Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #87 Crossroads ...

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 2nd at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Today (June 1st) Summer starts according to meteorology, so I have created a new logo for our weekend meditation. On the logo you see the renown Golden Temple (Kinkaku-ji) at Kyoto Japan.

As you all know the weekend meditation is a way to meditate and contemplate about your Japanese poetry before publishing. This weekend I love to challenge you with a "Crossroads" episode. The goal is to create a new haiku inspired on two given haiku and create a Troiku with the newly created haiku. (More on Troiku above in the menu).

Deep Silence

Here are the two haiku to work with, both are created by myself:

reaching for the sun
lotus flowers bloom from the mud
old pond changes

deep silence
even deeper as the nightingale starts to sing
beautiful life

© Chèvrefeuille (2017)

Create your new haiku from or inspired on these two haiku and create a Troiku with your new haiku. Enjoy your weekend and this Crossroads challenge.

This episode is open for your submissions next Sunday June 2nd at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 9th at noon (CEST). Have a wonderful weekend.

Carpe Diem #1671 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (18) lightning flash

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last episode of this wonderful Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019. It was really a joy to create this month and I am glad to see all your responses. Thank you all for being part in this Tan Renga Challenge.

For this last episode of our TRC month I have chosen a haiku by my master, Matsuo Basho. This haiku is extracted from his renown haibun "The Small Road Into The Deep North", one of the most beautiful pieces of Japanese literature.

Here is the haiku to work with:

lightning flash–
what I thought were faces
are plumes of pampas grass

© Basho (Tr. unknown; taken from "The Small Road Into The Deep North")

Lightning Flash (above Athens, Greece)

What a spectacular photo this is. It fits the haiku by Basho in a great way and makes it easier to create your 2nd stanza to this Tan Renga I think.

This was the last episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month and I hope you are inspired to complete the Tan Renga task.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 6th at noon (CEST). I hope to publish our new (and first episode of June 2019) later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1670 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (17) sun-dried grass

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the penultimate episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019. This month was a real joy, but time wasn't always at my side, so I am behind with commenting on all your responses. I hope to catch up this week.

For this penultimate episode I have another beautiful haiku by our dear friend, who we still miss, Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) for you to work with and create a Tan Renga with ... a twist ... a hineri episode.

Here is the haiku ("hokku") to work with. The goal is to create a Tan Renga by adding your 2nd stanza of two lines and ... you have to add another three-lined stanza and another two-lined stanza. So at the end of this task you have created a four stanza "short" renga.

evening sea fog
descending into sun-dried grass
sweaty lovers

© Jane Reichhold

Sun Dried Grass (image found on Pinterest)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your responses and will remain open until June 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1669 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (16) white crane

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our TRC Month May 2019. This month is almost over and I am looking forward to June, than we will be challenged to create Troiku, that creative way of haiku-ing I invented back in 2912, but now it's still Tan Renga.

Today I have a beautiful haiku by a classical master, Kikaku, an apprentice and very close friend of Basho. The loved eachother dearly.

Here is the haiku to work with, it's a haiku Kikaku wrote to comfort Basho because he was very ill, a few days later Basho died.

How I wish to call
A white crane from Fukei,
But for this cold rain.

© Kikaku

White Crane (Japanese Woodblock Print)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your responses. Create your Tan Renga by adding the two lined second stanza. This episode is open until June 4th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1668 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (15) flower fragrance

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Sorry for being this late with publishing our new episode. I had the evening shift and I hadn't time to create this one earlier.
We are running towards the end of this Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 and than we will start a new month full of challenges. Next month (June) I will challenge you to create Troiku, but that's not for now.

Because of lack of time I will give you only the haiku to work with. This time I have chosen a haiku by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016). This haiku is taken from her online "Dictionary of Haiku" section Summer, subsection Celestial.

