Friday, October 31, 2014

Carpe Diem #595, Bush Clover (one of the seven sacred autumn flowers)


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to present to you our first prompt of our new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, November. The first seven (regular) prompts will be the seven sacred autumn flowers and today the first of those sacred autumn flowers is Bush Clover (Hagi).

“The loneliness Of autumn on the beach More even than that of Suma In the surf Mingled with small shells Petals of the bush clover” (Matsuo Basho; The Small Road Into the Deep North)

The delicate, flowering bush clover has been a favorite motif with Japanese poets since time immemorial. Small pink flowers are borne at the end of arching stems and mix attractively with dainty leaves. It is a vigorous, deciduous shrub of the pea family, and several wild species can be found growing on damp hills and moors. There is a white-flowered variety, but the parti-colored pink types are more common. In the 10th century, no aristocratic villa would have been complete without the modest bush clover, blooming in a dew-drenched garden. Today, there is still a corner in our hearts and small gardens for this charming autumn bush. 
Credits: (Japanese) Bush Clover (Hagi)
And I have sought for haiku written by our classical masters about the Bush Clover. I have found quiet a lot of haiku about Bush Clover.

mire te yuku ya   hito mo okashi   ame no hagi

to get wet
by passing a man is interesting
bush clover in rain


© Basho
shiratsuyu wo kobusanu hagi no uneri kana

not spilling the glistening dew,
the bush clover,
undulating


 
© Basho

yuujo no onajiyane no moto de amarini moga nemutte iru hagi to tsuki

under the same roof
courtesans, too, are asleep --
bush clover and the moon


© Basho 

Credits: Bush Clover (Hagi) Woodblock Print

hagi no me ya hito ga shiraneba shika ga kuu

bush clover sprouting--
when people aren't looking
the deer eats


© Issa


yase hagi ya bukuri-bukuri to chiri ni keri

barren bush clover--
softly, softly its blooms
have scattered


© Issa

ashimotono akino oboroya hagino hana

the autumn haze 
at my feet--
bush-clover flowers


© Buson


kogitsuneno nanni musekemu kohagihara
the little fox,
what made him cough--
in a field with bush clover?

© Buson
 
Credits: Hagi (Bush Clover) woodblock print 1840

All wonderful haiku ... can it be possible to write all new haiku after all these beauties? Let me give it a try ...

bush clover spreads
my garden becomes a purple sea -
autumn dew shimmers

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not a strong one, but I like it ... This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 3rd at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode, Miscanthus, later on.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #56, "Home" by Jazzytower


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies ... another week has gone and it's already time again for our Tan Renga Challenge. This weeks Tan Renga Challenge I have chosen a haiku written/composed by Jazzytower of "thoughts and entanglements". Jazzytower wrote this haiku in response on "Vladivostok".

She provides us with her haiku, our "hokku" for this Tan Renga. Here it is:

winding through past life
foreign tongues absorbed in dreams
sense of home prevails


© Jazzytower of “thoughts and entanglements”

An awesome haiku I think and I think it is a source of inspiration to write a second stanza (7-7, no obligation) towards it to complete or continue the Tan Renga. I love to give it a try to make this Tan Renga complete with my second stanza.

winding through past life
foreign tongues absorbed in dreams
sense of home prevails
                 (Jazzytower)


hear! monks chant Om Mani Padme Hum
spreading peace all around the globe
             (Chèvrefeuille)



Credits: Om Mani Padme Hum

Om Mani Padme Hum means:

Om purifies bliss and pride (realm of the gods); Ma purifies jealousy and need for entertainment (realm of the jealous gods); Ni purifies passion and desire (human realm); Pad purifies ignorance and prejudice (animal realm); Me purifies greed and possessiveness (realm of the hungry ghosts); Hum purifies aggression and hatred (hell realm).


I hope you all are inspired to write/compose the second stanza of this Tan Renga and make it complete or continue the imagery of the "hokku". 

This Tan Renga Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until next Friday November 7th at noon. Have fun ... be inspired and share ...


Thursday, October 30, 2014

Carpe Diem #594, Movement (August 2014) reprise


!! I publish this episode earlier than normally done, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here it is our very last episode of our 2nd anniversary month October 2014, Movement. This prompt is from August 2014 and in that month we explored "Sand and Foam" by Khalil Gibran. Movement was one of the first prompts based on that little book by Gibran.

