Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Carpe Diem #1487 Dance of the Spider (Tarantella)




Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome a the first episode of our new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. July was about Imagination Without Limits and that month was a joy, but this month, August 2018, will be an adventure I think. I will take you on a journey around the world on a quest for folkmusic.

Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th century, but is often applied to music older than that. Some types of folk music are also called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles.


Women dancing the Tarantella (By Apollon Mokritsky - Old Picture, Public Domain)

So this month will be a joyful one, because we will discover wonderful music. In every episode I will try to give you some background on the music and a musical video to inspire you. Let us start with this virtual journey around the world in search of folkmusic in Southern Italy with the Tarantella.

Let me tell you a little bit of the background of the Tarantella:

Tarantella is a group of various folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6
8 time (sometimes 18
8
or 4
4
), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized forms of traditional southern Italian music.

In the Italian province of Taranto, Apulia, the bite of a locally common type of wolf spider, named "tarantula" after the region, was popularly believed to be highly venomous and to lead to a hysterical condition known as tarantism. This became known as the Tarantella.

Tarantism, as a ritual, has roots in the ancient Greek myths. Reportedly, victims who had collapsed or were convulsing would begin to dance with appropriate music and be revived as if a tarantula had bitten them. The music used to treat dancing mania appears to be similar to that used in the case of tarantism though little is known about either. Justus Hecker (1795–1850), describes in his work Epidemics of the Middle Ages:
[...] "A convulsion infuriated the human frame [...]. Entire communities of people would join hands, dance, leap, scream, and shake for hours [...]. Music appeared to be the only means of combating the strange epidemic [...] lively, shrill tunes, played on trumpets and fifes, excited the dancers; soft, calm harmonies, graduated from fast to slow, high to low, prove efficacious for the cure." [...]
The music used against spider bites featured drums and clarinets, was matched to the pace of the victim, and is only weakly connected to its later depiction in the tarantellas of Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Heller.

While most serious proponents speculated as to the direct physical benefits of the dancing rather than the power of the music a mid-18th century medical textbook gets the prevailing story backwards describing that tarantulas will be compelled to dance by violin music. It was thought that the Lycosa tarantula wolf spider had lent the name "tarantula" to an unrelated family of spiders, having been the species associated with Taranto, but since L. tarantula is not inherently deadly, the highly venomous Mediterranean black widow, Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, may have been the species originally associated with Taranto's manual grain harvest.




The above video shows you the Tarantella as it is performed in Apulia Italy as a kind of healing dance after a woman is bitten by a wolfspider (as legends tell us). It sounds awesome and I can imagine that this up tempo music makes the woman sweat a lot. Legend tells that through sweating the venomous poison of the Wolfspider is leaving the body and makes the woman healthy again. That's why the Tarantella is also called "Dance of the Spider".

cobweb trembles
a spider crawls to its prey
nimble dancer


© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like this episode and that it will inspire you to create Japanese poetry.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 7th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode, Fado, later on. For now ... have fun!

PS.: I hope to publish our August prompt-list later this week.

Monday, July 30, 2018

Carpe Diem #1486 Dreams ... will become true


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at our last Imagination Without Limits episode. July 2018 was an awesome month in which we found our inspiration through wonderful images. It was a joy to create this month and I hope you all have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed creating it. Tomorrow, August 1st, we will set of on a journey all over the the world to discover all kinds of folk music.

For today, the last Imagination Without Limits, I have a nice image found on Tumblr.

Dreams ... will become true
A short episode I am sorry, but I am on the nightshift, so I haven't enough time to create a big episode. So I hope I have awaken your muses with this short episode.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 6th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, the first stage of our new month, later on. For now ... have fun!

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Carpe Diem #1485 creating memories


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I had to work and that wasn't easy because of the heat, but well .... we finally had some showers of rain and temperatures have become more acceptable for the Dutch, say around 25 degrees Celsius. We still have a wonderful warm summer and this is one of the summers we will never forget.

Well this wonderful Imagination Without Limits is almost over, today we have our penultimate episode. After this month we will go on a journey around the world and discover various pieces of folkmusic like fado and tarantelle. But that's for later ...

