Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Wednesday #11 family tombstone


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Wednesday again ... time for a new Carpe Diem Tan Renga Wednesday, that special feature in which I challenge you to complete a Tan Renga with a given haiku by a classical or non-classical haiku poet.

Your task is to add your two lined stanza (approx. 7-7 syllables) through association on the scenes and images in the given haiku. This week I have chosen a haiku by a modern haiku poet, Nicholas Virgilio.

Tombstones

Here is the haiku to work with:

adding father’s name
to the family tombstone
with room for my own

© Nicholas Virgilio

And now it's up to you to create a Tan Renga with this haiku by adding your two-lined stanza. Enjoy the challenge.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 4th at noon (CET).


Monday, January 27, 2020

Carpe Diem #1804 New Beginnings ... candlelight


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yes ... another episode of our wonderful Kai, because I was late with our Monday episode, "snowdrops".

Today I love to challenge you two times. I love to challenge you to create a "fusion-ku" with two given haiku and to create a Troiku with your new "fusion-ku". I have chosen two haiku by Jane Reichhold extracted from her online Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", section New Year.

Here are the two haiku to work with:

a new year
rising from wild seas
a few stars

filling
the glass with candlelight
champagne

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Champagne and Candlelight (© photo Isabella Cabre)

Two beautiful haiku by the Queen of Haiku (and Tanka), Jane Reichhold. She was once my co-host and taught me a lot about all kinds of Japanese poetry ... I miss her still.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!


Carpe Diem #1803 New Beginnings ... snowdrops


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month it's about New Beginnings and it means all things that start new. Today I have chosen the prompt "snowdrops", those beautiful small white flowers that start blooming in Winter already ... Snowdrops are the first signs that Spring is near.

Snowdrops (image found on Pinterest)

snowdrops blooming
waving goodbye to Winter
nearly Spring

© Chèvrefeuille

Look at those beauties ... so fragile, but strong.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 2nd at noon (CET). Enjoy the fun!


Saturday, January 25, 2020

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #113 Troiku Hineri ... at dawn


!! Open for your submissions Sunday January 26th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

The last days were very busy, so I couldn't publish or regular Friday episode and a bit late with the Weekend Meditation. My excuses for it.

This weekend I love to challenge you to create a Troiku Hineri. What doea it mean? I will give you a haiku. With that haiku you create a Troiku. Than you have three new haiku. The Hineri (with a twist) is that I love to challenge you to create with those three new haiku NINE new haiku following the Troiku idea, so you have to create three new haiku from every haiku you created from the given haiku.



I have chosen one of the first haiku by Yozakura, the Unknown Haiku Poet. Here is his first haiku to work with:

yoake ni arau tsuyude watashino ashisaichoubi

at dawn
I wash my feet with dew
the longest day

© Yozakura (1640-1716)

A nice challenge I think for this weekend. Have an awesome weekend!

This Weekend Meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 26th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 2nd at noon (CET).


Thursday, January 23, 2020

Carpe Diem #1802 New Beginnings ... without beginning


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you think "What?" because of the title of this new episode "without beginning". Maybe it brings you ideas of that classical dillema "What was first the chicken or the egg", but no ... that's not the dillema here.

"Without beginning" points towards the circle, or the wedding ring. The wedding ring is a milestone, it's a new beginning, but its form ... a circle ... is without beginning. So today our prompt is related to the circle ... without beginning.

I recall an article I once read about deathpoems and one of the examples was the deathpoem by Shinsui.
During his last moment, Shisui's disciples requested that he write a death poem. He grasped his brush, painted a circle, cast the brush aside, and died. The circle— indicating the void, the essence of everything, enlightenment— is one of the most important symbols of Zen Buddhism.