I remember that it was a wonderful month and that you were all very inspired to write haiku in response on the quotes by Khalil Gibran. It even brought me the idea to do that once again, but than with other famous' peoples quotes. I think it will be a great idea to do that again in December 2014.

Movement ... what is it? What does it? What has movement to do with haiku or with Carpe Diem Haiku Kai? Well ... let me tell you ... Carpe Diem is fully in motion, because we are growing still greater and we all learn more about haiku .... so our haiku are in  motion too ... movement I think.

Credits: Movement
And I have found a nice haiku written by myself several years ago. It has to do with movement and dancing.

ankle chimes
listen to the movement
of the young dancer


© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 2nd at noon (CET). I will publish our first episode of November, Bush Clover, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.
!! Our new promptlist is ready you can find it HERE !!

Carpe Diem "Little Creatures" #11, "A Swallow" by Issa


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Issa is "the master" of "Little Creatures". He had an eye for those little creatures as we can read in a lot of haiku by him. This week's "Little Creatures" episode is about a wonderful little bird, the Swallow. I have found a nice "swallow"-haiku by Issa in which he also sees the humor of its actions.

daibutsu no hana kara detaru tsubame kana

a swallow
flew out of the nose
of the Great Buddha


© Kobayashi Issa

Credits: The Great Buddha of Kamakura in autumn

This great statue of Buddha will be the one at Nara, or at Kamakura. From the ordinary, relative point of view, we have a contrast between the sacred and the profane in the Swallow's flying out of the nose of the Buddhist image. From the absolute point of view, it is all the same whether the Swallow flies out of from the Holy Nose of Buddha or from the eaves of a public house. But the region of this poem is in neither the relative nor the absolute. It is in life itself, life which is neither law nor destiny but both. If, leaving this meaningless abstract talk, we reconstruct the poetical experience of Issa, we get the same thing, only expressed in more understandable terms. Issa felt the rightness of the Swallow's flying wherever its wings would carry it, yet recognized that the image was more than a mere mass of metal. Above all, he felt there was a significance in this clash between law and freedom, a significance which dries up into words when it is explained.

Credits: Great Buddha of Nara

Another verse by Issa, belonging to the winter season, which also illustrates his fusion of contraries, is the following:

nobotoke no hana no saki kara tsurara kana

from the end of the nose
of the Buddha on the moor,
hang icicles


© Kobayashi Issa

I like the style of Issa's haiku and it's really great to see in his haiku that he was very interested in the direct world around him. Every detail he saw and used in his haiku. I think he is really "the master" of the Little Creatures haiku.

Here is my haiku inspired on this wonderful set of "swallow"-haiku by Issa. I have not chosen for the Swallow, but for the Hummingbird, another wonderful little creature.

futsu no te derootasu no hachimitsu no tame no hachidori ou

hummingbird
chases for honey in the Lotus
in Buddha's hands


© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Hummingbird on Lotus

Well ... I hope you did like this new episode of Little Creatures and that it inspires you to write all new haiku. Looking forward to all of your beautiful verses. This episode is open for your submissions today at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Thursday November 6th at noon (CET).

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Carpe Diem #593, "A Departed Soul" (July 2014) reprise


!! This episode I publish earlier than I normally do, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We have to visit the last few months these days and than this celebration of our second anniversary is over. Than we can look back at a wonderful month full of reprise prompts from the start of Carpe Diem until now ...
As we are on a journey along memory lane we have arrived now at July 2014, in this month we had all CD-Specials because we had all haiku by the big five, Basho, Chiyo-Ni, Buson, Issa and Shiki. It was a tough month for me to prepare all those episode with haiku by the big five, but it was really a joy to that for you all ... my haiku-family-members of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Thanks to you all Carpe Diem Haiku Kai has become what it is right now ... a gathering of haiku-poets and haiku-poetesses ... a family ...