I have found a very nice photo for you to work with, it's a photo I took a few years ago somewhere in my hometown. It's in the neighborhood of my mom, that's also the neighborhood were I grew up a teenager.

the nature of my hometown (photo © Chèvrefeuille)
I have only nice memories of this neighborhood and I cherish them with whole my heart. My youngest daughter, her friend and my youngest grandson are now living in that neighborhood too. It's a photo I took while walking with my grandson to my mother, his great grandmother.

wandering
memories of long ago
creates new ones


© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... what do you think ... this haiku / senryu is really awesome (how immodest) ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, the last one of July, later on.

By the way ... I am a little bit behind with commenting, but I hope to catch up a.s.a.p.


Friday, July 27, 2018

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #43 Troiku Challenge: My Lucky Tea


!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 29th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We have had a wonderful week here at CDHK and now we can take a rest ... it's time for a new weekend meditation. This weekend I have chosen for a Troiku Challenge. Maybe you can remember what that means. I will give you two haiku to work with. First you have to create a so called "fusion"-haiku and second ... with that "fusion"-haiku you have to create a Troiku. Troiku is a nice creative way of working with haiku that I invented back in 2012. More on Troiku you can find above in the menu.

For this Troiku Weekend-Meditation I have chosen two haiku by Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), one of the five greatest haiku poets ever. His haiku are k niwn for the simple choice of words, but also for it's emotions. Issa had a tough life in which he had to deal with several very sad things. For example his children died on a very young age.

Mount Fuji (Japan, Honshu Island)

Here are the haiku to work with:

tonight's moon--
how many mountains resemble
the ones back home?

going outside
plum blossoms dive in...
my lucky tea

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)

By the way "lucky tea" is the first cup of tea on New Year's Day.

Two beauties by Issa. I hope these will awaken your muse and will inspire you to create first a "fusion"-haiku and than a Troiku with your "fusion"-haiku. Enjoy your weekend.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 29th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new regular episode around that same time. For now .... have fun!


Thursday, July 26, 2018

Carpe Diem #1484 pouring rain


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to bring you all a new episode of our wonderful Kai. This place is for you. During the years of our existence, almost six years, we have become a warmhearted family of haiku-loving Haijin. And that makes me proud. I thank you all for being part of this warmhearted family and I hope we will be here as we are celebrating our 10th anniversary in 2022, but that's for later.

Again it is tropical weather here in The Netherlands, today temperatures rose to almost 40 degrees Celsius, to much to handle for the Dutch people. Nature needs water, we need water ... but it looks like that will be faraway for us. We need rain .... a lot of rain.

Pouring Rain (image found on Pinterest; photo © Kiki Sloane)
after the heat
finally pouring rain
I dance naked


© Chèvrefeuille

I really hope that there will be rain very soon, because we the Dutch ... need water, not only for our selves, but also for nature.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 2nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our nesxt episode, a new weekend meditation, later on. For now ... have fun!


Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Carpe Diem's Renga Challenge #4 flower-like snowflakes


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I have a new "renga challenge" for you. In this special feature I challenge you to create a renga together with Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) with haiku written by him and chosen from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku". All the given haiku by Basho are translated by Jane Reichhold.

I will give you six (6) haiku by Basho. You may use them all or take a few from the given ones. You can create your own "line-up" for your renga. The task is to create a renga of at least six (6) stanza and a maximum of 12 stanza. You are the one who has the task to write the two-lined stanza. Try to create a "full circle" or "closed chain" through the last verse, the ageku. You may choose your "hokku", starting verse from the six given haiku.

By the way this kind of renga, written by two poets, is called ryogin. Before I will give you the six haiku to use for the renga I have announcement to make. I will change the name of this special feature to "Renga With Basho"

Snowflake Aralia
Here are the six (6) haiku to work with:

into the sea
throwing my sandals
rain on my hat


falling to the ground
a flower closer to the root
bidding farewell


village kids
don't break all the plum branches
for cattle whips


mid-harvest
a crane on the rice paddy
in a village in autumn


sleep on a journey
then you will understand my poem
autumn winds


polished again
the mirror is as clear as
flower-like snowflakes


© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

This Renga Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 8th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Renga With Basho (the new name for our Renga Challenge)



Carpe Diem #1483 Honey


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Imagination Without Limits a month full of beautiful images to inspire you. I hope I can inspire you again through a nice image I found somewhere on the Internet. I am still searching for the owners of a few images I used here, but it's not easy to find them. So if you are the owner or you know who the owner is of the images I have used than please write me a note. To avoid problems I will already say "my excuses for using your images. I have done everything to track you, but couldn't find you".

