Sunday, August 31, 2014

Carpe Diem #551, abandoned


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am a bit late with posting this new post, because I am in the nightshift. Welcome at a new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a daily haiku-meme. This month all our prompts are modern kigo (seasonwords) for autumn based on Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku". Today our prompt is abandoned and I think it's a nice kigo for autumn, however I also think it's not only specific for autumn, but ... well that's not the case today.
In "A Dictionary of Haiku", a saijiki (list of kigo), Jane gives examples for every kigo she uses, so here are her examples for abandoned:

still standing
where others lived
abandoned cabin

abandoned
a photo of someone's eyes
moving in the wind


I like that second haiku the most, although that other haiku also is a beauty. Both could have been situated in another season I think, but (as I already stated) that's not the case here.

Credits: leaves dancing in the wind
torn apart, thrown away -
the Holy Scripture in pieces
dancing on the wind

© Chèvrefeuille

And now it's up to you my friends ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 3rd at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, decay, later on.


Carpe Diem "Sparkling Stars" #3 "when the peonies bloomed" by Kiitau


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to publish an all new episode of our special feature "Sparkling Stars" in which I introduce haiku, masterpieces, by classic and non-classic haiku-poets. The goal is to compose a new haiku inspired on the given haiku, similar with our regular CD-Specials, but with the classical haiku-rules:
  • 5-7-5 syllables
  • a kigo (seasonword)
  • a kireji (cuttingword or punctuation)
  • a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water
  • a deeper, spiritual, meaning
  • the first and third line are interchangeable
For this episode I have chosen a haiku by Kiitau, a not so well-known haiku-poet, who has written just one haiku as far as I know.

botan saite atari ni hana no naki gotoshi

when the peonies bloomed,
it seemed as though there were
no flowers around them

© Kiitau

Credits: Peonies
An occidental poet will have this experience in regard to a woman with whom he is in love. When she enters the room, all other women cease to exist for him, become soulless automata. An oriental poet personalizes the flowers in the sense that their life is as vivid and meaningful to him as that of human beings. It may be thought that per se the interest in flowers must be of a lower order, an inferior content poetically compared with that in human beings. But the distinction is not in the standpoint, in the world view; not in the treatment; whether it is classical or romantic; not in the culture, occidental or oriental; neither is it in the object, the material that is assimilated and spiritualized. It is depth alone which matters, depth alone which admits of comparison. (Source: R.H.Blyth, Haiku Vol. 3, summer - autumn).

In the haiku by Kiitau I see the beauty of peonies, those awesome rose-like flowers. Several years ago I had a wonderful bush of peonies in my backyard. I can still see their pinkish-white colors in front of my eyes. When they were still in their buds they were visited (frequently) by thousands of ants, and than ... they bloomed ... an explosion of flowers ... all the other plants, trees and flowers became "over-shadowed" by the beauty of "my" peonies ... awesome.
Credits: Book-cover "Memoires of a Geisha" by XMarr
As I was writing this post the movie "Memoires of a Geisha" came in mind. In front of my eyes a peony appeared with the face of a geisha. It hit me ... what a beauty. I have tried to catch that image in my haiku in response on the one by Kiitau. I hope I succeeded. I love to share here my way of composing haiku ... I call that process "giving birth".
As I am starting to write our posts, I also start to compose the haiku in my mind. During the writing of the posts images start to flow in front of my eyes. Images, or flashes of images, appear and flow, emerging in and out, like breathing. The images are constantly changing as I write the posts. During writing a lot of images come and go. There are always images that stay. As I am almost ready writing the post, a few images remain in my mind, I know I have to use them in my haiku.
Than the 'sculpting' begins. I write my haiku and re-write them until I know, don't ask me how, that I have the right haiku. Sometimes, and I know that the classical haiku-poets (e.g. Basho or Shiki) did that also, I have to re-do the final haiku a few times again.

the beauty of nature (4 syllables)
a geisha with peonies in her hair (9 syllables)
the sweet sound of a bamboo flute (7 syllables)

© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Woodblock print "geisha"

The above haiku, for example, is one of the "pre-haiku" of the haiku to share here. This "pre-haiku" I have to re-do, because of the classical rules we have to use here in this "Sparkling Stars"-feature. And ... as you maybe know, I am not a haiku-poet of the classical way of writing. Here another kind of 'sculpting' starts, to got 5-7-5 syllables. As you all know I am not that familiar with the syllables-rules of English, so I use a syllable-counter on the Internet.