Here is the haiku to work with and create your Tan Renga:

coming to sea cliffs
the off-shore breeze raises
a flower fragrance

© Jane Reichhold

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 3rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1667 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (14) Hibiscus Red ... Raymond Roseliep

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome a the last week of our TRC month May 2019. I hope you all have had a wonderful week and a wonderful weekend. I had a very busy week, so I was glad that I had taken a week off. But today we are going on with our TRC month. This month I challenge you to create Tan Renga with a given haiku by classical and modern haiku poets.

Today I have chosen a nice haiku by a not so well known haiku poet, Raymond Roseliep (1917-1983). Let me give you first a short overview of his life:

Raymond Roseliep (1917 – 1983) was a poet and contemporary master of the English haiku and a Catholic priest. He has been described as "the John Donne of Western haiku."

Raymond Roseliep

Born on August 11, 1917, in Farley, Iowa, to John Albert Roseliep (1874-1939) and Anna Elizabeth Anderson (1884-1967). In 1939 he graduated from Loras College with a Bachelor of Arts, in 1948 he received a Master of Arts in English from Catholic University of America, and in 1954 he received a Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature from Notre Dame University. He was ordained, June 12, 1943, at St. Raphael’s Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa.

For Raymond Roseliep the two most sacred themes were creation and love, so it was only natural that he would explore both in his haiku. In an interview first published in 1979, Roseliep was asked how a priest could be writing such evocative, sometimes erotic, love poetry. “To talk about that,” Roseliep said, “I should return for a moment to that Catholic-poetry period of mine, and I can briefly tell you how it was inevitable that I needed a fresh theme. In those early days I was writing about the Mass, the sacraments, parish experiences, religious encounters of all dimensions — in people, nature, anywhere.” He added: “I needed a new outlook. I knew that religious poetry and love poetry are the hardest of all to write, and since I hadn’t attained full success in one, I would try the other. And I have been exploring the love theme ever since. It’s wonderful. It keeps me alive and young and remembering; and always with feelings that are deepest and most sacred in all of us.”(Delta Epsilon Sigma Bulletin24:4 (December 1979);A Roseliep Retrospective: Poems & Other Words By & About Raymond Roseliep (Ithaca, N.Y.: Alembic Press, 1980), 13.)

Morning Glory

He won the Haiku Society of America Harold G. Henderson award in 1977 and 1982. In 1981, Roseliep's haiku sequence, “The Morning Glory”, appeared on over two thousand buses in New York City:

takes in 
the world 
from the heart out 

funnels 
our day 
into itself 

closes 
on its own 
inner light

© Raymond Roseliep

I have to admit ... I never had heard of this haiku poet until today, but his haiku are really gorgeous and mostly written in a nice "free-styling" way ... a way of haiku-ing I like as you all (maybe) know. At the end of this episode I will give you a few links to more information about him, but first I will give you the haiku to work with:

unable
to get hibiscus red
the artist eats the flower

© Raymond Roseliep

More about Raymond Roseliep you can fnd at:

https://livinghaikuanthology.com/index-of-poets/livinglegacies/2690-raymond-roseliep.html

https://terebess.hu/english/usa/roseliep.html

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

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #86 A New Feature ... Carpe Diem's Utopia

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday May 26th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize for being late with publishing of this weekend meditation, but it has all to do with a new feature I have created "Carpe Diem's Utopia". Let me first give you an explanation about this new feature, but to do that I need to tell you first what "Utopia" was meant to be.

A Utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia. One could also say that utopia is a perfect "place" that has been designed so there are no problems.

Carpe Diem's Utopia (image credits)

Utopia focuses on equality in economics, government and justice, though by no means exclusively, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying based on ideology. According to Lyman Tower Sargent "there are socialist, capitalist, monarchical, democratic, anarchist, ecological, feminist, patriarchal, egalitarian, hierarchical, racist, left-wing, right-wing, reformist, Naturism/Nude Christians, free love, nuclear family, extended family, gay, lesbian and many more utopias [...] Utopianism, some argue, is essential for the improvement of the human condition. But if used wrongly, it becomes dangerous. Utopia has an inherent contradictory nature here." Sargent argues that utopia's nature is inherently contradictory, because societies are not homogenous and have desires which conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. If any two desires cannot be simultaneously satisfied, true utopia cannot be attained because in utopia all desires are satisfied.

