Carpe Diem #1773 Kick Off ... a new month full of beauty ... A Field Of Dried Grass (Basho)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first episode of our new CDHK month November. This month I have chosen the theme "Never Change A Winning Team". As you all know as I started CDHK the only Japanese poetry form that was used was the haiku, that beautiful small three-lined poem from that far away country ... Japan. But as you all know ... during the excistence of CDHK there were changes and somewhere in 2013 I decided to not only use haiku, but also Tanka and other forms of Japanese poetry. That change of a "winning team" was a great change and it brought more visitors and participants to our wonderful Haiku Kai. However ... I didn't change the name of our Kai ... it is still Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and it will stay that way, because through that name CDHK could evolve to what it has become. This month we will mostly write haiku, but ofcourse I will also create episodes with other kinds of Japanese poetry like Tanka and the Troiku.

This month I hope to inspire you through haiku created by renown and not so well known haiku poets. Starting today (as you maybe expected already) a haiku written by Matsuo Basho, the haiku master whom I see as my master, my sensei. All that I know about haiku I learned from him.

We will see renown haiku, but also haiku that aren't renown. Let's go ... have a wonderful month full of inspiration ... and joy ...!

A Field Of Dried Grass (photo © Aubrey Danielle)

Here is the first haiku for your inspiration, it's the haiku that is seen as Basho's deadpoem, his last poem or Jisei:

tabi ni yande yume wa kareno wo kake meguru

falling sick on a journey
my dream goes wandering
over a field of dried grass

© Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

A wonderful haiku for your inspiration I would say. Become one with the scene, become Basho as he wrote this haiku while laying on his grass mat ... surrounded by his most close followers ... try to imagine the scene ... and create your own haiku.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 7th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1772 Virginia Blue Bell

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last episode of our festive 7th birthday month. Our celebrations are almost over only one day left to honor the "little creatures" of Mother Nature. So let's go!

What kind of "little creature" I have chosen today for your inspiration? Well ... I have chosen a beautiful small flower the Blue Bell. Let me tell you first a little bit more about the Blue Bell and more specific the Virginia Blue Bell.

Virginia bluebell flowers which are also known as Virginia cowslip are the most elegant and good looking flowers. These are persistent flowers found in North America. These are very beautiful flowers and growing them in your garden will add natural exquisiteness and beauty to the garden. If you want to grow them in your garden but you don’t get sufficient information then read this article as it contains all the facts about Virginia bluebell flowers.

Virginia Blue Bell

What a gorgeous little flower this is, a real beautiful "little creature".

I found a nice haiku written by the Unknown Haiku Poet ... Yozakura, whom I introduced here at CDHK several years ago.

purple bellflowers
swaying in the breeze -
the sound of water

© Yozakura

And here is one from my archives, not about the Virginia Blue Bell, but about the Chinese Bellflower:

fragile beauty
purple flowers like paper
Chinese bellflower

© Chèvrefeuille

And now it is up to you my dear Haijin. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 6th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Wednesday (3) Crystal Brook (Yozakura)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Wednesday again so it is time for a new episode of our weekly Tan Renga Wednesday, that beautiful feature in which I challenge you to create a Tan Renga (two stanza chained verse) with a given haiku.

Today I have a nice haiku written by the Unknown Haiku Poet, Yozakura, whom I introduced a while ago here at CDHK.

Here is the haiku to use:

crystal brook
reflects the willow trees
birds sing their song

© Yozakura

Edo lodging house (image found on Pinterest)

Your task ... create the two lined 2nd stanza through association on the scenes and images in the given haiku by Yozakura. 

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 5th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our last episode of this festive month later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1771 Firefly ... Troiku-challenge

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new (somewhat delayed) episode of our wonderful Kai were we are celebrating our 7th birth day. Seven years ago I started CDHK just to give an opportunity to create Japanese poetry on a daily basis. As I started I hadn't one clou how long it would go on ... and look were we are now ... seven years later CDHK is still alive and kicking.

While we are celebrating our 7th birthday we honor the "small creatures" of Mother Nature and so today I have another "little creature" for you to work with. Today I have chosen for the "firefly", that small creature that is renown for its glowing behind.

