Monday, June 30, 2014

Carpe Diem # 503, Basho (1) "departing autumn"


!! I am a bit early with posting this new episode, because of a busy day !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Last month (June) we had, in my opinion, a great mnnth.The modern summer kigo by Jane Reichhold were very inspirational, at least to me, but I think you all have enjoyed the prompts of une. We can look back at wonderfull Ghost Writer posts and the inspirational music by BrunuhVille. It was a great CDHK month and the upcoming month (July) will be exciting also. And that new month starts today. Thank you, or in Japanese: Arigato for your inspiration and participation.
Arigato (Thank You)
Basho Revisited, departing autumn

In this first episode of our new CDHK month  I will look at a haiku from Basho's haibun 'The Narrow Road to the Far North'. This verse was the last haiku in his haibun.

hamaguri no   futami ni wakare   yuku aki zo

a clam

torn from its shell
departing autumn


© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
Credits: Oku no Hosomichi (a haibun by Basho)
As I wrote above this is the last verse in Basho's 'Oku no Hosomichi' 'The Narrow Road to the Far North'. Because there are several word plays at work here, the Japanese maintain that there is no way for the poem to be rendered into another language. So here goes: hama (beach); hamaguri (a clam) however 'guri' is also (a chestnut) or (a pebble). And that is only the first line! 'Futami' (place name of the port where the famous Wedded Rocks (two large rocks considered to 'married' which are considered to be sacred) are such an attraction) is made up of the words 'futa' (lid, cover, shell) and 'mu' (body, meat, fruit, nut, berry, seed, substance, contents). The word 'wakare' can be either (to part or to split) or (to leave). Added to the last line (departing autumn) 'wakare' can mean either that it is autumn which is leaving or a person who is departing. In Ogaki, Basho was met by many of his disciples, including Sora who rejoined him, for the end of the trip back to Tokyo. This verse, and the second one in 'Oku no Hosomichi' are considered the 'book-ends' of the work with partings of Spring and Autumn. 

Awesome! Isn't it! This haiku is a masterpiece worthy to enclose his haibun 'Narrow Road' as I read the previous part again.
I love to write a haiku with the same words, but with the other meaning. That will be the challenge for this episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and of course I have to try. No ... I must try.
Credits: Woodblock-print Futamigaura (''The Wedded Rocks'')
a pebble-stone
taken from the Wedded Rocks
a farewell gift
autumn has gone
the only thing that remains
a chestnut


a jackstone

broken of the Married Rocks
a farewell gift
a chestnut
fallen into the grass
departing autumn


on the seashore

the shell of a hermit crab
abandoned
© Chèvrefeuille


Well ... it wasn't easy, but I think I did well. Are these my masterpieces? Or in Basho's Spirit? I don't know. You, my dear readers, may tell me.
Credits: Oku no Hosomichi stamp Matsuo Basho
Well ... this was our first episode of our new CDHK-month July and I hope you did like the read. This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 3rd at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, our first Ghost Writer post of July, later on. For now ... have fun! Share your haiku inspired on the one by Basho with us all here at CDHK. Try to write in the same sense, tone and spirit as Basho.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Carpe Diem #352, Sunflower


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's a bit sad, but today we have our last prompt for this month full of nice modern kigo for summer by Jane Reichhold based on her Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku". Here are a few examples of her haiku on sunflower, our prompt for today:

a kerosene lamp
filling the pitcher
with sunflowers


sunflower
in a month of petals
counting the days


© Jane Reichhold

As you all know I am from The Netherlands and I think you all know Vincent Van Gogh one of our greatest Dutch painters ever. Van Gogh painted a lot of sunflowers here are a few examples of those paintings.