"A Departed Soul" refers to the haiku by Shiki which he wrote on his death-bed and which is seen as his death-poem or Jisei. In that episode, published on July 28th, Shiki was the one of the "big five" whom delivered the haiku for your inspiration. Here is that haiku again:

sponge gourd has bloomed
choked by phlegm
a departed soul

© Shiki

Credits: Sponge Gourd
A nicely written "death-poem" very nicely done ... I think Shiki has written the most beautiful death poem of all the "big five". Here are the deathpoems by Basho and Chiyo-Ni:

ill on a journey
my dreams start to wander
across desiccated fields

© Basho

having gazed at the moon
I depart from this life
with a blessing


© Chiyo-Ni

And ... what would be my death-poem, my Jisei? Maybe it could be this one ... it's a haiku in which the shortness of life is portraited through a comparison with dew ...

morning dew
evaporates in the early sunlight -
spirit climbs to the sky


© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this episode and I hope it will inspire you to write an all new haiku ... This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 1st at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, Movement (August 2014), later on.


Carpe Diem "Just Read" #4 "Moon in the Haiku Tradition", by Fay Aoyagi of Blue Willow Haiku World


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

 
It's my pleasure to present to you an article written by Fay Aoyagi of Blue Willow Haiku World. Recently I ran into an article which caught my attention immediately, because of the theme. This article which I love to share here is about Moon in the Haiku Tradition and as you all know I am a "moon-lover" and moon is one the most natural and classical kigo for autumn (following the classical Japanese haiku-culture).

Cover Chrysanthemum Love by Fay Aoyagi

Fay Aoyagi said in the introduction to her 2003 collection Chrysanthemum Love: If you believe haiku must be about nature, you may be disappointed with my work. There is a lot of "me" in my haiku. I write very subjectively. I am not interested in Zen and the Oriental flavours to which some Western haiku/tanka poets are attracted. I love the shortness and evocativeness of haiku. I don't write haiku to report the weather. I write to tell my stories.
Fay was born in Tokyo and migrated to the United States in 1982. She has been writing haiku in English since 1995. She joined Ten'I (Providence), a Japanese haiku group led by Dr Akito Arima in 2000, and is a member of the Haiku Society of America, Haiku Poets of Northern California and Haijin Kyokai (Haiku Poets Association in Japan). Fay is a dojin of both Ten'I and Aki (Autumn), a Japanese haiku group started by Yatsuka Ishihara (deceased) and now led by Masami Sanuka.

I hope you all will like this article. And I love to thank Fay Aoyagi for granting me permission to use her article for our Carpe Diem "Just Read" feature.


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Moon in the Haiku Tradition by Fay Aoyagi

If somebody asked me to choose between the sun and the moon as a place to live, I would choose the moon. In my mind, there are highways with 10 lanes on the sun, but the moon has alleys and narrow streets I can explore on foot. For me, the sun is a destination, but the moon is a gateway and a peep-hole to an unknown world.
As you may know, Japanese saijiki categorise the word 'moon' by itself as an autumn kigo and you will find many ways to say 'moon' in Japanese saijiki. For example, the full moon may be called 'gyokukon' (round soul) or 'sasaraeotoko' (small but lovely man - a nickname for the moon).

In Japan, there is a long tradition of admiring a full moon on the fifteenth day of lunar August. Special dishes of taro and sweet dumplings are prepared and pampas grass is arranged in a vase.
kono tsuki o imachi nemachi to yubi o ori

should this moon be waited for by sitting or lying down ...? I calculate with my fingers
- Sujyu Takano (1)

Credits: Pampasgrass

Sujyu Takano (1893-1976) is referring to a belief in ancient time that just before moonrise, three gods would come to show people a way to the Land of Paradise. The seventeenth-day moon which rises about 7pm is called 'tachimachizuki' (the moon you wait for by standing). I can see my ancestor waiting for the moonrise near his gate after an evening stroll. On the eighteenth day, the moon rises about 30 minutes later than the previous day. Without electricity, the streets must have been dark by then. People waited in their living rooms or on their verandahs for the moon to rise. A kigo for the eighteenth day moon is 'imachizuki' (the moon you wait for by sitting). The next day the moon does not rise before 8pm. In their bedrolls, people waited for the nineteenth day moon called 'nemachizuki' (the moon you wait for by lying down).
During the Edo Period (1603-1867), a day was divided into 12 segments and each segment had the name of an animal. Those animals were the same 12 zodiac signs you see in a Chinese calendar. I have to admit that I do not know a kigo like 'inakazuki' in English. A character for 'i' (pronounced as 'i' in 'inside') means 'boar' and 'naka' means 'between'. In the modern world, the Hour of Boar is between 9pm and 11pm. I translated 'inakazuki' (the moon rises between 9pm and 11pm) to 'twentieth-night moon' in the haiku below.

