Carpe Diem's Autumn Retreat 2018 Love Eternally

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Autumn has started so it's time for our seasonly Retreat, a period of 30 days to write haiku or tanka every day on a specific theme. This tradition is really awesome and it needs "focusing" because all the haiku and tanka created during the Retreat have somewhat to do with the theme given.

For this Autumn Retreat 2018 I have chosen the theme "Love Eternally" and I think it speaks for it self. As you all (maybe) know Tanka is known as the "love poem", but I think (and I have said that often here at CDHK) that Haiku can be a love poem too. So for this Autumn Retreat 2018 I challenge you to create haiku (and tanka) on love eternally.

I hope you all like this theme and I hope you will have a wonderful Autumn Retreat this year. You can submit haiku and tanka inspired on the theme. Please give your submitted poems a number.

Love Eternally

a white crane
visits the graveyard of the temple -
peach blossoms bloom

© Chèvrefeuille

The Autumn Retreat 2018 is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 14th at 10:00 PM (CET). Have an awesome Retreat full of joy and inspiration.

PS.: During the Autumn Retreat you can find the link towards it at the left side of our Kai in the section "Highlighted".

Carpe Diem #1522 Matsushima ... an amazing sight (CD Imagination)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

During lack of time I have a "short" episode for you. For today I have chosen to challenge you to create haiku or tanka inspired on an image of Matsushima. Matsushima is a city on the northeast coast of Japan's Honshu Island. It’s known for the hundreds of forested islands that dot Matsushima Bay. The grand Zuiganji Temple was built in 1609. Nearby, Entsūin Temple is noted for its moss, rock and rose gardens, and for its colorful fall foliage. From the port, a curved red bridge leads to the wooden Godaidō Temple. Trails criss-cross the pine forest on Fukuurajima Island.

And there is a haiku by Basho about this beautiful place on earth:

Matsushima ah!
A-ah, Matsushima, ah!
Matsushima, ah!

© Matsuo Basho

Matsushima

In his "Oku No Hosomichi" (Small Road Into The Deep North) Basho describes Matsushima as follows:

[...] "Much praise has already been lavished on the wonders of the islands of Matsushima. Yet if further praise is possible, I would like to say that here is the most beautiful spot in the whole country of Japan, and that the beauty of these islands is not in the least inferior to the beauty of Lake Dotei or Lake Seiko in China. The islands are situated in a bay about three miles wide in every direction and open to the sea through a narrow mouth on the south-east side. Just as the River Sekko in China is made full at each swell of the tide, so is this bay filled with the brimming water of the ocean and the innumerable islands are scattered over it from one end to the other. Tall islands point to the sky and level ones prostrate themselves before the surges of water. Islands are piled above islands, and islands are joined to islands, so that they look exactly like parents caressing their children or walking with them arm in arm. The pines are of the freshest green and their branches are curved in exquisite lines, bent by the wind constantly blowing through them. Indeed, the beauty of the entire scene can only be compared to the most divinely endowed of feminine countenances, for who else could have created such beauty but the great god of nature himself? My pen strove in vain to equal this superb creation of divine artifice." [...] (Source: Oku No Hosomichi)

There is also a haiku by Sora, Basho's travel companion about Matsushima:

at Matsushima
borrow your plumes from the crane
O nightingales!

© Sora (Tr. Donald Keene)

Here is the image for your inspiration. It is a Woodblock Print titled "Spring Rain At Matsushima":

Spring Rain At Matsushima (1936) (Woodblock Print)

tears on pine trees
I need an umbrella to walk
ah! the breath of spring

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 22nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1521 Lao Tzu ... flexibility of water

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time slips through our fingers like grains of sand or in other words ... our festive 6th anniverasry is almost halfway and we have already had nice challenging prompts / themes to work with. And this month will be a little bit more beautiful I would say, because tomorrow, at 10:00 PM (CEST), our seasonly retreat starts. 30 Days of writing haiku or tanka inspired on a theme. This year's autumn retreat that theme is "Love Eternally", but that's not our point for this episode.

This month we have all prompts / themes following the alphabet and today we have arrived  at the letter L and today I love to cahllenge you to create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on a quote by Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher. So today it's a "Use That Quote" episode. Here is the quote to use:

[...] "Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it."[...] (Lao Tzu)

Brook in the woods

A wonderful quote to work with I think, not an easy one maybe, but I think you all can create wonderful poems with it. Of course I had to do an attempt myself:

timeless beauty -
the glint of polished pebbles
in the crystal brook

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not bad (how immodest), but it's not a new one (july 2013) I took it from my archive(s). So it's not completely fair, so here is a real new one:

reflection
wrinkles in my face make me old
the brook still young

© Chèvrefeuille (2018)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 21st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #54 Crossroads Crystal Brook (troiku)

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday October 14th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's weekend again, so it's time for a new weekend meditation and this weekend I have chosen to give you an all new episode of our special feature "Carpe Diem Crossroads". Let me explain the goal of crossroads here again.

