Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a new episode: flower market

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, 

Welcome at a new, week lately than promised, episode of our wonderful haiku Kai. I promised you a week ago to start CDHK again, but ... I was to busy. So here is our new episode. The theme of this month is "summer" and I hope to inspire you with haiku from Jane Reichhold's online Saijiki.

Here is the Haiku by Jane Reichhold:

depth of a flower
flying away with the bee
some mystery

(C) Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

The goal is to create a new haiku inspired on the haiku by Jane and my artwork at the top of this post. I discovered AI Art now more than a year ago ... and I love it.

Here is my haiku inspired on the haiku by Jane and my Art:

On the flower market
A mysterious woman selling -
Her broken heart

(C) Chèvrefeuille

This episode is Now Open for your submissions. Add your haiku, tanka or other poetry form to the linking widget below.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1361: A New Month starting off

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It seems that I am not capable of continueing CDHK as I wanted last month. There is always a kind of not having time enough. So I am trying it again. This new month, May 2022, I have chosen the theme "New Horizons". In this month I hope to post new CDHK episodes with a "look into the future" idea.

We are living in a world that is "on fire", not only through the war in the Ukraine, but we are also in a world that is in an endemic called Covid-19. Everywhere on this world we have to deal with this "new" illness and it gives us the opportunity to look into a new future, but what kind of future?

As you all know there are a lot of conspiracies going on and the most important is the silent threat of what is called "The New World Order" initiated by the wealthy Elite and several other worldwide institutions like the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organisation and the European Union and maybe you know a few others.

I am not a conspiracy thinker, but I have my thoughts and concerns about it. 

For today's challenge I have chosen for a so called "Crossroads-Haiku" and a "Troiku". To give you the challenge I have chosen two nice haiku written by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016), one of our best modern haiku poets.

Here are the two haiku to work with:

the night is shortened
by your letters on the pillow
here beside me

the road before us
departing clouds bright
with a rising sun

© Jane Reichhold (extracted from: A Dictionary Of Haiku (online version))

The goal is to create a new (third) haiku from these two haiku. You can fuse the actual lines of the haiku, or create a new haiku through association on the both haiku.

With that new haiku I love to challenge you to create a Troiku (more on Troiku HERE)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will stay open until Friday May 6th 10:00 PM (CEST). Have fun! You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1358 Clouds

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. I will try to post more regular, but it is not always possible to create a new post. We have still cases of Covid (mostly Omicron) at the health facility were I am working, Today we have two, maybe three, new cases, so we have to test a very big group next day. 

Today I have chosen to give you a haiku written by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) to inspire you. As you (maybe) know Jane has compiled a nice dictionary of haiku-kigo for our times. The "modern" kigo for today is "Clouds" and it is taken from the Winter kigo, sub-category Celestial.

The goal for today is to create a Tan Renga inspired on the given haiku by Jane. That means, you have to use the haiku by Jane and you have to create the "second" stanza of two lines with approx. 7 syllables.

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Jane, once, was a co-owner of our Haiku Kai and she taught us a lot about haiku (and other Japanese poetry forms). She is still missed and her spirit is still here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Here is the haiku to work with:

roaring down the beach
at the height of winter waves
mist clouds

© Jane Reichhold (source: A Dictionary Of Haiku, online version)

A wonderful haiku to work with I think.

You can submit your Tan Renga inspired on this haiku through the linking widget hidden in our logo below. This submission can be done until February 7th 10:00 PM (CET). Enjoy this excercise.

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 #1843 Troiku Challenge 1: Mist Clouds

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It has been a while that I posted here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, but that had to do with being very busy in health and because of circumstances in my family. Now I am trying to "re-start" our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like Japanese Poetry forms such as Haiku and Tanka.

To "restart" I have chosen to first publish only once a week. Mostly that will be on Wednesday, but it can be that I post on another day.

As you noticed ... today I introduce to you all a new feature titled "Carpe Diem Troiku Challenge". As you all know several years ago I invented this new creative way of writing haiku. Troiku comes from two words "troika" and "haiku".

