Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #89 Back In Time with "Spiritual Ways"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this week's Tokubetsudesu episode. As you all know this month we will "revisit" special features I created for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. And this week I love to share an episode of Carpe Diem's special feature "Spiritual Ways". I have taken the easy way this time and have redone the first episode of this special feature that was launched on January 14th 2014.

As you (maybe) know, haiku has a strong connection with Buddhism. A lot of haiku have a Buddhist layer and for example Basho, Issa and Chiyo-Ni (a female haiku-poet) were Buddhist, Chiyo-Ni was a Buddhist monk.

Several years ago I wrote a short essay about haiku for WonderHaiku Worlds in which I stated that haiku can be read (seen) as a 'Koan', the impossible question which can give Enlightenment. I think that (all) haiku can really be seen as such a koan, but that's just my idea, my vision.

If you're a loyal 'follower' of our Carpe Diem weblogs than you know that we have had a journey to Shikoku in 2014 which started with all daily prompts about the Trans Siberian Railroad straight through the Soviet Union. That journey brought us along the 88 shrines on the Island Shikoku and I told more about the shrines.

I named this special feature "Spiritual Ways" and the goal was to write a haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka with a spiritual layer in it. With this new feature I hoped to promote the Spiritual Way of haiku and to made you all aware of that 'classical rule'  in haiku. I knew that it wouldn't be easy, but that was the challenge. As I re-read my haiku than I wrote a lot of haiku with that Spiritual Way hidden in it. Sometimes even clear in my haiku, but mostly hidden beneath the surface of the haiku.

Lonely Flower

Let's give it a try to write, compose, a few haiku written with a spiritual layer. First I love to share a few oldies which I wrote in the years laying behind us.

lonely flower
my companion for a night -
I bow my head

© Chèvrefeuille

In this haiku the deeper layer is the 'loneliness' and the 'selflessness' of a Buddhist monk. I wrote this haiku as I was wandering through a big park outside the city where I live. I remember that it was a nice sunny late autumn day and I was completely alone in that park. My thoughts went to a moment back in time in which I felt completely alone. It was not long after that my only brother died of lung-cancer (1995). As my thoughts went on a run with me I saw a lonely flower between the bare branches. It was a, as we call it here in The Netherlands, a 'Hondsroos'  ('dog rose'). I plucked it and took it with me. As I arrived at my home there was nobody at home and I was completely alone, I had only that 'dog rose' and that comforted me.

Another one in which the 'Spiritual Way' was more clear I wrote in response to a photo of praying hands.

strong hands praying
at the corner of the street -
God be with you

© Chèvrefeuille

As you can read in both haiku there's a kind of spirituality in it and that was the goal of this special feature "Spiritual Ways" ... let me share another haiku.

deep silence
only whispered prayers -
the scent of incense

© Chèvrefeuille 

I hope you did like this Tokubetsudesu "Back In Time" episode about "Carpe Diem's Spiritual Ways".

This was the logo of CD Spiritual Ways

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

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #88 Back In Time "Revise That Haiku"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Tokubetsudesu. As you know this month all the Tokubetsudesu episodes are about earlier special features here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This week I love to take you back to one of those special features, "Revise That Haiku".

I love to challenge you all to 'revise' a classical haiku written by Shiki (1867-1902). One of the most extraordinary things about nature, from the scientific and intellectual point of view, is its asymmetry. Life is asymmetrical in its essential character, and it is natural for us to rejoice in it, for it is the guarantee of our spiritual freedom. Even the Great Buddha, for all the Law of Karma and the inviolable Wheel of the Law, the snow melts irregularly. On the sunny side, the snow is gone; on the other, there still remains a white mantle. To our human eye at least, it is a secretly felt confirmation of our inner conviction that 'with God all things are possible'.

Where does this lead to? Well ... it's to show you the picture which is (can be) seen in the following haiku by Shiki, which we are going to revise.

Daibutsu no katahada no yuki toki ni keri

the snow has melted

on one shoulder

of the Great Buddha

© Shiki

As you maybe know in this special feature the goal is to revise the given haiku and write/compose a new one. Not an easy task and it needs some courage to revise a haiku by one of the greatest four haiku-poets ever (Basho, Buson, Issa and Shiki), but ... well it challenges you to look in a different way to the classical haiku.

at the sunny side

the snow in the backyard has melted -

snowdrops are blooming

© Chèvrefeuille 

What a joy. Notwithstanding the snow, the print of winter, new life conquers it. The snow is melting and the snowdrops, the first messengers of spring, are starting to bloom.

I hope you will take up this challenge and I love to encourage you all to 'revise' the haiku by Shiki.