Deathpoem by Shinsui (* - 1769)

Isn't it a wonderful deathpoem? But as we look closer to this deathpoem ... we see were Shinsui started the "circle" (at the 'bottom' somewhat to the left, we can see the start of the brush). Does this mean a circle has a beginning and an end?

eternal circle
lotuses blooming and decaying -
ancient wisdom grows

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 29th at noon (CET). Have fun!


Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Wednesday #10 such a cold night


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Wednesday again and that means ... time for a new episode of our special feature Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Wednesday. The challenge of this special feature is to create a Tan Renga with a given haiku by adding your second stanza of two lines (approx. 7-7 syllables). This week I have chosen a not so well known haiku by, my master, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694).

kazuki fusu futon ya samuki yo ya sugoki

lying down
with quilts over the head
such a cold night

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)


Japanese Quilt

As you can see, in this haiku Basho uses rhyme, a not so very well known haiku writing technique, because, as you maybe know, in (translated) haiku the use of rhyme isn't common (according to Western studies).

Rhyme is a major component of Western poetry. In Japan most of the sound units (onji) are built on only five vowels, and rhyming occurs naturally. Yet, haiku translated into rhymed lines often need so much padding to make the rhyme work that the simplicity of the poem gets lost. However, if the reader takes the time to read the romaji version of the above haiku by Basho. one can see how often the old master employed the linkage of sound in his work. The rhyme, in the above haiku, occurs in "kazuki", "samuki" and "sugoki"..

So that brings us a new challenge ... try to let your 2nd stanza, of two lines, rhyme too.

This Tan Renga Wednesday episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 28th at noon (CET).


Monday, January 20, 2020

Carpe Diem #1801 New Beginnings ... first cry


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

"Listen ... listen carefully ... Do you hear the first cry of a new born?" I always enjoy the first cry of a new born. That can be a new born human, but also a new born bird for example. Maybe if you have a super hearing ... you maybe can hear the first blossoms cry out their joy ...
Here in The Netherlands we have one of the warmest winters ever. There are already birds building their nests, the Daffodils are blooming ... it's a very strange happening ... maybe it's the Global warming ... maybe not ... I don't know, but it feels already like spring here in the Netherlands.

halfway winter
daffodils bloom, cherry trees almost --
first cry of a newborn


© Chèvrefeuille


Daffodils bloom

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 27th at noon (CET). Have fun!


Sunday, January 19, 2020

Carpe Diem #1800 New Beginnings ... first leaf falling


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope all have had a wonderful weekend and that you all are capable to do a new week here at CDHK. This month is themed "New Beginnings" and today I have chosen a nice prompt for you to work with.

Today I love to challenge you to create Japanese poetry themed "first leaf falling", autumn is in my opinion one of the most beautiful seasons and it's, according to classical sources of Japan, the best season to see the moon and praise her beauty. Autumn ... gives me always the feeling of departure and letting go ... Leaves are coloring and finally fall ...

light of the full moon
silverly beautiful ... so fragile
leaves are falling


© Chèvrefeuille




This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 26th at noon (CET). Have fun!


Friday, January 17, 2020

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #112 Transformation ... sketching from life (Shiki's Shasei technique)


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

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Weekend Meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to create Japanese poetry and share it with the world.

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, Masaoka Shiki. In this episode I love to challenge you to re-create a haiku by Shiki into a Tanka. Maybe you can remember that Shiki has a certain haiku writing technique named "shasei". Let me introduce this technique again here.

Japanese Stamp with an image of Shiki

Shasei

The word "shasei" has not yet been invented at the time of Basho, but the idea was there according to what Basho tells his disciples:

[...] Matsuo Basho advises his disciples: “Learn from the Pine!”To do that you must leave behind you all subjective prejudice. Otherwise you will force your own self onto the object and can learn nothing from it. Your poem will well-up of its own accord when you and the object become one, when you dive deep enough into the object, to discover something of its hidden glimmer. [...]

Here is an example of this Shasei technique:

Come spring as of old.
When such revenues of rice.
Braced this castle town!

