Carpe Diem #1535 Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) "the first footstep" (Use That Quote)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a the last episode of our festive 6th anniversary. As I already said in the post earlier today I will conclude this festive "alphabet" month with the letter Z. I have chosen a wonderful quote by Zarathustra (or Zoroaster), an ancient Persian Philosopher.

Here is the quote for your inspiration:

[...] "Taking the first footstep with a good thought, the second with a good word, and the third with a good deed, I entered paradise." [...] (Quote by Zarathustra)

Zarathustra

Your task: Create a haiku or tanka (or other form of Japanese poetry) inspired on the quote by Zarathustra.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 7th at noon (CET). I will publish our first episode of November, autumn, tomorrow, 

Carpe Diem #1534 Yaha ... one of Basho's ten greatest disciples (crossroads)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the penultimate episode of this month in which we celebrated our 6th anniversary. It was a really nice month, a festive month I think. All our themes / prompts followed the alphabet and today we arrived at the letter Y and Z.

As you all know I see Basho as my sensei, my master, but in his life (1644-1694) Basho had several disciples. Some sources say more than 1000 disciples, but he had ten disciples he appreciated the most. One of those disciples was Yaha (or Yaba) who lived from 1662 to 1740. Yaha and Basho were very close and Yaha, for sure, loved his master very much.

Yaha (or Yaba)

I had to search the Internet to find a few of his haiku to inspire you and I have found a few beauties. I love to share them here:

asajimo ya shi no sune omou yuki no kure

morning frost -
I think of the shins of my master
on a night with snow

chikara na ya hiza o kakaete fuyugomori

no strength left -
I wrap my arms around my knees
in winter solitude

© Yaha

Yaha was a master in using the Karumi-style as invented by Basho. In a letter Basho wrote to Yaha he writes:

. uguisu ya mochi ni fun suru en no saki . 

Ah! the uguisu

Pooped on the rice-cakes

On the verandah. 

© Basho

The master’s new poetic ideal in this poem had a deep impact on his disciples, as Yaba wrote:

[...] "I am utterly impressed by the exceptionally wonderful combination of the warbler and the rice cake. I don’t think one can find any other verse like this. The effect cannot be achieved without the words “excreting on a rice cake.” 

The juxtaposition is so magically marvelous that it can only be compared to the masterpiece of the Natural. There may be more combinations like the warbler and rice cake later, but we will never see a line like “excreting on a rice cake.” In these words lies the soul of the poem." [...]

Uguisu (Bush Warbler)

From that same letter Yaha wrote in response of Basho's letter I have taken the above two haiku, in each of them I think you can find the Karumi-style.

The task for today is to create a fusion-haiku from the both haiku by Yaha, so this penultimate episode is a "crossroad" episode.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 7th at noon (CET). I will publish our last episode of our celebration, the letter Z, immediately hereafter.

Carpe Diem #1533 Xenolith

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of CDHK. This month we celebrate our 6th anniversary with prompts following the alphabet. During our existence I have created several other weblogs for our CDHK family. One of those weblogs is titled Haiku Shuukan and was a weekly haiku meme. This weblog is still open, but I am not publishing there at the moment. As I started Haiku Shuukan I started with the alphabet also and so for today I have chosen a prompt I used there; Xenolith.

Let me tell you all a little bit more about Xenolith: This prompt will not be an easy one. I had to search on the Internet to find something about this prompt. And I found the following about Xenolith at Wikipedia.

A xenolith (Ancient Greek:  “foreign rock”) is a rock fragment which becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and hardening. In geology, the term xenolith is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igneous rock during magma emplacement and eruption. Xenoliths may be engulfed along the margins of a magma chamber, torn loose from the walls of an erupting lava conduit or explosive diatreme or picked up along the base of a flowing lava on Earth's surface. A xenocryst is an individual foreign crystal included within an igneous body. Examples of xenocrysts are quartz crystals in a silica-deficient lava and diamonds within kimberlite diatremes.
Although the term xenolith is most commonly associated with igneous inclusions, a broad definition could include rock fragments which have become encased in sedimentary rock. Xenoliths are sometimes found in recovered meteorites.