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

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #87 Back In Time "Carpe Diem's Japanese Garden"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As I promised this month all the Tokubetsudesu episodes are special features I once brought on one of my weblogs. This week I have a very nice special feature for you. That special feature was called "Carpe Diem’s Japanese Garden”. This feature goes back to the roots of haiku and challenges you to go back to basic. The title of this feature is referring to the classic rules of haiku, but in this feature not all those classic rules have to be used, just a few of them.

Which rules you have to use here?

1. 5-7-5 syllables
2. A moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water
3. A kigo
4. A deeper, spiritual meaning
5. And last, but not least, it must have a nature image

As the title already says ... it has to be something which can be seen in your garden, but in this case garden can be seen a bit broader, because you also may use an image from a park in your neighborhood or e.g. a park such as Yellowstone Park.

Here is one of my haiku (which I wrote 'back intime'  for CD's Japanese Garden:

gurgling valley stream
can't resist your lovely song -
shadow of a Carp

© Chèvrefeuille

This was the logo for this special feature

This is a very challenging feature and I like this one very much and I hope you all like the "trip along memory lane" this month.

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #79 Looking Back In Time ... "Sparkling Stars"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In this new episode of Tokubetsudesu, a special one "looking back in time", I love to introduce (again) a classical haiku-poetess named Koyu-Ni, she was (as e.g. Chiyo-Ni) a Buddhistic nun (as can be seen at her name, "ni" stands for "female monk".) There aren't many haiku known by her. I ran into this one as I was preparing this episode and I decided to make it myself easy today. Why? This Tokubetsudesu episode is a “reprise” from our rich CDHK history, maybe you remember our special feature “Sparkling Stars”.

hana chirite shizuka ni narinu hito-gokoro

the blossoms have fallen:
our minds are now
tranquil

© Koyu-Ni (Tr. R.H. Blyth)

[...] Koyu-Ni died in 1782, her family name was Matsumato. She is one of the more prominent woman poets of the Edo period. She learned haiku from Songi the First. [...]

Fallen Cherry Blossoms covers the water, looks like a pink river

I love to share a translation of my own for this haiku:

tranquility -
finally I have found peace,
blossoms have fallen

© Koyu-Ni (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

I think that in this translation the peace of mind is stronger present. With every gust of wind I am anxious that the fragile Cherry blossoms will be scattered and torn apart, but as all blossoms have fallen than my heart and mind are at peace, there is no anxiety anymore and that gives me that feeling of tranquility.

Not that this tranquility is superior to the excitement of our hearts while the Cherry blossoms were blooming. It is neither better nor worse. It is simply inevitable, like the blooming, like the falling of the Cherry blossoms themselves.

There is a Waka by  Narihira (825-880), which may well have been the original of this haiku:

were there
no cherry blossoms
in this world
our minds might know
serenity in spring

© Narihira

A humorous verse, by Basho (1644-1694), of the same import, is the following:

hana ni nenu kore mo tagui ka nezumi no su

is it not like a mouse's nest, -
this being unable to sleep
for the flowers?

© Basho (Tr. R.H. Blyth)

That is to say, the poet is unable to sleep at night because of the excitement of the Cherry blossoms, and compares his heart to the nest of the mice who are squeaking and scuffling all night long.

Cherry Blossoms in full bloom

One more, by Shado (died 1737), who was a student under Basho:

hana chitte take miru noki no yasusa kana

the flowers having fallen,
looking at the bamboos,
it is restful under the eaves

© Shado

All wonderful haiku I think, tributes to the beauty of the Cherry blossoms, and the anxiety to see them fall and be scattered.

Life and dead are living together just on a thin line of silk, so close to one another, but that's the circle of life, the beauty of Mother Nature. This is what haiku is ... writing about nature and mankind as being part of its beauty.

The goal of this Tokubetsudesu episode (in which I gave you a reprise episode of “Sparkling Stars” is to write a classical haiku, following the classical rules of haiku, about the circle of life of the fragile Cherry blossoms (or any other fragile blossom). Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like composing haiku and sharing them with the world.

Sakura in my backyard

As you maybe know I am not a big fan of the classical rules. In a way I am more like Santoka Taneda, who also was a "free-styler" in haiku, but of course I had to try it myself to create a classical haiku. So here is my attempt to create a classical haiku on the fragility of blossoms.

fragile cherry blossoms
cover the backyard of the mansion
tears rolling down my cheeks

© Chèvrefeuille

Awesome ... I did it ... I created a classical haiku ... Now it is up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers.

This "looking back in time" Tokubetsudesu episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 15th at noon (CET). I have already published our new Tan Renga Challenge "hokku" (starting verse) for May 12th, May 13th and May 14th at our twitter account.