Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (21) lend me your arms

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last regular episode in our Tan Renga Challenge Month. I ran through my archives to find a nice haiku to end this month with, but couldn't find the right one. So I have done some research to find haiku from the western world and I ran into a haiku by a fellow dutchman, Hendrik Doeff (1764-1837) who was the Dutch commissioner in the Dejima trading post in Nagasaki, during the first years of the 19th century. (source: wikipedia)

The haiku to close this TRC month with is the earliest known haiku written by a non-Japanese haiku poet and Hendrik Doeff has written that haiku. This makes me proud, because a fellow dutchman has written that haiku ... how awesome that is ...

Hendrik Doeff

Here is the haiku to work with and turn into a Tan Renga by adding your second (two-lined) stanza of approximately 14 syllabes:

inazuma no kaina wo karan kusamakura 

lend me your arms,
fast as thunderbolts,
for a pillow on my journey.

© Hendrik Doeff

I hope you will be inspired to add your stanza to this haiku to make the Tan Renga complete. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 4th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our last weekend meditation of this month later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (20) in an empty shoe

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the penultimate regular episode of our wonderful Kai. This month I challenged you to create Tan Renga with "hokku" and "ageku" given by me and you all did a great job on these challenges. You all make me so proud and love to thank you all for that.

Arigato (Thank You)

For this penultimate regular episode I have chosen a haiku by Virginia Popescu and I hope she will appreciate my choice.

This "hokku" Virginia wrote in response on one of our "masterpiece"- episodes:

rest on the field –
a lonely cricket chirping
in an empty shoe

© Virginia Popescu

Isn't it a wonderful masterpiece? I hope it will give you the inspiration to complete the task ... making the Tan Renga complete by adding your second stanza of two lines with approximately 14 syllables.

This TCR episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 3rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new (and last regular) episode of September later on.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (19) broken sunflower

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our TRC month Chained Together III. Today I have chosen a not so well known haiku written by myself to work with. During lack of time, I am very busy at work, I will not create a long episode. So here is the haiku to work with:

broken sunflower
torn apart by a rainstorm --
puddles on the path

© Chèvrefeuille, your host

Sunflower Reflections

Well ... it's up to you now ... create a wonderful Tan Renga with the above haiku by adding your 2nd stanza to it. Enjoy ... the task.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 2nd at noon (CEST). Have fun ...!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (18) Grass On River Bank (Ken Gierke)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

September 2018, our Tan Renga Challenge Month, is running towards its end and we have only four (4) regular posts to go. I have tried to give you an every day challenge with haiku by classical and non-classical haiku poets and by challenging you a little bit more through the Hineri episodes, as we had yesterday.

Today I have a wonderful haiku by Ken Gierke of RivrVlogr. He wrote this one in response on our first episode of "quest for a (new) masterpiece" back in May 2018. Ken is one of the haiku poets who visits CDHK very often and I am glad he does, because his Troiku are really awesome. Yes Ken is an awesome haiku poet. Thank you Ken that you are a participant of CDHK and I hope you appreciate my choice of your haiku here to create a Tan Renga with.

Credits

Here is the haiku by Ken to work with:

grass on river bank
bending over in warm breeze
pale moon looking down

© Ken Gierke (RivrVlogr)

Well ... a beautiful haiku I would say ... a really nice one to work with.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 1st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (15) broken by the storm

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our Tan Renga Challenge Month September 2018. Today I have another beautiful haiku written by the queen of haiku and tanka, Jane Reichhold. I have taken this haiku from the "autumn" section, subsection "plants", of her online version of "A Dictionary of Haiku", a modern saijiki.

As you all know Jane played an important role here at CDHK and she is still missed by us all I think. Her spirit will be always dwelling here at our Kai.

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England aster) flower heads. Photo by Blanca Begert.