Honey
I love the taste of honey and I always thank the bees for producing it for us. Those bees are working hard to give us the tasty honey provided by Mother Nature.

Honey ... well I think you will be inspired by this theme. Enjoy the fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 1st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!


Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Carpe Diem #1482 Lily of the Valley


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our wonderful inspirational month full of Imagination Without Limits. Today I have (again) a short episode, because I have had (again) a very busy day on the chemo ward. This month all my episodes rose from impromptu moments, I had no real list this month so it is to me a surprise too what I am coming up with.

Lily of the Valley
I hadn't the inspiration to create a new poem so I decided to share a tanka from my archive:

Lilies of the valley
their sweet perfume makes me drowsy
hot summer night
between silken sheets her warmth
honeysuckle coolness

© Chèvrefeuille (2015)

I hope you can find the inspiration. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 31st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .. have fun!


Monday, July 23, 2018

Carpe Diem #1481 Coffee Break


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We have a heatwave here in The Netherlands temperatures are rising towards 40 degrees Celsius. Really hot you can say. For us, the Dutch people, these temperatures are "killing", but ... well we cannot influence weather ... so we have to deal with it.

Today I had a very busy day on our chemo-ward so I have a short episode for you this time. I will give you only the image for your inspiration and the title of course (smiles).

Coffe Break (image found on Tumblr)
I am a real coffe drinking Haijin, because I don't like tea. So to create a haiku or tanka inspired on this image must be easy ... but (maybe it's the heat) I couldn't come up with a haiku or tanka. Maybe later ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 30th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.


Sunday, July 22, 2018

Carpe Diem #1480 Sound Of Wind


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first episode of the last seven (regular) episodes of this Imagination Without Limits month, July 2018. Next month we will go on a trip around the world to discover the folkmusic of many countries. I think that month will be awesome too. I am already busy with my research for it and I have heard wonderful folkmusic. I hope you all will like that upcoming month as much as I enjoy creating it.

You all will know that renown haiku by Basho:

old pond
a frog jumps
sound of water


© Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Well ... I have found a beautiful image for your inspiration today and I think you will understand my choice of the title "sound of wind", maybe I can give you an idea by creating a new haiku inspired on the one by Basho, but with a slightly difference.

old pond
rippling water
sound of wind


© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... what do you think? A nice one (how immodest).

Sound Of Wind
Here are two haiku from my archive:

evening walk
the sound of a wind chime
deep silence

again and again
the wind chime points me the way
to peace .... again

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you all will be inspired after the weekend and I am looking forward to your responses on "sound of wind". Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 29th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.


Friday, July 20, 2018

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #42 Gaia Goddess Of Earth (new feature)


!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 22nd at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation, our special feature for the weekend in which you have time to meditate and contemplate before you can submit your inspirational works. As I said in our earlier post today I hadn't yet decided which feature for the weekend meditation I would use. I couldn't decide or make a choice, because we have so much different features here at CDHK. So I thought "maybe I can create a new feature for the weekend meditation" ... And I did of course that last idea.

This afternoon I read a wonderful article about Druidry and that triggered my inspiration and imagination. Haiku ... the poetry of nature, needs a new "boost" here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. So I decided to create a new special feature. I "baptized" it ... Gaia Goddess Of Earth. Gaia is another name for Mother Nature and I think She can inspire us to create haiku as it is meant to be ... a poem of nature.

credits logo
Let me start with a "mantra" that is used by the druids as they are celebrating every full moon:

Deep within the still centre of my being
may I find peace.
Silently within the quiet of the grove
may I share peace.
Gently within the greater circle of humankind
may I radiate peace.


As I read this "mantra" I was immediately caught by its strength, its beauty, its complexity and its simplicity. Those feelings are the same as the ones I sense as I am creating haiku. And that's the goal of this new feature: Try to catch the beauty, the strength, the complexity and the simplicity of nature in your haiku or tanka.