The Troika is a Russian sledge pulled by three horses and a haiku has three lines. The goal is to create a Troiku, that means you have to create a new haiku with every separated line of the haiku. So you start with a haiku as the "sledge", with every line you create a new haiku, that means three haiku "the horses". More about this creative way of haiku-ing you can find above in the menu.

For this first episode of our new feature Carpe Diem Troiku Challenge I will give you a haiku to work with. In other words "I give you the sledge" and you have to create the "horses". I have chosen a beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold.

roaring down the beach
at the height of winter waves
mist clouds

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Your task is: Create a Troiku with this haiku ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Tuesday February 9th at 10:00 PM (CET). Have fun!

You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem Celebrates Its 8th Anniversary, October 2020: #1836 Daydreaming

 Dear Haijin,visitors and travelers,

Do you sometimes daydream? I certainly do day dream on a regular basis. For example ... A few days ago I daydreamed how it will be to have a special CDHK-day to meet each other in real life. Through the Internet we are connected with each other almost every day. What a joy it would be to meet each other, but I know that will never happen, but  we can meet each other in another way. For example how would it be to once in a say quarter of a year speak to each other through Skype or another way through a chat or podcast. These are just a few examples of my day dreams. Do you daydream?

Today our '8th anniversary' month is halfway and today I have chosen for the prompt daydreaming. I don't think it's especially something you do in summer, but in a way I can understand why Jane has brought this into her saijiki 'A Dictionary of Haiku', her modern kigo (seasonwords) for summer. In summer we live most of the time outside and we have, for sure, lazy days and moments in which we are daydreaming. E.g look at the clouds. Sometimes they look like mysterious landscapes and then our mind goes on a 'flight'. We are adventurers who are discovering new countries, new forms of life and so on. 

mysterious landscapes
rise and unfold before my eyes
worlds of clouds

© Chèvrefeuille

Ah those mysterious and magical worlds unfolding before your eyes in blue sky speckled with clouds. Clouds like landscapes in which mountain-peaks reach for the sun. Fantasy worlds with strange rivers, trees and animals ... all fantastic images. Maybe this is not really daydreaming, but it certainly feels like that.

In her saijiki Jane gives a few examples of haiku themed 'day dreming' . And here are a few of her example-haiku for this modern kigo:

as if alive
the surf rolls a log
on the beach

a trail
to the sea horizon
her vision

© Jane Reichhold

Two beauties as I may say so. Especially the 2nd haiku I like very much. That last 'her vision' is really awesome. It points directly to day dreaming and I like that scene which Jane paints with her words. It will not be easy to 'catch' daydreaming into an all new haiku therefore I have chosen to write my haiku in the 'baransu' style starting with the first line of the above haiku by myself.

mysterious landscapes
hidden behind the thin mist
a rooster crows

© Chèvrefeuille

Do you see my daydream? Isn't it wonderful?

Another one:

eyes wide open
my mind takes a flight with my imagination
a gathering of poets

© Chèvrefeuille

Well … a nice theme I would say … just daydream your response my dear Haijin. It’s up to you now to create a haiku, tanka or other kind of Japanese poetry.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 20th at 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem Exploring The Beauty Of Haiku #1827 Paradox

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wondeful Kai were we are exploring the beauty of haiku this month. After the Covid-19 crisis we finally can go outside again, not only for the most important things to do like work and groceries, but also to enjoy nature again. Nature ... our most important ingredient of our haiku.

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” -  Plato, The Republic

Why this quote by Plato to start this episode? Well ... as we look at that quote we immediately see the paradox in this and I think what Plato says is true for every one. We are all intelligent people, we  are all wise, but ... we know nothing. That's sounds more negative then I meant it to be, because I think we are wise people, but we learn new things every day again.