It's a dreamworld I think, but it can be of use for our haiku writing skills, because that's the task of this new feature ... creating an utopian (excellent) haiku (or tanka) by using the classical rules as you can find above in the CD Lecture 1.

A nice task from a modern view. The haiku or tanka have to have a modern theme, but has to follow the classical rules.

driving me home
her sportscar flashes along the roads
daffodils bow their head

© Chèvrefeuille

Just a small impromptu verse to show the goal for this task. Can you see the modern theme? and the classical rules?

Well ... a nice challenge I think. This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday May 26th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 2nd at noon (CEST). Have fun ... and ofcourse a wonderful weekend.

Carpe Diem Extra May 22nd 2019 -- forgotten kukai August 2018

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all know I have a week off, but that doesn't mean I am not busy with Carpe Diem. I ran into a "lost list of the 2nd Troiku-kukai". That 2nd Troiku-kukai we had in August 2018. So I will gather those Troiku and will publish them this week for judging.

My apologies for this inconvenience.

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #85 Photo-shopping Haiku (2) Cherry Blossom

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday May 19th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new CDHK Weekend Meditation. That special feature that gives you the opportunity to meditate and contemplate before you can submit your response. Before I give you the new "weekend meditation" task I have an announcement to make.

As you maybe remember ... last month I took a week off ... That gave me the opportunity to take a rest and have more time for those around me. I also told you last month that I will take a week off every month and next week is that week. This weekend meditation is the start of this week off and next Friday May 24th I will publish our new weekend meditation. So next week I will not publish our regular episodes. It gives you also time to take your time to respond without the pressure of a new episode every day.

Okay back to this weekend meditation. Several weeks ago I intoduced to you a new feature here at CDHK "Photo-Shopping Haiku". (description of this new feature HERE).

Cherry Blossom

For this weekend meditation "Photo-Shopping Haiku" I have chosen a beautiful haiku to "photo-shop" by Kobayashi Issa:

even an old man
has New Year's eyes...
cherry blossoms

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)

Give it a thought and try to 'photo-shop" it to a "better version of itself" just by "a little change". Have fun!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday May 19th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 26th at noon (CEST). Have a wonderful weekend!

Carpe Diem #1666 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (13) dangling prayer beads

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019. Yesterday I gave you a hineri episode with gorgeous haiku crafted by Jane Reichhold. Today I have chosen a beauty by one of the Big Five Haiku Masters, Kobayashi Issa, to work with.

During lack of time I will give you only the haiku to work with:

prayer beads dangling
a harvest moon prayer...
mountain home

© Kobayashi Issa

Prayer Beads Dangling

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our weekend meditation later on.

Carpe Diem #1665 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (12) "special" Basho "Miscanthus bud"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a "special" episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019. Today I have a few nice haiku by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) for you to work with. You may choose a haiku to work with of you can use them all. Why is this episode "special"? Well I realised today that this year Basho's birth and death are celebrated. He was born 325 years ago and died 375 years ago, so in my opinion this is "special".

I will give you a short overview of his life hereafter:

Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), born, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa, was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned; and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is justifiably famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses."

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickly became well known throughout Japan. He made a living as a teacher; but then renounced the social, urban life of the literary circles and was inclined to wander throughout the country, heading west, east, and far into the northern wilderness to gain inspiration for his writing. His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple elements. (Source: wikipedia)

Here are the haiku to work with:

the Dutchmen, too,
kneel before His Lordship --
spring under His reign.

by my new banana plant
the first sign of something I loathe --
a miscanthus bud!

