Carpe Diem Extra September 14th 2018: Last Call For Submissions Troiku Kukai 2nd edition

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,


Our 2nd edition of the Troiku Kukai is almost over you can submit your Troiku created from the following haiku by Yosa Buson until September 15th 10:00 PM (CEST).


Springtime rain -- 
little shell on a small beach, 
enough to moisten it


© Yosa Buson (Tr. unknown)


Email your Troiku to our email-address: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com Please write Troiku Kukai 2 in the subject line.


!!! Last call for submissions !!!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (10) locusts fly low

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are exploring Japanese poetry and this month ... Tan Renga. By the way my apologies for being late with publishing.

Today I have chosen a haiku written by Masaoka Shiki, the haiku poet who gave haiku its name and who brought haiku into the modern time. Shiki died in 1902 on the age of 34. I think he was and old soul in a young body. His haiku are really gorgeous and during his life you almost can read the changes in society in his haiku. Maybe you can remember his haiku about the steam engine, but that's not the haiku to work with.

Locusts flying low

Here is the haiku to create the Tan Renga with:

locusts fly low
over rice paddies
in the dim sunlight

© Masaoka Shiki

A real challenge I think. I have given it a thought, but couldn't come up with a 2nd stanza, maybe you can do it ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 20th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... be inspired and above all .... heve fun!

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's Quest For A (New) Masterpiece #3 the quest continues

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here at CDHK we are always active with creating haiku and tanka. And we all are hoping for that beauty that will be everlasting ... our masterpiece.
Today I love to continue our quest for a (new) masterpiece. This is the third episode in this quest here at CDHK. I hope you all will participate again and if it's okay by you all I will create a new exclusive CDHK E-book of all your (new) masterpieces after the fourth episode. That fourth episode I will publish next week on Wednesday.

What is a masterpiece? Let me re-produce that from the first episode of this new feature:

What makes a haiku (or tanka) a masterpiece? Well ... I will give it a try to tell you what a haiku (or tanka) makes a masterpiece in my opinion.
First: It has to describe a moment that got your attention.
Second: You have to use the right words. Words that describe the moment in its true way.
Third: Maybe ... use the classical way of creating haiku (or tanka) (as mentioned in CDHK Lecture One above in the menu).
Fourth: It has been written right from the heart or soul not the mind.
Fifth: It's (maybe) in the sense and tone of the classical haiku (tanka) poets.
Sixth: It has to be ... how shall I say it ... be your child, your creation ... in a masterpiece we can read, between the lines, the poet who created it.

Pine Tree (woodblock by Imoto Tekiho)

Let me give you an example of such a masterpiece by one of the classical haiku poets, Uejima Onitsura:

Uejima Onitsura was a Japanese haiku poet of the Edo period, famous in the Osaka region for his haiku poetry. Belonging to the Danrin school of Japanese poetry, Uejima is credited of helping to define and exemplify Bashō's style of poetry.

He has written several "masterpieces", I love his haiku that I use as an example:

a cooling breeze — 
and the whole sky is filled 
with pine-tree voices

© Onitsura (1660-1738)

And now it's up to you, my dear Haijin, to create your masterpiece, a haiku or tanka, and share it with us all. Don't be shy ... we are a loving family of haiku poets, so feel free to share your (new) masterpiece.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our fourth "quest for a (new) masterpiece" on that same day around 7:00 PM (CEST).

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (8) pear tree in bloom

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our TRC month September 2018. A few days ago I challenged you to create the first stanza (hokku) of the Tan Renga inspired on the 2nd stanza given by me. I have another Hineri TRC for you today. This time I have chosen a quote by Masaoka Shiki and reworked it to a 2nd stanza. The goal is to create the first stanza of this Tan Renga.

Here is the re-worked quote by Shiki. I have turned it into the 2nd stanza to work with:

pear tree in full bloom on a battlefield
collapsed house becomes beautiful again

© Shiki (re-worked by Chèvrefeuille)

Pear Tree In Bloom (woodblock print by Kono Bairei)

A nice 2nd stanza to work with I would say. Now it is up to you to create the first stanza (hokku) of this Tan Renga.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 18th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!

Renga With Basho Hineri #8 missing a wife

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Renga With Basho. This time I have another Renga With Basho Hineri (with a twist) for you. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) one of the most famous classical haiku poets has written a lot of haiku during his lifetime (around 1000 haiku). All wonderful but there is one haiku written by him that isn't finished, the third line is missing. If that haiku wasn't really finshed or that third line has been lost we don't know, but that unfinished haiku gives us the opportunity to be creative. How creative? Well ... we have the opportunity to create the third line of the haiku that was started by the master himself. That opportunity I will give you in this Renga With Basho Hineri episode.

I will give you six (6) haiku written by Basho, one of them is that unfinished haiku. The goal is to create a renga by adding your two-lined stanza (approximately 14 syllables) as we have done earlier, but you have to complete that unfinished haiku too. Of course you have the opportunity to choose your own line-up of the haiku.

Chinquapin Tree ("fake" chestnut)

Here are the six (6) haiku (including that unfinished one) to create your renga with Basho with:

missing a wife
putting on bamboo grass
--------------------

above all else
a dependable chinquapin tree stands
in a summer grove

path of the sun
the hollyhock leans into
early summer rain

each with its own light
fireflies in the trees
lodge in flowers

Dragonfly (image credits: National Trust For Scotland)

a dragonfly
unable to settle
on the grass

an early winter shower
a rice paddy with new stubble
darkens just a bit

© Matsuo Basho (taken from Basho, The Complete Haiku by Jane Reichhold)

A nice series of haiku to work with I think. I am looking forward to how your Renga With Basho will evolve. !! Don't forget to make that unfinsihed haiku complete, before you use it in your renga with Basho !!

To give you an idea how to complete that unfinished haiku here is my attempt to make it complete:

missing a wife
the bamboo grass dives under -
wise men's gathering (*)

© Chèvrefeuille

(*) refers to the "The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove", a group of Chinese scholars and poets in the mid third century,very similar with what Henry Thoreau describes in his "Walden, Life in the Woods".

Well ... a nice challenge I think ... have fun!

This Renga With Basho episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 18th at noon (CEST). Have fun. Enjoy this nice exercise to create a renga together with one of the most famous haiku poets ... Matsuo Basho.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (7) grasses wilt

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First ... my apologies for being this late with publishing our new TRC. I had a very busy evening shift in the hospital.

This month we have our 3rd edition of the TRC-month in which I challenge you to complete a Tan Renga with a given haiku by a classical or non-classical haiku poet. Today I have a nice haiku for you to work with by Seishi.

This haiku I found (again) on the same website as the haiku of yesterday by Patrick Blanche. This haiku is also in a translation by Burch.

Here is the haiku to work with:

grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt.

©️ Yamaguchi Seishi, (Tr. Michael R. Burch)

Steamengine on the railroad at Takanawa (woodblockprint by Ikkei)

As I read this haiku by Seishi I immediately thought of that nice haiku by Shiki:

smoke whirls
after the passage of a train.
young foliage.

© Shiki

Two beautiful haiku I would say, but the TRC for today is to create a Tan Renga with the haiku by Seishi, but if you also would like to create a Tan Renga with the haiku by Shiki than feel free to do as you like.

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