basu roubu no tora hoeteiru inakazuki
a tiger on his bath robe howling - twentieth-night moon

- Fay Aoyagi (2)
'Inakazuki' is a rather technical term which exists only in the haiku world or in a historical novel. This kigo is fascinating, but today I may need to explain 'inakazuki' to a Japanese friend who does not write haiku. Saijiki are a treasure vault of kigo and sample haiku and I rely heavily on saijiki when I write haiku both in Japanese and English.

negaerishi ko wa gekkô ni chikazukinu
turning in sleep my child is getting closer to the moonlight

- Yasuko Tsushima (3)
This is one of my favorite haiku written by Yasuko Tsushima. I may have completely misinterpreted the meaning, but let me tell you why I am intrigued with this haiku.

A sleeping face is peaceful and beautiful in the moonlight coming through a window. Watching him/her, a poet experiences the happiness which only a mother can enjoy. Yet at the same time, an invisible hand draws the child closer to the world we human beings do not belong to. Something wicked and strong pulls at the cord between mother and child.
Credits: Kaguyahime, a story of the Moon Princess

My interpretation may be influenced with a legend of Kaguyahime, a story of the Moon Princess. A beautiful baby was found and raised by an elderly couple. Eventually, though, she returned to the moon on the fifteenth night (full moon) of lunar August when she declined to choose a husband.

kangekkô onore no hone mo sukitôru
winter moonlight my bones, too, are transparent

- Yukiko Itoyama (4)
Sunlight helps me understand the shape of an object. A moonbeam shows me the inside of it.

I like moon-related kigo because I can lead a reader into a labyrinth. I may lose him/her in a maze. But I hope I am showing a way to the deep inner world.
American Indians and colonial Americans have a lot of evocative names for a moon. Lizard Cut Moon (January), Fish Moon (March), Buck Moon (July) and Leaf Fall Moon (October) are among many. Those names are more to describe a month than the moon itself, but they can be interesting kigo.

gesshoku matsu kawa e jyusshi o hirakiite
I wait for a lunar eclipse with all my ten fingers spread out to the river

- Toru Sudo (4)
Technically speaking, 'gesshoku' (lunar eclipse) is not a kigo. I found this haiku in the section of 'zô' ('miscellaneous' or ‘non-season') in one of my saijiki.

Credits: Lunar Eclipse

In this haiku, moonlight still shines between the poet's fingers and may shimmer on the river surface. But soon the Earth will move between the sun and the moon. Most of the time, we are under the influence of the sun or the moon. Can we be the absolute master of our life for the duration of the lunar eclipse?

itoshimeba ki mo katarikuru haru no tsuki

if I show my tenderness of love a tree, too, will start talking - spring moon
- Heinosuke Gosho (5)

Though I respect a long tradition of moon-admiring in the autumn, I am attracted to the moon in the spring. Spring is a budding season. The night air is filled with fragrance of flowers. Animals mate. The moon floats in the mist.
One of my Japanese friends told me that she did not understand how people write haiku in English. According to her, Japanese culture, including haiku, is very subtle. She said Japanese is a more ambiguous language than English; it is a more suitable language to express feelings. Writing in Japanese, a poet can avoid too much explicitness. I am not sure I totally agree. I think English haiku can be very suggestive, as well.

summer moon - shadows with tiny horns at the monkey bars
- Fay Aoyagi (6)

My friend may say, "well, I can see that it is possible to compose a weird haiku in English. But is this a haiku or a 3-line poem?" If I write a three-line poem, the above haiku may go like: When I was looking for my lost childhood in the summer moonlight, I saw shadows with tiny horns at the monkey bars. I might be one of those with horns, here in my adopted land.
Haiku is a poetry form which requires reading between the lines. I strongly believe that we can achieve subtlety in English.

