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!