Carpe Diem #1253 Thousand Candles

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Wow what an awesome response I have gotten on one of the earlier posts here in which I told you about the start of Carpe Diem back in 2012. It is really awesome to see how many haiku poets have found their way to Carpe Diem. It is really a joy and an ecouragement to go on and create Carpe Diem Haiku Kai for you all.

This month it's all about "Imagination Without Limits", go with the flow, become one with the sphere of the images shared here ... and explore your limits ...

Today I have another beautiful image for you. This one I found on Tumblr's "AvaZenGarden" and I couldn't find the name of the photographer. With this image came a quote by Buddha, which I will share also here, but first the new CD Imagination.

Thousand Candles

And here is the quote by Buddha:

[...] “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases from being shared.” [...]

As I read this quote at "AvaZenGarden" I remembered that I had used this quote earlier here at CDHK (back in 2014) and immediately there came a few haiku in mind which fits this image like a glove.

First one by Ese, one of our steady visitors and great haiku poetess:

silent steps -
one more candle illuminates
the old chapel

© Ese

And another haiku which reached out to me while preparing this episode was a renown haiku by Yosa Buson, one of the five greatest haiku poets ever:

Lighting one candle
with another candle--
spring evening

© Buson

 

In that episode to which I am referring above I shared the following haiku with you all:

shadows on the wall
one single candle shines its light
towards the world

© Chèvrefeuille

Well all beauties if I may say so, but of course I have to create a new haiku inspired on this image trying to find my limits. Recently I started experimenting with another kind of haiku-creations, so I have tried that again inspired on this image, here is a new "experimental" haiku:

light
spread
around

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

I hope you did like this new CD Imagination episode and I am looking forward to all your responses on this CD Imagination.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until September 18th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new CD Imagination later on. You can find a preview already at our CDHK Tumblr. Have fun!

 

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge 2017 #5 silent steps

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend and I am ,looking forward to your responses on our last "weekend-meditation", an episode of Universal Jane. I had a nice weekend, relaxed and full of family fun.

This month we are busy with our 2nd Tan Renga Challenge here at CDHK. and today I have another nice challenge for you. In our last regular episode I challenged you to create a Tan Renga from a classical haiku by Boncho and so today I have a modern haiku for you. Today I have chosen a haiku created by Ese Klava with this haiku she became the "runner-up" of our "prayers" kukai. Maybe you can remember this beauty.

silent steps -
one more candle illuminates
the old chapel

© Ese

Candles

As I was preparing this new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge 2017 a haiku by Buson came in mind which sounds familiar, but has also in a way a link to the haiku by Ese. So I love to share that haiku here also, maybe you can also try to create a Tan Renga with this haiku by Buson.

lightning one candle
with another candle
an evening in spring

© Buson (Tr. unknown)

As you all know the goal of the Tan Renga Challenge is to add your two lined 2nd stanza to the Tan Renga's "hokku". Those two lines may count approximately 7 and 7 syllables, but as you also know, that's not a strict rule here at CDHK.

Here is my attempt to create a Tan Renga with the haiku by Ese:

silent steps -
one more candle illuminates
the old chapel                          © Ese
voices of monks resonate
against the walls praising their god               © Chèvrefeuille

And here is my attempt to create a Tan Renga with the haiku by Buson:

lightning one candle
with another candle
an evening in spring              © Buson (Tr. unknown)
shadows dance on the walls
telling spooky stories to the kids                  © Chèvrefeuille

Well ... now it is up to you my dear Haijin to complete the Tan Renga for this episode.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 12th at noon (CET). Have fun ... !

Carpe Diem Tanka Splendor #8 dragonfly

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joyful month this is. I have already read wonderful Tanka and I love it. I am not such a great tanka-poet, but I am starting to become addicted to this form. Yesterday we had the third Tanka Writing Technique by Teika "Elegant Beauty" and today I think I have a nice prompt to create Tanka with.