Miscanthus

another year is gone
a traveler's shade on my head,
straw sandals at my feet

now then, let's go out
to enjoy the snow ... until
I slip and fall!

© Basho

Four very nicely crafted haiku by my master, Matsuo Basho. You may choose from these four to create Tan Renga with or you can use them all. That's up to you.

This "special" episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 22nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1664 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (11) Tan Renga Hineri "Only Tracks"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here is our delayed post as mentioned yesterday. Today I love to challenge you to create a Tan Renga Hineri. That means: I will give you a haiku to work with. You have to add a minimum of three stanza and a maximum of five stanza. You have to create the 2nd stanza, the 3rd stanza (a haiku) and a 4th stanza (two lined). If you are inspired enough than you can add also a fifth stanza (a haiku) and a 6th stanza (two lined). Try to create a "short story" and try to "close the chain" with a "ageku" (closing verse) that refers to the 1st (given) stanza.

Footsteps On The Beach (image found on pxhere)

Today I have a beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) to work with. Try to create your Tan Renga Hineri in honor of her.

late summer
alone on the beach
with only tracks

© Jane Reichhold

I think this haiku is a beauty to work with. It has so many scenes hidden in it ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 21st at noon (CEST). I will publish our new episode immediately hereafter.

Carpe Diem's new episode delayed

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our new episode in our Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 is delayed through lack of time. I will try to post it later this day. My excuses for this inconvenience.

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Carpe Diem #1663 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (10) snap of an icicle

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019. This month I challenge you to create Tan Renga with a given haiku and today I have chosen a haiku by one of our long time members and gifted haiku poetess ... Kim M. Russell.

As you all know a while ago we started our Quest for a New Masterpiece and the haiku for today is a Masterpiece in my opinion. It's a haiku that can become an "evergreen".

Icicles (image found on pixabay)

Here is the haiku, this masterpiece, by Kim:

muffled and silenced
the snap of an icicle
engulfed by fresh snow

© Kim M. Russell (16th December 2018)

A wonderful haiku to start the Tan Renga with I would say, however I couldn't come up with a nice 2nd stanza. Maybe later I will publish my own Tan Renga ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 20th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

PS. I have published a new task on tanka at Tanka Splendor. You can find Tanka Splendor through the link at the right side of our Kai. You are invited to participate.

Carpe Diem #1662 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (9) Watching a Snail

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend, I had for sure a nice weekend. Welcome at a new episode in our TRC month May 2019. As you all know I see Basho (1644-1694) as my sensei, my master therefore I have chosen a haiku written by myself in honor of him, my master,

As I discovered haiku back in the late eighties I hadn't heard of Basho, but after reading one of the most popular haiku books in Dutch ("Een Jonge Maan", by J. van Tooren; "A young Moon" by J. van Tooren) I was caught by the beauty of the haiku written by Basho ... I read all haiku that are known by him and so I am ... influenced by Basho's way of writing haiku. I owe a lot of my haiku skills to him and of course to Jane Reichhold, who has given me the opportunity to read all the haiku by Basho in her "Basho, The Complete Haiku".

Snails in the Moonlight

And here is the haiku to work with. It's part of a cascading haiku I created back in February 2012:

I bow to my master
Matsuo Basho told me the way
to watch a snail

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... a nice haiku I would say (how immodest) in honor of my master Matsuo Basho. And now it is up to you to add the 2nd satnza of this Tan Renga ... have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #84 Quest for a new masterpiece "Movement" (Unduo)

!! Open for your submissions tomorrow at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize that I am late with publishing this weekend meditation. Yesterday I had a very busy day at work, so I had no opportunity to create the weekend meditation for you. This weekend I love to challenge you again to create your NEW masterpiece.

A haiku masterpiece is a haiku that will last forever and will be renown to a lot of people. For example Basho's "frog pond" haiku is such a masterpiece. That haiku is even known by a lot of non haiku poets, because of it's beauty and spiritual layer, but also because he brought "movement" in this haiku. Before he created this "frog pond" haiku, the haiku about frogs were about their croaking. So "movement" was a new idea for haiku about frogs.

