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 Weekend Meditation #102 Renga With Basho ... ancient times

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a some what belated weekend meditation. I had other important things to do, so my apologies for being late with this weekend meditation. I hope your weekend started with a wonderful day ... here it was an awesome start of the weekend, because it's my first vacation day. The sun shines bright and we have a nice temperature ... a kind of Indian Summer feeling I should say.

This weekend I have chosen to challenge you (again) to create a Renga With Basho. I will give you a series of haiku by Basho to work with. You can decide which "line-up" you will follow, and add your two lined stanza towards the renga. It's a wonderful opportunity to create a renga with Basho, my sensei.

Here are the six haiku to work with (all translated by Jane Reichhold and taken from "Basho, The Complete Haiku"):

flood waters
stars too will go to sleep
on top of a rock

still summer
the harvest moon too hot
to enjoy the coolness

Japanese Morning Glory

morning glories
in the daytime a lock lowered
on the gate

chrysanthemum flowers
bloom at the stonemason's
between stones

warriors
the bitterness of pickles
in the talk

plum blossom scent
since ancient times the word
has been sorrowful

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Six beautiful haiku by the master of masters, Matsuo Basho, I hope you can create a wonderful Renga With Basho.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 22nd at noon (CEST). Enjoy your weekend.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #73 Renga With Basho ...

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday February 24th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

February is an awesome month it's wonderful to read all of your responses in our Tan Renga Challenge Month. This month it's all about Tan Renga, but this weekend meditation I have another nice way of creating Renga.

For this weekend I have chosen for a new "Renga With Basho ..." episode that special feature in which I give you the opportunity to create a Renga together with Basho. For this episode of "Renga With Basho ..." I have chosen six (6) beautiful haiku created by Basho. All the haiku I extracted from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku", so all the haiku are translated by Jane Reichhold.

Basho wrote around 1000 haiku during his lifetime and the haiku for this "Renga With Basho ..." he wrote in the last 10 years of his life. In these haiku you can see Basho's "Karumi" (or lightness) his Haiku Writing Technique. (More about Karumi HERE).

Here are the haiku I have chosen for you to work with. You can choose your own "line-up" and add your two-lined stanza to create the Renga With Basho. Try to create a "closed chain" by referring towards your "hokku" (starting verse) in your last stanza "ageku" (closing verse).

first frost
when mums start to feel chilly
I get a cotton waist warmer

moon and flowers
the stupidity pricked by a needle
entering the colder season

slowly spring
is making an appearance
moon and plum

Chinquapin flowers

crane and feathers
in a black robe
clouds of flowers

a traveler's heart
it also should look like
chinquapin flowers

moon past full
the beginning of a little more
darkness

(C) Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold. Extracted from "Basho, The Complete Haiku".

A wonderful series of haiku to work with I think. Have a great weekend!

This Weekend Meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday February 24th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 2nd at noon (CET). Enjoy creating a Renga with the Master of All Times ... Matsuo Basho.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #64 Renga With Basho ...

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday December 23rd at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our special feature for the weekend. This weekend is the first weekend I have to work at my new job, so I am a little bit excited and nervous. Of course I have already worked there, but that was on weekdays and not in the weekend.

This weekend I love to challenge you to create a "Renga With Basho ...". So this weekend will be excited for you all because you all may create a renga with the master of masters ... Basho. I have selected six haiku by Basho all taken from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, the Complete Haiku".

Here are the six haiku to work with. Your task is to add the two-lined stanza between them with approx. 14 syllables. You can choose your own line-up.

cattle shed
dark sound of mosquitoes
in summer heat

the paulownia leaf
moves on the autumn wind
frost in the ivy

withering wind
is the fragrance still attached
to the late-blooming flower

Paulownia Tree

feeling holy
the tears that stain
fallen leaves

under a crescent moon
the ground is hazy
with blackwheat flowers

sweeping the graden
the snow forgotten
by the broom

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold; taken from "Basho, the Complete Haiku")

Six wonderful haiku to work with. It's up to you now to create your Renga With Basho ... make him proud.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday December 23rd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 30th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1555 Renga With Basho ... still it sways

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are celebrating autumn as you can read in the theme "the leaves are falling". Today I have chosen to challenge you with a new "Renga With Basho ...". As you all know I see him as my sensei and I am honored that I may give you the opportunity to create renga with my sensei. You can choose your own "line-up" and of course your own "hokku" (starting verse). You have to add your two-lined stanza of approximately 14 syllables. Please try to "close the chain" by creating an "ageku" (closing verse) that associates with the "hokku".

Lactarius Hatsudake (Photo © Ruben Walleyn)

Here are the six haiku to use:

mushrooms *
not yet that many days
of autumn dew

pine mushroom
with its ragged top it's
like a pine tree

moon past full
the beginning of a little more
darkness

morning glories
in the daytime a lock lowered
on the gate **

chrysanthemum flowers
bloom at the stonemason's
between stones

Glistening Dew (image found on Pinterest)

glistening dew
not spilling from bush clover
still it sways

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold, taken from "Basho, The Complete Haiku")

* The mushroom here is the Lactarius Hatsudake it bleeds a reddish liquid that changes into green when broken. In spite of this spooky attribute, the mushroom is edible. One does not know from the poem whether the autumn dew that Basho mentions is actual dew or this fluid.

** Remarks on Closing The Gate: "... if anyone comes, I have to make unnecessary talk. If I go out to visit anyone, I feel bad for disturbing him. I should be content without any friends. I should feel wealthy in spite of my poverty. A fifty-year-old man writes this for himself as precept for his edification".