For this first episode of this new weekend meditation feature I don't give you a prompt, because I love to challenge you to walk through your neighborhood and find the prompt, the theme, of this new feature. Maybe to help us, your readers, to relate to your poem, you can share a photo of the "source" of your inspiration.

I will give you an example of the above task:

© Chèvrefeuille
Well ... I hope you all do like this new feature for our weekend meditation. Have a wonderful weekend!

This episode is open for your submissions next Sunday July 22nd at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 29th at noon (CEST). Have fun ... be inspired!


Thursday, July 19, 2018

Carpe Diem #1479 abandoned boat


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are "running" towards the end of this Imagination Without Limits month. I have read awesome responses and you all make me proud. Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is a real haiku-loving family and I can see, feel and read that in every haiku or tanka you have shared with us. Thank you all for being part of this wonderful haiku-family and that you are all active participants.

Today I have a wonderful image for you, this time one I found on one of the many Tumblrs I visit often.

abandoned boat
Look at this image. What a sad scene this is. The colors are chosen in a great way and those colors make this image very dramatic. What has happened? Why was this boat abandoned? What will happen to it as time goes on ...?

lost and alone
a boat, left in a hurry,
abandoned 


© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... not as strong as I had hoped. Maybe I will come up with another one later on ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 26th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. I haven't decided yet which weekend-meditation feature I will choose.


Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Carpe Diem #1478 Harbor


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time for a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like write and share Japanese poetry like haiku and tanka. Today I will give you a beautiful image for your inspiration. It's (again) a photo from my hometown, but I also have a question for you. Let me give you first the image for your inspiration and after that my question.

The Harbor of my hometown (image © Chèvrefeuille)
And here is my question: You may use this image for your inspiration or share an image taken in your neighborhood or hometown and share your inspired Japanese poetry on your own image.

I enter the harbor
finally home again
after the storm
seagulls cry, their sad voice
a treasure for my heart


© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 25th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun and awaken your muses!


Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Carpe Diem #1477 Walking Down to the Beach


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's again a very hot day here in The Netherlands, temperatures are rising above 30 degrees Celsius. Maybe the already the result of the global warming, but I think that's a to big word for it. At least until halfway August the weather will stay this way in The Netherlands. There are even weather forecasts that say that we will have temperatures rising until 40 degrees Celsius ... I hope not of course, but you never know.

Global warming it's a worldwide theme and it's a problem, not a little problem, but very big problem. Can we fight against this global warming? Or will there be only desert ...

Today I hope to inspire you through a beautiful image I found somewhere on Tumblr. In my opinion it's a nice image to work with. So are you ready?!

Walking down to the Beach
I wish I could dive into this image and dive into the cool water. Finding the coolness after a hot summer day would be awesome along the beach. The beach ... a place to meditate and contemplate, but also to make love ...

after the heat
together with my love
our own heat


© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku/senryu)

With this love-poem I hope to insoire you to create also a love poem, a haiku or tanka? That's your own choice. Try to catch love in your poem.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.


Monday, July 16, 2018

Carpe Diem #1476 Silver Park


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have an announcement to make. As you (will) see at the right of our Kai, the link towards our forum is deleted. I have deleted the forum, because it didn't work well enough and it took to much of my time to keep it up to date.
Second I have another announcement to make ... next month August 2018 we will go on a journey here at CDHK. We will visit countries all over the world for their folk music. Every regular episode will feature a music video of a kind of folk music. I will try to tell you a little bit background on that kind of folk music and I hope that will help your muses to awaken.

Okay ... back to this new episode of our wonderful Kai. As I told you earlier this month I love to share images of my hometown this month too. And today I have another wonderful image for you. It's our so called "Silver Park" and it is situated in front of the hospital were I am working as an oncology nurse. In this same "Silver Park" the youth of our town have created what they call "Silver Hills", it's a skateboard yard with all kind of tricks. It's a wonderful place to relax for them and it's really a joy to watch them while doing their tricks.