Here is the haiku (hokku) to work with:

broken by the storm
the asters' fragrance rises
out of damp earth

© Jane Reichhold

And now it is up to you to add your second stanza to make this Tan Renga complete and maybe you can try to honor Jane in your second stanza.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 27th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (14) sparkling wine

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge month. During lack of time I have a short episode for you today. I will give you only the haiku ("hokku") to work with. This time I have chosen a haiku by the Unknown Haiku Poet Yozakura:

Sparkling wine
Flames dance in her hand
He is granted a smile

© Yozakura

sparkling wine

Now it's up to you ... add your second stanza and make this Tan Renga complete.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 26th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode later on. For now .... be inspired and have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (13) Withered Pampas Leaves

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month 2018. Today I have a very special haiku for you. It was written by Takarai Kikaku, and apprentice of Matsuo Basho. Kikaku wrote an account about Basho's last days. Kikaku was also known as Shinshi and he wrote a tribute haiku for his master and placed it on his memorial stone at the Gichuji Temple in Awazu.

A hat to cover

The body of our master,

Withered pampas leaves.

© Shinshi (haigo of Takarai Kikaku)

Basho's Memorial Stone at the Gichuji Temple in Awazu

By the way you can find the above mentioned Account on the last days of Basho at Simply Haiku, an online haiku magazine. It's a real nice piece of prose (and haiku) written by Kikaku.

Add your 2nd stanza of two lines of approximately 14 syllables and make the Tan Renga complete.

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

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (12) clouds and waves

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. And what a wonderful month this already is through all your wonderful completions / continuations of the Tan Renga this month. I have another beauty for you. This time I hope you will complete this Tan Renga starting with a nice haiku by Dolores of Ada's Poetry Alcove inspired on a poem by Rabindranath Tagore that we had in one of our recent  weekend meditations.

anchor (image found on pixabay)

Here is the haiku ("hokku") to work with and complete into a Tan Renga by adding your 2nd two-lined stanza:

clouds and waves
carry my dreams away
tugging my anchor

© Dolores

I have given it a try (of course), so here is my Tan Renga:

after a restless night I awake
in the arms of my muse

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but I like the twist in this 2nd stanza. And now it's up to you. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until 24th at noon (CEST). I hope to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (10) locusts fly low

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are exploring Japanese poetry and this month ... Tan Renga. By the way my apologies for being late with publishing.

Today I have chosen a haiku written by Masaoka Shiki, the haiku poet who gave haiku its name and who brought haiku into the modern time. Shiki died in 1902 on the age of 34. I think he was and old soul in a young body. His haiku are really gorgeous and during his life you almost can read the changes in society in his haiku. Maybe you can remember his haiku about the steam engine, but that's not the haiku to work with.

Locusts flying low

Here is the haiku to create the Tan Renga with:

locusts fly low
over rice paddies
in the dim sunlight

© Masaoka Shiki

A real challenge I think. I have given it a thought, but couldn't come up with a 2nd stanza, maybe you can do it ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 20th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... be inspired and above all .... heve fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together (III) (9) between dusty cars

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are having our 3rd edition of our special feature TRC, or Tan Renga Challenge. This month I challenge you to create Tan Renga, a kind of chained verse written by two haiku poets, from a given haiku (or "hokku").

Today I have a nice haiku for you to work with. It's a haiku written by Kim M. Russell in response on one of our Quest For A New Masterpiece as featured in a Weekend Meditation in August 2018. I commented on this haiku:

[...] "Nice juxtaposition in this one; and also a kind fragment and phrase. Very well done … Your haiku paints a wonderful scene with the beauty of the classics like Onitsura and Basho. This is a haiku that will survive time … a masterpiece."[...]

And I think you all will think (or say) the same. Here is the haiku by Kim to work with:

between dusty cars
an orange butterfly flits
the traffic rumbles

Kim M. Russell, 26th August 2018

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (7) grasses wilt

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First ... my apologies for being this late with publishing our new TRC. I had a very busy evening shift in the hospital.

This month we have our 3rd edition of the TRC-month in which I challenge you to complete a Tan Renga with a given haiku by a classical or non-classical haiku poet. Today I have a nice haiku for you to work with by Seishi.