© Masaoka Shiki

It's a good example of the shasei technique. What is the Shasei technique? Let me try to explain that to you all with the help of Jane Reichhold.

Sketches of Life, Tree of Life (image found on Pinterest)

Though this technique is often given Shiki's term Shasei (sketch from life) or Shajitsu (reality), it has been in use since the beginning of poetry in the Orient. The poetic principle is "to depict the thing just as it is". The reason Shiki took it up as a poetical cause, and this made it famous,  was his own rebellion against the many other techniques used in haiku. Shiki was, by nature it seemed, against whatever was the status quo - a true rebel. If older poets had overused any idea or method, it was his personal goal to point this out and suggest something else. This was followed until someone else got tired of it and suggested something new. This seems to be the way poetry styles go in and out of fashion.

Thus, Shiki hated associations, contrasts, comparisons, wordplays, puns, and riddles - all the things we are cherishing here! He favored the quiet simplicity of just stating what he saw without anything else happening in the haiku. He found the greatest beauty in the common sight, simply reported exactly as it was seen, and ninety-nine percent of his haiku written in his style. Many people still feel he was right. There are some moments that are perhaps best said as simply as possible in his way. Yet, Shiki himself realized in 1893, after writing very many haiku in this style, that used too much, even his new idea could become lackluster. So the method is an answer, but never the complete answer of how to write a haiku.

Eggplant

I hope you can relate to this Shasei technique and can work with it. This weekend I love to challenge you to re-create a haiku (in Shasei style) by Shiki into a Tanka. Here is the haiku to work with:

kaboocha yori nasu muzukashiki shasei kana

Sketching from life —
eggplants are harder to do
than pumpkins

© Masaoka Shiki (Tr. Burton Watson)

A challenging task for you this weekend. I am looking forward to all of your wonderful "transformed haiku". Have a great weekend!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 19th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 26th at noon (CET). 


Thursday, January 16, 2020

Carpe Diem #1799 New Beginnings ... a huge wave (Crossroads feature)


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today a very special episode in our wonderful Kai. This month our theme is "New Beginnings" and today I will leave that theme in a way.
As you all know one of the renown modern haiku poets was Jane Reichhold (1937-2016), she was a co-author here and co-host. She is still missed.

Today I have chosen two haiku written by her and I love to challenge you to create a "fusion-ku" and with that "fusion-ku" a Troiku ... (more on Troiku above in the menu).




Here are the two haiku by Jane to work with:

a huge wave
thundering across the beach
my birthday

sky-clad
the new-born comes wrapped
in previous lives

© Jane Reichhold (extracted from the online Saijiki "A Dictionary Of Haiku", section "New Year")

Two beautiful haiku created by the Queen of Haiku, Jane Reichhold, to work with. Enjoy this excercise.

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

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Carpe Diem #1798 New Beginnings ... Metamorphosis


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai, the place to be if you like to create Japanese poetry and share it with the world. This month is themed "New Beginnings" and there is an amazing new beginning in nature's small world of insects and butterflies.

Today I love to challenge you with "metamorphosis", that awesome idea of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly.

Metamorphosis

What a transformation this creature makes ... awesome!

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


Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Wednesday (9) I ate a persimmon


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Tan Renga Wednesday, that special feature in which I challenge you to complete a Tan Renga by adding your second stanza of two lines with approx. 7-7 syllables.

This week I have a nice haiku by Shiki to create a Tan Renga with, but let me first tell you a little about Shiki.

Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) put effort into poetry activities to bring about innovation in the haiku from the Edo period. In the seven years of his later years, he kept making haiku while suffering from tuberculosis.