Apple Blossom (image found on Pinterest)

Let me give you an example of another haiku in which we see " movement":

apple blossom falls
scattered by the late spring breeze
apple blossom falls

© Chèvrefeuille

Your task for this weekend ... create a haiku, a new masterpiece, in which you use "movement" (or undou).

PS.: Undou is a new Haiku Writing Technique more about Undou? You can find HERE.

This episode is open for your submissions Sunday May 12th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 19th at noon (CEST). Have fun! Can you create a NEW masterpiece?

Carpe Diem #1661 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (8) Beginning of Autumn

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019. During lack of time I will give you only the haiku (by Jane Reichhold) to work with. So here is the haiku to work with:

cricket silence
between scraping sounds
autumn begins

© Jane Reichhold

And now it is up to you to create the second stanza of this Tan Renga.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 16th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on.

Carpe Diem #1660 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (7) Wisteria

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019. Today I have chosen to challenge you with a haiku by Yosa Buson (1716-1784), one of the "Big Five" haiku poets. As Buson started creating haiku he used his own way of writing, because he wasn't a "fan" of Matsuo Basho (whom is seen as the "father of haiku"), but in his later life Buson went back to the way of Basho. He even illustrated the first published edition of Basho's "Narrow Road Into The Deep North" with his beautiful haiga-qualities.

Bird and Wisteria (Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858).

The above Japanese woodblock print shows you a nice composition of a bird and wisteria crafted by Utagawa Hiroshige. This woodblock print points you already the way to the haiku to use for your Tan Renga Challenge.

Here is the haiku by Buson to work with:

In the moonlight,
The color and scent of the wisteria
Seems far away.

© Yosa Buson

A fragile scene I can imagine it before my eyes. The soft light of the moon shines upon the wisteria. The wisteria's colors faint a little towards white and grey and with losing its color it also loses its scent... and the last line makes that scene very strong.

To create a Tan Renga with this haiku will not be an easy task, but I have given it a try:

In the moonlight,
The color and scent of the wisteria
Seems far away.                                                       © Buson

the sound of the thundering waves
makes the silence stronger                                      © Chèvrefeuille

Not a strong second stanza in my opinion, but I like how with this 2nd stanza there is another sense present ... hearing and the realisation that through sound the silence can become deeper. It makes the scene even stronger ...

And now it is up to you. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 15th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1659 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (6) chestnut

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our TRC month May 2019 in which we are creating Tan Renga together with known and unknown haiku poets. Today I have a nice haiku written by Matsuo Basho for you to work with. There is a small story behind this haiku and I hope you can appreciate that I tell you the background of it.

As you maybe know, Basho was interested in man, he was homosexual common for his time homosexuality was accepted. Maybe you can remember that I told you about "Wakasu" (this was a common way of same-sex culture in the ancient Samourai class. It was a common use for adult man to have a relationship with minors. Of course in nowadays Japan this isn't an accepted habit as far as I know.) and as you maybe know Basho was a son of a low ranked samourai and maybe he was once a "wakasu" himself. There is however no reference towards that in the stories of his life.
Basho was once in love with the son of good friend of him. The boy was 14 years of age and had a warm relation with Basho.

Chestnut Tree in full bloom

In several of his haiku Basho is referring to his homosexuality. The haiku I have chosen to work with is such a haiku. I will not give you further explanation about this haiku ... I leave that to you.

Here is the haiku to work with:

autumn moonlight--
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

It's a wonderful haiku, even if you don't know the background on it this is a beauty. I have given it a try to create the 2nd stanza to this one. Here is my attempt:

autumn moonlight --
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut                                             © Basho

at the crack of the day
birds start to praise their Creator               © Chèvrefeuille

I think this is a very nicely crafted continuation of the haiku by Basho. Maybe there is even a small reference to the background of the haiku by Basho.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 14th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

PS.: I try another linking widget (again). Click on the CDHK logo below to find the linking widget.