"Silver Park" (photo © Chèvrefeuille
The hospital you cannot see on this photo, but it's situated more to the right in this photo. The name of this park is derived from the Silver Birches around this park and that brought a haiku from my archives in mind:

in pale moonlight
silver birches look like ghosts
rustling leaves

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

And a new one, more inspired on the image:

sound of water
waterlilies dance in the sun
ah how refreshing!


© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN (TOO) for your submissions and will remain open until July 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have a great day full of inspiration!


Carpe Diem #1475 raindrops sparkle


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. As I am preparing this episode I realize that I haven't posted our episode of Monday 16th, my excuses for that. So this episode is our Monday July 16th episode and I will create another episode today also.

Here is your image to inspire you. It's a wonderful image of flowers in the rain. Rain that's what we need here in The Netherlands, because it's almost three weeks very warm (hot) and we haven't had one drop of rain. So nature is suffering from drought here. This image is a nice way of saying ... let rain let it rain!

Raindrops Sparkle
after the drought
flowers sparkle the dust away
in the summer rain


© Chèvrefeuille

(The image I found on zedge.net)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 22nd at noon (CEST). Immediately after this episode I will publish our new episode.


Saturday, July 14, 2018

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2018 Finding The Way


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's time again for our traditional seasonal retreat. A period of 30 days in which the goal is to write haiku or tanka about a theme every day. This is the Summer Retreat 2018 Finding The Way.
Here at CDHK we have had several themes about Finding The Way for example we have been on a pilgrimage along the 88 temples on Shikoku Island, the once in a lifetime to do pilgrimage for Buddhists. And we have done the pilgrimage to Santiago The Compostela. Both were actual pilgrimages, but the theme "Finding The Way" is inspired on our inner pilgrimage to Find Our Way or Find Our Path or Finding Our Inner Peace ... or whatever you will name it.

Finding The Way (Spiritual Journey)
It's Summer ... and it can be summer in your heart and mind ... find your way ... write a haiku or tanka every day on the theme "Finding The Way" for a period of 30 days. Take your time. If you haven't enough inspiration to write every day than ... don't worry ... here at CDHK are "no strings attached".

Let me give you an example of a haiku that fits this theme. This haiku is written by Yozakura, The Wandering Spirit:

lost in the woods
not enough light to find the path -
the cry of an owl

© Yozakura

Well ... I hope you will enjoy this year's Summer Retreat. The Summer Retreat is open for your submissions next Sunday July 15th at 10:00 PM (CEST) and will run to August 14th at 10:00 PM (CEST). Enjoy the Retreat.


Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge 2018 #1 shadows on a sunny porch (Jane Reichhold)


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope your weekend started with a smile on your face. My weekend started certainly with a smile, because I have a week off. That gives me some time to challenge you a little bit more. Maybe you can remember that I had a "tan renga challenge" back in our rich history. We even created a few months full of Tan Renga. The Tan Renga Challenge started once on every Friday and I love to bring that challenging feature back here at our wonderful Kai. So today I have a Tan Renga Challenge for you, but let me first tell you what the goal is.

The goal is to create a Tan Renga from a haiku. A Tan Renga is a short chained verse written by two poets. One wrote the haiku (3-lines) and one wrote the second stanza (2-lines) through association on the scene of the haiku.

For this first "rebirth" of the Tan Renga Challenge I have a wonderful summer haiku by our beloved Jane Reichhold. Your task is to create a Tan Renga with it. A Tan Renga looks similar with the tanka, but instead of written by one poet it's written by two poets.

Shadows On A Porch (image found on Pinterest)


between boards
shadows on a sunny porch
a slender coolness 

© Jane Reichhold (taken from her online dictionary of haiku)

Read the haiku several times and than create your two-lined second stanza with approximately 7-7 syllables. Have fun!

This episode is Now Open for your submissions and will remain open until July 21st at noon (CEST).
I hope to bring a weekly Tan Renga Challenge for you.


Friday, July 13, 2018

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #41 Soliloquy no Renga "ancient warriors ghosts"




!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our special feature "Carpe Diem's Weekend Meditation", the feature that gives you (and me) time to meditate and contemplate before submission. This special feature gives me more time and some time off, because there is no need for me to publish every day. Of course that doesn't mean that I never will publish something in the weekend.