I have found a wonderful haiku to work with. The goal this time is to create a Troiku with that haiku. More on Troiku you can find above in the menu. Troiku is a nice creative way of haiku-ing I invented back in 2012.

Firefly

I have chosen a haiku by Buson to create your Troiku from:

longing for the grass
at the bottom of the pool
those fireflies.

© Buson

A beauty I would say. It's not a well known haiku by Buson, but in this one you can almost sense the hand of Buson is moved by Basho. That's an important thing, because at first Buson was not a "fan" of Basho's way of haiku writing, but later he started to write his haiku more and more modelled according to Basho's way of haiku writing.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 4th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new Tan Renga Wednesday episode later on. For now ... have fun! I am looking forward to all of your wonderful Troiku.

Carpe Diem #1770 Tomtit

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first regular episode in the last week of our festive anniversary month. We are celebrating our 7th birthday with honoring the "small creatures" of Mother Nature. So let us go on and be creative to honor them.

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend, I had a nice weekend, had to work, but had a good weekend. We are counting down to the end of October 2019 and towards our new month full of the beauty of haiku and tanka for your and my inspiration.
Today I have chosen for another beautiful small creature, the Tomtit (or Great Tit), that beautiful bird with its colorful feathers of blue and yellow.

Tomtit

What a gorgeous "small creature". Here in The Netherlands we see the Tomtit only in autumn and winter, but it is always a joy to spot it. I like its colors and the joy it gives me as I hear it sing.

silent adoration
listen, listen, Tomtit sings its song
another joyful day

© Chèvrefeuille

Isn't it an awesome "small creature"?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 3rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Sneak Preview November and December 2019 ... never change a winning team

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our festive 7th birtday month October 2019 is running towards its end, so time to give you a sneak preview for November and December.

As you can read in the "subtitle" of this Sneak Preview it's all about "never change a winning team", but what do I mean with that subtitle? Let me tell you the reason why I have chosen it. In the next two months I love to challenge you with haiku and tanka created by renown haiku (and tanka) poets. First of all, I will bring to you haiku (and tanka) written by the so called "big five", Basho, Buson, Chiyo-Ni, Issa and Shiki, to inspire you, but I will also give you haiku (and tanka) by renown modern haiku poets like Jane Reichhold.

Ofcourse you can think of episodes in which I will challenge you to "revise" or "photo-shop" haiku. I will also challenge you to create Troiku and Renga With ... And I hope to bring you an all new way of haiku-ing based on Shiki's "shasei" way of writing haiku. And (maybe) I will challenge you to create haiku (or tanka) according to several Haiku Writing Techniques.

If you have been a "long time" family-member here at CDHK than you certainly will recognise this image I used for our new CDHK month November 2019, because it was the cover of our first CDHK-magazine.

between cherry petals
Koi carps seeking their way
to fullfilment

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope to see you all in November too.

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #108 Turn Back Time (4) CD Imagination ... Still Life

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday October 27th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new (special) weekend meditation episode in which we are turnig time back and look at special features ... that were featured here at CDHK. Maybe you can remember that I introduced our special CD Imagination feature in which I challenged you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on a given image.

I will give you an image for your inspiration, you have to use the given image this time, so please use the given image for your inspiration.

Still Life (image © Dina Belenko)

Let the image inspire you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form. Have a great weekend!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday October 27th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 3rd at noon (CET) I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1769 free choice of prompt, and make a Soliloquy No Renga with it

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am a bit late with publishing this episode, just because of lack of time and lack of inspiration. So today I have chosen for a so called "free choice" episode with a twist. You may choose your own "little creatures" prompt today and the goal is to create a "solo-renga" or "soliloquy no renga" with it. As you (maybe) know the "solo-renga" has at least six (6) stanza. You start with the "hokku" (starting verse) and end with the "ageku" (closing verse).

We are celebrating our 7th birthday with a whole month in honor of the small creatures of Mother Nature ... let us celebrate the beauty of the small things of Creation.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 31st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1768 Crows

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Carpe Diem Haiku Kai were we are celebrating our 7th birthday. This month we are honoring the little creatures living on our wonderful planet. A planet in pain ... a planet that weeps because we are misusing her ...