Rounded, yellow, weathered peridotite xenolith in a nephelinite lava flow at Kaiserstuhl, SW Germany

Here is an example of a Tanka by Georgia also known as Bastet:

war and poverty push
social cataclysms drive
human lava flows
into established homelands
creating new xenoliths

© Bastet

I remember that I couldn't come up with a haiku or tanka inspired on this prompt so I am looking forward to your responses.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 6th at noon (CET). I hope to publish our new episode (a double one) later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1532 Richard Wright's "A Red Sinking Autumn Sun"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Well ... this 6th anniversary month is almost over, so the end is near of our celebrations. Next month I have chosen the theme "Autumn". I think that theme says enough. Next month we are celebrating Autumn, in my opinion the most beautiful season, but that's for later this week.

For this episode I looked back into our rich history and I ran into an episode about Richard Wright in our Ghost Writer feature back in 2014. And than I thought ... maybe I can bring him back for one day here at our Haiku Kai.

Richard Wright (1908-1960)

Richard Wright (1908-1960), one of the early forceful and eloquent spokesmen for black Americans, author of "Native Son," and "Black Boy", was also, it turns out, a major poet. During the last eighteen months of his life, he discovered and became enamored of haiku, the strict seventeen-syllable Japanese form. Wright became so excited about the discovery that he began writing his own haiku, in which he attempted to capture, through his sensibility as an African American, the same Zen discipline and beauty in depicting man's relationship, not to his fellow man as he had in his fiction, but to nature and the natural world.

Cover: Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright

In all, he wrote over 4,000 haiku, from which he chose, before he died, the 817 he preferred. Rather than a deviation from his self-appointed role as spokesman for black Americans of his time, Richard Wright's haiku, disciplined and steeped in beauty, are a culmination: not only do they give added scope to his work but they bring to it a universality that transcends both race and color without ever denying them.

Wright wrote his haiku obsessively--in bed, in cafes, in restaurants, in both Paris and the French countryside. His daughter Julia believes, quite rightly, that her father's haiku were "self-developed antidotes against illness, and that breaking down words into syllables matched the shortness of his breath." They also offered the novelist and essayist a new form of expression and a new vision: with the threat of death constantly before him, he found inspiration, beauty, and insights in and through the haiku form. The discovery and writing of haiku also helped him come to terms with nature and the earth, which in his early years he had viewed as hostile and equated with suffering and physical hunger. Fighting illness and frequently bedridden, deeply upset by the recent loss of his mother, Ella, Wright continued, as his daughter notes, "to spin these poems of light out of the gathering darkness."

For this episode I love to challenge you to create a Renga With Richard Wright. That means: I will give you six haiku. You may choose your own line-up and add your two-lined stanzas. Here are the six haiku to work with:

I am nobody:
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away.

Keep straight down this block,
Then turn right where you will find
A peach tree blooming.

Make up you mind, Snail!
You are half inside your house,
And halfway out!

You moths must leave now;
I am turning out the light
And going to sleep.

One Magnolia

All right, You Sparrows;
The sun has set and you can now
Stop your chattering!

One magnolia
Landed upon another
In the dew-wet grass.

© Richard Wright

I hope you did like this episode about Richard Wright and I am looking forward to your Renga With Richard Wright. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 5th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on, but I have a very busy day tomorrow.

Carpe Diem #1531 Vanilla ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Sorry for this delayed post of yesterday, but I had unexpected appointment with the medical staff of the hospital to create a few scenarios to save the hospital. That appointment took more time than I had expected, so that's the reason why I hadn't the opportunity to publish yesterday. Today I only will give you the theme with a task.

The theme today is Vanilla and the task is to create a haiku, tanka or other kind of Japanese poetry inspired on that theme.

Vanilla (by the way this website is very interesting)

An example of a haiku on Vanilla:

simple vanilla
plain beyond ordinary
blandish my dessert

© Merlinspielen

What a wonderful haiku this is.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 5th at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode immediately hereafter.

Carpe Diem #1530 Universe ... Soliloquy No Renga (solo-renga)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Thank you all for your kind words according to my unemployment. It's hard, but the love and warmth I get from so many people around me are giving me strength to go on. Of course it will take time to recover from this, but I am so glad that I can change my thoughts to haiku and our warmhearted family of Haiku Poets, because I love you all for being part of this family.