Today our prompt is dragonfly and I have found a few nice tanka with this prompt in it. I love to share them here with you all:

Dragonfly

two trees meet as one
two dragonflies dart past them
through an empty branch
over water and oars drip
as they transcended darkness  

© M. Asim Nehal

a dragonfly
above the reeds
motionless
but for the wild blues
it vibrates in the sun

© Michael McClintock

Two beautiful tanka based on the prompt dragonfly. I found them online.

In the history of CDHK we have had "dragonfly" several times and I remember that we have had it a few times in a Tan Renga challenge. So I ran through our archives and found a few nicely created Tan Renga which I have "re-built" to the Tanka form.

shamanic journey
a red dragonfly comes
to guide the canoe
ancient wisdom unfolds
becoming one with the dragonfly

© Jane Reichhold & Chèvrefeuille

Dragonfly (2)

glittering blue
above empty riverbed
wings of dragonfly
through the mist, the croaking of frogs;
soon the riverbed will be full again

© Ese & Chèvrefeuille

Isn't it wonderful to "re-do" Tan Renga into Tanka? Of course I had to try to create an all new tanka for this episode ...

The dragonfly symbolizes change. Change in the perspective of self realization. The kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life.

I just had to include the deeper meaning of the dragonfly, because I think that makes it easier (at least for me) to create a tanka with dragonfly, trying to use ofcourse the techniques by Teika.

dragonfly dances
above the old pond of Basho -
the sound of water
wings reflecting sunlight
on young green leaves

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 12th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, a new Universal Jane, later on.

Carpe Diem #1080 fountain pen

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This wonderful 4th anniversary month is running towards its end. We seen wonderful photos by Paul Militaru and have read wonderful haiku and tanka by Kala Ramesh, Jane Reichhold and Herman van Rompuy. They all inspired you and I am so happy that we could celebrate our 4th anniversary. I am looking forward to another year of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
This month all our regular prompts were tools for art and creativity and the last two regulars are both for writing and that's what we all do here. We all write, not only letters or novels, but also haiku and tanka. Haiku and tanka are creative ways of writing and today's prompt fits that like a glove. Today I love to challenge you with fountain pen. "Fountain pen" is the English translation of the Dutch word "vulpen", a kind of pen in which you have to use ink refills, you have to fill the pen with them. As I read the translation of "vulpen" "fountain pen" I was amazed and thought "Why is it called a fountain pen". I couldn't retrieve the origin of this word, but I like its name. It sounds awesome and I immediately thought "this is a pen from which the inspiration flows like a fountain". I hope this prompt, fountain pen, will let your inspiration flow.

Fountain Pen

Several of you have already written a haiku inspired on this prompt, but one had my attention immediately as I read it. That one was by Ese (a.k.a. Noor on Twitter), she wrote the following haiku inspired on " fountain pen":

was it fountain pen splashing the black stains on butterfly' s wings

© Ese (a.k.a. Noor)

Of course this means not that you don't have to visit her, its just to give you an idea what to do with this regular prompt "fountain pen". I had some difficulties with this prompt, but difficulties are to be overcome ... isn't that also what life asks from us? So here is my attempt to create a haiku with this prompt:

hand moves slowly a fountain of letters appears on a blank leave

© Chèvrefeuille

Japanese Brush fountain pen

Another one, a tanka:

meditating monk 
releases his realization 
characters appear  
one by one they form 
a koan of love

© Chèvrefeuille

With this tanka I conclude this episode. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 1st at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, the last Imagination With Paul Militaru episode, later on.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge Month May 12th: "snowdrift" by Ese

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month. Today I have a nice haiku written by one of our CDHK family-members, she was a featured haiku poetess here too.

The "hokku" for this Tan Renga is de following:

deep in snowdrift
I wrap my arms around tree
last dance before spring

© Ese 

In the years behind us Ese was a steady visitor and participant in Carpe Diem and she still is. At the start she published on her WP-weblog and Tumblr, but the last months Ese publish her haiku on Twitter.

The Drifters singing "Save The Last Dance", just to help your inspiration to create the second (two-lined) stanza  for this "hokku".

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 16th at noon (CET). Our new "hokku" for tomorrow's Tan Renga Challenge you can find already on our Twitter account. Have fun!

PS.: The new issue of our e-zine Souchou is Now Available, you can find it at the right  side of our Kai.