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.

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!

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.

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.