This is my "composing-path" to make the (above) haiku, a classical one (after every line between () you can read the syllables-count). This is the first 're-make':

nature's beauty (3)
a geisha with peonies in her hair (9)
the sound of a flute (4)

In this second version I have not enough syllables, so I have to try other words, without losing my image as I have planned; "nature's beauty" (3), not enough syllables, what to do? I will add  astonishment  to the beginning of this line.

Ah! the beauty of nature (5)

The first line is ok, so up to the second line.

"a geisha with peonies in her hair" (9), to much syllables. How to re-do this line without losing the scene? I have to get a few words out of this line, and than ... the "aha-erlebnis":

geisha, peonies in her hair (7)

To make the image complete I have to come up with a wonderful third, closing, line. So I seek for other words for example instead of "a flute" I use "Shakuhachi" (a Japanese end-blown flute. During the medieval period, shakuhachi were most notable for their role in the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhist monks, known as komusō ("priests of nothingness," or "emptiness monks"), who used the shakuhachi as a spiritual tool. Their songs (called "honkyoku") were paced according to the players' breathing and were considered meditation (suizen) as much as music). And so I have found my third line too.

playing the shakuhachi (5)

Credits: Komuso Buddhist monk beggar playing the Shakuhachi

Finally I have caught the image, which came in mind as I was writing this post. And now I can share the haiku which I distilled from the images in my mind inspired on the haiku by Kiitau:

Ah! the beauty of nature -
geisha, peonies in her hair,
playing the Shakuhachi


© Chèvrefeuille

Not completely according to the rules of this feature, because the first and third line aren't interchangeable. You can try to interchange it, but than the haiku loses it's beauty. So ... I am sorry that I didn't succeeded, forgive me ... (smiles)

I love to share a nice piece of Shakuhachi music. Enjoy the music. (This piece of Shakuhachi-music is called 'kyuden no kurayami' and is performed by Rodrigo Rodriguez )




This episode of "Sparkling Stars" is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until next Saturday September 6th at noon (CET). Have fun! I hope you enjoyed this post and the insight story about 'giving birth' to a haiku.


Saturday, August 30, 2014

Carpe Diem #550, beggar


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This is it ... the last episode of August. We have read a wonderful little book by Khalil Gibran and it was a joy to make this month for you all. I have read wonderful haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka and haibun inspired on "Sand and Foam" written by Khalil Gibran. This month started with the first 'verse' of "Sand and Foam".

I am forever walking upon these shores,
Betwixt the sand and the foam,
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
And the wind will blow away the foam.
But the sea and the shore will remain 
Forever.

And I will end with it too. We all have left our footprints in our haiku on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, those footprints we will be there forever, they will not be erased ... not by the high-tide, not by the wind, not by the rain and not by the hands of people. They will be here forever. We can look back at them and we can read them again. Those footprints will be there forever .... and I thank you all for that.

Credits: Arigato (Thank You) calligraphy by Nao
Ok ... back to our prompt for today, beggar, which is based on the following 'verse' by Khalil: 

[...] "We are all beggars at the gate of the temple, and each one of us receives his share of the bounty of the King when he enters the temple, and when he goes out. But we are all jealous of one another, which is another way of belittling the King". [...]

As I was preparing this last episode for August a episode of Carpe Diem "Sparkling Stars" came in mind in which I used a haiku by Kikaku "the beggar":

the beggar!
he has Heaven and Earth,
for his summer clothes

© Kikaku

And to share a few other haiku on 'beggar' I have chosen for a few haiku by Issa.

kimi ga yo wa kojiki no ie mo nobori kana

Great Japan!
even a beggar's house
has a summer banner

kiji naite ume ni kojiki no yo nari keri

pheasant crying--
it's a plum blossom-filled
beggar's world now!

hatsu yuki ya asaebisu suru kado kojiki

first snowfall--
early morning at my gate
a beggar

Issa has written quit a lot of haiku about beggars, maybe he felt in the same way he is a beggar and it fits his way of life. Issa was a devoted monk of Amida Buddha and he was strong in his belief and saw only the good in people. Of course in ancient Japan (and maybe in modern Japan too) every-one had a kind of compassion with other people and they honored all religious people, like priests and monks, and they shared with them to keep the spirits happy. Hoping to once enter Nirvana.


