Carpe Diem #1790 & #1791 (double episode)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first episode of a new month of CDHK. As I told you in an earlier post, a preview, December is also about "Never Change A Winning Team" ... so it's all about haiku, still my first love, this month too.

During circumstances I hadn't the opportunity to publish earlier, so today I have a double episode. Every episode has its own title and linking widget.

Ofcourse this month I will do, as is tradiotnal at CDHK, our special feature "Seven Days Before Christmas".

A Lovely Sunset (photo © Hernan Pauccara)

#1790 A Lovely Sunset

For this episode I love to challenge you to "revise" a haiku. That haiku is one by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), the haiku-poet that I see as my master:

in the twilight rain
these brilliant-hued hibiscus -
a lovely sunset.

© Basho

A wonderful haiku by the master.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until December 8th at noon (CET). Have fun!




#1791 Soliloquy No Renga

The second episode I love to challenge you with is a Soliloquy No Renga, or a solo-renga. I will give you a haiku that you have to use as the starting verse (hokku) of your Soliloquy No Renga. For this kind of Renga you have to create at least a renga with six stanza and a maximum of twelve stanza. Your closing verse (ageku) has to close the "chain".

Bare Branches (photo© Floraandfauna(2)

Here is your starting verse (hokku):

I have chosen a haiku by Yozakura, the Unknown Haiku Poet, a beauty I think to work with.

bare branches
a painting against the blue sky
leaves under my feet

© Yozakura

With this haiku you have to start your Soliloquy No Renga.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions until December 9th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1769 free choice of prompt, and make a Soliloquy No Renga with it

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am a bit late with publishing this episode, just because of lack of time and lack of inspiration. So today I have chosen for a so called "free choice" episode with a twist. You may choose your own "little creatures" prompt today and the goal is to create a "solo-renga" or "soliloquy no renga" with it. As you (maybe) know the "solo-renga" has at least six (6) stanza. You start with the "hokku" (starting verse) and end with the "ageku" (closing verse).

We are celebrating our 7th birthday with a whole month in honor of the small creatures of Mother Nature ... let us celebrate the beauty of the small things of Creation.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 31st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #107 Turn Back Time (3) Soliloquy no Renga ... one starry night

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday October 20th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

A new weekend is in front of us, so time for a new CDHK Weekend Meditation. As you all know in our anniversary month all the weekend meditations are episodes of that new special feature "Turn Back Time". In this special feature we dive into the rich history of CDHK and this weekend I have chosen for that wonderful special feature "Soliloquy no Renga" (or solo-renga). I introduced the "Soliloquy no Renga" back in 2014 and ofcourse I will tell you what the goal is.

For this weekend meditation I have chosen that beautiful "Soliloquy no Renga" feature, a renga form I invented back in 2014. Let me tell you a little bit more about it:

A Soliloquy No Renga, is a Renga composed by one person. With this feature it is possible to help you to be more associative, because you have to compose an all new renga with at least six (6) links.
As you all know a renga has stanzas of three and two lines. The first verse "hokku" gives the title to the renga and sets the entire image of your renga. By association on the verse before the verse you have to write you can make the renga a complete story.
This feature is just for fun and I hope it will bring you the fun and inspiration as I had in mind. You can choose on your own how much links you use, but at least (as I said above) six (6) links. The last link has to make the "circle complete" and in that way has a link with the first verse. That last verse is called "ageku".

Starry Night by Alex Ruiz

To start this "Soliloquy no Renga" I will give you the "hokku". I have chosen a haiku written by myself:

one starry night
to make that one painting -
the rustling leaves

© Chėvrefeuille (2014)

A nice haiku to work with I think. It's up to you now ... create your Soliloquy no Renga starting with the given haiku.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday October 20th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 27th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem #1530 Universe ... Soliloquy No Renga (solo-renga)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Thank you all for your kind words according to my unemployment. It's hard, but the love and warmth I get from so many people around me are giving me strength to go on. Of course it will take time to recover from this, but I am so glad that I can change my thoughts to haiku and our warmhearted family of Haiku Poets, because I love you all for being part of this family.

This month we are celebrating our 6th anniversary. All our prompts / themes are following the alphabet and today we have arrived at the letter U ... I have chosen the theme "universe" and I love to challenge you to create a Soliloquy No Renga (solo-renga) inspired on the following haiku:

circle of life
seasons come and go ... always
the Cosmos leads us

© Chèvrefeuille

The Universe

As I wrote above the goal is to create a Soliloquy No Renga or solo-renga. You have to create a solo-renga starting with the given haiku. Your solo-renga may have a maximum of 12 stanzas and a minimum of six stanzas.