Footnotes:

1: Haiku Saijiki edited by Fusei Tomiyasu, Kenkichi Yamamoto et al, Heibonsha, Tokyo, 1971.
2: Ten'I (Ten'I haiku group members' magazine), February 2003.

3: Tsushima Yasuko Shu (collection of work by Yasuko Tsushima), Yu Shorin, Tokyo, 2003.

4: Gendai Saijiki (Modern Saijiki), edited by Tota Kaneko, Momoko Kuroda, Ban'ya Natsuishi, Seisei Shuppan, Tokyo, 1997.
5: Dai Saijiki (Comprehensive Saijiki) edited by Shuoshi Mizuhara et al, Kodansha, Tokyo, 1982.

6: In Borrowed Shoes by Fay Aoyagi, Blue Willow Press, 2006.

All translation from the Japanese by Fay Aoyagi.

Editor's note: This article appears as one of a series on Fay's own website, Blue Willow Haiku World and originally appeared in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America. In this series she examines 10 traditional haiku themes. The article has been edited slightly and appears here with the kind permission of the author.
Fay Aoyagi said in the introduction to her 2003 collection Chrysanthemum Love: If you believe haiku must be about nature, you may be disappointed with my work. There is a lot of "me" in my haiku. I write very subjectively. I am not interested in Zen and the Oriental flavours to which some Western haiku/tanka poets are attracted. I love the shortness and evocativeness of haiku. I don't write haiku to report the weather. I write to tell my stories.
Fay was born in Tokyo and migrated to the United States in 1982. She has been writing haiku in English since 1995. She joined Ten'I (Providence), a Japanese haiku group led by Dr Akito Arima in 2000, and is a member of the Haiku Society of America, Haiku Poets of Northern California and Haijin Kyokai (Haiku Poets Association in Japan). Fay is a dojin of both Ten'I and Aki (Autumn), a Japanese haiku group started by Yatsuka Ishihara (deceased) and now led by Masami Sanuka.
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I hope you did like this article "Moon in the Haiku Tradition" and that it has given you new insights. Normally I don't ask you to write a haiku in response on the "Just Read" post, but this time I love to challenge you to write a "moon-haiku" following the Haiku Tradition as in above article was written.

You can submit your "moon-haiku" until November 7th at noon. I am looking forward to all your wonderful "moon-haiku" and I love to share an oldie by myself here too.

ancient warriors ghosts
mists over the foreign highlands -
waiting for the full moon

© Chèvrefeuille


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #31, "One of a Kind"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to present you all a new Ghost Writer post. As you all know Shiba Sonome is our featured haiku poetess this month. Today our CD-Special and GW-post are bound together, because I planned them both on the same date. So I thought to let Sonome write both this GW-post and CD-Special.
This week's Ghost Writer is Shiba Sonome. I hope you all like this GW-post (and CD-Special) written by her.

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One of a Kind

Dear Haijin,

What a privilege this is to write this week's GW-post for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I love to tell you about my master Matsuo Basho. I had the opportunity to be a disciple of the greatest haiku-poet I know, Basho.

It wasn't easy to become an apprentice, disciple, of Basho, but I succeeded. The most disciples of Basho were already friends of the master and therefor for them it was easy to become acquainted with him.
Maybe you know who his disciples were and I think it would be awesome to share in this GW-post not only haiku by myself, but also by e.g. Kikaku, Yozakura, Ransetsu and Kyorai. And of course I will share a few haiku written by the master himself.
Let me first tell you how Basho came on the idea to take the hokku out of the Haikai no Renga to make it a poem on it's own. Maybe you can recall the GW-post by Yozakura, the unknown haiku-poet. In that GW-post he told you the story about Basho's famous frog haiku, his first attempt to make hokku a poem on it's own. You all surely know that it wasn't Basho who re-named the hokku into haiku. That name was given to hokku by Masaoka Shiki. I have never had the opportunity to speak with Shiki about this choice, but I know that haiku is nowadays the name for the hokku as a poem on itself, and I think that's ok.
Do you know how Shikiu came to that name, haiku? I will tell you. The Renga (chained verse) was known as Haikai no Renga and the starting verse was called hokku. Shiki took the first onji (sound/syllable) from haikai "hai" and the second onji of hokku "ku" and so haiku got it's name.