Paradox, optical illusion (image found on Pinterest)

PARADOX

[...] "Paradox is the life of haiku, for in each verse some particular thing is seen, and at the same time, without loss of its individuality and separateness, its distinctive difference from all other things, it is seen as a no-thing, as all things, as an all-thing." [...] (Chèvrefeuille)

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) wrote in her book "Writing and Enjoying Haiku" the following about "paradox":

One of the aims of haiku is to confuse the reader just enough to attract interest. Using a paradox will engage interest and give the reader something to ponder after the last word. Again, one cannot use nonsense but has to construct a true, connected-to-reality paradox. It is not easy to come up with new ones or good ones, but when it happens, one should not be afraid of using it in a haiku.

Here is an example by Jane herself:

waiting room
a patch of sunlight
wears out the chairs

© Jane Reichhold

And here is an example written by Basho (1644-1694) in which he uses paradox:

black forest
whatever you may say
a morning of snow

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

Let us explore "paradox" a little bit further.  Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), writes the following about paradox, in the Philosophical Fragments:

[...] "...that one must not think ill of the paradox, for the paradox is the passion of thought, and the thinker without the paradox is like the lover without passion: a mediocre fellow. But the ultimate potentiation of every passion is always to will its own downfall, and so it is also the ultimate passion of the understanding to will the collision, although in one way or another the collision must become its downfall. This, then, is the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think." [...] (Source: Wikipedia)

And what do you think of the paradox in a great painting by one of my favorite Dutch painters, M.C. Escher. Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world's most famous graphic artists. His art is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, as can be seen on the many web sites on the Internet. One of his most beautiful paintings (in my opinion) is titled "Paradox".

M.C. Escher's Paradox

But ... can we create a haiku with this "paradox"? Let me give it a try:

reaching for the sun
tulips bursting through the earth -
colorful rainbow

© Chèvrefeuille

Is this a "paradox"? I think so, but maybe you have another idea about it. Feel free to share it with us.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 11th 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission by clicking on our logo below. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1818 ... the color of love

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a belated episode of our wonderful Kai. So I will give you only the prompt for today.
Today I have chosen The Color Of Love for you to work with.

too old for new love
the moon rises each night
as I remember
the backseats of strange cars
it's helpful light afterwards

© Jane Reichhold

A beautiful tanka in which we find the beauty of the rising moon, but also the beauty of discovering sexuality as teenagers. Maybe you can remember having the first kiss in a car, or the first time having sex on the backseat of a car. In this tanka you can find that strong romantic atmosphere.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 4th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1817 Renga With ... Jane Reichhold ... Moonlight Moving

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are counting down to the end of this wonderful month full of Love. Only four days left (regular episodes) and than we will start a new month full of exciting words and views ... next month we will do a reprise visit at Shikoku Island.

Today however we are still in the Love mood and with love we know there comes ... desire ... Today I love to challenge you to create a Renga With Jane Reichhold, our beloved and so missed co-host of CDHK may she rest in peace.

The goal of this feature, Renga With ..., is to add your two-lined verses / stanza through association on the scenes in the given haiku ... together with Jane Reichhold you are creating in that way a so called "Junicho" (a 12-stanza renga).

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Here are the six (6) haiku by Jane Reichhold, extracted from her online Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", section Spring, sub-section Moods:

morning fog
dreams not buried
deep enough

spring sunshine
the strangeness of his perfectly
normal thumbnail

kids laughing
in the neighbor's house
the childless couple

moonlight moving
with the gate as the servant girl
takes an evening

Desire In The Moonlight

Saturday rain
desire by a warm stove
for an affair

waterfall
delicate forms
for a spirit

© Jane Reichhold

As always you can choose your own "line-up", but ... your Renga With ... has to start with the following haiku:

moonlight moving
with the gate as the servant girl
takes an evening

What an awesome series of haiku on desire to work with ... love cannot exist without desire ... Create your Renga With Jane Reichhold ... enjoy!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1815 Haiku ... the first love

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this new episode (somewhat belated) of our wonderful Haiku Kai were we are exploring Love this month. Can haiku be a love poem? I think it can, but I also can say it in a different way ... Haiku, the first love ...