More about Soliloquy No Renga you can find HERE.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 2nd at noon (CET). I will publish our new weekend-meditation immediately hereafter.

Carpe Diem #1519 Junicho, the twelve stanza renga (Soliloquy No Renga)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy this month is. It's really a feast this month and that makes me happy. I hope you all like the choice of prompts I have made. Today we have arrived at the letter J and I have chosen the theme "Junicho" and for sure you have heard from Junicho, because that's the kind of renga we are creating in our "Renga With ..." feature, but there is something about the Junicho I didn't know. So therefore I have chosen this theme. Let me give you an explanation of the Junicho.

Junicho--meaning ‘twelve tone’--is a ‘single sheet’ poem that disregards the formal separations of the jo-ha-kyu movement. There is no set seasonal progression, though each season is represented and the poem would be expected to open with the season in which composition takes place. Spring and autumn carry their traditional greater weight, the poem overall dividing more or less equally between season and non-season verses. The typical distribution therefore is: winter - one, summer - one, spring - two, autumn - two, and non-season - six.

cherry blossom road

The Junicho allows for a single blossom verse; this may appear in any season and be any type of flower. The poem will likewise contain a single moon verse that may also appear in any season and be otherwise shorn of classical precedent. 'Love' will be represented by a pair or so of verses that may appear in any position.

Source: Simply Haiku (online haiku magazine)

So for this episode I challenge you to create a Junicho on your own following the above mentioned pattern. As you can read above a traditional Junicho opens with the season in which composition takes place. So if you are living on the Northern Hemisphere, your Junicho has to start with an autumn verse. Are you living on the Southern Hemisphere, your Junicho has to start with a spring verse.

Enjoy rhis challenge!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 17th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #41 Soliloquy no Renga "ancient warriors ghosts"

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

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our special feature "Carpe Diem's Weekend Meditation", the feature that gives you (and me) time to meditate and contemplate before submission. This special feature gives me more time and some time off, because there is no need for me to publish every day. Of course that doesn't mean that I never will publish something in the weekend.

Recently I started with our new feature "Renga Challenge" in which I challenge you to create a renga together with Basho (or as planned later some other classical haiku poet). It looks like you all enjoy that feature a lot, so I have chosen to challenge you this weekend to create a so called "Soliloquy no Renga" (or solo-renga). Maybe you can remember that feature that I launched several years ago here at CDHK.

For this weekend "challenge" I will give you a hokku (or starting verse) to work with. The goal is to create a renga on your own and not as is common with another or more haiku poets. A renga is built from 3-lined and 2-lined stanza as you all will know. It makes a "chained verse" through association on the verses.

Today's hokku is the following, created by myself:

ancient warriors ghosts
mists over the foreign highlands -
waiting for the full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

The goal is to create a Soliloquy no Renga of a minimum of six (6) verses or a maximum of 24 verses. Try to create your solo-renga as if it was a book. That means try to bring a "preface", a "centerpiece" and an "afterword". In that way you create a renga like the classical haikupoets, because every renga had such a "grouping" (lay-out).

Ancient Warriors Ghosts (Japanese Woodblock) (image found on Pinterest)

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 22nd at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend with a lot of inspiration.

Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation #15 Soliloquy no Renga "the dust of stars"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday January 14th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Weekend-meditation here at Carpe Diem. This feature I created to give myself some free time and I think it works great. This weekend I love to challenge you to create a Soliloquy no renga (or a Solo-Renga). Let me first tell you what the Soliloquy no Renga is, maybe you know it, but for those who are new here ...

As you all know haiku came from 'hokku' the opening verse of a Renga or chained verse ... Renga was a collaborative kind of poetry in which several poets were participating. Basho, one of the four greatest haiku-poets (next to Buson, Issa and Shiki) transformed the 'hokku' into a poetry-form on itselves, the haiku ...

I love to bring you back to the roots of our beloved haiku and created what I will call 'Soliloquy No Renga', a Renga written by one poet. Soliloquy means monologue and is a synonym for it.