Our wonderful planet needs us and we need her. We have to take care of her, she is our living space, the only living space there is, as far as we know. So that's one of the reasons that I choose the "litte creatures" theme for our festive 7th birthday.

kare eda ni karasu no tomari keri aki no kure 

on a withered branch
a crow is perched
autumn evening

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Bashō (1644–1694) wrote this haiku in the year 1680, and it is often considered to be a
marker of the beginning of Bashō’s mature style.
It should be mentioned that “Kare-eda-ni…” was not the first text to explore the topic of a crow sitting on a withered branch. First, there exists a set phrase in Chinese meaning “a chilly-looking crow on a bare tree”  which is assumed to have been familiar also to Bashō. Secondly, Bashō had written a very similar haiku several years before this one. Both texts are accompanied by paintings, all three of which present a treatment of the topic of a withered tree and a crow (or crows, since on the painting that is assumed to be the earliest, there are 27 crows depicted altogether). Thus, Bashō’s haiku has been often seen as an adaptation of an ancient Chinese phrase or a painting title. A close connection has also been found between this particular haiku and a renga verse cited in a 16th centurycollection, Hakuhatsushu:

yūgarasu no kareki ni koe wa shite 

evening crow — 
in a bare tree on the mountain peak mine 
a voice 

© Matsuo Basho

Crow on a cherry blossom branch

The above haiku is one of Basho's renown masterpieces and we have seen this haiku often here at our Kai. And this haiku (again) you can use as a source of inspiration for this episode, because "crows" are our theme for today.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 30th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Wednesday #2 October beach (Jane Reichhold)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our fresh feature "Tan Renga Wednesday" in which you have to complete a Tan Renga ... the goal? I will give you a haiku and you have to add the 2nd stanza of two lines with approx. 7-7 syllables.

I don't think I need to explain Tan Renga further. You can find more about Tan Renga in the menu above or scroll back to the 1st episode of Tan Renga Wednesday (October 16th). This week I have a beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) one of the most known modern haiku poets and once my co-host here at CDHK.

October beach

October beach
in all the footprints
the tread of shoes

© Jane Reichhold

A beautiful haiku I would say. I am not a beach guy, but I like wandering at the beach in autumn.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 29th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... enjoy this Tan Renga Wednesday.

Carpe Diem #1767 Daisies ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our birthday month is running towards its end, 10 days left before a new month starts, and I don't know how you all are experiencing this month, but I like it. I think we are celebrating in a wonderful way. Thank you all for participating in our festive October month.

Today I have chosen the theme "daisies", we have had that theme earlier here, but ... well I hadn't one clou what to choose for theme today, so I thought "let me do a theme we have had here earlier.

around the mansion
daisies standing strong together
after the storm

miracles happen
in the tiniest things
daisies blooming

© Chèvrefeuille

Daisies

What's the meaning of Daisies: 

Daisies are flowers that mean different things to different people.  It can mean cheerfulness particularly for the yellow colored blossoms and it can mean youthful beauty and gentleness.  Some people look at the daisy to be a symbol of good luck.  However, the most popular meanings attached to the daisy are - loyal love, innocence and purity.  It’s also a taken to convey the message – “I’ll never tell”.Apart from the Celtic legend that daisies were the spirits of children, the symbol of innocence also comes from the story about a dryad who oversaw meadows, forests and pastures.  One of the nymphs, Belides danced around with her nymph sister when the god of the orchards, Vertumnus saw her.  To make sure that she escapes his attentions, she turned herself into a daisy thus preserving her innocence.In terms of loyal love, daisies are used by women particularly in the Victorian age to see which suitor loves them the most.  By picking on the flower’s petals, a woman would know who loves her and who does not.

And to conclude this episode:

working hands
daisies bound together for his love -
she ... the full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 28th at noon (CET) (Summertime is over than). I will try to publish our new Tan Renga Wednesday episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1766 mouse

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. My weekend was very busy, because I had to work the evening-shift in the nursing home were I am working since the start of this year. Next to that I had our eldest son and his two kids visiting the whole weekend, so not only busy at work, but also at home.

This month we are celebrating our 7th birthday and we do that through a wonderful month in appreciation for the smaller creatures of nature. Today I have chosen "mouse" to work with.