This month we are celebrating our 6th anniversary. All our prompts / themes are following the alphabet and today we have arrived at the letter U ... I have chosen the theme "universe" and I love to challenge you to create a Soliloquy No Renga (solo-renga) inspired on the following haiku:

circle of life
seasons come and go ... always
the Cosmos leads us

© Chèvrefeuille

The Universe

As I wrote above the goal is to create a Soliloquy No Renga or solo-renga. You have to create a solo-renga starting with the given haiku. Your solo-renga may have a maximum of 12 stanzas and a minimum of six stanzas.

More about Soliloquy No Renga you can find HERE.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 2nd at noon (CET). I will publish our new weekend-meditation immediately hereafter.

Carpe Diem #1529 Together ... (Tan Renga Challenge)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am a proud host. In our six years we have become a warmhearted family of haiku poets. We did this together ... Together is our theme for today and to celebrate "being together" I have chosen to challenge you to create a Tan Renga ... one of the nicest forms of Japanese poetry. Tan Renga is a real example of "together", because we are creating "together" inspired on a given haiku.

For this post, this Tan Renga challenge, I have chosen a renown haiku by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) taken from his renown haibun "Oku No Hosomichi" (The Small Road Into The Deep North).

Here is the haiku to work with and create your Tan Renga:

hitotsuya ni yuujo mo netari hagi to tsuki

courtesan and monk,
sleeping  under one roof together,
moon in a field of clover

© Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Red Light District

Create your Tan Renga by adding your second stanza of two lines (approximately 14 syllables) through association on the scenes in the given haiku.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 31st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

PS. I am still in uncertainty of the future of the hospital I am working at, because the hospital has big finacial problems ... so that's the reason why my posts are maybe short and sometimes sad of tone.

Carpe Diem #1528 Shasei

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope this will be a nice episode to inspire you. I had a sad day today. Today the hospital were I work as an oncology nurse told its personnel that the hospital is running towards bankruptcy, so the future has become very uncertain today, but ... there is no need to share this sadness with you all and it certainly cannot influence my passion for CDHK, because you all deserve that I inspire you every day.

Maybe you have read our CDHK E-book Haiku Writing Techniques Volume 2, I hope so, because I have taken a chapter from that 2nd volume to inspire you today. Maybe you can remember "shasei", it's a haiku writing technique inventened by Masaoka Shiki. Let me give you an explanation of this haiku writing technique.

A Stormy Sea (painting by Monet, 1884), this is what "shasei" means "the real thing, as you see it".

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. [...]

An example of "shasei", a haiku by Shiki:

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

© Masaoka Shiki

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.

waves (© unknown)

An example of a shasei haiku by Jane Reichhold:

evening
waves come into the cove
one at a time

© Jane Reichhold

In Basho's time shasei wasn't a known word, but this haiku shows what shasei means. Just the real scene caught in a haiku. An example of a shasei haiku by Basho:

ame no hi ya seken no aki o sakai-cho

a rainy day
the autumn world
of a border town

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

The play of words, something Shiki hated, comes with sakai ("boundary" or "border") and sakai-cho, the name of the theater district of old Tokyo. Because of its questionable reputation the district was placed at the edge of town.

hazy heath

I think this shasei is a nice Haiku Writing Technique and worth "playing" with. So here is a haiku by myself in which I have used shasei:

at sunrise
wandering over the hazy heath
the cry of an owl

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... the goal is clear for this episode I think "write a haiku in the shasei style" promoted by Shiki. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 30th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

More about this "shasei" you can find HERE

Carpe Diem #1527 Rustling Leaves (extreme haibun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our festive 6th anniversary month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This month all themes are following the alphabet and today we have arrived at the letter R. Today I have a nice challenge for you.

This episode I have titled "Rustling Leaves" and rustling we can use for spring and for autumn, so the whole world can easily sense the meaning of this theme. I love to challenge you to create an extreme haibun. What does that mean ... an extreme haibun?
Well let me tell you ... to create an extreme haibun I have a few rules you have to use:

1. Your haibun may have a maximum of 60 words (tenfold our 6th anniversary) including your haiku or tanka;
2. Your haiku or tanka has to follow the classical rules as you can find above in the Carpe Diem Lecture One (1).
3. Try to create your haibun with a lay-out of leaves (of course this rule is free to use, if you don't want to use this 3rd rule than that's okay.)

