Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, November 2021: Follow The Dream: #1855 "I Have A Dream", (Martin Luther King, 1963)

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. I hope you all are into another month of wonderful challenges to create Japanese Poetry. Ofcourse I hope to publish more regular than I had thought recently. 

This month I have chosen a nice theme to work with "Follow The Dream". As you all maybe know, I have always followed my dreams. Back in time I had a dream to create a fantasy novel, and I did. Once I had a dream to create a daily haiku meme and ... as you are aware of ... that dream came true too.
Do I have more dreams? Yes ofcourse. I hope to be part of a world in which Peace and Love are the most important emotions. Ofcourse I know that thought is an Utopia, but you never know what the future will bring us. Until this dream will become true ... I will dream about it.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

The most famous man who is still known after a long time who had a dream is Martin Luther King Jr. He stated "I Have A Dream" back in 1963 and was assasinated for it in 1968. He is still the man that is an example for everyone who cares ... who also dreams of Peace and Love.

He followed his dream too, but at the highest costs.

The challenge for you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers of today create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on Martin Luther King's Dream. Maybe you have dreams? Feel free to share them and if you want ... you can create a haiku or tanka inspired on your own dream.

I had and have still dreams, small dreams and large dreams, but it are all dreams. I wish that all our dreams will become true once.

As I am creating this post a quote from "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho comes in mind:

"People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them." (Source: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho)

Dreamtime
inner feelings and emotions
come alive

© Chèvrefeuille

Keep on dreaming ... without dreams we are lost ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 8th at 10:00 PM (CET). You can add your submissions to the linking widget hidden in our logo below. Have fun!


Monday, October 25, 2021

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Celebrates Its 9th Anniversary: #1854 morning awakenings

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a "new" episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month we celebrate our 9th anniversary with a "trip along memory-lane". In our rich history we have seen a lot of different places on our planet. Today I have chosen to "reprise" one of the episodes about the Trans Siberian Railroad, that we followed back in January 2014 on our way to our pilgrimage on Shikoku Island. That month our CDHK logo was the following:

Our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Logo for January 2014, a picture of the TSR along Lake Baikal

I remember that it was a wonderful trip and today I love to let you all experience that again.

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Today we are going further on our memory lane along the nine years of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. We have arrived in January 2014. In that month we started with our pilgrimage to the Isle of Shikoku to visit all 88 temples there. To get there we took the Trans Siberian Railroad (TSR) straight through the former USSR in January 2014. While we were on our way to Vladivostok, the end station of the TSR, we read "Aleph" a novel written by Paulo Coelho in which he describes his search for his former lives. "Aleph" is situated on the TSR and so we went on reading "Aleph" following the story-line and traveling straight through the former USSR.

I remember that it was a wonderful month and that I have read wonderful haiku, tanka and haibun. In that month Alexey Andreyev (a Russian haiku poet who lives in the USA) was our featured haiku poet. I love to share the last CD-Special haiku of January 2014, here again.

morning awakenings:
among window curtains' flowers
a blade of gray sky

© Alexey Andreyev

As I told you above, the TSR drives straight through the former USSR from Moscow to Vladivostok. So this reprise-episode is about the end station of the TSR Vladivostok. Vladivostok was closed for foreigners until the end of the "Cold War" and in 2012, after a major International Event, it became one of the bigger cities of Russia.

Aleph by Paulo Coelho (book cover)

I ended that episode, back in January 2014, with the following quote from Paulo Coelho's "Aleph":

[...] As they arrive almost in Vladivostok, Paulo decides to make a walk through the Trans Siberian Express, which he sees as a city. He walks through that city,which stretched out like an ever-flowing river of steel, a city were he doesn't speak the local language. He heard all kinds of languages and sounds and notices that, as happens in all large cities, most people weren't talking to anyone, each passenger absorbed in his or her own problems and dreams, forced to share the smae compartment with three strangers, people they never will meet again. The Trans Siberian Express, is really a city ... and as in a normal city we live together with our neighbors, but ... do you know your neighbors really? [...]

After his walk through the train he writes a note, which I love to share here with you.

