanka) and an excellent haiku (or tanka).
I love to make photos, but I am not a photographer that likes color. I am more of the black and white and sepia photos, because in my opinion the photos are more beautiful ... more vintage.

Maybe it's because of my age (56 yrs) or of my melancholic mind I don't know, but I do know that we can re-make "photo-shop" a haiku (or tanka) into a vintage one just by retouching of a small part. So this new feature, that I first titled "vintage haiku", I have "re-titled" into "photo-shopping haiku".

Let me give you an example:

autumn has come
visiting my ear on
a pillow of wind

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

As I start "photo-shopping" this haiku by my master, Matsuo Basho, than I think 'I can bring more softness, tranquility, into it by changing a small part of this haiku into:

whispering into my ear
on a pillow of wind

In this example I only let the first line un-touched:

autumn has come
whispering into my ear
on a pillow of wind

© Chèvrefeuille

I think this "small" re-touch makes this haiku more soft, lovely and tranquil. What do you think?

The first challenge for this new feature "Photo-shopping Haiku" is: "Photo-shop" the above haiku by Basho. Good Luck!

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday April 28th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 5th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!