That is so true ... haiku really was my first love ... Back in the late eighties I discovered haiku and I was immediately sold to the beauty of this wonderful small Japanese verse ... Well you all know what happened the years after that discovery. It resulted in 2012 in the start of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai (CDHK).

CDHK has grown and has become a family of haiku loving poets. During the years I introduced other forms of Japanese poetry and now ... more than 7 years later we are still alive and kicking.

out of earth
the flower shape
of a hole

© Jane Reichhold 

By actually seeing that the hole dug for the seed already has the shape of a flower, one has a new awareness of dirt and flowers and their relationship. (extracted from: Writing and Enjoying Haiku)

Jane Reichhold was a renown haiku poetess all around the globe and she was our co-host for some time. I still miss her. She brought us her knowledge about haiku and through her my love for haiku became stronger and stronger ... Haiku really my first love.

three lines
enchanted by nature
Cupids arrow

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a strong one maybe, but this little verse, this haiku / senryu, gives words to my feeling that Haiku was (and still is) my first love.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 27th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #114 Renga With ... beach diamonds

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday February 2nd at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, that nice special feature for the weekend. I think you all have noticed that I didn't publish on last Thursday and Friday, my excuses for that, I had a very busy (and tough) week, so I hadn't time to publish on those days.

This weekend I love to challenge you to create a Renga with several haiku poets. Your task is to add the two-lined stanza towards it. You can choose your own "line-up", but have to start with the haiku I will give first. So this Renga With ... is a kind of Hineri, with a twist.

Here are the six haiku to use, the first given haiku has to be your hokku (starting verse) and is a beauty created by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016).

beach diamonds
a new day crystallized
in sunny surf foam

© Jane Reichhold

cold spring breeze
makes the cherry blossom shiver
one heartbeat long

© Chèvrefeuille

The wind from Mt. Fuji
I put it on the fan.
Here, a souvenir from Edo

© Basho (Tr. Ryu Yotsuya)

watch birth and death:
the lotus has already
opened its flower.

© Soseki Natsume (Tr. Soiku Shigematsu)

dervishes whirling
- seeking a higher consciousness
third eye opens

© Chèvrefeuille

flute melodies
across green ocean waves
spring meadows

© Jane Reichhold

Six wonderful haiku to work with I think, not an easy task, but I think and belief that you all can do it. Enjoy this Renga With ...

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday February 2nd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 9th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend.

Carpe Diem #1804 New Beginnings ... candlelight

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yes ... another episode of our wonderful Kai, because I was late with our Monday episode, "snowdrops".

Today I love to challenge you two times. I love to challenge you to create a "fusion-ku" with two given haiku and to create a Troiku with your new "fusion-ku". I have chosen two haiku by Jane Reichhold extracted from her online Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", section New Year.

Here are the two haiku to work with:

a new year
rising from wild seas
a few stars

filling
the glass with candlelight
champagne

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Champagne and Candlelight (© photo Isabella Cabre)

Two beautiful haiku by the Queen of Haiku (and Tanka), Jane Reichhold. She was once my co-host and taught me a lot about all kinds of Japanese poetry ... I miss her still.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1799 New Beginnings ... a huge wave (Crossroads feature)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today a very special episode in our wonderful Kai. This month our theme is "New Beginnings" and today I will leave that theme in a way.
As you all know one of the renown modern haiku poets was Jane Reichhold (1937-2016), she was a co-author here and co-host. She is still missed.

Today I have chosen two haiku written by her and I love to challenge you to create a "fusion-ku" and with that "fusion-ku" a Troiku ... (more on Troiku above in the menu).

Here are the two haiku by Jane to work with:

a huge wave
thundering across the beach
my birthday

sky-clad
the new-born comes wrapped
in previous lives

© Jane Reichhold (extracted from the online Saijiki "A Dictionary Of Haiku", section "New Year")

Two beautiful haiku created by the Queen of Haiku, Jane Reichhold, to work with. Enjoy this excercise.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on.

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Wednesday (8) New Year's Morning

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our special feature "Tan Renga Wednesday" with a new logo for 2020. As you all know this special feature challenges you to create a Tan Renga from a given haiku. You have to add the two lined stanza (approx 7-7 syllables).