[...]I am not a foreigner because I haven't been praying to return safely home, I haven't wasted my time imagining my house, my desk, my side of the bed, I am not a foreigner because we are all travelling, we are all full of the same questions, the same tiredness, the same fears, the same selfishness and the same generosity. I am not a foreigner because, when I asked, I received. When I knocked, the door opened. When I looked, I found. [...] (Source:'Aleph' by Paulo Coelho)

Let Your Dream Come True

And I wrote to conclude that episode:

With this quote by Paulo Coelho I will conclude our Trans Siberian Railroad journey. Dreams you have ... you have to fullfill, they are not negotiable. So ... go for your dream and let that dream come true.

another day ends
reaching for the stars and the moon
into the dreamworld

© Chèvrefeuille

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With this haiku I conclude this episode in our "trip along memory-lane" with giving you the task to create a "crossroads" haiku.

(Explanation Crossroads haiku): 

Haiku is still my first love, but during the years of our existence I learned to love and appreciate all kinds of Japanese poetry. And there we find the goal of this new feature "crossroads". In this new feature I love to challenge you to create a new haiku (ONLY haiku) inspired on two or more poems. That can be two haiku or one haiku and one tanka. Or one haiku and e.g. a sedoka. You have to create your new haiku (Only haiku) from the given poems. Sometimes I will give you a "normal" poem and a haiku (or tanka) to use for your inspiration to create haiku (ONLY haiku).

Imagine you are on a crossroad were two haiku come together. The haiku "have a conversation" and "decide" to become one. Together they create a symbiosis of a new haiku.
It will not be an easy task, but I think it will be fun.

Here are the two haiku, from this episode, you have to use. Create a "fuse" of both, you can use the words from the both haiku, but if you are inspired to create a new haiku with new words ... feel free:

morning awakenings:
among window curtains' flowers
a blade of gray sky

another day ends
reaching for the stars and the moon
into the dreamworld

Good luck my dear Haijin. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 30th at 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Carpe Diem's Sunday Time Challenge #1: Pebbles (introduction)


 Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first episode of a NEW FEATURE at our wonderful Haiku Kai. Maybe you can remember our "former" Time Challenge feature in which I challenged you to create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on a theme within 24 hours, I love those Time Challenges, because it fits the main idea that Haiku is just a short moment, as short as the sound of a pebble in water.

With this new feature "Carpe Diem's Sunday Time Challenge", I challenge you to create a new poem within the short time of 24 hours.

For this first Sunday Time Challenge I have chosen the following theme "PEBBLE", a reference to the shortness of the scene on which your Haiku or Tanka is based,

PEBBLES

Pebbles, are mostly found along beaches and on sand grounds. Pebbles are often used for decorating gardens and were found often in Japanese gardens.

On this first Sunday Time Challenge, Pebbles, you have to respond within 24 hours, say (roughly) until Monday October 25th 00:30 am (cest).

Here is a haiku, written by me, taken from my archive, to inspire you:

timeless beauty -
the glint of polished pebbles
in the crystal brook

© Chèvrefeuille, your host (2013)

Here is the Japanese translation, just for fun:

時代を超えた美しさ-
磨かれた小石の輝き
クリスタルブルックで

Jidai o koeta utsukushi-sa -
migaka reta koishi no kagayaki
kurisutaruburukku de

Enjoy this Time Challenge my dear Haijin.

This Time Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Monday October 25th 00:30 AM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below. !! Remember you have only 24 hours to submit!!

Friday, October 22, 2021

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Celebrates Its 9th Anniversary: #1853 Sparkling Dew (Tan Renga)

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a "new" episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to create Haiku or other Japanese poetry forms. This month we are celebrating our 9th anniversary with a "trip along memory lane". 

Today I have chosen an episode of September 2018, in that month we had the 3rd Tan Renga Challenge, that special feature in which we create Tan Renga together.

What is Tan Renga?

Maybe you know the Tanka that poem with 5 lines following the syllables count 5-7-5-7-7. A beautiful Japanese poetry form which I not often create, because I am not such a great Tanka poet. The Tanka is a poem written by one poet and that's the difference with the Tan Renga.