Carpe Diem #1658 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (5) Wintry gusts

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new TRC episode here at CDHK, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry. This month we are creating Tan Renga with eachother. Tan Renga looks similar with Tanka, but instead of being written by one poet it's written by two poets.

A Tan Renga has two stanza. The first stanza is 3-lined ("hokku") and the second stanza is 2-lined ("ageku"). To create the second stanza you have to associate on images and scenes in the first stanza. Together the both stanza are called Tan Renga or Short Chained Verse.

Today I have a nice haiku for you to work with. The haiku for today is written by a not so renown haiku poet, Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927). Let me tell you first a little bit about him and after that I will give you the haiku to work with.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927)

Akutagawa Ryunosuke

A Japanese writer active in Taisho period Japan. He is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story", and is noted for his superb style and finely detailed stories that explore the darker side of human nature.
... Akutagawa published his first short story Rashōmon the following year in the literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku ("Imperial Literature"), while still a student. The story, based on a fantasy from late Heian period Japan, with a sharp twist of psychological drama, was largely unnoticed by the literary world, except by noted author Natsume Sōseki.
It was also at this time that he started writing haiku under the haigo (or pen-name) Gaki, Hungry Ghost. (Source)

Sardines

Here is the haiku to work with:

kogarashi ya mezashi ni nokoru umi-no iro

Wintry gusts:
on the sardine still lingers
the ocean's color.

© Akutagawa Ryunosuke a.k.a. Gaki (Tr.: Ueda)

A wonderful haiku as I may say so. I however couldn't come up with a good 2nd stanza to complete the Tan Renga, but maybe you are more inspired.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 13th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new TRC later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1657 Tan Renga Challenge May 2019 (4) Ocean Sanctuary

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge (TRC) Month May 2019. This month it's all about short chained verses also known as Tan Renga. A Tan Renga looks very similar with Tanka, but instead of being written by one poet, the Tan Renga is written by two poets.

The goal of TRC is to complete or continue a given haiku (3-lined verse) by adding a 2-lined stanza through association on the scenes / images in the given haiku. Today I have chosen a haiku by Jane Reichhold to create a Tan Renga with.
As you all know Jane Reichhold died in 2016 after a period of extreme pain and discomfort. She was one of the most famous modern haiku poets the world ever has known. And she was a co-host here at our own Haiku Kai.

Waves Kneeling On The Beach

sunday morning 
all the waves in white
kneeling on the beach

© Jane Reichhold (Taken from "Ocean Sanctuary" an anthology of haiku inspired on the North Coast of California)

"Ocean Sanctuary" was never published and that's a sad idea, because Jane had gathered a lot of wonderful haiku fitting this theme. Really worth to read them ...

Here is my Tan Renga that I created from this beautiful haiku by Jane. She is still missed.

sunday morning
all the waves in white
kneeling on the beach                                    © Jane Reichhold

without loosing their virginity
monks bow in front of Mother Mary            © Chèvrefeuille

A little bit of humor maybe, but also spirituality, because monks choose to be virgin always. They give their lives to their God and live their lives in chastity.

I hope you did like this continuation and I hope that you don't see this as sacrilege. The scene of the bowing monks was the first thing that came in mind as I read this haiku by Jane Reichhold.

This TRC is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 12th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new TRC later on. For now ... be inspired and have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #83 Renga With ... sun's reflection

!! Open for your submissions May 5th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation, that special feature for the weekends. A way of meditating and contemplating about a given theme or to reflect on your thoughts about haiku to work with. This weekend I have chosen to challenge you with a Renga With ... episode. This Renga With ... episode I love to challenge you to create a Renga with six haiku crafted by myself.

Here are the haiku to work with. I am looking forward to the renga toare going to create.