Aren't this wonderful paintings? The second was once the most expensive painting ever. Van Gogh is one of my favorite painters ... next to that other wonderful painter Escher.

reaching for the sun
green and yellowish -
sunflowers blooming


© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until July 3rd at noon (CET). I will try to post our next and first new episode of July later on ... that will be a nice haiku by Basho.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Carpe Diem #501, Strawberry


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another nice summer kigo by Jane Reichhold, strawberry, and here are haiku which she used for example(s):

open fields
on the tip of his tongue
a strawberry


tasting
of wild strawberries
your tongue
our tongues
strawberries tasting
each other


© Jane Reichhold

The first thing I thought of as I prepared this episode was a song from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ... Strawberry Fields Forever ... by The Beatles.


Isn't it a wonderful piece of music? I am not a big fan of The Beatles, but they have for sure great songs.

I have sought they Internet for other songs on strawberries, but I didn't found other songs or musical compositions about strawberries, maybe you know other songs?
Credits: Strawberries
little red queens
tastefull and attractive
strawberry field


© Chèvrefeuille

And there is the other meaning of Strawberry to which the song by The Beatles refers at a location near Central Park West between 71st and 74th Streets. Strawberry Fields is a 2.5 acre area of Central Park that pays tribute to the late Beatle, John Lennon, singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist.
John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono lived in the Dakota Apartments adjacently located to this area of the park. It was here, walking into his home, on December 8, 1980, that John Lennon was murdered and shot dead.
 


Credits: Strawberry Fields
To commemorate his life, talents and memory, on March 26, 1981, City Council Member Henry J. Stern designated this area, the couple's favourite in Central Park, as Strawberry Fields.  Named after the title of the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever," the teardrop shaped region was re-landscaped by the Central Park Conservancy with the help of landscape architect Bruce Kelley and a generous $1 million donation from Yoko Ono.
Credits: Imagine
The iconic black and white Imagine mosaic, designed by a team of artists from the Italian city of Naples, lies in the centre of Strawberry Fields.  Named after another famous song by John Lennon, "Imagine" evokes a vision and hope for a world without strife, war and conflict. Additionally, there is a bronze plaque that lists the more than 120 countries that planted flowers and donated money for the maintenance of the area; they have also endorsed Strawberry Fields as a Garden of Peace.
Credits: Central Park New York "Strawberry Fields".
What a wonderful place this must be ... this Strawberry Fields memorial park for John Lennon. And to conclude this episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai I love to share the song "Imagine" by John Lennon with you all.
 
And here are the lyrics of this wonderful song by John Lennon:
IMAGINE
 
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
 
Credits: I am a dreamer
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

I like this song and I have tried to re-built it into a haiku ... not an easy task, but I think I have succeeded.

imagine a world
without grief and pain, without war -
strawberry field
strawberry field
I dream about a world in peace
were all are one
© Chèvrefeuille
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 1st at noon (CET). I will try to post our new episode, sunflower, later on. For now .... have fun ... be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

 

Friday, June 27, 2014

Carpe Diem Imagination #10


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to publish a new episode of our special feature ''Carpe Diem's Imagination''. As you can see I have created a new logo for this feature and I think it's a great logo, if I may say so.

The goal of this special feature is to write haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun inspired on a given photo. For this episode I have a photo taken in my own frontyard. Our Clematis is in full bloom and she has wonderful deep purple velvet-like flowers. It's really a joy to see how the Clematis blooms this summer. Last summer, as we just had planted it, she had a few flowers, but this year ... her flowers like a waterfall.

Clematis in my frontyard
Isn't she beautiful? Must be a great source of inspiration I think. Here another photo, a close-up of one of the flowers.
Clematis (close-up)
beautiful maiden
dressed in deep purple velvet -
the sound of water

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope this episode will inspire you to write all new haiku ... have fun! This CD Imagination epiode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Friday July 11th at noon (CET).


Carpe Diem #500, Gingko Leaves


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy! Today we have a little celebration ... today we have our 500th prompt on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I never had thought that CDHK would be that succesful, but as we all can see ... CDHK is still alive and kicking. As started in October 2012 I thought ''maybe this will do a year, I couldn't have dreamed that I would still be here with my daily haiku-meme. It's really a joy to share my love for with the world and I know that you all, my dear Haijin, visitor and travelers, our haiku-family, enjoys it a lot. We have a steady growing Haiku Kai and a lot of haiku-poets who are sharing here their haiku on a regular base.

