Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #81 Looking Back

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first day of our new Carpe Diem Haiku Kai month. We have had a wonderful month full of Tan Renga Challenges (TRC) and it was awesome to create those challenges for you. In a way this last month we have done it really together and that makes me proud, humble and happy. I think our TRC-month has made our CDHK-bond stronger and that's awesome.

As I started with CDHK back in 2012 I couldn't have known that we would be here in 2016 alive and kicking. I am really a proud host and that's all through all of your energy. You all are giving me only positive energy and that gives me the strength to keep going. Thank you !

I love to look back for a while, just to contemplate .... how strong our CDHK-family has become.

like a family
you my dear friends I embrace -
unconditional love
shared by a bunch of haiku poets
from all over the world

© Chèvrefeuille

At the start of this year we had a nice month full of classical and non-classical kigo (seasonwords) for winter. And in February Hamish "Managua" Gunn created all the posts themed "senses". He also was our featured haiku poet for that mont. So basically he wrote all our CDHK posts.

Hamish won the "winter" kukai with the following haiku:

midwinternight
a dark sky's lights dance
in the wolf's eyes

© Hamish

In February I launched a new feature at CDHK and with that new feature, Carpe Diem's Theme Week, I created a new tradition. That first Theme Week was about Sogyal Rinpoche's "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" and it became a success. I even could create an exclusive CDHK e-book about that Theme Week. It was really awesome to create that Theme Week and it brought wonderful haiku and tanka.

Logo first CDHK-Theme Week

Our second Theme Week "Color Your Life" was about the (deeper) meaning of the rainbow colors and that also brought beautiful haiku and tanka. 

Of course there was the discussion about publishing permission which resulted in the creation of a publishing policy, the most sad thing I ever had to do for CDHK. Through that discussion we lost a few great and gifted haiku poets, but that was their choice.

In March we tried our hand on writing haiku "In The Way of Basho", an awesome month in which we explored the Haiku Writing Techniques used by Basho (1644-1694) together with our beloved co-host Jane Reichhold. I first loved to create an exclusive CDHK e-book about this special month, but after that publishing discussion we had, I decided to don't create that e-book.

In April we had another special month in which we tried our hand on that beautiful art form Haiga (haiku and image), or Tank-art (tanka and image).

Haiga by Chèvrefeuille

The Theme Week of April was titled "Magnolia Blossoms" and was all about the beautiful haiku by Soseki Natsume, a contemporary of Shiki, and it was a joy to create that Theme Week. I wasn't familiar with Soseki's haiku, but through that Theme Week I discovered his beautiful work and it was really wonderful to share that beauty with you all. Again an exclusive CDHK e-book saw the light of life after that Theme Week.

As I started this Tokubetsudesu episode I already said that we have had a wonderful Tan Renga Challenges month and I will soon make an exclusive CDHK e-book, in which I have gathered all the posts and responses of this TRC-month, titled "Chained Together" available at our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

To conclude this Tokubetsudesu episode in May we had another wonderful Theme Week in which we explored the beauty and strength of the Latifa Prayer.

And now ... we are going on a ginko through the countries of the European Unity. I am looking forward to all what is going to happen in June. Of course we will have our CD-Specials (Joyce Lorenson) and a special Tokubetsudesu (Milan Rajkumar). I also will bring back a few special features the Utabukuro feature and the weekly Tan Renga Challenge. And of course there will be a new Theme Week. This month our Theme Week is about "Ascension" ...

Well ... I don't have something else to tell .... this Tokubetsudesu episode I looked back and I only can say:

"It was awesome!"

Thank you all for being part in this wonderful adventure of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a daily haiku meme. The place to be if you like to write and share haiku. Maybe you know other haiku poets who would like to participate ... feel free to invite them to be part of this adventure.

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille, your host.

PS. I do not add a linking widget this time, but if you would like to respond. Please feel free to do that through the comment field.

Chèvrefeuille, your host