Rustling Leaves

I have tried to create a haibun titled "the voice of the wind":

"Listen, listen. Do you hear that mysterious sound? It's the voice of the wind, the gods are talking with us. Listen to the sound of the wind, the birds, the young leaves, listen with your heart not with your mind.
The rustling leaves have something to tell you ... do you hear them whisper?"

rustling leaves
the voice of the wind ... listen
"love each other"

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... it's just a small story, a small haibun and now it is up to you. Listen to the voice of the wind ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 29th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... just listen to the voice of the wind.

Carpe Diem #1526 Quote ... impressionism

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are celebrating our 6th anniversary with all prompts following the alphabet. Today we have arrived at the letter Q. I had some difficulties to find a theme for this episode, but than I realized that we have our "Use That Quote" feature so I have chosen "quote" and I have a nice quote for you to work with.

Maybe you can remember that we had a month about "impressionism" and I have chosen a quote from that month, but first this wonderful painting by Claude Monet, the "Godfather" of impressionism.

Water Lillies (Claude Monet)

A wonderful painting I think and in this one you can see what "impressionism" means. The Water Lilies are just a faint image of the reality, but you can see that it are Water lilies. It's done with strong short brush-lines and when you look at it from a distance than those strong brush lines are flowing together to become a wonderful image/painting.

[...] "Haiku are very similar with Impressionism, because in the three lines of a haiku we have to catch a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water, this is very similar with the idea of painting with the light of the day during the day as is one of the major rules in Impressionism." [...] (Chèvrefeuille)

Maybe it's a bit immodest to use a quote by myself, but I think this quote gives you the inspiration you need to create a haiku (or tanka) as if you were an impressionist painter.

strange perfume
from a faraway place
morning haze

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 28th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1525 Perpetuum Mobile ... everlasting movement ("undou")

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I had a very busy day today. I had an education-day at the hospital especially for oncology nurses, so I am a bit tired therefore I have chosen to make it myself easy.
In our CDHK history we explored Haiku Writing Techniques and I even had the guts to create two HWT's myself. For this episode "Perpetuum Mobile" I have chosen to give you a "reprise" of the "undou" writing technique or "movement".

waterfall of colors
leaves whirl through the street -
departing summer

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

In this haiku the movement (undou), the motion is very clear present "leaves whirl through the street" ... all movement. Haiku becomes very lively through using movement ... so try it sometimes ... or just now.

Haiku is the poetry of the moment ... it is the beauty of that moment and that moment, as you all know, is as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. Just an eye-blink, a heart beat ... And if you would bring that short moment into haiku there is no movement at all. Haiku is a static response on that short moment. You catch the moment and that is it.
As we bring "movement" into our haiku, than it's no longer a static scene, but than it's a dynamic scene. The scene is no longer a short moment (like the pebble), but it becomes a longer, bigger, broader scene.
Because "movement" is not longer an eye-blink or a heartbeat.

That's why this idea of "movement" in haiku intrigues me. Why bring that dynamic into haiku? I think ... dynamics make the haiku more lively, more exciting ... catching movement in haiku is in my opinion awesome. Dynamics caught in three lines ... wow.

Nature is always moving and so it's like a perpetuum mobile. As I look at haiku on it self than haiku is always changing too. As long as haiku exists the rules of writing them have changed like the waves, they have come and go and come again. So our beloved haiku is a perpetuum mobile in it's pure form I think.

seasons come and go
the everlasting motion of nature -
perpetuum mobile

© Chèvrefeuille

That famous haiku "frog pond" by Basho comes in mind. As Basho created that haiku he did something else than everyone before him. Everyone before him used frogs in their poetry because of their croaking and not because of their movement.

old pond
frog jumps in
water sound

© Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

In that famous haiku by Basho lays the birth of "undou" (movement), that HWT I created. "Undou" (movement) however is more than only the movement of a frog. It's the movement of nature, of our world, movement that is everlasting like a "perpetuum mobile" and that, my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, is why I created "undou" (movement) as a new haiku writing technique.

apple blossom falls
scattered by the late spring breeze
apple blossom falls 

© Chèvrefeuille

This is "undou", this is movement.