THANK YOU ALL 


Today we are going on with the exploration of the modern summer kigo as created by Jane Reichhold and today our prompt is gingko leaves. Here is an example by Jane:

fanning my cheek
a gingko tree loans us
its papery leaves


As I was preparing this episode I ran into the word ''ginko'' (almost the same as gingko) and it brought immediately a new feature for CDHK in mind. ''Ginko" means in Japanese ''a walk taken with the purpose of writing haiku'' and Jane wrote a haiku with this ''ginko'' in it.

ginko success
finding back home
sand between my toes

© Jane Reichhold

Must be awesome to go on a ''ginko'' together with other Haijin to write haiku. I remember that I once did that with the Haiku Society of The Netherland and it was really fun. We went to the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden (a place near The Hague) and we made a ''ginko'' with eachother. I even remember a haiku which I wrote than:

spider's cobweb
hides the smiling face of Buddha -
a gust of wind

© Chèvrefeuille

Ok ... back to our prompt for today. What's the deeper meaning of Gingko Leaves I asked myself and I sought on the WWW for that deeper meaning it turned out that the Gingko Tree stands for Life Force. The Gingko is very important for e.g. Chinese Alternative medicine and that makes this tree very interesting.
It's known for its fan-shaped leaves, as we also could read in Jane's haiku above.

Credits: Gingko Biloba
Isn't it a wonderful tree? Worth to celebrate our 500th prompt here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai ... it's thanks to all of you that CDHK has become a success.

on his death-bed
he smiles as he sees the Gingko-tree -
blooming Lotuses

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... this was our 500th CDHK (regular) prompt. I hope you did like it ... and maybe you all think ''what a sad haiku Chèvrefeuille has shared here in this celebration-episode'' ... maybe that's true, but I think that even in death is something worth celebrating in the spiritual way of thinking ofcourse.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 30th at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, strawberry, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.


Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #41, ''a fallen flower'' by Moritake


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another week has gone ... time flies ... I had a busy week, but that's no problem. Time is always on my side, sometimes ... I have lack of time, but I think everyone of us will have sometimes lack of time ... well that's life isn't it?
This week's Tan Renga Challenge is a bit different with the other weeks. This week I love to share a haiku by Arakida Moritake (1473-1549), a Japanese poet who also wrote haiku (in his time it was called haikai or hokku). I remember that the first haiku I read was a Dutch translation of a wonderful haiku written by Moritake. I think that you know this haiku, because it's a wellknown haiku.

a fallen flower
flew back to its perch
a  butterfly

© Moritake

Credits: © Shelly Osborne

It's a wonderful haiku I think and it made that I became ''hungry'' for more haiku ... well ... I am over 25 years a haiku-poet and haiku still catches me ... it's my passion (next to my work ofcourse).

The goal is to write a second stanza towards the haiku by Moritake. That second stanza has two lines with the syllables count 7-7, but as you all know ... you don't have to use that 7-7 syllables count for the second stanza, but if you would like to use it ... feel free.

Here is my attempt to complete the Tan Renga:

a fallen flower
flew back to its perch
a butterfly
                                     (Moritake)

colorful leaves swirling
through the empty streets
              (Chèvrefeuille)

A nice continuation I think, but that's up to you to say ... Now it's your turn to make this Tan Renga complete. Have fun!

This Tan Renga Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until next Friday at noon (CET).


Thursday, June 26, 2014

Carpe Diem Special #99, BrunuhVille's 5th ''Mists of Avalon''


!! During lack of time today I publish this new episode this early !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month has gone fast ... and today we have already our last CD Special, a music composition by the young Portugese composer BrunuhVille, today I love to share the next composition:


This composition is titled "Mists of Avalon" and I think this doesn't need further introduction. It's a great composition and I think it will inspire you all to write new haiku.