This haiku I found (again) on the same website as the haiku of yesterday by Patrick Blanche. This haiku is also in a translation by Burch.

Here is the haiku to work with:

grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt.

©️ Yamaguchi Seishi, (Tr. Michael R. Burch)

Steamengine on the railroad at Takanawa (woodblockprint by Ikkei)

As I read this haiku by Seishi I immediately thought of that nice haiku by Shiki:

smoke whirls
after the passage of a train.
young foliage.

© Shiki

Two beautiful haiku I would say, but the TRC for today is to create a Tan Renga with the haiku by Seishi, but if you also would like to create a Tan Renga with the haiku by Shiki than feel free to do as you like.

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

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (6) An Apple, Alone

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy this month already is. I have read wonderful continuations and it seems that you all like this TRC-month. I hope you have had a wonderful weekend. I had for sure a good weekend, but a busy one, because I had to work (all evening shifts), but ... well I am an oncology nurse so to me every shift has its challenges, like we have our TRC's this month (smiles).

Today I have a wonderful haiku for you written by the French haiku-poet Patrick Blanche. I think it's a nice haiku to create a Tan Renga with.

Red Apples In A Basket

Here is the haiku by Patrick Blanche, first I will give you the French version:

Une pomme, seul
dans le verger abandonné rougissent pour l'hiver

Ⓒ Patrick Blanche

But of course I cannot ask you to create a Tan Renga from a French haiku, so here is the translation by Michael R. Burch:

One apple, alone

in the abandoned orchard reddens for winter
Ⓒ Patrick Blanche (Tr. Michael R. Burch)

A wonderful haiku to work with I would say. So have fun!

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

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (4) in the wolf's eyes

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our TRC "Chained Together III". This month is TRC month and Tagore month, but the Tagore episodes are for the weekend meditations. Today I have a wonderful haiku by one our longtime family-members, Hamish Managua Gunn. The haiku I have chosen was a winning haiku of one of our former kukai.
Next to being a gifted haiku poet, Hamish is also a gifted author. His exclusive CDHK E-book Shinrin Yoku, you can find in our CDHK Library. It's an anthology of so called kikobun. For sure worth to read and to download.

In The Wolf's Eyes

Here is the haiku to work with to create a Tan Renga:

Midwinternight
A  dark sky’s lights dance
In the wolf’s eyes

© Hamish Managua Gunn

What a beautiful haiku to work with. I have given it a try ... here is my continuation of this haiku into a Tan Renga:

Midwinternight
A dark sky's lights dance
In the wolf's eyes                        © Hamish Managua Gunn

fresh fallen snow sparkles
while we warm our hands           © Chèvrefeuille

Sounds romantic doesn't it?

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

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (3) a soothing breeze

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

During lack of time, I am on the nightshift, I have only the haiku to work with to make a Tan Renga with. This episode I have chosen a haiku I wrote myself back in 2015. That haiku was a response on an episode of CDHK about Basho's "Narrow Road Into The Deep North", his world famous haibun.

I challenge you to create the 2nd stanza of two lines with approximately 14 syllables to make the Tan Renga complete.

a soothing breeze
cicadas sing their song
sound of water

© Chèvrefeuille (2015)

I am looking forward to all of your continuations and completions. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 11th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (2) winds howl in rage

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our Carpe Diem TRC month. This month it's all Tan Renga challenges in our regular episodes. Tan Renga is a nice way of writing together, like in a renga. Tan Renga looks similar with Tanka, but is not written by one poet, but by two poets. (More on Tan Renga above in the menu).

Today's episode is a haiku by Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), your task is to complete the Tan Renga by adding your two-lined stanza (approximately 7-7 syllables).