Today's goal is trying to catch the perpetual motion of the seasons, of nature, the "undou" of nature. I challenge you to catch movement in your haiku.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 25th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun!

More about Undou

Carpe Diem #1524 O-Henro Shikoku pilgrims (memory lane)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

At CDHK we have done a lot of pilgrimages, one of the pilgrimages was on Shikoku Island along the 88 temples of Kobo Daishi, the once in a lifetime pilgrimage of Buddhists. I love to look back at that beautiful pilgrimage.

I remember that we first travelled with Trans Siberian Railway straight through the former USSR and read that wonderful novel by Paulo Coelho, Aleph. At the end of that journey we arrived on Shikoku Island and became O'Henro or pilgrims of Shikoku. What a wonderful time that was here at CDHK. We visited all the 88 temples in two months and (maybe) found peace of mind.

To become real O-Henro we had to change clothes (virtualy) without those special clothes we couldn't do the Shikoku Pilgrimage. I remember that we experienced the beauty of all the temples and for sure, as I look at myself, that changed my life.

O-Henro traditional clothing

At every temple we said the Heart Sutra ... to become silent and open-minded for changing:

Heart Sutra:

Heart of the Great Wisdom Sutra

When a sincere truth seeker attains the wisdom of enlightenment, he realizes that all the five senses are empty and he transcends every suffering.
Listen: All things are no different from emptiness; emptiness is not different from all things. Form is emptiness; emptiness is form. Feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness are also like this.
Listen: The original nature of all things is neither born nor extinguished. There is no purity, no defilement; no gain, no loss.
In this world of emptiness there is no form, no feelings, perceptions, impulses, or consciousness. No eye, ear, tongue body, or mind. Therefore, no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, or thought. The world of form does not exist, nor the world of the mind or of ignorance; no old age and no death.
Yet there is continuous ignorance, old age, and death.
There is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no cessation of suffering; no wisdom and no attainment because there is nothing to be attained. The compassionate truth-seeker depends upon the wisdom of enlightenment.
When the mind does not become attached to anything, there are no obstacles and fear does not exist. This mind goes beyond all disruptive views and attains Nirvana. All the Buddhas of the past, present and future depend upon the wisdom of enlightenment--and so attain the supreme, wisdom of enlightenment as the great unexplainable true word, the great shining true word that is able to remove all suffering. It is true, not false. This true word of wisdom says:
Gyate Gyate Hara Gyate Hara So Gyate Bodhi Sowa Ka.

O-Henro at one of the 88 temples on Shikoku Island

In our first episode of the Shikoku Pilgrimage I shared a so called "cascading haiku", but for this episode I have "redone" that "cascading haiku" into a tanka.

pilgrims chanting

the Heart Sutra to honor Kukai -

cry of a Vulture

breaks through the serene temple -

pilgrims chanting

© Chèvrefeuille

This pilgrimage took us two whole months (February & March 2014) and I love to share part of the first episode of March 2014, about the 40th temple Kanjizai-ji.

Kanjizai-ji (temple 40)

[...] Kanjizai-ji is situated in the town called Ainan and is devoted to Yakushi Nyorai or the Buddha of Medicine and Healing. He is still one of the most important Buddhas especially during rituals which are performed at funerals, because he is also the Buddha who leads the buddhists to Nirvana.

Nirvana calling

Yakushi Nyorai guides you

to Enlightenment

© Chèvrefeuille

With Kanjizai-ji temple we are on our way to the last temple of the Shikoku Trail. Than we will have seen and visited the 88 temples who are inspired on the life of Kobo Daishi (774-835) who was born on Shikoku Island and was one of the founders of Shingon Buddhism. [...]

It was really an honor to be on the Island of Shikoku as your guide and inspirator. Thank you all.