at the temple gate
I bow in front of beggars
honoring their spirit

© Chèvrefeuille

beggar's bowl,
chased by the autumn wind,
enters the temple

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... this is it ... the last episode of August. I hope you did like this Carpe Diem Haiku Kai month and I hope you all are looking forward to our next month. At least I am looking forward to it. September will be a month with modern kigo (seasonwords) for Autumn based on Jane Reichhold's "Dictionary of Haiku" and we will visit the mind of Francis of Assisi by seeking inspiration in his words ... I hope you all will come along with me to enter this new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 2nd at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, our first modern kigo for autumn, abandoned, later on.
!! I will publish our new "Sparkling Stars"- episode tomorrow !!



Friday, August 29, 2014

Carpe Diem Haiga Festival #3, "autumn"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

An all new episode of Carpe Diem's "Haiga Festival" (maybe you know it from our CDHK Special weblog) is here. Not so long ago today I posted a new post on my Wordpress weblog "Chèvrefeuille's Haiku" and that post (a haibun-like post) brought me this idea to bring the "Haiga Festival" of CDHK Special weblog to Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I think I will do this sometimes more, exchanging Special features from CDHK Special weblog to Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. That will make us stronger as a family of haiku-poets. And our special features can be challenging ...

The goal of this special feature is to compose a haiga (picture + haiku) inspired on a given prompt in this episode that will be "autumn" and here is my haiga on "autumn".


This Planetree stands in the middle of my street and is in a way the heart of our street. As you look closer to the haiga you can spot the first yellow leaves between the green ones.

This episode of CD's "Haiga Festival" is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Friday September 12th at noon (CET). Have fun!



Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #48, Suzanne's "autumn's last show"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

After one week without a Tan Renga Challenge it's time for a new Tan Renga Challenge. The goal of this Tan Renga Challenge is to write a second stanza of two lines (7-7 syllables) towards a given haiku (the first stanza of three lines) by one of our participants or another wellknown haiku-poet (classic and non-classic). For this week I have chosen a haiku written by Suzanne of Cutting to the Chase. She wrote this haiku in response on our first Basho haiku last July.

Here is her haiku, the first stanza of our Tan Renga:

in the pond
reflected trees and drifting leaves
- autumn’s last show

© Suzanne

A gorgeous haiku I think and a great starting-point for this Tan Renga Challenge. To write the second stanza you need to associate on a theme from Suzanne's haiku e.g. 'drifting leaves'. By the way, the classical syllables count for the second stanza is 7-7, but you don't have to use that. 

Credits: Autumn leaves meet snow
Here is my attempt to write a second stanza:

in the pond
reflected trees and drifting leaves
- autumn's last show                              (Suzanne)

colorful leaves dancing
accompanied by the first snow                (Chèvrefeuille)

A nice continuation ... in which I associated on the drifting leaves and on autumn's last show. Well ... it's up to you now ... have fun. Share your completed/continued Tan Renga with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until next Friday September 5th at noon (CET).


Carpe Diem #549, Dreams


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We all have dreams, our prompt for today. Once I had a dream to become an Oncology-nurse as I am now. Once I had a dream to write and publish a novel. Well ... I did. I wrote two novels and the first novel I wrote is now being translated in to English and will be set on the market in the USA. Once I had a dream to become wellknown with my poetry, my passion, haiku and that also became true. In 2012 I started this daily haiku-meme and it's still there and I think Carpe Diem Haiku Kai has become a great opportunity for haiku-poets around the globe to write and share their haiku with the world.
You also will have dreams. Tell us something about it in your post for today's prompt. Do you have dreams which haven't come true? I have another dream. I hope to be your host at Carpe Diem for a long time, at least for the next three years so that I can celebrate our first lustrum in October 2017 .... we will see if Carpe Diem will become five years ...

Khalil Gibran had for sure dreams too, did he fullfill his dreams ... I don't know, but I think he did. In his "Sand and Foam" we can read several 'verses' about dreams and I love to share a few of them here for your inspiration.

[...] "How can I lose faith in the justice of life, when the dreams of those who sleep upon feathers are not more beautiful than the dreams of those who sleep upon the earth?" [...]