Cover of our exclusive CDHK E-book about haiku by Soseki

In May 2016 we had a nice Theme Week about Natsume Soseki's haiku. (See for our exclusive CDHK E-book our Library)

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

over the wintry forest
winds howl in rage
with no leaves to blow

©️ Natsume Soseki

And here is my continuation of this nice haiku by Soseki:

body poppers dance on the square
while the first flakes of snow fall

©️ Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not as strong as I had hoped, but in a way I love this continuation. It makes the scene in the haiku much stronger, but also very dfferent, because "body popping" is a modern dance style. I don't think the had "body popping" in Soseki's time. (see for some "popping" the video hereafter)

Well ... it's up to you now.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 10th at noon (CEST). I will (try to) publish our new TRC-episode later on.

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (1) Morning Sun

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first regular episode of our wonderful Kai, a haiku loving family. This month all our regular episodes will be Tan Renga Challenges (TRC). I have titled this month "Chained Together III", because this is the 3rd time that I create a TRC month. Maybe you can remember that I created an exclusive CDHK E-book from the first month we had a TRC-month and that E-book was titled "Chained Together" (you can find this e-book in our CDHK Library, use the link at the left side of our Kai).

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.

Sparkling Dew

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".

Every regular episode I will give you a haiku written by a classical or non-classical haiku poet to work with. You have to create the second (two-lined) stanza through association on the scenes and images in the given haiku (or "hokku").

TRC September 2018: (1) Morning Sun by Jane Reichhold

For this first regular episode I love to challenge you to create a Tan Renga with the above given haiku by Jane Reichhold.

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew

© Jane Reichhold

Well ... enjoy this wonderful TRC month chain your verse together with the given verse.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 9th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new TRC later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge #110 swinging gate

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you are familiar with the early history of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai then maybe you know that we had a weekly feature on Fridays titled "Tan Renga Challenge". As the title already says the goal was to create a Tan Renga from a given haiku by an ancient or modern haiku poet. I remember that a lot of you enjoyed that feature very much, so I have decided to bring the Tan Renga Challenge back at CDHK. The above number (110) is just a chosen number, because I couldn't find the number of our last Tan Renga Challenge, somewhere back in 2016.

For this "first" newly born Tan Renga Challenge I have chosen a haiku written by our wonderful and beautiful Jane Reichhold. She is still missed and her spirit is dwelling here at CDHK. I have taken this haiku from her online "dictionary of haiku" from the division Summer and sub-division Plants:

a swinging gate
on both sides the flowers
open - close

(C) Jane Reichhold

What was the goal of this special feature? To create the second stanza of the Tan Renga through association on the images. scenes in the given haiku. The second stanza is a two-lined verse with approximately 14 syllables (7-7).
Tan Renga looks very similar to Tanka, but Tan Renga is written by two poets instead of one poet as is done with Tanka.

This Tan Renga Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 22nd at noon (CEST. I will (try to) publish a new Tan Renga Challenge every Wednesday. For now ... have fun!



 

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge 2018 #1 shadows on a sunny porch (Jane Reichhold)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope your weekend started with a smile on your face. My weekend started certainly with a smile, because I have a week off. That gives me some time to challenge you a little bit more. Maybe you can remember that I had a "tan renga challenge" back in our rich history. We even created a few months full of Tan Renga. The Tan Renga Challenge started once on every Friday and I love to bring that challenging feature back here at our wonderful Kai. So today I have a Tan Renga Challenge for you, but let me first tell you what the goal is.

The goal is to create a Tan Renga from a haiku. A Tan Renga is a short chained verse written by two poets. One wrote the haiku (3-lines) and one wrote the second stanza (2-lines) through association on the scene of the haiku.

For this first "rebirth" of the Tan Renga Challenge I have a wonderful summer haiku by our beloved Jane Reichhold. Your task is to create a Tan Renga with it. A Tan Renga looks similar with the tanka, but instead of written by one poet it's written by two poets.

Shadows On A Porch (image found on Pinterest)

between boards
shadows on a sunny porch
a slender coolness 

© Jane Reichhold (taken from her online dictionary of haiku)

Read the haiku several times and than create your two-lined second stanza with approximately 7-7 syllables. Have fun!

This episode is Now Open for your submissions and will remain open until July 21st at noon (CEST).
I hope to bring a weekly Tan Renga Challenge for you.