Carpe Diem #310, Tsuyujimo (dew frost)

Dear haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am preparing this episode with mixed feelings, because it's our last classical Japanese kigo for autumn, but also joy, because we start with our new month. October is our first anniversary and that makes me happy. I hadn't dreamed that Carpe Diem (CD) would be that big of a success as it has become. We have a vast group of contributors and that makes me happy. I have seen you all grow in your skills of writing haiku and that growth has had also effect on me. I love the haiku, and the other Japanese poetry forms, even more then I already did. Earlier today I read a magazine of the Dutch Haiku Society and in that edition I read a few nice articles about Basho (my master) in one of it the author said: "Haiku isn't only a form of poetry, but it's also a way of life". And that is what haiku is ... haiku is a kind of lifestyle intwined with Zen-Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and other ancient philosophies. All those religious/spiritual ways of life are all a piece of Basho's work and life.

The above picture shows a cherry tree starting to blossom and that's what we are here at Carpe Diem ... just starting to bloom. As our next month starts, we start to grow further in a new year of Carpe Diem. To make that second year a way to grow I have changed our groups name a little bit. I have added "kai" to it. "Kai" means "group in Japanese", so we have grown to a Haiku Kai and that makes me happy. So from this day on our haiku-community is called: Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. And with that name I hope we will blossom further and that we will become a full grown cherry tree.

Today we have our last day with a classical Japanese kigo. Today we share haiku on Tsuyujimo (dew frost). And with this kigo we not only depart from autumn, we also enter winter and of course our first anniversary month in which we will have wonderful prompt suggested by you all and we have a wonderful featured haiku poet Garry Gay. I am looking forward to this festive month.

"Dew frost" is a kind of thin layer of frost on branches, grasses and so on. It's the first signal for the upcoming winter cold, but it also is a wonderful fragile kind of frost which changes Mother Nature's face in to a mysterious and magical world. I love to walk through nature as this dew frost occurs and the early sunlight starts to shine. The trees look somewhat like crystal or diamonds, so fragile in it's beauty. Really awesome ...

Credits: Dew frost

What a wonderful sight ... look at those dew drops frozen, like pearls ... nature can be that beautiful, that fragile, that transient ... just like life itself.


early morning walk
through the park that looks so fragile -
sunrise and dew frost

cobweb sparkles
prince winter has made his round
through the city-park


Dew frost ... so fragile and so beautiful ... I hope this episode has inspired you to write your own haiku on dew frost. Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at the Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
This prompt will stay on 'till October 1st 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode (the first of our anniversary month) later on today around 7.00 PM (CET). That new prompt will be:  Eclipse, provided by Bjorn Rudberg. !! Now open for your submissions !!