[...] "The flowers of spring are winter’s dreams related at the breakfast table of the angels". [...]

[...] "I would not be the least among men with dreams and the desire to fulfill them, rather than the greatest with no dreams and no desires".[...]

Sakura in full bloom
Wonderful 'verses', that second is one of my favorites and I think close to our beloved haiku. Isn't it wonderful to have dreams? And isn't it wonderful to see them become true?

breakfast with angels
as spring is starting after the cold -
flowering trees

© Chèvrefeuille

Wouldn't that be awesome? To have breakfast with angels while we look down on Earth seeing how nature is starting to become green again and see the flowers bloom in all colors? Imagine it ...

after the dark winter
cherry trees are blooming again
Ah! what a joy!

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope this post inspires you to write new haiku. This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until September 1st at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, the last of this wonderful month, beggar, later on. By the way I have published our new prompt-list for September you can find it HERE. For now ... have fun!


Thursday, August 28, 2014

Carpe Diem's Little Creatures #3, Seri


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies as we all will agree I think, so it's already time for a new episode of our "Little Creatures"-feature and after two episodes about little insects, this episode is about little plants and flowers e.g. Sheperd's Purse as we can read in this haiku by Basho (1644-1694):

furu hata ya nazuna hana saku kakine kana

if you look closely
a sheperd's purse flowering
underneath the hedge

(c) Matsuo Basho (Tr. Tim Chilcott)

Credits: Sheperd's Purse

Isn't it gorgeous this little Sheperd's Purse? That also is a "Little Creature", a creation of God. This above haiku by Basho is almost as famous as his "frog-pond" haiku is. It shows the mastership of Basho in looking closely to the world around him even the smallest creatures (insects and flowers/plants) on Earth.

As I was preparing this new episode of "Little Creatures" I ran into a wonderful haiku by Yosa Buson (1716-1784):

furudera ya hôroku suteru seri no naka

a
ncient temple
clay pot tossed around
in the seri (*)  field


© Buson (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)
(*) Seri = Oenanthe javanica = water dropwort

Seri (source not found)
Seri is one of the seven sacred herbs of spring which are used in the spring festival "Nanakusa no Sekku" or "The Festival of Herbs". It happens to be that the Sheperd's Purse, in the haiku by Basho, also is one of the Seven Sacred Herbs of Spring. What a coincedence that I have used both in the same post.

Well enough ... time for haiku-ing and so here is my haiku for this episode of Little Creatures:

in the meadow
peeling the leaves of daisies,
does she loves me?

© Chèvrefeuille

What a cute haiku, I saw this right in front of me and I just had to compose a haiku ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 4th at noon (CET). For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your "Little Creatures"-haiku with us all.

Carpe Diem Special #104, Jim Kacian's 5th "harvest dusk"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This Carpe Diem month is running to it's end and today we have our 5th (and last) haiku written by our featured haiku-poet, Jim Kacian, for your inspiration. He has written wonderful haiku as we have seen this month and I hope you all have enjoyed it and of course I hope that I have given you all a image of Jim and his haiku-passion.
I will thank Jim Kacian that I had the possibility to use his haiku for this month and I hope that I can use more haiku written by him in the future. Thanks Jim ... you're the best.

harvest dusk--
sitting in the wheelbarrow
with the potatoes

©  Jim Kacian

A memorable haiku: one that offers more than a whimsical irony. It may be day's end, and a tired worker needs to ‘sit a spell’ or perhaps a sleepy child is getting a ride home! Whatever the interpretation, an aura of oneness is suggested in the nexus between the land, toil, and our survival. It is a stunning and even painterly image, reminiscent of Van Gogh's early work depicting peasant life.

Isn't it a wonderful haiku? I found this one at the website of the Haiku International Association (HIA) and you can find it HERE
Now it's up to you to write/compose an all new haiku inspired on the one by Kacian and in the same sense, tone and spirit as that haiku. Here is my attempt:

eating potatoes
together with my family
on the porch

on the porch
after a good dinner, - at sunset
the song of birds

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this post and I hope it will inspire you to write haiku. This was our last haiku by Jim Kacian ... it was a great journey.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until August 31st at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, dreams, later on.


Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Carpe Diem #548, Traveler


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another day to discover Khalil's "Sand and Foam" and today we will see a total different meaning of what I am always write in my greeting here, traveler(s). At first I thought of the gipsies, who call them self 'travelers' so my first focus is on them.

