Carpe Diem #1586 withered leaves

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

"Withered leaves" is our modern kigo for today's episode. It's taken from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku" section: winter, subsection: plants. A wonderful modern kigo to work with I think so no further explanation needed.

Withered Leaves

And to awaken your muses ... here are a few haiku extracted from Jane's Saijiki as examples for this modern kigo:

up to a branch
wind took a winter leaf
let it fall again

snow
cooling the colors
withered leaves

frost spikes
the growing cold
of withered leaves

© Jane Reichhold

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 23rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1585 icicles (tsurara)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. The place to be if you like to write and share haiku or other kinds of Japanese poetry. This month we are exploring modern and classical seasonwords for winter. And today I have a nice classical kigo (seasonword) for you.

The prompt for today is Icicles (tsurara) and that's a classical kigo for "late winter", but in my opinion that's not completely true, because Icicles we see through whole winter.

I have found a wonderful haiku on 'icicles' written by Issa:

yûkaze ya yashiro no tsurara hi no utsuru

night wind --
the shrine's icicles
reflect the lights

© Kobayashi Issa

Icicles (image found on Pixabay)

Well ... now it's my turn ...

icicles hanging
at the gutter of the old mansion
sun's reflections

© Chèvrefeuille

I think icicles are the most beautiful thing of winter, they are so fragile and look like crystals.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 22nd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1584 Winter Renga With Jane Reichhold -- spots of blue

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. Sorry for being this late, but I hadn't time to publish it on time. This month we are exploring modern and classical seasonwords (kigo) for winter and today I have six modern kigo for you to work with. All kigo are taken from Jane Reichhold's Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku" and are all from the section Winter, subsection Celestial.

Today I love to challenge you to create a renga with Jane Reichhold. I will give you six haiku written by her to work with (including the six modern kigo) and create a renga with. As you all know in this feature you can choose your own "line-up" of the given haiku and you have to add the two lined stanza between them. Try to make the "chain" complete by using the "hokku" and the "ageku" rule, that means the last stanza, the ageku, has to be connected to the first stanza, the hokku, through association.

Here are the six modern kigo I have chosen: air, dawn, moon, stars, first light and sunset. And here are the haiku to work with:

frost sharp air
cut into pieces by sunshine
sparkling on snow 

winter dawn
sounds of blowing snow
sleeping birds 

spots of blue
varying the light to fit
tracks in the snow 

Tracks In The Snow

cold winds
rounding snow-capped peaks
a full moon 

before one star
beams from the lighthouse
search the sky 

ocean sunset
staying by the window
'till the color sinks 

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

Six wonderful haiku by Jane to work with. Take the opportunity to create a renga together with Jane Reichhold in honor of her. She is still missed.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 21st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1583 winter seclusion (fuyugomori)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the new week ... I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and that you all have found the inspiration for our tough challenge "Troiku Hineri".

This month we are exploring the kigo for winter, not only classical but also modern kigo are the themes this month. Before the weekend we had a modern kigo by Jane Reichhold so today it's time for a classical kigo.

Today this classical kigo you can use during the whole winter, or as the classical Saijiki all say "All Winter". Winter Seclusion (fuyugomori) is our kigo today. I think it needs no explanation, but I have found a nice haiku with this kigo by Matsuo Basho. He wrote this haiku at the age of 45.

Fuyugomori (Winter Seclusion)

In rural Japan, especially in the Northern areas along the coast of the Sea of Japan, the winter is long and brings enormous amounts of snow. There was nothing much to do that sit back and wait it out. The farmhouses where difficult to heat and the family huddled around the hearth (irori) in the kitchen. It was a tough time to live through with great endurance. This is what we call winter seclusion, really a tough time.

Here is the haiku I mentioned above:

sashikomoru mugura no tomo kabuna uri

winter seclusion
the only friend to rely on
grass stuffed mattres

© Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

A nice classical haiku I think, my translation is a way of free-styling, because "sashikomoru" means actually "staying indoors", but in my opinion that's almost the same as "fuyugomori" (winter seclusion).