The goal of this new feature is to write a Soliloquy No Renga, a Renga composed by one person. With this new feature it is possible to help you to be more associative, because you have to compose an all new renga with at least six (6) links.
As you all know a renga has stanzas of three and two lines. The first verse "hokku" gives the title to the renga and sets the entire image of your renga. By association on the verse before the verse you have to write you can make the renga a complete story.
This new feature is just for fun and I hope it will bring you the fun and inspiration as I had in mind. You can choose on your own how much links you use, but at least (as I said above) six (6) links. The last link has to make the "circle complete" and in that way has a link with the first verse. That last verse is called "ageku".

I will give you the "hokku" for the Soliloquy No Renga and than it's up to you. That "hokku" can be a haiku by a classic or modern haiku-poet. This weekend I have chosen to give you a nice haiku created by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016). And I have taken it from our exclusive CDHK E-book "All My Years" (downloadable at the right side of our Kai):

Here is the haiku which is the "hokku" for this Soliloquy No Renga:

silence
the dust of stars
shining radiance

© Jane Reichhold

And now it's up to you to create a Soliloquy No Renga starting with this verse by Jane Reichhold. Have fun ... !

This CDHK Weekend-Meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 14th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 21st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, the first Voyage by Sindbad, later on.

Carpe Diem weekend-meditation #4 Soliloquy no renga (solo-renga): Celebration

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday October 1st at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the 4th weekend-meditation of this month. Next month these weekend-meditations will be temporarely on hold, because of our first luster.

This weekend I love to challenge you to create a so called "soliloquy no renga" or solo-renga. It's a renga created by one poet instead of multiple poets, but it is also fun to create it. A "soliloquy no renga" counts a minimum of 6 stanza and a maximum of 12 stanza. This renga form is the same like a normal renga, so you have to create the stanza through association on scenes and images.
More about the "soliloquy no renga" you can find HERE.

For this weekend-meditation I have chosen the first stanza, the hokku, to work with. That hokku is a haiku from our CDHK archives written by myself:

celebration
finally winter has gone
early plum blossoms

© Chèvrefeuille

I am looking forward to your "soliloquy no renga" in response of this weekend-meditation.

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday October 1st at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 8th at noon (CET). 

Have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge Month 2017 #18 a wandering crow (Matsuo Basho)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have another nice challenge for you in this wonderful Tan Renga Challenge Month 2017. Today I love to challenge you with a beautiful "hokku" by Basho. This "hokku" was the first verse of a real renga which Basho attended. Basho was very well known in his time as a Renga master and he was invited at a lot of renga parties. The one that started with this "hokku" was attended at the home of one of Basho's elegant friends, Sakuei. Before I give you this "hokku" I will give you the so called "pre-script" to this "hokku", in Basho's time it was common to give haiku a title or a pre-script.

Pre-script:

This was composed when seeing a screen of plum blossoms and a crow at the house of Sakuei. A renga party was held with this as the starting poem.

a wandering crow
its old nest has become
a plum tree

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

This pre-script was not by Basho himself, it was added by Doho in his book Sho O Zen-den. In this poem Basho compares himself to the crow painted on the screen. Instead of lodging in the simplicity of a crow's nest, he sleeps among plum blossoms because he is staying with an elegant friend. Crows are not usually considered a migrating bird, but the idea of a wandering crow means a bird of passage or a priest on a journey. (Source: "Basho's Complete Haiku" by Jane Reichhold)

Crow and Plum Blossom (Woodblock Print) (image found on Pinterest)

Well ... as you can see in the "logo" of this episode of our Tan Renga Challenge, this time I love to challenge to create a "Soliloquy No Renga" (a "solo-renga"). What does that mean? Well .... it's a kind of renga I invented and the goal is to create a renga with at least six stanza following the sequence: "hokku", (in this case, the haiku by Basho); two lined stanza, three lined stanza, two lined stanza, three lined stanza, two lined stanza, and so on. The last stanza the "ageku" (closing verse) makes the "chain" complete. (So at least 6 stanza ... but if you like you may do more stanza).

!! More on Soliloquy No Renga, you can find HERE)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Universal Jane #11 renga "Old Jokes With Me"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Universal Jane, our special feature in honor and remembering Jane Reichhold who has meant a lot for our Haiku Kai.
Jane was not only a great haiku and tanka poetess, but she also was a renga master, she even created a renge together with her husband Werner and Matsuo Basho. I love to share that renga here with you all.

