Carpe Diem Special (2nd guest) Kala Ramesh's 3rd "lotus viewing"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to present our third CD Special by Kala Ramesh, our 2nd guest, Kala Ramesh is a very gifted haiku (and tanka) poetess from India and renown all over the world. In our last CD Special by her I shared tanka of her and this CD Special I have chosen to inspire you with haiku.

I found four beauties on the website of Akita International Haiku Network and I think these are really beautiful. I will try to share them with the respect they deserve.

The first haiku is the following:

lotus viewing . . .
the flowering
within

© Kala Ramesh

In this haiku I sense a deeper spiritual meaning, the lotus grows from deep down the mud, through the water to reach out for the sun ... this you can see as spiritual growth. But what I first thought when I read this haiku? I immediately thought of the beautiful haiku by Santoka Taneda, who created haiku in the so called "free-style", without counting syllables, use of kireji or kigo. By the way in this haiku Kala uses "lotus" as kigo.

dragonfly (image found on Pinterest)

Let us take a look at the second haiku which I have chosen to share here:

the pause
in a dragonfly’s glide—
noon shadows

© Kala Ramesh

Another beauty in the "free-style" way without counting syllables, but does that mean that it is not a haiku? No certainly not, in this haiku you can clearly see the fragment and phrase technique which we have seen here more often. So it is a haiku ... and in my opinion a beauty.

As you know I am not a haiku poet who likes to follow the classical rules, but sometimes it's awesome to try that. For example this one:

blooming sunflowers
reaching for the early light of the sun -
birds praise their Creator

© Chèvrefeuille

So for this CD Special I love to give you a little challenge ... try to create a haiku following the classical rules inspired on the haiku shared by Kala Ramesh.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 21st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, clay, later on. For now ... have fun!