You all know (I think) what a crossroad is it's a point where two (or more) roads are crossing each other. A crossroad is also a place (as several religions and philosophies are saying) were the gods are resting and were pilgrims can rest, meditate and contemplate which road they will or have to take.
I think you all have been there at least once in your lifetime. As I look at myself I have been on a crossroad several times. There were moments in my life were I was on a crossroad to make choices. Some of them I regret now, but mostly I have no regrets about my choices. One of those choices was to create CDHK as a kind of place on the Internet were haiku poets could find their inspiration to create haiku.

New Logo CD Crossroads (photo © Chèvrefeuille)

Haiku is still my first love, but during the years of our existence I learned to love and appreciate all kinds of Japanese poetry. And there we find the goal of this new feature "crossroads". In this new feature I love to challenge you to create a new haiku (ONLY haiku) inspired on two or more poems. That can be two haiku or one haiku and one tanka. Or one haiku and e.g. a sedoka. You have to create your new haiku (Only haiku) from the given poems. Sometimes I will give you a "normal" poem and a haiku (or tanka) to use for your inspiration to create haiku (ONLY haiku).

Imagine you are on a crossroad were two haiku come together. The haiku "have a conversation" and "decide" to become one. Together they create a symbiosis of a new haiku.
It will not be an easy task, but I think it will be fun.

Yozakura (1640-1716)

Here are the two haiku, by Yozakura, the Unknown Haiku Poet, you have to use. Create a "fuse" of both, you can use the words from the both haiku, but if you are inspired to create a new haiku with new words ... feel free:

crystal brook
reflects the willow trees
birds sing their song

sweet perfume

memories of a loved one

Jasmine blossom

© Yozakura

Well ... I hope you understand the goal of this new feature. Try it ... be on that crossroad ... be silent and listen to what the gods and pilgrims have left there.

For this weekend meditation I love to make this challenge a little bit more difficult. You have to create a Troiku (more above in the menu) with the "fusion" haiku you have created from the both haiku by Yozakura. A nice task for this weekend I think ... so have a wonderful weekend full of inspiration, but don't forget there is also need for time to relax (smiles).

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday October 14th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 21st at noon (CEST). Have a nice weekend!

Carpe Diem #1520 Kanshicho ... in the way of Chinese poetry (free-styling with haiku)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you can remember our discussion about a certain style of haiku writing, Kanshicho. That discussion we had back in 2014. It's a free-styling way of haiku writing, but as we dived further in this matter we discovered that Kanshicho was a "hoax", but as you maybe know I love to create my haiku in a free style way, so I use Kanshicho to define my haiku.

I love to go back in time and will try to explain Kanshicho here again:

[...[ "In response of this change in haiku-poetry Basho and others introduce the Kanshicho: in the tone of the Chinese verse. In Kanshicho the breaking of the 5-7-5 rule is no exception. Basho uses this Kanshicho-style during the years 1683-1685 as he lives as a recluse in Fukagawa. Basho's Kanshicho-style is prominent in an anthology compiled by Kikaku "An Empty Chestnut" (1683). The Kanshicho-style disappears after three years (1685) and Basho re-writes several Kanshicho-styled haiku into the classical way. [...]

I will look at the separate "onji" of "Kanshicho" now and than I will try to explain what Kanshicho was meant to be.

Kan means: perception, expression

Shi means extravagance, pride, poetry

Cho means frivolity, number, butterfly

Kanshi means Chinese poetry

As I place those meanings together than Kanshicho means:

A poem in the Chinese way that expresses the extravagance and pride of the poet with the frivolity of the flight of a butterfly. And then Kanshicho starts to come to life. It's an expression of something which is seen by the poet, a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown in to water, in which he/she sees the extravagant beauty  and pride of nature. That extravagance beauty is caught in a three lined verse with the frivolity, (in my opinion frivolity means "not strings attached, free") of the flight of a butterfly.

Butterfly

This explanation could have been used by Basho and his companions to bring the essence and beauty of haiku to the ordinary people. Frivolity like the flight of a butterfly can not be caught in a 5-7-5 strict rule, so to bring that frivolity into the haiku, Basho, Soin and others broke the rule of 5-7-5 ...