The Tan Renga has also 5 lines following (approximately) the same syllables count as the Tanka, but the Tan Renga is written by two poets. One poet writes the first stanza of three (3) lines in the following example that will be Jane Reichhold:

Here is the first stanza of this example Tan Renga:

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew 
                    (Jane Reichhold)

The goal for the second poet is to create the second stanza of two (2) lines through association on the first stanza (as we do in a renga). For this example I have written the second stanza:

her bright shining eyes
she unpacks her new doll
     (your host)

This is what you call a Tan Renga. It's possible to leave a blanc line between the two stanzas, but you can also make it unite with each other. Than this is the result:

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew 
                    (Jane Reichhold)
her bright shining eyes
she unpacks her new doll
     (your host)

It's a great way of being creative with the work of another poet, like we do with our special feature "Renga With Basho".

For this "new" episode in our festive month I love to challenge you to create a Tan Renga with the haiku by Jane Reichhold:

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew 

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 27th at 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the hidden linking widget in our logo below. Have fun!


Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Celebrates Its 9th Anniversary: #1852 Out In The Fields

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Haiku Kai's celebration month, October 2021. We are celebrating our 9th anniversary with a "trip along memory lane" and today I have (another) nice episode in which we look back into our rich history.

As you all know there are several features here on CDHK and today I have a nice one. I don't know if you remember this special feature, but back in time it was one of my better creations "Carpe Diem's Time Travel, Ancient Japanese Poetry To Inspire You".

Let me give you a piece of one of the episodes of "Time Travel":

[...] In the Hyakunin-isshu are themes such as nature, the round of the seasons, the impermanence of life, and the vicissitudes of love. There are obvious Buddhist and Shinto influences throughout.

An example of the Tanka in Hyakunin-isshu created by Emperor Tenchi (7th century):

Aki no ta no
Kari ho no iho no
Toma wo arami
Waga koromode wa
Tsuyu ni nure-tsutsu.

OUT in the fields this autumn day
They're busy reaping grain ;
I sought for shelter ’neath this roof,
But fear I sought in vain,—
My sleeve is wet with rain.

A very nice Tanka I would say. It's written in a very sophisticated style that fits the Emperor. I especially like the rhyme in the last two lines. As you all know (maybe), it is "not done" to use rhyme in Tanka, but in this one it seems that it had to be that way. It gives the Tanka "style". [...]

Mount Yudano

The above tanka brought a (not so well known) haiku by Basho in mind.

katara re nu   yudano ni nurasu   tometo kana

forbidden to say
how sleeves are wetted
in the bathroom

© Basho

Mount Yudano was a sacred and secrative place for the Shinto sect. More about this haiku by Basho you can find at Basho Revisited, one of my other personal weblogs.

There are a lot of haiku (and tanka) in which several myths and secrets are hidden. For example in a lot of haiku and tanka the poets hide sexuality and the beauty of human body.

So for this episode I love to challenge you to create a haiku or tanka in which you hide sexuality and the beauty of the human body. I will give you an example, which you maybe remember:

what has happened?
petals of red roses around
the morning glory

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

"Morning glory" points to a certain male part. So in this haiku you find hidden sexuality and the beauty of the human body.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 24th at 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.


Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Celebrates Its 9th Anniversary: #1851 A Wandering Spirit


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I have to make excuses again, one way or the other, it seems like I don't have time to create our posts. I really had hoped that I could bring an episode every day, but through several personal circumstances, it didn't work out.

This month we are celebrating our 9th anniversary and this month we are looking back into our rich and creative history. Today I love to look back at a nice new feature I started back in October 2016. Maybe you can remember Yozakura (1640-1716), the Unknown Haiku Poet? In that month I started his story with an introduction. I will replicate that first episode here.

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Wandering Spirit --- intoraddakkushan (Introduction)

Maybe you can remember me I once was your guest at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai as a ghostwriter. I told you a little bit about my life and my sensei, Matsuo Basho, whom I still miss very much. Master Basho taught me how to write soloku (or as you call it now, haiku) and I am still grateful that he accepted me as one of his disciples. Until that moment my life was a complete disaster.

I was an only child and I lived in Edo (or Kyoto) with my dad. I never had the chance to got to know my mother, because she died as she gave birth to me. My father raised me alone. He was a high ranked samurai and taught me all that I know about going to battle, but also about art and poetry.

When I was about 17 years old my dad passed away in the Great Fire of Meireki, a major city-fire in which Edo was destroyed for more than 60 %. I not only lost my dad, but also all of my family's belongings. After that major disaster I became an outcast and a wanderer under the sun, moon and stars of my beloved Japan.