The task for this episode is to look back into our rich CDHK history and share your favorite episode. Please share with us why you did like that specific episode and maybe you can share a new haiku or tanka inspired on your favorite episode.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 24th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1523 H.F. Noyes' ... rusty toy truck (Renga With ...)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I had some trouble with finding a theme / prompt for today, but after some surfing over the WWW I found a wonderful modern haiku poet, H.F. Noyes (1918-2010). I honestly had never heard of him, but as I ran into his haiku I was immediately caught by the beauty of his poems. So let me share a little bit background about him. (Source: The Living Haiku Anthology)

H.F. Noyes

H. F. Noyes (1918 – 2010)

The poet, editor, and psychotherapist H.F. "Tom" Noyes was born in 1918 on a farm in Oregon to which he attributes his love of nature. He attended Yale and Columbia, majoring in Anthropology and Social Psychology. He also studied Developmental Psychology at the Rousseau Institute and the University of Geneva. Immediately after graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as an ordnanceman and torpedoman, and then as an ensign in the Scouts and Raiders (U.S.Marines). After the war he obtained a Doctorate in Counselling, as well as training in Gestalt Therapy and Jungian Psychoanalysis. He practiced psychotherapy in New York City for 25 years, retiring in 1970 to live the simple life in Politia, outside Athens, Greece.

Tom’s interest in haiku began through study of R. H. Blyth’s four-volume Haiku. Noyes' work appeared in poetry journals worldwide and in many anthologies, including collections published in the USA, Canada, Slovenia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, India, Romania, Italy, Portugal, Greece, and England. His favourite authors were Thoreau, D.H. Lawrence, and Dostoevsky, and his favourite poets were Frost, Jeffers, Yannis Ritsos, Francis Ponge, the T'ang and Sung Dynasty poets, and the old masters: Basho, Buson, and Issa of Japan. In Modern Haiku (2008, 39:1, p.125) H. F. Noyes wrote: “Re definitions of haiku, I honor Basho’s, ‘Do not follow in the footsteps of the ancients. Seek what they sought.’ If they could speak from beyond the grave, Basho, Buson and Issa would caution that a haiku is not a product of mind, but of heartmind. The most precious ingredient in a haiku that ingratiates itself with us is likely to be spontaneity . . . an unselfconscious catching of the haiku spirit as it flies. The depth reflected is chiefly through afterthought in readers’ minds. The writer is content to convey a sense of wonder.”

chain

This episode I love to challenge you all to create a renga together with H.F. Noyes as we do in that special feature "Renga With ..." I have chosen six haiku to work with. You can make your own "line-up" and than add your two lined stanza to make it a wonderful renga in honor of Noyes.

Here are the six haiku I have chosen:

as if nothing happened
the crow there
the willow here

rusty toy truck
stuck on the mudbank
a cargo of blossoms

full moon rising
nowhere on the empty beach
to hide our love

Empty Beach in the Moonlight

raking aside leaves
on the backyard pond
I release the moon

bright fall day
the brook wanders off 
its shimmer lingers

evening walk
the creak of my boots 
invades the stars

© H.F. Noyes

A wonderful series of haiku to work with I think. You may decide your own "line-up" and try to complete the "circle" with a nice "ageku" (closing verse).

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... enjoy the challenge!

Carpe Diem #1522 Matsushima ... an amazing sight (CD Imagination)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

During lack of time I have a "short" episode for you. For today I have chosen to challenge you to create haiku or tanka inspired on an image of Matsushima. Matsushima is a city on the northeast coast of Japan's Honshu Island. It’s known for the hundreds of forested islands that dot Matsushima Bay. The grand Zuiganji Temple was built in 1609. Nearby, Entsūin Temple is noted for its moss, rock and rose gardens, and for its colorful fall foliage. From the port, a curved red bridge leads to the wooden Godaidō Temple. Trails criss-cross the pine forest on Fukuurajima Island.

And there is a haiku by Basho about this beautiful place on earth:

Matsushima ah!
A-ah, Matsushima, ah!
Matsushima, ah!

© Matsuo Basho

Matsushima

In his "Oku No Hosomichi" (Small Road Into The Deep North) Basho describes Matsushima as follows:

[...] "Much praise has already been lavished on the wonders of the islands of Matsushima. Yet if further praise is possible, I would like to say that here is the most beautiful spot in the whole country of Japan, and that the beauty of these islands is not in the least inferior to the beauty of Lake Dotei or Lake Seiko in China. The islands are situated in a bay about three miles wide in every direction and open to the sea through a narrow mouth on the south-east side. Just as the River Sekko in China is made full at each swell of the tide, so is this bay filled with the brimming water of the ocean and the innumerable islands are scattered over it from one end to the other. Tall islands point to the sky and level ones prostrate themselves before the surges of water. Islands are piled above islands, and islands are joined to islands, so that they look exactly like parents caressing their children or walking with them arm in arm. The pines are of the freshest green and their branches are curved in exquisite lines, bent by the wind constantly blowing through them. Indeed, the beauty of the entire scene can only be compared to the most divinely endowed of feminine countenances, for who else could have created such beauty but the great god of nature himself? My pen strove in vain to equal this superb creation of divine artifice." [...] (Source: Oku No Hosomichi)