Recently I started with our new feature "Renga Challenge" in which I challenge you to create a renga together with Basho (or as planned later some other classical haiku poet). It looks like you all enjoy that feature a lot, so I have chosen to challenge you this weekend to create a so called "Soliloquy no Renga" (or solo-renga). Maybe you can remember that feature that I launched several years ago here at CDHK.


For this weekend "challenge" I will give you a hokku (or starting verse) to work with. The goal is to create a renga on your own and not as is common with another or more haiku poets. A renga is built from 3-lined and 2-lined stanza as you all will know. It makes a "chained verse" through association on the verses.

Today's hokku is the following, created by myself:

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

© Chèvrefeuille

The goal is to create a Soliloquy no Renga of a minimum of six (6) verses or a maximum of 24 verses. Try to create your solo-renga as if it was a book. That means try to bring a "preface", a "centerpiece" and an "afterword". In that way you create a renga like the classical haikupoets, because every renga had such a "grouping" (lay-out).

Ancient Warriors Ghosts (Japanese Woodblock) (image found on Pinterest)
This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 22nd at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend with a lot of inspiration.


Thursday, July 12, 2018

Carpe Diem #1474 path into oblivion



Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our beautiful inspiring Haiku Kai were we are having a great time with our July -theme "Imagination Without Limits" or in other words ... creating Japanese poetry inspired on a given image.

path into oblivion (photo (c) Chèvrefeuille)
Another nice scene from one of the many parks in my hometown. Look at that light play through the leaves, the fading colors of the pond and the disappearing of the blue sky into a kind of vague white. It's a crossroad ... which direction will I take? Were does that path lead me to? Does that path lead me into oblivion? It's up to you now ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, a new weekend-meditation, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your Japanese poetry with us all.




Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Carpe Diem #1473 Fragile Beauty



Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month it's all about imagination and I think that's one of the pillars of haiku. Why? Because as a haiku poet you have to imagine the scene you try to catch in your haiku, but it also 'triggers' the imagination of the reader.

Again I have a lack of time, so again I have made it myself easy. I only will give you an image to inspire you.
Plum Blossom (photo © Chèvrefeuille)
scent of plum blossoms
mingles with the scent of the hearth
winter departure


© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 18th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!


Carpe Diem Crossroads #13 chilly coolness


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our CDHK feature "Crossroads", the feature in which I challenge you to create a so called "fusion"-haiku from two haiku and to create a Troiku with your "fusion"-haiku. More on Troiku you can find above in the menu.

For this episode I have returned to the beautiful haiku by (my sensei) Matsuo Basho. I have chosen two nice haiku created by him to work with. I have taken these two haiku from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, the complete haiku".

feet on the wall (image found on Pinterest)

Here are your two haiku to work with:

chilly coolness
my feet on the wall
for a midday nap

the color of wind
planted artlessly
in a garden of reeds

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

A nice challenge I think.

This "crossroads" episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 18th at noon (CEST). Have fun!


Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Carpe Diem Renga Challenge #3 Chrysanthemum Dew


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am under the impression that you all love this Renga Challenge feature and I think it's awesome to write a renga together with one of the classic masters. For this third episode I have again six beauties written by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) in a translation by Jane Reichhold. I still miss her, but I know that her spirit is still dwelling here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. As I think of her I only can smile and be gratefull that I have known her and have worked with her.

The goal is to create a renga with a minimum of six stanza and a maximum of 12 stanza. You can use the haiku I give in any order, the only thing you have to do is create the two-lined stanza between the haiku through association on the images/scenes in the haiku.

A Girl Collecting Chrysanthemum Dew by the stream (woodblock print)
Here are the six haiku by Basho to work with:

the image shows
an old woman weeping alone
my friend the moon


passing through autumn
a butterfly seems to lick
chrysanthemum dew


five or six
sitting with tea and cakes

a fireplace

Skylark

a skylark sings
the pheasant's voice is
the instrumental music


how glorious
young green leaves
flash in the sun


early summer rains
falling so heavily they cover up
the waterfall


© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold, taken from "Basho, The Complete Haiku")

 All great haiku ... enjoy your renga-party together with Basho.

This Renga Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 24th at noon (CEST). Have fun!