In 1867, Masaoka Shiki was born in Iyo Province (today’s Ehime Prefecture). He was a son of the lower-class samurai who died 40 years old in 1872. With the support of his mother, he entered the Iyo clan school Jobankai. He began to learn haiku when he was 18. But Shiki got the illness which he suffered from ever since. Tuberculosis was fatal disease at that time and 21 years young haiku poet vomited blood for the first time. Shiki (子規, hototogisu) means little cuckoo in Japanese. He named own pen name after the bird because a little cuckoo was described as a bird sing so much that it vomit blood.

He entered Tokyo Imperial University (today’s Tokyo University) in 1900 and gave the lessons of haiku for Kawahigashi Hekigoto (1873-1937) and Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959). Shiki gave up to graduate from Tokyo Imperial University and started to work at Nippon Shinbun Newspaper. While working as a journalist, he continued to publish haiku poems. During the Sino‐Japanese War (1894‐95) he went to the front. But that made worse of tuberculosis and Shiki went home. He had been in ill bed and suffered in his later years but he composed the jolly and creative haiku poems.

Horyuji Temple Nara (woodblock print)

When I ate a persimmon
The bell rung
The Horyuji temple


© Shiki

Can you create a Tan Renga with this beauty by Shiki?

This Tan Renga Wednesday is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 21st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.


Carpe Diem #1797 New Beginnings ... First Snow


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First my excuses for not publishing yesterday. I had some trouble with my PC, but now it has been made, so today I will publish two episodes. This (belated) episode will be short. I will give you only the prompt and a few examples of haiku created by several haiku poets.

Today's prompt is "First Snow", it's a classical kigo for Winter and that means you have to try to create a classical haiku or tanka following the rules as I think you all will known.

The first snow
That the young Hijiri-monk has
The color of the wooden box.

© Basho

Another one by Basho:

The first snow,
When is the pillar set up
For the Great Buddha?





snow's falling!
I see it through a hole
in the shutter...

© Shiki

Well ... it's up to you now to create a haiku or tanka (classical way) themed "first snow".

Here is mine:

a cold moonlit night
just the sound of fresh fallen snow -
wandering over the moors

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 20th at noon (CEST). I will publish our new Tan Renga Wednesday episode later today. For now ... have fun!


Sunday, January 12, 2020

Carpe Diem #1796 New Beginnings ... first sunray


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are continuing our exploration of our them "New Beginnings". There are a lot of new beginnings as we have seen already last week. Every day starts with the first sunray. As a new day rises we see how the sky is starting to change colors ... and than ... there it is the first sunray. That first sunray awakens us from our sleep and has something magical.

Today our prompt is "first sunray". I found an example with this prompt in it hidden by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694):

Mume ga ka ni  notto hi no deru  yamaji kana

Scents of Ume blossoms ―
The sun rises like a marvel
Ah, this mountain path

© Matsuo Basho


First Sunray

What a joy to feel the sun awaken you with his first rays. I can feel the warmth on my naked body and ... makes me happy ... a new day rises, another day to enjoy.

a new day rises
the first ray of sun
cherishes my body


© Chèvrefeuille

Not as good as I had hoped, but I think this haiku gives you that feeling to awaken from a night's sleep and the happiness it will give you.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 19th at noon (CEST). Have fun!


Saturday, January 11, 2020

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #111 Troiku ... New Beginnings ... Lotus starts to bloom


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation, our special feature for every weekend. My excuses that I am a bit late with publishing this weekend meditation, but ... well you all know the circumstances I have to deal with at the moment.

For this weekend meditation I have chosen a wonderful haiku to work with and create a Troiku with. More on Troiku you can find above in the menu.

Lotus
Here is the haiku to work with, a haiku chosen from our archives themed New Beginnings:

in deep prayer
eyes closed in devotion -
Lotus starts to bloom

A beautiful haiku to workj with I think. Have a great weekend!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday, January 12th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until January 19th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

PS. If you like Tanka than you can also visit Tanka Splendor, that special website on Tanka. I have published a new Tanka Splendor episode there.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Carpe Diem 1795 New Beginnings ... Rainbow


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of wonderful Kai. This month I have themed "new beginnings", so all prompts have to do with new beginnings. Today I have chosen the prompt "rainbow", but what has the rainbow to do with new beginnings? Let me explain that to you all, but maybe you have an idea yourself.

