Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #109 Renga with Basho ... life's journey

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday November 10th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Sorry for being late with publishing our new Weekend Meditation, but here it is. This weekend I love to give you the possibility to write a Renga with Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). I have selected six beautiful haiku written by him and it's up to you to create the Renga by adding your two-lined stanza.

This time I have chosen for six haiku which he wrote in the last years of his life. In the last years of his life Basho traveled a lot and in those years he created his masterpiece "Oku No Hosomichi" (The Small Road Into The High North), that haibun has become a classic piece of literature and is renown around the world.

Here are the six haiku to work with. You can choose your own "line-up" and have to try to "complete the chain" through the Hokku (starting verse) and the Ageku (closing verse). Enjoy this challenge.

spring rain
trickling into the wasp's nest
a leaky roof

blooming wildly
among the peach trees
first cherry blossoms

butterflies and birds
restlessly they rise up
a cloud of flowers

coming to the eye
especially at this time
May's Mount Fuji

life's journey
plowing the patch of rice field
back and forth

the lettuce
leaves are just as green
eggplant soup

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

* all the above haiku were extracted from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku".

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday, November 10th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 17th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend and enjoy the "renga-session" with Basho.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #102 Renga With Basho ... ancient times

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a some what belated weekend meditation. I had other important things to do, so my apologies for being late with this weekend meditation. I hope your weekend started with a wonderful day ... here it was an awesome start of the weekend, because it's my first vacation day. The sun shines bright and we have a nice temperature ... a kind of Indian Summer feeling I should say.

This weekend I have chosen to challenge you (again) to create a Renga With Basho. I will give you a series of haiku by Basho to work with. You can decide which "line-up" you will follow, and add your two lined stanza towards the renga. It's a wonderful opportunity to create a renga with Basho, my sensei.

Here are the six haiku to work with (all translated by Jane Reichhold and taken from "Basho, The Complete Haiku"):

flood waters
stars too will go to sleep
on top of a rock

still summer
the harvest moon too hot
to enjoy the coolness

Japanese Morning Glory

morning glories
in the daytime a lock lowered
on the gate

chrysanthemum flowers
bloom at the stonemason's
between stones

warriors
the bitterness of pickles
in the talk

plum blossom scent
since ancient times the word
has been sorrowful

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Six beautiful haiku by the master of masters, Matsuo Basho, I hope you can create a wonderful Renga With Basho.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 22nd at noon (CEST). Enjoy your weekend.