Today we are creating haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form themed "mouse". I ran through my library of haiku and found several nice haiku by haiku-poets. Here is one by my master, Matsuo Basho:

suzume ko to koe naki kawasu nezumi no su 

Mice in their nest
squeak in response
to the young sparrows.

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. R.H.Blyth)

Here is another "mouse"-haiku this time created by a modern haiku poet:

A mouse stirs
in the kitchen cupboard;
winter solitude

© Amann, (Cicada Voices (1983))

Mouse

And a Tanka written by myself back in 2017:

through the mist
I hear the cry of an eagle
seeking for prey
aware of his surroundings
he catches a little mouse

© Chèvrefeuille

Create your "mouse"-haiku (tanka or other Japanese poetry form) in honor of this beautiful small creature.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 27th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #107 Turn Back Time (3) Soliloquy no Renga ... one starry night

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday October 20th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

A new weekend is in front of us, so time for a new CDHK Weekend Meditation. As you all know in our anniversary month all the weekend meditations are episodes of that new special feature "Turn Back Time". In this special feature we dive into the rich history of CDHK and this weekend I have chosen for that wonderful special feature "Soliloquy no Renga" (or solo-renga). I introduced the "Soliloquy no Renga" back in 2014 and ofcourse I will tell you what the goal is.

For this weekend meditation I have chosen that beautiful "Soliloquy no Renga" feature, a renga form I invented back in 2014. Let me tell you a little bit more about it:

A Soliloquy No Renga, is a Renga composed by one person. With this feature it is possible to help you to be more associative, because you have to compose an all new renga with at least six (6) links.
As you all know a renga has stanzas of three and two lines. The first verse "hokku" gives the title to the renga and sets the entire image of your renga. By association on the verse before the verse you have to write you can make the renga a complete story.
This feature is just for fun and I hope it will bring you the fun and inspiration as I had in mind. You can choose on your own how much links you use, but at least (as I said above) six (6) links. The last link has to make the "circle complete" and in that way has a link with the first verse. That last verse is called "ageku".

Starry Night by Alex Ruiz

To start this "Soliloquy no Renga" I will give you the "hokku". I have chosen a haiku written by myself:

one starry night
to make that one painting -
the rustling leaves

© Chėvrefeuille (2014)

A nice haiku to work with I think. It's up to you now ... create your Soliloquy no Renga starting with the given haiku.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday October 20th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 27th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem #1765 Squirrel ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful festive Carpe Diem anniversary month October 2019. This month we are celebrating our 7th birthday with a tribute to the small creatures and today I have another sweet creature ... the squirrel.

I ran through my archives and surfed around on the WWW, but I couldn't find any haiku about Squirrels, ofcourse I could not search the whole WWW, so maybe there are haiku or tanka about Squirrels and if not ... well than we can fill that gap, wouldn't that be awesome?

autumn day
squirrels plunder the oaks -
winter stock

© Chèvrefeuille

Squirrel

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1764 Ants ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are halfway our celebration month for our 7th birthday and I think it's a wonderful month already and I hope the 2nd half will be as good too. This month we are not only celebrating our 7th birthday, but also the beauty of the small creatures on our Earth. We create poetry in honor and tribute of those small creatures ...

I don't have enough time for a big episode, so today I will give you only the theme. The theme (prompt) for today's episode is "ants", those hard working small creatures.

yudachi ni hashirikudaru ya take no ari

an evening shower:
the ants are running down
the bamboos

© Joso

A beautiful haiku I would say ... a nice tribute to the ants.

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

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Wednesday #1 wedded rocks

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to bring back a weekly feature about Tan Renga. This new feature I have titled "Tan Renga Wednesday" and as the title already says, this feature will return every Wednesday, so a new weekly feature has been born.

As you all know Tan Renga is a short renga of two stanza, similar with the Tanka, but instead of been written by one poet, the Tan Renga is written by two poets. The first stanza has three lines (approx. 5-7-5 syllables) and the second stanza has two lines (approx. 7-7 syllables). The goal is to create the second stanza by associating on the scenes and images in the first stanza.

In this new weekly feature Tan Renga Wednesday, I will give you the starting verse, or "hokku", your task is to create the second stanza. Ofcourse sometimes I will create a "hineri" version, in that version I will give you the second stanza and than you have to create the first stanza, but for starters ... this time I will give you the first stanza.