Credits: Haiga Shiba Sonome's "deep in the woods"

Back to Basho. I was a disciple of Bashoand he admired me. After the death of my husband, I earned my living as an eye doctor and as a judge of haikai. It should be noted that it is due to Basho and his ability to work with women that the amount of woman's haikai writings have been preserved which we have. One sees that most of these women gained access to the inner circle around Basho by being related either by marriage or blood to one of his disciples. I was one of the few to be accepted as a poet on my own. He even wrote a haiku especially for me:

White chrysanthemum
I look holding it straight
no dust at all

© Basho

I felt honored as he wrote this haiku especially for me. I have calligraphed it and now it hangs on the wall. It's really a nice haiku and I still dream that there will be a day that I can write my haiku as good as Basho did. When I was his disciple and encountered a lot of other haiku poets, Basho had almost 100 disciples, and they were all great. Basho admired them all and was proud on what they accomplished during their time at his home. For example there was Yozakura, the unknown haiku poet. Yozakura was very much on his own, but at Basho's home he turned out to be one of the best disciples of the master. 

Anexample of haiku by Yozakura: 

feeling alone
lost in the woods around Edo -
just the autumn wind

© Yozakura
And than there was Kikaku, a very talented young haiku-poet, who (together with Yozakura) helped Basho tho write his famous frog-haiku with which he turned the hokku into an own poem. Kikaku has written wonderful haiku e.g.:


A single yam leaf
contains the entire life
of a water drop

Over the long road
the flower-bringer follows:
plentiful moonlight

I begin each day
with breakfast greens and tea
and morning glories

© Kikaku

Aren't they beautiful and so in the spirit of Basho's haiku-school with the idea of Karumi, lightness or enlightenment? Just the view, just the things you can see all around you when you are outside (or in your home) and give words to it.

One of the most popular and talented disciples of Basho was Kyorai, he was one of the best ...


Its not easy
to be sure which end is which
of a resting snail

Chanting and humming
gongs immerse the green valley
in cool waves of air

© Kyorai

Or what do you think of this haiku written by Ransetsu, also a disciple of Basho:


On the plum tree
one blossom, one
blossomworth

At dusk the harvest moon
paints a pine-tree
against the blue

© Ransetsu

Credits: Calligraphed haiku by Ransetsu (1654-1707)

And than there was Hokushi, whom also wrote wonderful haiku. Sometimes full of sadness, or full of happiness. 


For that brief moment
when the fire-fly went out...
the lonely darkness

Experimenting
I hung the moon on various
branches of the Pine

© Hokushi

Well all wonderful examples of haiku written by other disciples of Basho, but of course I love to share a few haiku written by myself ... just to show you ... that we, all Basho's disciples, could write haiku with Karumi.


Each time they roll in,
the beach waves break up
the plovers

Spilled
from a tree-searing wind
a bull's midday voice

discontented
violets have dyed
the hills also

stumbling
on a rock
the warbler's call

© Shiba Sonome

All beauties, as I may say so (smiles). Basho was "One of a Kind". I have understood that I have to give you all a kind of task to fulfill after reading the Ghost Writer posts? Let me see .... what kind of task I can give you?

Matsuo Basho, One of a Kind

In this Ghost Writer post I mentioned a few times Karumi. 

Master Basho said: "Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.” 

What he meant was that the poet should detach the mind from his own self. Nevertheless, some people interpret the word 'learn' in their own ways and never really 'learn'. 'Learn' means to enter into the object, perceive its delicate life, and feel its feeling, whereupon a poem forms itself. Even a poem that lucidly describes an object could not attain a true poetic sentiment unless it contains the feelings that spontaneously emerged out of the object. In such a poem the object and the poet's self would remain forever separate, for it was composed by the poet's personal self.

He also said: "In my view a good poem is one in which the form of the verse, and the joining of its two parts, seem light as a shallow river flowing over its sandy bed”.

That my dear Haijin is what Karumi means. My task for you, dear Haijin ... try to write a haiku with Basho's idea of Karumi.