Travellers (or Travelers) have a nomadic life in their history. Nowadays they stay on one place, but once it was a tarveling group of people, that's why they call them self 'travellers'. They had all mobile houses and were tracking from the one place to the other ... There are travelers all over the world, but mainly this post is about the Irish travelers.
Credits: Travelers
The historical origins of Irish Travellers as an ethnic group has been a subject of academic and popular debate. Such discussions have been difficult as Irish Travellers left no written records of their own. They may be of Romani extraction, although this theory is disputed by some, and theories of pre-Celt origin also exist. Ten percent of the Gammon language comes from Romani, however the majority of its words derive from Celtic.
In 2011 an analysis of DNA from 40 Travellers was undertaken at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and the University of Edinburgh. The study provided evidence that Irish Travellers are a distinct Irish ethnic minority, who separated from the settled Irish community at least 1000 years ago; the claim was made that they are distinct from the settled community as Icelanders are from Norwegians. Even though all families claim ancient origins, not all families of Irish Travellers date back to the same point in time; some families adopted Traveller customs centuries ago, while others did so more recently. It is unclear how many Irish Travellers would be included in this distinct ethnic group at least from a genetic perspective.
There has been a wide range of theories speculating their origins such as that they were descended from those Irish who were made homeless by Oliver Cromwell's military campaign in Ireland in the 1650s, or possibly from the people made homeless in the 1840s famine due to eviction, or the descendants of aristocratic nomads the Clan Murtagh O'Connors in the Late Middle Ages. Their nomadism was based on cattle-herds or creaghts. (Source: Wikipedia)
 
Credits: Travellers (2)
A wonderful culture I think and they have evolved during the decades ... and they are followed in several TV-shows (at least here in The Netherlands).

Ok ... back to our prompt, traveler, for today. I think you have already understand that 'traveler' is the prompt for today. Traveling as in traveling is going away for a vacation or short trip, or traveling to work. But traveling can also mean that we are on a journey into ourselves ... on the route to our Inner Self and that's were Khalil's 'verse' is about.

 

[...] "A traveler am I and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul". [...]

And this is so true, as you all know we are busy with our Carpe Diem Vision Quest and that quest is very close to this 'verse' by Khalil. And I hope this 'verse' will inspire you to travel deeper into your self seeking for the Inner Self.

a new journey
along the roads of God's Creation
seeking the truth within

seeking the truth within
the road like the Honeysuckle (*) bush
a new journey

© Chèvrefeuille

(*) Honeysuckle's deeper meaning is "searching for the Inner Self".

Honeysuckle (the English for my pseudonym Chèvrefeuille)
 
This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 30th at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, our last CD Special, a haiku by Jim Kacian, later on. For now ... have fun!





Carpe Diem's Vision Quest 1 day 3 (the last day) "deep silence"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here it is our last (third) day of this first Vision Quest in which the goal is to write a new haiku after meditating and contemplating about a given haiku and to respond within 24 hours. I hadn't thought this would be that great as it has become. Thank you all for participating in this first edition of Carpe Diem's Vision Quest.

Here is our last haiku to inspire you on this Vision Quest:

evening walk
the sound of a wind chime
deep silence

© Chèvrefeuille
 
Well ... it's a nice haiku (if I may say so) to end this Vision Quest with. I hope that you liked it (please let me know) and I hope to see you all again somewhere in November as we are doing this Vision Quest again. For now ... have fun!

This episode of our Vision Quest is open for your submissions tonight at 6.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 28th 6.00 PM (CET). 


Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Carpe Diem's Vision Quest #1 day 2, "An empty shell"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What an unexpected success this new feature "Vision Quest" I hadn't thought that it would be that great. By the way CD's Vision Quest is a challenge of three days, today we have our second day of this new feature. Tomorrow will follow the third (and last) day of this three-days Vision Quest.

Here is our second haiku for this first Carpe Diem Vision Quest. (See for details here). Remember that you have only 24 hours to submit your inspired haiku. I have found another nice haiku written by myself for our second day of the Vision Quest:

next to my footprint
the empty shell of a hermit crab -
Ah! what a sadness

(c) Chèvrefeuille (2012)

Be inspired and share your "quick"-write haiku here with us all. You have to respond before August 27th 6.00 PM (CET). I will post our last day of this Vision Quest (the third haiku) at that same time. Have fun!