Of course there is no urge to tell you about me and the life I had, but ... hidden deep inside me there is a kind of longing, a kind of hope, a kind of urge to tell you more about my life and so ... here I am again ... this is the story of my life, Yozakura, the Unknown poet.

Yozakura (1640-1716)

ろーすと・あんど・あろーん・あ・わんだーいんぐ・すぴらっと・びにーす・ざ・さん

roosuto ando aroon a wandaaingu supiratto biniisu za san

lost and alone
a wandering spirit
beneath the sun

© よざくら (Yozakura)

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In our rich history we have seen a lot of Unknown Haiku Poets, but Yozakura was one of a kind. The feuilleton Wandering Spirit is about him and I created (I believe) 12 chapters, but those 12 chapters haven't told the whole story. I hope to write the story further.

The goal for this episode is to create a new haiku or tanka, or other Japanese poetry form, inspired on the Introduction of Wandering Spirit as replicated above.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 24th at 10:00 PM (CEST). Enjoy!
Add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Celebrates Its 9th Anniversary: #1850 dried grass

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new (a bit belated) episode in our Anniversary month October 2021. I had a busy day, so hadn't time to publish earlier. As I told you yesterday, this month we will "dive" into our (very) rich history to reprise older episodes to inspire you with.

Today I love to share (again / reprise) the first episode of November 2019. Back than we didn't know about Corona and lived our life as we all do in our own way. Maybe it was an episode that looked into the future, because it was an episode inspired on the deadpoem of Matsuo Basho. We all know what Corona did to the world, and still does.


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 haiku while laying on his grass mat ... surrounded by his most close followers ... try to imagine the scene ... and create your own haiku.

Here is mine:

a last breath
taken by the wind of Autumn -
leaves dance on

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until next Saturday October 9th, 10:00 pm (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.


Sunday, October 3, 2021

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Celebrates Its 9th Anniversary, October 2021: #1849 Peace Within

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I tried several times to restart Carpe Diem Haiku Kai again, but every time there is something that needs my time more. This time, it were especially private things that needed my attention, but now ... I hope I really can restart CDHK. 

As you all know I started CDHK back in October 2012, so next year we will celebrate our 10th anniversary, I hope to have the possibility to create that nice anniversary. I really wouldn't have thought that CDHK would be here still after almost 10 years, but it is still here.

The last two years it wasn't possible to be very active on CDHK, we all know why, so no need to tell you again about this pandemic.

Today I hope to make a new start and I need that new start so hard. I missed creating CDHK and that made me sad and almost depressed, ofcourse with all those bad things happening at the moment around the world, you (we all) need to be strong. 

Okay ... let's go and celebrate our 9th anniversary. This month we will look back into our rich history and I hope you all will be active and again sharing your most beautiful Japanese poetry.

The above music video is of a song by Karunesh, it is titled "Peace Within" and I think we all need that peace. Here is part of our "Seven Days Before Christmas 2019" to inspire you all to create a new haiku or Tanka, or maybe some other wonderful kind of Japanese poetry.

'The Peace Within' is referring to the balance in your life which brings peace within. To me that's what haiku does. I write haiku since the late eighties and I have grown to a balanced person with a heart full of joy and love. I even think that haiku has a positive influence on my work as an oncology nurse. I am more balanced through haiku and I hope haiku does that also to you all.

gentle breeze
refreshes my troubled mind -
finally peace within
my head completely empty
through the gentle breeze

© Chèvrefeuille

Peace Within ... is what I love to wish you all during this Holiday season and let us hope that the Peace Within will become once also a Peace On Earth. We are enetering a new decade and I hope and pray that everyone and everything on Earth will get that Peace Within.

Your task? Create a new haiku inspired on the music by Karunesh. Enjoy! You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below. This episode is NOW OPEN and will remain open until Friday October 5th 10:00 pm (CEST).


Saturday, July 31, 2021

Carpe Diem #1848 Harvest

 


Dear haijin, visitors and travelers,

Golden crops swaying
Sickles flash under the sun
A rewarding year

© Laila S

What a beautiful haiku. I ran into it while I was doing some research for our theme this month, Harvest. As I entered "harvest" as a search option into Google Search, and added haiku to it, there were a lot of haiku about the Harvest Moon (the full moon of September), but not that much about Harvest itself.