Narcissus
in love with his reflection
vainglorious guy

snowdrops blooming

waving goodbye to Winter

nearly Spring

icicles hanging

at the gutter of the old mansion

sun's reflections

Icicles (photo © Gita Photos _ Ron Hallam)

this cold winter night

laying naked under my quilt

feels like summer

messenger of heaven

circling high above my head -

re-thinking my life

light of ember

mysterious shadows on the wall -

a cool summer night

© Chèvrefeuille

You all know what to do but I will give you the task again. You have to add the two-lined stanza between the haiku. You may choose your own "line-up". Try to make it a closed chain by creating the "closing verse" or "ageku" associated on the "hokku" or "starting verse". Have a great weekend.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday May 5th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 12th at noon (CEST). 

Carpe Diem #1656 Tan Renga Challenge May 2019 (3) Dandelion and Butterfly

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to create this month full of TRC's created from modern and classical haiku. Today I have a nice classical, not so renown, haiku by one of the most famous female haiku poets, Chiyo-Ni.
As I discovered haiku back in the late eighties I only read haiku created by male poets, but at the start of this century I discovered that there were also female haiku poets. Chiyo-Ni was one of the first haiku poetesses I discovered I was immediately in love with the beauty of her haiku especially that gorgeous one themed "morning glories", that renown one.

I think I have read the most of her haiku, but the haiku to work with today I wasn't familiar with so I am looking forward to your responses on this haiku.

Butterfly on Dandelion

Here is the first stanza of today's TRC, a haiku by Chiyo-Ni:

a dandelion
now and then interrupting
the butterflys dream

© Chiyo-Ni

Well ... it's now up to you to create a Tan Renga with this one. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 9th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on.

Carpe Diem #1655 Tan Renga Challenge (2) Beautiful Ugliness

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the 2nd episode of May 2019. This month we are creating short chained verses or Tan Renga. Tan Renga looks a lot like tanka, but instead of written by one haiku poet it is written by two haiku poets and therefore it's the smallest form of a chained verse.

For today's Tan Renga Challenge I have chosen a haiku by a not so well known haiku poet and contemporary of Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Yozakura better known here at CDHK as the Unknown Haiku Poet.

Basho Tree or Banana Tree

In the Spring of 1681 a disciple of Basho, called Rika, presented him a banana tree (a Basho). From that moment on he changed his name to Basho and his home was called 'Basho-an' (the banana tree cottage).

As Basho he became a famous haiku master. His earlier haiku, which he wrote under several pseudonyms, are now also known as haiku written by Basho. The first haiku he wrote as Basho was the following one (according to Jane Reichhold):

basho ue te    mazu nikumu ogi no    futaba kana

planting a banana tree
more than ever I hate
sprouting reeds

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

The above haiku isn't the haiku to work with by the way. It's another beautiful haiku created by Yozakura, the Unknown Haiku Poet:

banana-tree

unworthy to look at

beautiful ugliness

© Yozakura

Thistle in Full Bloom

And here is my attempt to create a Tan Renga with this beauty by Yozakura:

banana-tree

unworthy to look at

beautiful ugliness                                         © Yozakura

thistles in full bloom
dewdrops shimmer at dawn                        © Chèvrefeuille

or this 2nd stanza:

dewdrops on thistles in full bloom
making them stunning at dawn                   © Chèvrefeuille

I couldn't decide which 2nd stanza to use. I prefer the second, but I don't know it for sure. What's your idea? Share it with me through the comment-field.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 8th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new Tan Renga Challenge later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Extra May 1st 2019 Tanka Splendor re-opened

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I have re-opened our Tanka Splendor weblog on WP. It's the place for you if you like to create Tanka and share it with the world. Tanka Splendor will be published every Wednesday. I will give you a theme or a tanka to work with  Feel free to visit and participate in Tanka Splendor.

This week I have chosen for a beautiful tanka by Jane Reichhold to inspire you. You can find Tanka Splendor by clicking on the image at the right side of our Kai.

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host