Ghost Writer post not scheduled

Good day dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This week I have no Ghost Writer Post, I had hoped to publish a new GW-post today, but that's not going to happen. Instead of our GW-post we will have our Vision Quest.
Next week I will have a new GW-post ... and it will be an extraordinary one ...

Warm greetings,

Chèvrefeuille

Monday, August 25, 2014

Carpe Diem's "Vision Quest" #1 day 1 "New Moon"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I think I have created an all new and wonderful feature in which I challenge you to 'quick'-write a new haiku or senryu. In this new feature I will give three days in a roll a haiku for your inspiration. Sounds easy? Maybe it is easy, but the difficulty is in the time you may use to write a new haiku ... just 24 hours.
I have called it Carpe Diem's Vision Quest and I think that's what it is. Let me first tell you a little bit more about what a Vision Quest is.

A Vision Quest is a rite of passage, similar to an initiation, in some Native American cultures. It is a turning point in life taken before puberty to find oneself and the intended spiritual and life direction. It's an ancient way to find your Inner Self and what your task is for this life in the way of opening your eyes to the spiritual world.

Credits: Vision Quest
Of course this is not really what our "Vision Quest" is meant for. The goal is to 'learn' how you, as a haiku-poet, can see the beauty of the moment on which the haiku is based.
For this new feature, which will take three days, I will give one haiku a day for your inspiration. Meditate and contemplate over it, try to see the scene and find the deeper meaning. If you have done that write/compose a new haiku or senryu (no tanka, kyoka, haibun or other form) inspired on the scene and deeper meaning of the given haiku/senryu.
For this feature you have just 24 hours to respond, so tn three days, you have to write three new haiku or senryu. There is no prompt, just the haiku, which you can use for your inspiration. Carpe Diem's Vision Quest will take place once in a season. So this first episode is for summer.
Our next Vision Quests are in:

November 2014 (autumn)
February 2015 (winter)
May 2015 (spring)

After that fourth Vision Quest I will look if I will continue with it or not.

Credits; Vision Quest
For this first Carpe Diem Vision Quest I have chosen three haiku written by myself. I hope you all will like this new feature.
In your response post I hope to read which scene you saw, which deeper meaning it revealed to you and of course your inspired haiku or senryu.

Here is our first haiku/senryu for the first day of this first Vision Quest:

new moon
she, our moon will grow again
a new life cycle

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

A nice one to start with I think. You have to respond before August 26th at 6.00 PM (CET); I will publish our second day of this Vision Quest around that same time.
For now ... go on your Vision Quest explore the scene and the deeper meaning in your mind and share your inspired haiku with us all. Have a great Vision Quest!


Carpe Diem #547, Flame


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

everlasting flame
burns for those who are unknown
our saviors

© Chèvrefeuille

Flame is our prompt for today and this haiku/senryu was the first thing which came in mind. I remembered the  "Unknown Soldier" and I recall that I have written about him earlier on my personal weblog Chèvrefeuille's Haiku-blog ...

Here is that haiku:

unknown soldier
slaughtered on the battlefield
no more dreaming

© Chèvrefeuille

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Moscow
The everlasting flame? Is that the same flame about which the verse by Khalil Gibran is? Let us look at that verse.

[...] "I am the flame and I am the dry bush, and one part of me consumes the other part". [...]

As we look at this verse, we can say it's not about the "everlasting flame". I think it's more like the "Burning Bush" which Moses encountered in the time before the great Exodus of God's People. Well ... I think I leave it to your imagination this time and I hope this (small) post will inspire you to write new haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 28th at noon (CET). I will publish our new post, a new GW-post, later on. For now ... have fun!


Sunday, August 24, 2014

Carpe Diem #546, Silence


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

the silence deepens
as the night falls like a blanket
upon a white world

© Chèvrefeuille

Just an impromptu-verse which found me as I started to prepare this episode of our daily haiku-meme. It's a haiku straight from the heart ... and it's about late autumn or winter. Why a winter haiku came up? I don't know. It's still summer here in The Netherlands, but it feels like autumn ... a lot of wind and rain and we even have had the heater on a few days ago. It felt cold and moist inside our home, because of all the rain we have had.