Harvesting crops is an activity we see at the life of farmers. It goes back to the ancient times that the harvesting took place at the end of Summer and start of Autumn to have enough to eat during Winter. Harvesting ... yeah it's a busy time for the farmers.

Oat Harvesting

In our "rich" regions, harvesting is done with machines, but in the less rich regions harvesting is done manual and will take a lot of time and hands to do the work.

harvest time
sickles flash in the sunlight -
reciting prayers

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I imagine this scene. How I wish to be part of such a scene, enjoying the sun while harvesting for winter.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 5th at 10:00 pm (cest). You can add your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form to the linking widget hiding in our CDHK logo here below.

Carpe Diem Extra - July 31st 2021 - August 2021 will be our return.


 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Again I broke my promise to publish here again. We have another Covid-19 outbreak here, that Delta Mutation, and that gives us healthcare workers a lot of work, but ... I miss creating posts for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, so I am going to give it a try again, notwithstanding the busy times at work.

Next Sunday August will start. Here in The Netherlands we call that month  Harvest Month, so it has to do with the agriculture business here. So I choose the theme "Harvest" for August. I don't have a list of "kigo" for this month, but I will try to give every day (except in the weekends) a post with a connection to our month theme "Harvest".


I created the above logo for this "Harvest" month, August 2021. I will publish our first post for August right now.

Here is one "harvest-haiku" from my archives:

at dawn
farmers harvesting their fields -
overcoming winter

© Chèvrefeuille (2018)

Well ... I hope to see you all again here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and I hope that I can hold my promise this time.

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Sunday, July 4, 2021

Carpe Diem #1847 Renga With Jane Reichhold +++ Dancing Lights (Renga: Juunichoo)

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Well ... I am getting the vibe again and I hope you all will have fun and joy again here at our wonderfull Haiku Kai. Earlier today I published our first episode for July 2021 and I hope to be here every day again, except de weekends.

Today I was reading in one of Jane Reichhold's Poetry Collections and immediately thought "It's Time Again For A Renga With Jane". So I took a dive into her wonderful dictionary of haiku and extracted a nice series of haiku from "Summer", "Celestial". I gathered six (6) beautiful haiku about clouds to challenge you all with.

Renga, or chained poem, is a nice way of collaborate poetry. The goal is to add your six(6) two lined strofes to the given haiku written by Jane through association.

I will give you six(6) haiku, you can decide which haiku you use to start with, the hokku. Remember that the goal of a renga is to create a "closed circle" of haiku, so the ageku (closing verse) has to be related to the first haiku you used.

Here are the six (6) haiku by Jane Reichhold:

beach tent billows
in the summer blue
white clouds

desert sounds
out of the sun's way
clouds moving

morning downpour
raised to new heights
afternoon clouds

dancing lights
clouds sprinkle the sun
across water

clouds
colored by open wall
a driftwood lair

curving with the land
a rainbow of clouds
moves out to sea

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

By adding your two-lined strofes you create a so called "Juunichoo", a 12 verse renga.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 9th at 10:00 pm (CEST). You can add your Juunichoo, your Renga with Jane, to the linking widget hidden in our logo below. Enjoy!


Carpe Diem #1846 Trying to restart again

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Haiku Kai. This time I hope really to restart our Haiku Kai by posting on weekdays.

For this episode I have chosen the title "Trying To Restart Again" and I really hope it will be that way. Restarting is something we all know or have had experiences with I think. For example: After the bankrupcy of the hospital were I was working I had to restart at a new facility of healthcare. It took some time to adjust to that new workplace, but now (2,5 years further) I have adjusted and I even could change several things in the policy of the facility.


Or ... after the death of my mom I had to adjust to a new kind of living. That took more of my time, because I am the only one left now of my family, say "an orphan" now. Ofcourse I have my own family together with my wife and children, but the family in which I grew up isn't no longer there.

Two examples of restarting your life. That's the idea behind this theme for today's episode.

a new day rises
birds praising their Creator -
the cry of a baby

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 9th at 10:00 pm (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.