For this first Tan Renga Wednesday I have chosen a beautiful haiku by our so missed Jane Reichhold. It is taken from her online "Dictionarry of Haiku" from the season New Year.

Here is the haiku to work with:

New Year's morning
the first day begins
in the same dream

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

This Tan Renga Wednesday is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until January 14th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1786 & #1787 (double episode)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have a double episode for you, because during circumstances I couldn't publish yesterday. So this episode I will give you two themes to work with, both episodes have their own linking widget.

(#1786) Renga with Chèvrefeuille.

For this first part of this double episode I have chosen for "Renga With Chèvrefeuille", I will give you six haiku written by myself and extracted from my personal website "Chèvrefeuille's Haikublog". The goal is to add your own two lined stanza to make the Renga (Junicho = a 12 stanza renga) complete. You may choose your own "line-up".

reaching for the sun
lotus flowers blooms from the mud
old pond changes

deep silence
even deeper as the nightingale starts to sing
beautiful life

snow falls gently
covers up the autumn fields
faraway sounds

Reflections

reflections

scattered by autumn leaves

the old pond

a last leaf

swirls on the wind towards the east -

first snow falls gently

farewell verse

as I depart from the train station

forget me not

© Chèvrefeuille

NOW OPEN for your submissions until December 2nd at noon (CET).

(#1787) Modern kigo

For the second part of this episode I have chosen a modern kigo taken from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku". It's an autumn kigo. As you all know Jane was once my co-host here at CDHK and she is still missed. So create your haiku in honor of her.

Here is the theme: Autumn Equinox

And here are a few examples of haiku with this modern kigo created by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016):

autumn equinox
cool wind comes scented
sun-hot pine needles

autumn equinox
putting porch furniture away
getting it out again

© Jane Reichhold

Autumn Equinox

Two beauties by Jane ... and now it is up to you to create haiku with this modern kigo. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until December 2nd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1782 freestyling haiku ... Devouring Apricots

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize for not publishing a weekend meditation, I really hadn't time. I had a very busy weekend at work so I couldn't create a weekend meditation. Sorry for that.

This month it's all about "Never Change A Winning Team", but today I love to challenge you with a kind of "let the winning team go", why? Well ... maybe you know that we have had here at CDHK once a feature about "freestyling" haiku. In that feature I challenged you to create a so called "free-style haiku", a haiku that doesn't follow the classical rules and that has as less as words as is possible. Let me give you an example:

kissing
tongues melt together
as one

© Chèvrefeuille

No classical rules, a minimum of words, but still a wonderful haiku. This is what I call a "free style haiku". For this episode I will give you a few haiku by Jane Reichhold and your challenge is to "re-create" these given haiku into a "free style haiku".

Here are the haiku from Jane's online version of "A Dictionary of Haiku". I have chosen one from each season:

(spring)

light carried in my arms
apple blossoms from a neighbor
on my doorstep

(summer)

devouring apricots
the fine hairs of her mustache
moist and juicy

Apricots

(autumn)

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

(winter)

rusty red the bracken
its shape lost as the cold
takes the bird's wing

© Jane Reichhold

Four beautiful haiku I think and you have to "re-create" them as a "free style haiku". A nice challenge I think.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 24th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... happy freestyling!

Carpe Diem #1779 Cliffs of Moher ... a tribute to Jane Reichhold

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. As you all know we are over 7 years now and in those seven years there were a lot of wonderful themes to work with. You all know that here at CDHK we have a so called "publishing policy" (you can find this at the bottom of our Kai) in which we all have decided that if you are a part of this Haiku loving family and participate in our challenges and themes ... you agree with using your work for our exclusive line of E-books, but it also stated that I can use your work here ... ofcourse I will always grant your credentials.