Oku No Hosomichi (Narrow Road Into The Deep North)

In the logo of this new feature you see a Japanese Woodblock Print of the so called "Wedded Rocks", a Shinto religious place. The first haiku to work with in this new weekly feature is a haiku by my master, my sensei, Matsuo Basho:

hamaguri no   futami ni wakare   yuku aki zo

a clam
torn from its shell
departing autumn

This is the last verse in Basho's 'Oku no Hosomichi' 'The Narrow Road to the Far North'. Because there are several word plays at work here, the Japanese maintain that there is no way for the poem to be rendered into another language. So here goes: hama (beach); hamaguri (a clam) however 'guri' is also (a chestnut) or (a pebble). And that is only the first line! 'Futami' (place name of the port where the famous Wedded Rocks (two large rocks considered to 'married' which are considered to be sacred) are such an attraction) is made up of the words 'futa' (lid, cover, shell) and 'mu' (body, meat, fruit, nut, berry, seed, substance, contents). The word 'wakare' can be either (to part or to split) or (to leave). Added to the last line (departing autumn) 'wakare' can mean either that it is autumn which is leaving or a person who is departing. In Ogaki, Basho was met by many of his disciples, including Sora who rejoined him, for the end of the trip back to Tokyo. This verse, and the second one in 'Oku no Hosomichi' are considered the 'book-ends' of the work with partings of Spring and Autumn.

This haiku is in my opinion a masterpiece. Re-read all those different words and their different meanings again above and let them guide you to your second stanza.

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

Carpe Diem #1763 Little Creatures ... free styling

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize for being late, a little time problem (smiles). Therefore I have chosen the easy way this time. As you all know we are celebrating our 7th birthday with a month full of prompts on "little creatures" to honor them as being part of Creation.

Today you may choose your own "little creature" to work with. Tell us why you have chosen your specific "little creature" and than create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form, with it.

Enjoy this task, it's your choice and you can go "free-styling".

Little Creatures Of Nature (photo © Moon Robo; Instagram)

Enjoy your day.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 21st at noon (CEST). I will try to post our first "new" episode of our weekly Wednesday Tan Renga Challenge later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1762 Mosquitoes ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration ... in a relaxed mode. I had a wonderful weekend, the last of my vacation. Monday October 14th I have to work again, I am glad, because four weeks vacation is awesome, but caring for my mother took a lot of my free time, but well ... I love my mom and she and I are the only living two of our family (my brother and my dad have passed away) so we have to be there for eachother.

We are celebrating our 7th birthday this month through honoring the small creaters of nature. Today I have chosen for those small creatures that can be such a pain in the ass ... mosquitos, but there are several wonderful haiku about them. So let me give you a few examples:

summer melting
mosquitoes' sound
in a harmonica

© Jane Reichhold

in and out of raindrops
falling from the eaves they swarm...
mosquitoes

© Issa

The Mosquito Hums

A mosquito buzzes
Every time flowers
of honeysuckle fall

© Buson

Searching storehouse eaves, 
rapt in plum blossom smells, 
the mosquito hums 

© Basho

Four beautiful haiku on mosquitoes. The beauty of these haiku makes the mosquito no longer a pain in the ass.

I was triggered by the haiku by Buson, so here is my attempt to create a haiku themed "mosquitoes":

honeysuckle flowers fall
one by one, awakening mosquitoes,
covering the Earth

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 20th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #106 Turn Back Time (2) Revise That Haiku by Taigi

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday October 13th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai were we are celebrating our 7th birthday. Last weekend I introduced a special feature for this festive month "Turn Back Time". In this special feature I will take you back in time ... or in other words "I will turn back time" into our amazing CDHK history.

This week I love to "turn back time" to another wonderful special feature we have had here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. In October 2013 I started our special feature "Revise That Haiku" with a haiku by Taigi (1709-1771). Taigi was a contemporary and friend of Buson. I will first give the haiku (including the Japanese Romaji) and then I will give the description of the moment which led to the haiku.

umi ikete tsuki to mo wabin tomoshikage

arranging the plum-flowers,
I would enjoy them in the light of the lamp,
as if in the moonlight

© Taigi (1709-1771)

The brevity of haiku is not something differnt from, but a part of the poetical life; it is not only a form of expression but a mode of living more immediately, more closely to life as may be illustrated in the above haiku by Taigi.