I hope that I have explained the Kanshicho-style and that we all just see it as a chance to experiment with our beloved haiku ... because that's the most important of haiku ... enjoying it and feel free to give form to your feelings whether that is in the classical or in the non-classical way of haiku.

For this episode I have the following "challenge" ... try to write a haiku in which the meaning of Kanshicho as mentioned above can be seen or found. Just try to write a haiku that expresses the extravagance and pride of the poet with the frivolity of the flight of a butterfly.

tears fall
on an empty sheet of paper 
a new day rises

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 18th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now.. have fun!

Carpe Diem #1519 Junicho, the twelve stanza renga (Soliloquy No Renga)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy this month is. It's really a feast this month and that makes me happy. I hope you all like the choice of prompts I have made. Today we have arrived at the letter J and I have chosen the theme "Junicho" and for sure you have heard from Junicho, because that's the kind of renga we are creating in our "Renga With ..." feature, but there is something about the Junicho I didn't know. So therefore I have chosen this theme. Let me give you an explanation of the Junicho.

Junicho--meaning ‘twelve tone’--is a ‘single sheet’ poem that disregards the formal separations of the jo-ha-kyu movement. There is no set seasonal progression, though each season is represented and the poem would be expected to open with the season in which composition takes place. Spring and autumn carry their traditional greater weight, the poem overall dividing more or less equally between season and non-season verses. The typical distribution therefore is: winter - one, summer - one, spring - two, autumn - two, and non-season - six.

cherry blossom road

The Junicho allows for a single blossom verse; this may appear in any season and be any type of flower. The poem will likewise contain a single moon verse that may also appear in any season and be otherwise shorn of classical precedent. 'Love' will be represented by a pair or so of verses that may appear in any position.

Source: Simply Haiku (online haiku magazine)

So for this episode I challenge you to create a Junicho on your own following the above mentioned pattern. As you can read above a traditional Junicho opens with the season in which composition takes place. So if you are living on the Northern Hemisphere, your Junicho has to start with an autumn verse. Are you living on the Southern Hemisphere, your Junicho has to start with a spring verse.

Enjoy rhis challenge!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 17th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1518 Inkstone and pencil (free style)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Nowadays we have computers, tablets and smart-phones we can as we are writing our haiku, tanka and more. By the way I am a little bit old-fashioned, because I still use paper and pen before writing our episodes for CDHK. I love to write old-fashioned, because than I can strikethrough what I have written before I publish it.

In Basho's days they used inkstone and a pencil, like we do nowadays with Sumi-e. Basho, as a traveling poet used those materials very often. It was easy to take it with him and it made it easy to write immediately.

I remember that we had the same theme in our 4th anniversary month, I will give you the URL to that post at the end so you can revisit it. I searched the Internet for a few examples of haiku in which "inkstone and pencil" are used, this example you will know:

suzuri ka to hirou ya kuboki ishi no tsuyu

Saigyo's inkstone?
I pick it up -- dew
on the concave rock

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Barnhill)

Inkstone

Jane Reichhold's translation of this haiku by Basho I like more:

"inkstone"
picking up a hollow stone
with dew

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

I also found a few examples of haiku on inkstone by Issa and Buson. Here are those haiku:

iiwake no tegata ni kooru suzuri kana

upon writing a note
of apology, ice
in my ink-stone

© Issa (Tr. David Lanoue)

kiku no tsuyu ukete suzuri no inochi kana

chrysanthemum dew
is the life blood 
of this ink stone

yamadera no suzuri ni hayashi hatsugoori 

the ink stone
of this mountain temple has it early -
the first ice 

© Buson (Tr. Gabi Greve)

young maple leaves (photo © Olga Volodina)

Another nice classical haiku by a not so renown haiku poet is the following:

waka-kaede kage sasu suzuri araikeri

young maple leaves 
cast a shadow 
I wash my inkstone 

© Mizuhara Shuoshi (Tr. Gabi Greve) (1892-1981)

(*) inkstone is translated in Japanese as "suzuri"

For closure I have a nice haiku from my archives on inkstone:

pen and inkstone
the only things needed on this
uninhabited Island

© Chèvrefeuille

A nice collection of haiku I think. I hope it will inspire you all to create your own Japanese poetry. As you can read in the title you can write in the free-style way. The haiku translation by Jane is an example of "free style", in the free style way you can let go of the rules for writing haiku.

This episode is open for youre submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 16th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Revisit: "pencil and inkstone" episode 1070 October 1st 2016