I hope you did like this Ghost Writer post and I hope it will inspire you all to write all new haiku with the lightness of Karumi in it ... I love to thank Chèvrefeuille that he has given me the opportunity to write this Ghost Writer post for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

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I hope you all did like this GW-post and I hope to read wonderful haiku written by you inspired on this post and with that touch of Basho's Karumi. I have given it a try with the next haiku:

cherry blossoms fall
after a glorious time
tears in my eyes


pebble stone
sharpened by the brook
nature’s art

© Chèvrefeuille


First Cherry Blossom photo © Chèvrefeuille

I don't know if I have touched Karumi with these two haiku, but I like the simplicity in both ... so maybe I have touched Karumi ...

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 31st at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, A Departed Soul (July 2014), later on. For now ... have fun!


Monday, October 27, 2014

Carpe Diem "Time Glass" #8


Dear Haijin, visitors, travelers,

It's time (well ... 15 minutes to early) again for our time challenging "Time Glass" feature in which the goal is to write a haiku inspired on a photo, painting or something and a prompt within 12 hours. This week I think I have a nice Time Glass episode for you all.

It's almost Halloween or Hallowe'en (/ˌhæləˈwiːn, -oʊˈiːn, ˌhɑːl-/; a contraction of "All Hallows' Evening"), also known as Allhalloween,  All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It initiates the triduum of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers. Within Allhallowtide, the traditional focus of All Hallows' Eve revolves around the theme of using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death."

According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic Samhain. Other scholars maintain that it originated independently of Samhain and has solely Christian roots.  
Credits: Halloween Pumpkin
Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related "guising"), attending costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted house attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular,  although in other locations, these solemn customs are less pronounced in favor of a more commercialized and secularized celebration. Because many Western Christian denominations encourage, although no longer require, abstinence from meat on All Hallows' Eve, the tradition of eating certain vegetarian foods for this vigil day developed, including the consumption of apples, colcannon, cider, potato pancakes, and soul cakes. (Source: Wikipedia)
Well .... I think you know what the prompt will be ... yes ....

HALLOWEEN

I am looking forward to all your responses. And remember you have only 12 hours to respond on this Time Glass feature.

This Time Glass episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Tuesday October 28th 7.00 AM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #592, Nights of Summer (June 2014) reprise)


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As we are closing in to the end of this celebration month we are now arrived at June 2014 in which we had all modern kigo for summer based on Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku". This month I think you will remember still, because of the kigo by Jane. And of course we have seen her several times here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai as a co-host for our "Ask Jane" feature.

Today's reprise prompt is Nights of Summer and I think you all can relate to that. In my opinion the warm summer nights are awesome, romantic and sensual. Lying on the beach with the one you love, making love maybe on the beach. The sound of seaguls in your ears, the waves, the far away sound of music from the pubs ... the rustling of the palm trees ... ah ... what a gorgeous scene. I love to re-share my haiku from that episode here again.



hot summer night
together with my friends -
singing on the beach

hot summer night
the sweet scent of Honeysuckle
arouses the sense

the sound of the waves
accompanies hot steamy love -
seagulls cry

© Chèvrefeuille

What a nice memory ... This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 30th at noon (CET). I will post our next episode, a new Ghost Writer post, later on.


Sunday, October 26, 2014

Carpe Diem #591, Helpful (May 2014) reprise


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Let us go on with our journey along memory-lane and see were we are now. Today we have arrived at May 2014 in which we had all prompts about Myth, Legend and Saga. This was the last prompt of May and it was a Folktale which I wrote myself about a Mongolian Shaman. It was really fun to write that folktale and I think you all enjoyed it. You can find that episode HERE.

Our Logo of May 2014, Atlantis

The above folktale was about Maidar, an apprentice of a Mongolian Shaman and I love to share the last paragraph of that folktale here again with the haiku I wrote back in May 2014.

[...] Maidar became a great shaman, even better than his beloved master Batbayar, and returned every year to the mountains to the place were he had lost his master to talk with the Eagle. [...]

whispering leaves
telling all wisdom of the steppes -
cry of an eagle

© Chèvrefeuille


I hope you liked this reprise episode and of course I hope you did read the story again and that it inspired you to write an all new haiku.

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 29th at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, Nights of Summer (June 2014), later on. For now have fun!
!! Our new CD "Time Glass" episode this Monday is almost there !!