The haiku above was maybe triggered by our prompt for today, silence, based on Khalil's "Sand and Foam". He has a few beautiful 'verses' about silence and they will inspire you I think. Here they are:

[...] "A great singer is he who sings our silences". [...]

[...] "I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers". [...]

[...] "The silence of the envious is too noisy". [...]

Credits: Silence
What is silence? Is it that nice feeling of no noise at all? Or is it that sweet sound of an early morning concert by birds? Or the babbling brook? Or maybe that sweet sound of the rustling wind through the leaves? Silence can be very still, but I like the silence of a babbling brook for example.
How would you describe silence?

the babbling brook
makes me drowsy and happy -
a late summer night

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... let the silence of your soul inspire you to write wonderful, silent haiku.

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 27th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, flame, later on.


Saturday, August 23, 2014

Carpe Diem Sparkling Stars #2, Kikaku's "The beggar"



Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to publish a new episode of our Sparkling Stars feature here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. It's a bit similar with the CD-Specials, but there is a little difference. In every episode (once a week on Saturday) I will introduce a 'masterpiece' of one of the classic haiku-poets (well-known and less-known) to inspire you to write a new haiku. Here is the difference with the CD-Specials. Those new haiku, inspired on the 'masterpiece', have to follow the classical rules of haiku:

1. 5-7-5 syllables
2. a kigo (or seasonword)
3. a kireji (or cutting word, in Western languages mostly interpunction)
4. a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water
5. a deeper meaning (could be Zen-Buddhistic or other spiritual or religious thought)
6. and the first and the third line are interchangeable.

Of course I will tell also something about the scene and background of the haiku which you can use for your inspiration. I hope you all will like this new episode.


Many people look upon Kikau as the obverse, or complement of Basho, and there is a good reason for this. He is the non-religious, non-moral poet. He and Basho correspond to Ritaihaku and Hakurakuten in Chinese poetry and to Byron and Wordsworth in English poetry. In the "sparkling star"-haiku hereafter by Kikaku, haiku is doing something which it was never intended, perhaps, to do. There is a similar passage at the end of Soshi; there may be some relation between the two:

[...] "When Soshi was about to die, his disciples wished to bury him in a grand style, but Soshi said, "My coffin will be Heaven and Earth; for the funeral ornaments of jade, there are the sun and moon; for my pearls and jewels I shall have the stars and constellations; all things will be my mourners. Is not everything ready for my burial? What should be added to this?" [...]

the beggar!
he has Heaven and Earth,
for his summer clothes

© Kikaku

What a gorgeous haiku, don't you think too. As we look again at the part by Soshi, than it is obvious that that piece of poetry was his inspiration ...

at the cemetery
beneath cherry blossoms in full bloom
grandmother's fresh grave

© Chèvrefeuille

Step back and look at the scene ... peacefull ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will stay open until next Saturday August 30th at noon (CET).



Carpe Diem #545, Tolerance


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

After our little side-walk to Jim Kacian's wonderful haiku of yesterday it's time again for a new prompt based on Khalil Gibran's "Sand and Foam". Today that prompt is Tolerance or accepting how the other is. All around the globe tolerance has to be strong, but ... that's not true as you all will know. In my opinion we have to tolerate a lot, but not everything ... we don't have to tolerate that groups are killing each other, because of their e.g. different religions or sexuality.

Khalil Gibran says in his "Sand and Foam" the following about tolerance:

[...] " Tolerance is love sick with the sickness of haughtiness". [...]

I had to look for the translation of 'haughtiness', to understand what he says here and I think he said it right. Tolerance is like that. Tolerance is based on haughtiness and that makes it that dangerous as it is. Tolerance is great, but we don't have to tolerate everything.


Melting Snow
melting snow
the tears of a child
crystal truth

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a strong senryu, but I think it's true. Tolerance is great, but we have to 'use' it like children. As we grow older, the child within us dies ... we loose that clear plain innocence ... in which tolerance was 100%. As children we accept all and everything as it is, growing older, and becoming wiser, that acceptation, that tolerance is becoming smaller.

It wasn't easy to write this post, because I am a human being which stands in his life out of an idea of unconditional love for all and everything ... and my tolerance is great, but as I look to the world in which we live ... even my tolerance becomes smaller. I am losing my Inner Child and that makes me sad sometimes.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 27th at noon (CET). I will try to post our new episode, silence, later on.