Carpe Diem #1633 Wedding

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. As you know I have changed our theme for this month instead of Kumano Kodo it's now A New Route Leaving Kumano Kodo a journey along modern and classical kigo (seasonwords) for spring. Yesterday I started with "desire" taken from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku" and today I have another nice modern kigo for spring also taken from "A Dictionary of Haiku".

Today our modern kigo is "wedding". I can hear you think "why is wedding a modern kigo?" Let me try to explain that. In Nature Religions, like Shinto and Paganism for example, it is not done to marry in the dark part of the year (autumn and winter), but in the light part of the year you can marry. So that's why Jane has chosen to bring "wedding" as a modern kigo for spring.
Ofcourse I don't know what kind of religion Jane belonged to, but what I know ... she was a haiku poet and as you all know haiku is rooted in nature ... so maybe that was Jane's reason to bring "wedding" as a spring kigo.

Pagan Wedding (image found on Pinterest)

Here are a few examples of haiku by Jane Reichhold themed "wedding":

rehearsing vows
in the middle of the night
frogs

honeymooners

boats in the harbor

anchored together

© Jane Reichhold

Two beautiful haiku themed "wedding". I am married for 28 years next month and I am still deeply in love with my wife. We had a wonderful (low budget) wedding, but we enjoyed it very much. We celebrated our wedding at our home with all of our loved ones ... yes it was a wonderful day that I will never forget.

early this morning

the sound of church bells

through the mist

© Chèvrefeuille

And I ran into a nice haiku in my archive, that in a way resonates with the above haiku. I revised the original by the way to make the connection a little bit clearer.

croaking frogs

the old mansion is alive

a farmer's wedding

© Chèvrefeuille 

What a joy it was to create this episode for you all. It's a small token of my love for Jane Reichhold and my love for our CDHK family. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 1st at noon (CET). Have a wonderful day ...!

A New Feature ... Carpe Diem's Light Retreat 2019 ... The Joy Of Light

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

With joy I invite you to a new challenge here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. Maybe you can remember that I created our seasonal retreat, a period of 30 days to create haiku and tanka inspired on a theme. Not so long ago I told you about the Pagan idea of a Light and Dark part of the year. That gave me the idea to create two retreats this year, a Light Retreat and a Dark Retreat instead of our four seasonal retreats. So here it is our new feature ... Carpe Diem's Light Retreat 2019.
It works exactly the same as our earlier retreats. I will give you a theme and your task is to create on an every day base a haiku or tanka inspired on that theme. So after 30 days you have created 30 haiku or tanka inspired on that theme.

For this first Light Retreat I have chosen the next theme ... "THE JOY OF LIGHT" what can you create inspired on this theme? Give it a try ... try to create a haiku or tanka every day (for 30 days) themed "The Joy Of Light".

The Joy Of Light

This Light Retreat starts tonight and will and on April 14th at 10:00 PM (CET). Please number your daily haiku or tanka.

And here is my first haiku inspired on this theme "The Joy Of Light":

thousand orange leaves
counting my blessings every day -
I light a candle

© Chèvrefeuille (2014)

Well ... are you with me? Are you in to a new challenge? A new retreat about "The Joy Of Light"?

This Light Retreat is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 14th at 10:00 PM (CET). Enjoy this retreat ...