Credits: Mists of Avalon
The Mists of Avalon is a 1983 novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley, in which she relates the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the female characters. The book follows the trajectory of Morgaine (often called Morgan le Fay in other works), a priestess fighting to save her matriarchal Celtic culture in a country where patriarchal Christianity threatens to destroy the pagan way of life. The epic is focused on the lives of Gwenhwyfar, Viviane, Morgause, Igraine and other women who are often marginalized in Arthurian retellings. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are supporting rather than main characters. The Mists of Avalon is in stark contrast to most other retellings of the Arthurian tales, which consistently cast Morgan le Fay as a distant, one-dimensional evil sorceress, with little or no explanation given for her antagonism to the Round Table. In this case Morgaine is presented as a woman with unique gifts and responsibilities at a time of enormous political and spiritual upheaval who is called upon to defend her indigenous matriarchal heritage against impossible odds. The Mists of Avalon stands as a watershed for feminist interpretation of male-centered myth by articulating women's experiences at times of great change and shifts in gender-power. The typical battles, quests, and feuds of King Arthur's reign act as secondary elements to the women's lives.

mysterious mists
hiding the sacred waters of Avalon -
Lotus reaches to the sky
© Chèvrefeuille
This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 29th at noon. I will try to post our new episode, Gingko leaves, later on. For now ... have fun!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Carpe Diem #499, Buttercups


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joyful ghost-writer post we had yesterday and you have written gorgeous responses on it. Gillena can be proud.
Today we are going further with the exploration of Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku" and we do that with the prompt buttercups. Here is the example which Jane used for her saijiki (list of kigo):

Buttercups
peeping through fog
opening to the sun


© Jane Reichhold

Credits: Buttercups
A nice composed haiku by Jane I think ... and I hope it will inspire you all to write wonderful haiku. For now ... just have fun!

PS.: I am behind with commenting on your posts ... I will catch up a.s.a.p.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 28th at noon. I will post our next episode, our last CD Special by BrunuhVille, later on.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #14, Creation by Gillena Cox of Lunch Break


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another week has gone by and it's time for a new Ghost Writer (GW) post. The following GW-post is by Gillena Cox of Lunch Break and it was scheduled for May 2014, but there were circumstances which made that Gillena could not deliver it at time, so here is here belated GW-post with the prompt ''Creation''.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Creation

When i read the biblical account in the book of Genesis of creation, i am confronted with the aspects of completion, satisfaction, and goodness; how unlike the reality of man's stewardship, in our continuous and ongoing process of doing, crafting and tireless improving; when will we get it right or maybe the question is can we?

spring rain-
all things on earth
become beautiful

© Chiyo-Ni
Chiyo-Ni
browns doves on the lawn
one, then another; do they
ever remain alone

© Gillena Cox (2009-04)


Kristjaan asked for  ghost writers for the month of May and accepted my offer to write, however i must apologise for breaking the schedule and posting this late sharing. The prompt he scheduled for me was CREATION for May 7th.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Creation ... was one of our prompts in our Legends, Myth, Saga and Folktale month and back than our Ghost Writer had to use the given prompt. So that's why Gillena has chosen this inspirational prompt for you all.

This Ghost Writer post will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 27th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, buttercups, later on.


Monday, June 23, 2014

Carpe Diem #498, butterfly


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have another nice modern summer kigo (seasonword) for your inspiration. Again it is based on Jane Reichhold's 'A Dictionary of Haiku', a Saijiki full of wonderful kigo. Today our prompt is butterfly. Butterflies wonderful fragile creatures who are the completion of the most extraordinary metamorphosis. First it's just a tiny egg, which grows to a caterpillar. Than it becomes a 'doll' in a silken cocoon to become finally a butterfly.