Friday, June 18, 2021

Carpe Diem #1845 Troiku Challenge: Summertime

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Sorry it didn't go very well. I had hoped to post every day again, but don't have time enough. So today I decided to create you a new Troiku Challenge. More about Troiku you can find in the menu above.

I have chosen the theme Summertime for this Troiku Challenge, because here in The Netherlands we have a very warm, say hot, time with temperatures rising above 30 degrees Celsius, so yes it is Summertime here.


Summertime: Sun bathing, warm weather, heatwave, beaches and more to associate with Summertime. But for this episode it's just a haiku written by me, your host, to work with.

at the seashore
wind of summer through my hair
the shortest night

© Chèvrefeuille

The shortest night will be this weekend, than summer really starts on the Northern Hemisphere.

I think this haiku is great to create a Troiku with. Enjoy my dear Haijin.

This Troiku Challenge will be open until June 23rd 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget below, hidden in our logo.


Monday, June 7, 2021

Carpe Diem #1844 Returning Back To Normal (I Hope)

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Long time no see. yes I know the Covid pandemic made me decide to set our wonderful Haiku Kai on hold, but now ... 

Here in The Netherlands slowly we return to a normal life. Covid seems to be going away slowly and finally we can go to a pub or restaurant again. 

It has been a strange time and a tough time for me (and a lot of other healthcare workers), but now I think I can create our Haiku Kai again and I hope you all will be with me again.

Today, June 7th, I hope to start again with my daily posts, except the weekends. No special theme this month just trying to bring back the happiness of creating Haiku. So today ... we are going on a quest for a (new) Masterpiece.


Maybe you remember this feature, maybe not, but the goal is to create an all (new) Masterpiece, as for ecxample that world famous haiku by Matsuo Basho, the frogpond.

Today I love to share the above haiku with you all to inspire you. I think it fits our theme for today "Returning Back To Normal". Isn't that the goal of a pilgrimage? To find your way back to your Inner Self?

Enjoy the quest for a new masterpiece!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 12th 10:00 PM (CEST). Have fun! Add your link to the linking widget below in our Logo.


Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Carpe Diem #1843 Troiku Challenge 1: Mist Clouds


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It has been a while that I posted here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, but that had to do with being very busy in health and because of circumstances in my family. Now I am trying to "re-start" our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like Japanese Poetry forms such as Haiku and Tanka.

To "restart" I have chosen to first publish only once a week. Mostly that will be on Wednesday, but it can be that I post on another day.


As you noticed ... today I introduce to you all a new feature titled "Carpe Diem Troiku Challenge". As you all know several years ago I invented this new creative way of writing haiku. Troiku comes from two words "troika" and "haiku".

The Troika is a Russian sledge pulled by three horses and a haiku has three lines. The goal is to create a Troiku, that means you have to create a new haiku with every separated line of the haiku. So you start with a haiku as the "sledge", with every line you create a new haiku, that means three haiku "the horses". More about this creative way of haiku-ing you can find above in the menu.

For this first episode of our new feature Carpe Diem Troiku Challenge I will give you a haiku to work with. In other words "I give you the sledge" and you have to create the "horses". I have chosen a beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold.

roaring down the beach
at the height of winter waves
mist clouds

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Your task is: Create a Troiku with this haiku ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Tuesday February 9th at 10:00 PM (CET). Have fun!

You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Extra 2021 January 14th

 


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It has been a while that I posted in here. It's a very strange time for me. First there is the Covid pandemic. As you all know I am a nurse, so this time is very busy for us workers in healthcare. Than I have to tell you a sad experience I recently have had.

As you (maybe) know my mom lives in a nursing home for the eldery people, because she suffers from dementia. Back in December 2019 I had to make that choice. Fortunately my mom could come to the nursing home were I work myself as a head nurse.


 My mom (1930-2021)


Unfortunately my mom got Covid and on January 5th she died. Today (January 14th) we had her funeral. It's sad, but I cherish and carress all the beautiful memories my mom and I have made. My mom was 90 yrs and now she is reunited with my dad, who died back in 2016.

sweet perfume
memories of a loved one
Jasmine blossom

© Yozakura 

With this haiku written by Yozakura I end this Extra episode. 

You all will understand that I will not be online often. Not only because of my work, but also because of trying to cope with the loss of my mom.

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host