There is also a haiku by Sora, Basho's travel companion about Matsushima:

at Matsushima
borrow your plumes from the crane
O nightingales!

© Sora (Tr. Donald Keene)

Here is the image for your inspiration. It is a Woodblock Print titled "Spring Rain At Matsushima":

Spring Rain At Matsushima (1936) (Woodblock Print)

tears on pine trees
I need an umbrella to walk
ah! the breath of spring

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 22nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1521 Lao Tzu ... flexibility of water

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time slips through our fingers like grains of sand or in other words ... our festive 6th anniverasry is almost halfway and we have already had nice challenging prompts / themes to work with. And this month will be a little bit more beautiful I would say, because tomorrow, at 10:00 PM (CEST), our seasonly retreat starts. 30 Days of writing haiku or tanka inspired on a theme. This year's autumn retreat that theme is "Love Eternally", but that's not our point for this episode.

This month we have all prompts / themes following the alphabet and today we have arrived  at the letter L and today I love to cahllenge you to create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on a quote by Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher. So today it's a "Use That Quote" episode. Here is the quote to use:

[...] "Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it."[...] (Lao Tzu)

Brook in the woods

A wonderful quote to work with I think, not an easy one maybe, but I think you all can create wonderful poems with it. Of course I had to do an attempt myself:

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

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not bad (how immodest), but it's not a new one (july 2013) I took it from my archive(s). So it's not completely fair, so here is a real new one:

reflection
wrinkles in my face make me old
the brook still young

© Chèvrefeuille (2018)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 21st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1520 Kanshicho ... in the way of Chinese poetry (free-styling with haiku)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you can remember our discussion about a certain style of haiku writing, Kanshicho. That discussion we had back in 2014. It's a free-styling way of haiku writing, but as we dived further in this matter we discovered that Kanshicho was a "hoax", but as you maybe know I love to create my haiku in a free style way, so I use Kanshicho to define my haiku.

I love to go back in time and will try to explain Kanshicho here again:

[...[ "In response of this change in haiku-poetry Basho and others introduce the Kanshicho: in the tone of the Chinese verse. In Kanshicho the breaking of the 5-7-5 rule is no exception. Basho uses this Kanshicho-style during the years 1683-1685 as he lives as a recluse in Fukagawa. Basho's Kanshicho-style is prominent in an anthology compiled by Kikaku "An Empty Chestnut" (1683). The Kanshicho-style disappears after three years (1685) and Basho re-writes several Kanshicho-styled haiku into the classical way. [...]

I will look at the separate "onji" of "Kanshicho" now and than I will try to explain what Kanshicho was meant to be.

Kan means: perception, expression

Shi means extravagance, pride, poetry

Cho means frivolity, number, butterfly

Kanshi means Chinese poetry

As I place those meanings together than Kanshicho means:

A poem in the Chinese way that expresses the extravagance and pride of the poet with the frivolity of the flight of a butterfly. And then Kanshicho starts to come to life. It's an expression of something which is seen by the poet, a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown in to water, in which he/she sees the extravagant beauty  and pride of nature. That extravagance beauty is caught in a three lined verse with the frivolity, (in my opinion frivolity means "not strings attached, free") of the flight of a butterfly.

Butterfly

This explanation could have been used by Basho and his companions to bring the essence and beauty of haiku to the ordinary people. Frivolity like the flight of a butterfly can not be caught in a 5-7-5 strict rule, so to bring that frivolity into the haiku, Basho, Soin and others broke the rule of 5-7-5 ...

I hope that I have explained the Kanshicho-style and that we all just see it as a chance to experiment with our beloved haiku ... because that's the most important of haiku ... enjoying it and feel free to give form to your feelings whether that is in the classical or in the non-classical way of haiku.