There are a lot of haiku written about butterflies and I am quit sure that all of our haiku-family members have written haiku about butterflies. Our classical haiku-masters have done that too and I am pretty sure that I have written more than one haiku about butterflies. So this post will have a few examples of butterfly-haiku next to the examples of Jane Reichhold.

end of summer
following it out of sight
a butterfly

before the hot sun
white on the butterfly's wing
melted transparent

a face among the flowers
then the butterfly
folds its wings


Credits: Butterfly
wake, butterfly -
it's late, we've miles
to go together

© Basho

a dandelion
now and then interrupting
the butterfly’s dream

© Chiyo-Ni

butterfly in my hand --
as if it were a spirit
unearthly, insubstantial

© Buson

Butterfly (2)
sharing tree shade
with a butterfly...
friends in a previous life

© Issa

on a horse-ball
to catch his breath,
autumn 
butterfly 

© Shiki 

Or what do you think of these haiku on butterfly:

dew drenched petals.
butterfly tears fall softly.
nectar from the gods


the leaves are dancing,
like a thousand butterfly wings
the wind is master


And here a few written by myself:

Pygmalion's lesson
every man and woman has to be
like a caterpillar

like a caterpillar
growing to the next level
become a butterfly

dancing butterflies
the scent of a sunlit meadow
ah! the summer breeze

© Chèvrefeuille

Swallowtail

A nice series of wonderful haiku, don't you think so? Butterflies have inspired a lot of haiku-poets as we have seen above. How is that possible? Why do haiku-poets write haiku about butterflies? Are butterflies that special or maybe it has to do with the spiritual meaning of butterflies?

I have sought the Internet and ran into the following spiritual meaning of butterflies:

What is the meaning of the butterfly? The butterfly is primarily associated with symbolism of change and transformation. A secondary meaning of the butterfly is about finding joy in life and lightness of being.

Awesome! What a lovely creatures butterflies are. Let us do some haiku-ing on butterflies. I am looking forward to all of your wonderful haiku. Here is a new haiku on butterflies composed by myself.

fragile wings
pointing the way to transformation -
the summerbreeze


© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... now it is up to you ... this episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 26th at noon. I will try to publish our next episode, a new Ghost Writer post, later on. Have fun!


Sunday, June 22, 2014

Carpe Diem #497, Nakedness


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This underlaying post can be somewhat controversial because it's about nakedness to me that's very natural according to the time of year in which these prompts are planted, but to several of you it can be maybe somewhat obscure, but ... well I will take that ...

Here are a few haiku examples which Jane Reichhold used for this kigo:

summer afternoon
the coolness of white
naked on a quilt

naked
on the porch
passion flowers


Two very different approaches of nakedness, but both (in my opinion) beautiful. Nakedness ... nothing wrong with. We were born naked, than we were made to wear clothes and as we grow up we all will be naked again ... for love, for sunbathing or what else ....
Credits: Adam and Eve
As life started, according to the Bible, Adam and Eve were naked without shame. After the apple Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness and became ashamed that they were naked. There starts the thought of our time ... ''nakedness is not for showing on the streets and beaches, nakedness is for behind closed doors''. Why? Why we cannot go naked outside on the streets. We were all born naked ... everyone knows how a naked body looks both male and female ... why we cannot walk through the neighborhood completely naked? All those questions ... all shame ... 

nothing wrong
nakedness is human beauty -
passionflowers bloom

passionflowers bloom
without being ashamed
showing their beauty

showing their beauty
passionate lovers on the beach
nothing wrong

© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Passionflower
I was searching for a few examples of haiku with the theme nakedness and I found several, but this one I just had to share. It's a haiku written by Chad Garrett and I hope he don''t mind that I used it here for an example.

hiding in a bush
don't know where my clothes have gone
swinging in the breeze


Well ... enough about nakedness ... let us do some haiku-ing ... have fun!

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 25th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, butterfly, later on. For now ... have fun ... be inspired and share ...


Saturday, June 21, 2014

Carpe Diem #496, Hiking


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is running to it's end and I have to say ... what a joy it is to read all of your wonderful haiku shared here on all those beautiful modern summer kigo based on ''A Dictionary of Haiku'' by Jane Reichhold. It's really a joy to visit you all, but I am aware that I am a bit behind with commenting on all those wonderful entries. So I hope to catch up a.s.a.p. ... forgive me if I haven't commented on your haiku ... it will become ok.