The Rainbow was a sign of God, after the flood He promised Noah that He never would send a flood again to destroy all life. So in that context ... the "rainbow" is also a new beginning. This promise to Noah you can find in Genesis Chapter 9 verses 13 to 16:

13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (New International Version)

rainbow
Here is one from my archives:

the little child sobs
'I want to cross it' -
the rainbow bridge

© Chèvrefeuille

And here is a new one:

promises
no more destroying
peace will come


© Chèvrefeuille

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


Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Carpe Diem #1794 New Beginnings ... new born


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful ai. This month our theme is New Beginnings and today I love to challenge you to create a haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry themed "new born". This can be about new born babies, new kittens and more ... it even can be about the birth of a new haiku of a new year.

her smiling face
she holds her first born
tears of happiness


© Chèvrefeuille

New Born

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 15th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!


Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Wednesday (8) New Year's Morning


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our special feature "Tan Renga Wednesday" with a new logo for 2020. As you all know this special feature challenges you to create a Tan Renga from a given haiku. You have to add the two lined stanza (approx 7-7 syllables).

For this first Tan Renga Wednesday I have chosen a beautiful haiku by our so missed Jane Reichhold. It is taken from her online "Dictionarry of Haiku" from the season New Year.

Here is the haiku to work with:

New Year's morning
the first day begins
in the same dream

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)


This Tan Renga Wednesday is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until January 14th at noon (CEST). Have fun!


Monday, January 6, 2020

Carpe Diem #1793 New Beginnings ... first day of spring


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the 2nd episode of this new CDHK month. This month it's all about "New Beginnings" and today I love to challenge you to create a Tan Renga with the following classical kigo: first day of spring.

The first day of spring is in the Japanese calendar around January 15th, because that's the date on which that very special 5th season, New Year, ends. Spring ... new life sprouts, the snow melts, the temperatures becoming higher ... new life ...


First Day Of Spring

after the dark
first blossoms bloom
at last


the song of birds will fill the sky
praising their Creator


© Chèvrefeuille

Maybe not a really classical haiku, but I think this is one that really points towards the "first day of spring".

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 13th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.


Sunday, January 5, 2020

Carpe Diem #1792 New Beginnings ... New Year's Day


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First ... HAPPY NEW YEAR ... to you all. Let us make this a wonderful year full of love, beauty and inspiration. This month is themed "New Beginnings" and that's what this year will bring us all I hope.

As I told you several days ago my mother has been institutionalized in a nursing home for the elderly people. She has peace with it, but ofcourse it's not easy to cope with this new beginning for her and for me. Time will bring us healing for this ...

The theme for this month is New Beginnings and today we start with ... New Year's Day ... Our classical haiku masters wrote a lot of haiku about New Year's Day ... here are a few examples:

New Year’s Day
dawns clear, and sparrows
tell their tales

© Ransetsu
Japanese Crane

it’s play for the cranes
flying up to the clouds
the year’s first sunrise …

© Chiyo-ni

the first dream of the year —
I keep it a secret
and smile to myself

© Sho-u

New Year’s Day–
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.

© Issa

Year after year
on the monkey’s face
a monkey’s face


© Basho

Japanese Calendar (Wikipedia)

The old calendar
fills me with gratitude
like a song


© Buson

New Year comes,
and I become poorer
than before


© Shiki (never published and recovered in August 2018)




All wonderful haiku on New Year's Day. In Haiku philosophy we count five seasons and the first season is New Year, it's roughly the period of December 15th and January 15th. So I challenge you to create a classical haiku themed New Year, to celebrate the new year.

Here is mine:

New Year's eve --
through the bare branches
the wind as always

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 12th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!