For this episode I have the following "challenge" ... try to write a haiku in which the meaning of Kanshicho as mentioned above can be seen or found. Just try to write a haiku that expresses the extravagance and pride of the poet with the frivolity of the flight of a butterfly.

tears fall
on an empty sheet of paper 
a new day rises

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 18th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now.. have fun!

Carpe Diem #1519 Junicho, the twelve stanza renga (Soliloquy No Renga)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy this month is. It's really a feast this month and that makes me happy. I hope you all like the choice of prompts I have made. Today we have arrived at the letter J and I have chosen the theme "Junicho" and for sure you have heard from Junicho, because that's the kind of renga we are creating in our "Renga With ..." feature, but there is something about the Junicho I didn't know. So therefore I have chosen this theme. Let me give you an explanation of the Junicho.

Junicho--meaning ‘twelve tone’--is a ‘single sheet’ poem that disregards the formal separations of the jo-ha-kyu movement. There is no set seasonal progression, though each season is represented and the poem would be expected to open with the season in which composition takes place. Spring and autumn carry their traditional greater weight, the poem overall dividing more or less equally between season and non-season verses. The typical distribution therefore is: winter - one, summer - one, spring - two, autumn - two, and non-season - six.

cherry blossom road

The Junicho allows for a single blossom verse; this may appear in any season and be any type of flower. The poem will likewise contain a single moon verse that may also appear in any season and be otherwise shorn of classical precedent. 'Love' will be represented by a pair or so of verses that may appear in any position.

Source: Simply Haiku (online haiku magazine)

So for this episode I challenge you to create a Junicho on your own following the above mentioned pattern. As you can read above a traditional Junicho opens with the season in which composition takes place. So if you are living on the Northern Hemisphere, your Junicho has to start with an autumn verse. Are you living on the Southern Hemisphere, your Junicho has to start with a spring verse.

Enjoy rhis challenge!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 17th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1518 Inkstone and pencil (free style)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Nowadays we have computers, tablets and smart-phones we can as we are writing our haiku, tanka and more. By the way I am a little bit old-fashioned, because I still use paper and pen before writing our episodes for CDHK. I love to write old-fashioned, because than I can strikethrough what I have written before I publish it.

In Basho's days they used inkstone and a pencil, like we do nowadays with Sumi-e. Basho, as a traveling poet used those materials very often. It was easy to take it with him and it made it easy to write immediately.

I remember that we had the same theme in our 4th anniversary month, I will give you the URL to that post at the end so you can revisit it. I searched the Internet for a few examples of haiku in which "inkstone and pencil" are used, this example you will know:

suzuri ka to hirou ya kuboki ishi no tsuyu

Saigyo's inkstone?
I pick it up -- dew
on the concave rock

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Barnhill)

Inkstone

Jane Reichhold's translation of this haiku by Basho I like more:

"inkstone"
picking up a hollow stone
with dew

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

I also found a few examples of haiku on inkstone by Issa and Buson. Here are those haiku:

iiwake no tegata ni kooru suzuri kana

upon writing a note
of apology, ice
in my ink-stone

© Issa (Tr. David Lanoue)

kiku no tsuyu ukete suzuri no inochi kana

chrysanthemum dew
is the life blood 
of this ink stone

yamadera no suzuri ni hayashi hatsugoori 

the ink stone
of this mountain temple has it early -
the first ice 

© Buson (Tr. Gabi Greve)

young maple leaves (photo © Olga Volodina)

Another nice classical haiku by a not so renown haiku poet is the following:

waka-kaede kage sasu suzuri araikeri

young maple leaves 
cast a shadow 
I wash my inkstone 

© Mizuhara Shuoshi (Tr. Gabi Greve) (1892-1981)

(*) inkstone is translated in Japanese as "suzuri"

For closure I have a nice haiku from my archives on inkstone:

pen and inkstone
the only things needed on this
uninhabited Island

© Chèvrefeuille

A nice collection of haiku I think. I hope it will inspire you all to create your own Japanese poetry. As you can read in the title you can write in the free-style way. The haiku translation by Jane is an example of "free style", in the free style way you can let go of the rules for writing haiku.

This episode is open for youre submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 16th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Revisit: "pencil and inkstone" episode 1070 October 1st 2016