Flourishing Plum Blossoms in the Moonlight

The original of the above haiku is even more difficult, literally: "arranging the plum, as if the moon, I would savour, lamp-light" (Wabiru translated 'enjoy', 'means' to live a life of poetry in poverty). The poet has arranged the flowers in a vase, and wishes to see them in the light of the moon, but there being no moon, he lights the lamp instead, and adds its light to the poetry and the beauty of the flowers.

The whole of the poet's life is shown in this action and the essence of the verse in wabin. This poverty, this asceticism of life and form in haiku, this absence of luxury and decoration finds its philosophical and transcendental expression in Emanuel Swedenborg's (a Swedish philosopher who lived from 1688 until 1772) "Heaven and Hell" (paragraph 178); after he has described the garments of the angels, some of which glow with flame, some of which shine with light, he adds:

"But the angels of the inmost heaven are not clothed".

Well ... with the desciption of the moment I think you can revise that haiku ... so ... "break a leg", have fun, be inspired and share your revised Taigi-haiku with us at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Ofcourse I than gave it a try, so here is the "revised" haiku by Taigi created by me, your host:

shadow on the wall

flourishing plum blossom

in the moon light

© Chèvrefeuille (October 2013)

Enjoy your weekend. This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday October 13th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 20th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1761 Sparrows (Renga With ...)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a wonderful month this is ... our 7th anniversary ... I like it. I am so glad to see that you all are celebrating with me that CDHK exist seven years ... I never could have dreamed that CDHK would be alive and kicking after 7 years ... but here we are ... celebrating our 7th birthday. We have seen participants from all over the world. The most participants from the start are still here, but we also seen participants leave to never come back, but those who left and returned ... thank you.

Thank you all for your rich poems, your active participation and the love you share with us in that small Japanese poem ... haiku. This month we are celebrating this beautiful small poem with a tribute to all small creatures on Earth and today I love to challenge you with another small, sometimes a real pain in the ass, bird ... the sparrow.

Sparrows ... those small little (pricks), but there are a lot of haiku written about them. One haiku master especially created a lot of haiku about the sparrows ... and I think you all know him, Kobayashi Issa. Issa is one of the "big five" haiku masters next to Basho, Buson, Chiyo-Ni and Shiki. He had a very tough life, he lost several of his kids to death and his wife too. He was a Buddhist-Shinto believer and honored nature in a great way. Issa honored even those mosqitos and other smal creatures like the sparrows.

For this episode I love to challenge you to create a Renga, or better said: a Junicho. The Junicho is a renga of 12 stanza, this is the renga format we always use in the Renga With specials ... so I will give you six (6) haiku written by Issa to work with. Your task is to add your two-lined stanza (approx. 7-7 syllables) and create a Junicho with him. (By the way, the name Junicho came in use in the 20th century, so it's a young form of renga).

Kobayashi Issa

I will give you the six haiku by Issa. You can create your own "line-up" and the first stanza (hokku) and the last stanza (ageku) have to be connected with each other, this is "to close the chain".

spring peace--
after rain, a gang war
garden sparrows

don't let the plum blossom guard
cut your tongues...
Sparrows! *

(* note: Issa alludes to an old Japanese fairy tale in which a mean old woman cut a sparrow's tongue with scissors because the sparrow pecked at her starch. Here, Issa warns the chirping sparrows that their tongues might be in similar jeopardy, hinting that the guard is a mean old grouch.)

are the sparrows too
having a private party?
plum blossoms

while I watch
he's off to make a living alone...
baby sparrow

Sparrows on Bamboo (woodblock print by Ohara Koson)

living in harmony--
the sparrow has
both parents!

on the tip of the
newly sprouted bamboo...
a baby sparrow

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)

Six beautiful haiku crafted by Issa for your enjoyment and inspiration. Create your renga with Issa today and share it as a tribute to the sparrows and to celebrate our 7th birthday.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 17th at noon (CEST). Have fun!