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 20th at noon (CET). Tomorrow we will have another nice modern kigo taken from Jane's Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku". For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #67 Troiku Hineri: Apple Blossoms

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday January 13th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new edition of our CDHK Weekend Meditation. Earlier I promised you to follow the Pan American Highway in our weekend meditations this month, but I have decided to leave the Pan American Highway and give you another challenge for this weekend.

We have done this more often here at CDHK so here is your task for this weekend meditation: I will give you four haiku to work with. You may decide which haiku you want to use to create a "fusion-ku" with. Of course the "crossroads-idea" is not the only thing you have to do. I love to challenge you to create a Troiku Hineri with your "fusion-ku". What is a "Troiku Hineri"? Well let me try to explain that:

Logo Troiku Hineri

As you all know a Troiku starts with a haiku and the following three haiku start with the separated lines of the first haiku. In a "Troiku Hineri" (a Troiku with a twist) I challenge you to do the same with the three haiku following the "starter-haiku" of the Troiku. So you have to create nine new haiku with the separated lines of your first three haiku of the "regular Troiku". All together ... you have to create TWELVE new haiku and ofcourse your "fusion-ku". It's a tough challenge I think ... so take your time, meditate and contemplate on what you are going to share with us.

Here are the four haiku to work with, all haiku by Jane Reichhold and taken from her online Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", Spring section:

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

clusters talking
together in admiration
apple blossoms

sun transformed
into apple blossoms
the ground is level

the dam is broken
spring cascades into valleys
as apple blossoms

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Peacock, Apple Blossom by Bairei Kono (1899) (image found on Pinterest)

Well ... a nice, but difficult challenge for this weekend I think. But I am confident that you all can do it. Have a great weekend!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 13th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 20th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1582 Black Birds (modern kigo)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at our wonderful Haiku Kai were we are exploring the beauty of all kinds of Japanese poetry especially haiku and tanka. This month we are exploring kigo, those nice words that point towards the season in which the haiku scene was seen. This month I have chosen kigo (classical and modern) for winter and today I have a wonderful modern kigo taken from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku", a modern Saijiki.

Winter is associated with snow, virginity, cold weather and so on. The "white-ness" in contrast with for example the blackness of several kinds of birds. Maybe you remember this beauty by Basho:

a crow
has settled on a bare branch —
autumn evening

© Basho

Crow

Of course this isn't a real winter haiku, but it can be easily set into winter in my opinion. I have  given it a try:

winter moonlight
on a bare branch covered with snow
a crow's shadow

© Chèvrefeuille

Today our modern kigo is Black Birds, extracted from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku" and here are a few haiku written by Jane taken from her above mentioned Saijiki:

flying from the branch
sun in a bird's wing
a shower of snow

blackbirds leaving
on bare winter wands
pussy willows

winter birds
kicking down fireworks
from snowy twigs

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Black Birds

Well ... I hope I have inspired you all to create haiku with this modern kigo. Maybe you can try to create a tanka or maybe choose the classical way of haiku writing and use the classical rules. It's all up to you.

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

Carpe Diem #1581 Setsubun

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month we are exploring all kigo (seasonwords) for winter not only the classical kigo, but also the  modern kigo as gathered by Jane Reichhold in her Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku". Today I have a wonderful classical kigo for you to work with ... setsubun. This is a not so well known classical kigo and I think I have to give you a small explanation of this classical kigo.

Setsubun: The last day of winter. Features ritualistic chasing of devils out of the house, allowing good luck for the spring (the traditional New Year). Compare the English ritual of opening front and back doors.
Setsubun is an annual Japanese festival on February 3rd. Setsubun is the beginning of Spring according to the old Japanese lunar calendar. It's traditionally believed that the spirit world comes closer to our world at this time of year. Strips of paper with people's wishes inscribed on them are placed over the lanterns. It's thought that wishes may be granted on Setsubun, but they also think that, through the idea of having the spirit world closer by at this event, demons can escape to our world..

Daffodils ... sign of Setsubun

And here is an example of a haiku by myself themed "setsubun":

dispelling the darkness
after the long cold winter
welcoming the light

Or this one with another angle:

covered with snow
winter is coming to an end
Daffodils blooming

© Chèvrefeuille

Two nice haiku (how immodest) in which I have tried to catch "setsubun".

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 16th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

PS.: I am far behind with commenting and I don't know if I can catch up, but of course I will try.