Today I love to challenge you with a haiku written by one of our longtime members, Hamish Managua Gunn (a.k.a. Pirate). This haiku he wrote in tribute to Jane Reichhold:

the temptation
at the chalk cliff top
I throw a rose

© Hamish Managua Gunn

With this haiku he not only gave tribute to Jane Reichhold, but he also honored her for her choice. A very strong haiku with a very strong emotion in it.

Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)

As you all (maybe) know Jane Reichhold took her own life by jumping off a cliff ... she couldn't longer live with fibromyalgia. She is still missed and I know her spirit still dwells here at CDHK.

I love to challenge you to create a haiku in tribute to Jane Reichhold inspired on the haiku by Managua Gunn as given above.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 18th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, a new Tan Renga Wednesday, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #109 Renga with Basho ... life's journey

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday November 10th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Sorry for being late with publishing our new Weekend Meditation, but here it is. This weekend I love to give you the possibility to write a Renga with Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). I have selected six beautiful haiku written by him and it's up to you to create the Renga by adding your two-lined stanza.

This time I have chosen for six haiku which he wrote in the last years of his life. In the last years of his life Basho traveled a lot and in those years he created his masterpiece "Oku No Hosomichi" (The Small Road Into The High North), that haibun has become a classic piece of literature and is renown around the world.

Here are the six haiku to work with. You can choose your own "line-up" and have to try to "complete the chain" through the Hokku (starting verse) and the Ageku (closing verse). Enjoy this challenge.

spring rain
trickling into the wasp's nest
a leaky roof

blooming wildly
among the peach trees
first cherry blossoms

butterflies and birds
restlessly they rise up
a cloud of flowers

coming to the eye
especially at this time
May's Mount Fuji

life's journey
plowing the patch of rice field
back and forth

the lettuce
leaves are just as green
eggplant soup

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

* all the above haiku were extracted from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku".

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday, November 10th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 17th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend and enjoy the "renga-session" with Basho.

Carpe Diem #1777 Classical and non-classical in symbiosis ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize for being late with publishing our regular episode of Friday November 8th, I hadn't time to create an episode.

This episode I love to challenge you with a "Crossroads Task". I will give you two haiku, you have to create a new haiku with those two haiku, a so called "fusion-ku". With your new haiku you have to create a Troiku (more about Troiku above in the menu).

I have chosen a haiku by a non-classical poetess, Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) and a classical poetess, Chiyo-Ni (1703-1775). Here are the two "crossroads" haiku to work with:

cricket silence
between scraping sounds
autumn begins

© Jane Reichhold

it touches the line
of my fishing pole -
this summer moon

© Chiyo-Ni

And now it's up to you to create your "fusion-ku" and your Troiku and share it with us all.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 16th at noon (CET). I will publish our new weekend-meditation later today.

Carpe Diem #1774 Renga With Jane Reichhold ... apples for lunch

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the 2nd regular episode of our new month at CDHK in which the theme is "Never Change A Winning Team", and that means that we will have a lot of haiku challenges, because that was once the only poem I created CDHK for.

During the years I introduced several other forms of Japanese poetry and one of them was the Renga, or Chained Verse. Haiku was once part of a Renga and was than called Hai-Kai, Shiki chnaged that to haiku and that's the name we still use.

As you all know Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) was a great modern Haiku poetess and co-host here at our Kai. I still miss her every day. She was a wonderful source for me to get answers on questions I had, she even had her own feature here "Ask Jane ..."

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Today I love to challenge you to create a Renga With Jane ... I have six beautiful haiku created by her, all themed apples. I extracted these haiku from her online saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku". The goal is to add your own two-lined stanza. You can choose your own "line-up", and your "ageku" (closing verse) must be connected to the "hokku" (opening verse).

dad on high
dropping from his trees
apples for lunch

southern sunset
filling the apple bin
a deeper red

applesauce
the cinnamon glow
of a kerosene lamp

Apples For Lunch

windfall apples
palaces for worms
American pie

straight falling rain
tiny lakes upon the tree
stem hollows of apples

baskets in a row
overflowing with apples
on one a sweater

© Jane Reichhold

A wonderful series of haiku to create a Renga with ... enjoy the challenge ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 10th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!