Six wonderful haiku I think. Full of intensity and beauty. A real joy to work with I think and I am looking forward to all your beautiful responses. By the way ... I love to create a new exclusive CDHK E-book in which I will gather all your wonderful renga created with Basho. I hope you all will be okay with that.

Cover of our new exclusive CDHK E-book "still it sways" renga with the master

This episode is NOW OPEN for your responses and will remain open until December 5th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Renga With Basho #9 A Mark On The Wall

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is time again for a new episode of our special feature "Renga With Basho", our special feature in which you have the opportunity to create a renga together with the master, Matsuo Basho, one of the most famous and renown haiku poets on earth. I think that a lot of people will know his famous "frog pond" haiku, but he has written a lot of other wonderful haiku in his lifetime. Renga With Basho gives you haiku he has written and which are not renown by a greater public. So this is an opportunity to become familiair with other haiku of Basho.

The goal is to create a renga with the given haiku, the line-up your own choice, through adding your second stanzas of two lines wit approximately 14 syllables. I have made another nice choice (I think) of haiku by Basho taken from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku".

Here are the six (6) haiku to use in your own line up, of course I hope you will create a beautiful "closed chain of stanzas" by adding your stanzas and a wonderful last verse or closing verse the "ageku".

path of the sun
the hollyhock leans into
early summer rain

don't be like me
even though we're like the melon
split in two

wait awhile
cut the soy beans to the sound
of monks beating bowls

White Egret (image found on Pinterest; photo © Norman Johnson)

building a bridge
between snow-covered mountains
white egrets

plovers fly away
the evening grows later with
cold mountain winds

summer rain
where the poem card peeled off
a mark on the wall

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold, taken from: Basho, the complete haiku)

A wonderful selection I would say, but if it's a selection to create a renga with I don't know, but maybe you can do it in a great way.

This episode of "Renga With Basho" is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 1st at noon (CEST). Enjoy this "work-out" ... (smiles).

Carpe Diem's Renga With Basho #7 I'm a wanderer

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is time for a new episode of Carpe Diem's Renga With Basho the special feature in which I challenge you to create a renga together with the master, with Basho. I will give you six (6) haiku written by Basho. You can choose your own line-up of the haiku. Your task is to create the two-lined stanza between the haiku. Try to create a closed chain through bringing the "hokku" (starting verse) and the "ageku" (closing verse) connected.

Your renga must have a minimum of six (6) verses and may have a maximum of twelve (12) verses. This renga form (12 verses) is called Juunichoo.

Here are the six haiku by Basho, translated by Robert Hass:

all the day long-

yet not long enough for the skylark,

singing, singing.

by the old temple,

peach blossoms;

a man treading rice

the shallows –

a crane’s thighs splashed

in cool waves   

I'm a wanderer

so let that be my name –

the first winter rain                         

dragonfly

the dragonfly

can't quite land
on that blade of grass.

autumn moonlight--
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

A nice selection of Basho's haiku. Enjoy the fun, making a renga together with the master is really awesome.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 11th at noon (CEST). Have fun!



Renga With Basho #6 bush clover and the moon

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am a little bit to early with this new episode of our special feature "Renga With Basho" in which the goal is to create a renga together with the master, Matsuo Basho, by writing the inbetween two-lined stanza.
You may chose from six given haiku, you may chose your own line-up. Remember that the first haiku (hokku) and the last stanza (ageku) have to be connected through association and to "close the chain".

Here are the six haiku I have chosen, this time I have chosen haiku by Basho all translated by Robert Hass.

cedar umbrellas, off
to Mount Yoshimo for
the cherry blossoms

midfield,
attached to nothing,
the skylark singing

staying at an inn
where prostitutes are also sleeping --
bush clover and the moon

Radishes

when the winter chrysanthemums go,
there's nothing to write about
but radishes

with every gust of wind,
the butterfly changes its place
on the willow

the dragonfly
can't quite land
on that blade of grass

(C) Matsuo Basho (Tr. Robert Hass)

Well I hope you don't mind that I have already a new episode of "Renga With Basho" for you to work with.

This episode of "Renga With Basho" is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 28th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Renga With Basho #5 such a fragrance

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Carpe Diem Renga Challenge now retitled as "Renga With Basho" as I stated in our last Renga Challenge. Why this chance of name? Well ... in this feature I use only haiku written by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), whom I see as my sensei. All haiku used in this feature are taken from Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku" and are (of course) all translated by Jane. Jane died two years ago at the end of July on her own choice, but she is still missed here at CDHK, but also missed all over the world ... she was the Queen of Haiku and Tanka. In a way this special feature is a tribute to her. Her spirit is still dwelling here and inspires us and for sure she inspires me.

As you all (maybe) know the goal of "Renga With Basho" is to create a renga together with the master with a minimum of six stanza or a maximum of twelve stanza. You may choose your own line up of the given haiku and have to write / create the two-lined stanza between the haiku. By doing that you create a "closed chain". Remember that the "hokku" (the starting verse) and the "ageku" (closing verse) must have a connection in a certain way to make "the circle" complete.

Well ... I am looking forward to all your responses. Enjoy this "Renga With Basho". Here are the six haiku I have chosen:

red plum
creating unobtainable love
blinds of a noble lady

what kind of tree
with the unknown flower
such a fragrance

spring night
someone in retreat is lovely
in the temple corner

with a fan
drinking wine in the shadow
of scattered blossoms

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

with a fan
drinking wine in the shadow
of scattered blossoms

melting away
the brush draws up the water
of a spring

blossoms at their peak
the mountain the same as always
at daybreak

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

I hope you like the choice of haiku and of course I hope it will be a joy to create a renga together with Basho.

This "Renga With Basho" episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 20th at noon (CEST) Have fun!