Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #110 Carpe Diem Transformation ... Bush Warbler

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday November 24th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our CD Weekend Meditation ... Maybe you remember that new feature I introduced a while ago "Carpe Diem Transformation" in which I challenge you to "re-build" a given haiku into a tanka. In the first episode of this feature I challenged you to "re-build" a famous haiku by Chiyo-Ni (that episode you can find HERE).

And for this weekend meditation I have chosen a haiku by that other famous haiku master, Matsuo Basho. I have chosen a not so well-known haiku by him, but I think you remember it from our series about "Haiku Writing Techniques", it's one of his Karumi haiku. Karumi (lightness) was Basho's Haiku Writing Technique he strived his whole life for.

Here is the haiku to "re-build" into a tanka:

Uguisu ya mochi ni fun suru en no saki

A spring warbler casts
A dropping on the rice cakes —
The veranda edge.

© Basho

Bush Warbler

What is karumi?

Bashô developed this concept during his final travels in 1693. Karumi is perhaps one of the most important and least understood principles of haiku poetry. Karumi can best be described as “lightness,” or a sensation of spontaneity. In many ways, karumi is a principle rooted in the “spirit” of haiku, rather than a specific technique. Bashô taught his students to think of karumi as “looking at the bottom of a shallow stream”. When karumi is incorporated into haiku, there is often a sense of light humor or child-like wonderment at the cycles of the natural world. Many haiku using karumi are not fixed on external rules, but rather an unhindered expression of the poet’s thoughts or emotions. This does not mean that the poet forgets good structure; just that the rules of structure are used in a natural manner. In my opinion, karumi is “beyond” technique and comes when a poet has learned to internalize and use the principles of the art interchangeably.

So ... your goal is to "re-build" this beauty into a tanka ... take your time.

This Weekend Meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday November 24th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until Sunday December 1st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have a wonderful weekend full of inspiration.