Today our modern summer kigo is hiking and these are the haiku which Jane uses as an example:

hikers rest
at the waterfall
coming down to earth

heavy sweating
the taste of mountain
on a hot day

Credits: Hiking
looking down
the tops of trees
rooted in the canyon

hitch hiker
leaving the no-camping area
his pack all lumpy


Isn't it wonderful to read these haiku by Jane and try to visualize the scene? It's not my kind of sports I must say. I like a good walk, but hiking ... that's something else. At first I thought of hitch-hiking as I read this modern summer kigo, but it turned out to be something else ... well ... maybe that's because I don't understand all English I think. 

looking to the sky
tall trees reaching far above my head
towards the sun

towards the sun
trees reach out in praising Him -
He saw it was good

Credits: Resting At The Top
resting at the top
don't look back, look to the future -
lessons of life

lessons of life
contemplating and meditating
on the mountain's top

© Chèvrefeuille

I had some trouble with writing/composing haiku on hiking, but I think these are doing well. It's just a great way to broaden your sight and ideas, lessons of life caught in three lines ... that's were haiku is meant for.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 24th at noon (CET). I will try to post our new episode, nakedness, later on. To conclude this episode I love to share a haiku on the Summer Solstice, because that's what we have celebrated yesterday/today. It's not a haiku composed by myself, but one of Basho, my haiku-master.

departing spring
along with the people of Omi
missing it

© Basho (1644-1694)

The shortest night gone in an eyeblink ... how sad and how natural ... Have a great summer my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers.
!! I have published our CDHK promptlist for July !!


Friday, June 20, 2014

Carpe Diem Extra #7 - 2014



Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Next month, as you all know, all our prompts will be haiku written by Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki and Chiyo-Ni. They all have written wonderful haiku and I have quit a lot of them, but maybe you have favorite haiku written by one of these great poets.
So if you would like to have your favorites by these poets lined-up in our next month ... let me know. You can email me at:

carpediemhaikukai@outlook.com  or   carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

I am looking forward to your favorites.

Have a good weekend,

Namaste


PS.: Our new prompt-list you can find HERE

Carpe Diem Special #98, BrunuhVille's 4th "Imperial City"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies ... today we have already the before last CD Special of this month with music by the young Portugese composer BrunuhVille. I hope you all like the music and ... may the music inspire you to write/compose new haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun.


Well .... I love this piece of music ... but it didn't inspire me to write/compose a new haiku, but maybe ... later it will return ... my inspiration.

Not a long post this time, but I think there is no need to write a very long post for this 4th CD Special it talks for it self.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 23rd at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, hiking, later on. For now ... have fun!


Carpe Diem Tanka Shrine #4


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's a while ago that I published a Carpe Diem Tanka Shrine episode. Well ... here it is ... the new episode (with a new logo). And I hope to bring Tanka (another nice Japanese poetry-form) a bit more into our Haiku Kai with this feature.
The goal is to write a tanka (5-7-5-7-7) inspired on the given tanka. It's similar with our CD Specials in which I give mostly a haiku by another haiku-poet for your inspiration. By the way ... our next CDHK-month will be an exciting one I think, because all our regular prompts will be haiku written by the classical haiku-poets.

I have found a wonderful Tanka written by Lenard D. Moore at AHA-Poetry (Jane Reichhold's website), but I couldn't retrieve an emailadress or something to ask permission to use it. So I hope Lenard that you don't mind that I have used your Tanka. I have linked it back to Jane's website

Here is the Tanka for your inspiration:

the night is long
a tavern just off the road
with only one car,
but the man and woman hug
to the song on the jukebox


Lenard D. Moore

Credits: Christine Jayne - The Old Bell Tavern
Well ... it's up to you to write a new Tanka in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one by Lenard D. Moore. Have fun! NOW OPEN for your submissions until July 15th at noon (CET).