This renga is titled "Old Jokes With Me" and it is based on three and two lined renga pieces written by Basho. In this renga the links in bold are by Basho and the links in italic are by Jane and the links in the normal type are by Werner. This example of a renga I have extracted from Jane's "Bare Bones School of Renga" (available through download at Jane's Library here at CDHK). It wasn't very clear which links were written by whom, so I tried to reconstruct this. The only sure links were the ones by Basho. As I followed the "classical" way of renga than I could reconstruct it and I hope I did it right.

Renga ... also one of Jane's prides ... she was a renga master pur sang.

OLD JOKES WITH ME

Matsuo Basho

Jane Reichhold

Werner Reichhold

1 hokku:

it’s so rotten

no other dogs enjoy

old jokes with me  

      

2

pass the wine

raise our spirits

3

always a link

up his sleeves

the brush wets

4

leather socks get dirty 

walking a muddy path

5

somebody’s missing

quick put the moon in

a puddle

6

shy eyes

far-out composing

7

spinning down

when does it get 

to the bottom?

8

so the villagers

laugh at me

9

sleeping outdoors

with friends

summer constellations

10

a hand drumming

pulsates with the sun

11.

a wood thrush manifests

“as power-spirit I come” 

and cries and cries and cries

12

breath wind in mists

a trail through the maze

13

meadow walk

eventually hiding

a snake

14

greeting the traveler

a lamp on the floor

15

curving her breast

the early moon

very hot

 16

impatient call:

“Where can we meet?”

17

sandals in petals

yet he’s so poor

his hat’s a sack

18

squint-eyed bag lady

famous in New Jersey

19

picture postcard

the come hither look

of the naked beauty

20

expanded body freedom

designed for partnership

21

cats in love

satisfied at dawn

he explains

22

“I’m collecting songs

for the Flax-Reaping Anthology.”

23

bundles

the hand ties with a string

words

24

college sonnets saved

in a hope chest

25

more than dreams

the real butterfly 

touches one

26

stem after it 

leaves erect

27

without friends 

he moves

to help himself

28

among that kind

the tall pilgrim stands out

29

relief comes 

first light 

on a cedar tip

30

to an incense stick

he also bows

31

worship service

begins as invocation

crickets chanting

32

it’s so hot it’s so hot 

the same voice at every gate

More about Soliloquy no Renga you can find HERE

33

wet lips

summer-shine 

opens

34

snow-clogged mountain pass 

so steep everyone sweats

35

resting

the hiker hears

a wave of color

36 ageku:

sunset on a spring lake

pleasure brings home a poem

© Basho, Jane Reichhold and Werner Reichhold (summer 1990)

Isn't it awesome to read this renga ? Try to create your renga, a Soliloquy no Renga, inspired on the hokku of this renga

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 13th at noon (CET)

Carpe Diem Universal Jane #3 riversong

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is wednesday again so time for a new episode of our special feature in honor of Jane Reichhold, Carpe Diem Universal Jane. Jane's spirit moves here around on CDHK, because she was a great part of our haiku loving community and we have learned a lot from her.
Universal Jane is for her ... to honor her and remember her for ever as the connoisseur of haiku, tanka and renga, but mostly for her in loving memory, my friend and mentor as she was to a lot of us here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

Jane, as we all know, was not only a haiku poetess, but also a tanka poetess pur sang, but she also was on e of the leading souls in the art of renga, or chained verse. We have done rnega here at CDHK several times and I had the opportunity to create a e-book of Jane's book "Bare Bones School of Renga", which you can find in the Jane Reichhold library here at CDHK. 

Renga ... the chained verse, that beautiful form in which we can create poetry together through interaction and association. Maybe you can remember our Tan Renga month earlier this year. Tan Renga (looks like Tanka) is a short chained verse of two stanza written by two poets. Maybe you remember the following Tan Renga:

The first stanza was by Jane Reichhold:

shadows of leaves
cover the open holes
her flute forgotten                         (© Jane Reichhold)

This was my response on this beautiful "hokku" by Jane:

caressing summer breeze
enchanted melody rises                 (© Chèvrefeuille)

I love to challenge you, in honor of Jane to create a Tan Renga with the following haiku ("hokku") by Jane Reichhold. This haiku was extracted from the online version of Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku".

riversong
wind blown from autumn trees
a stream of gold

© Jane Reichhold

A nice autumn haiku, so try to associate on the images in this haiku to create a second stanza towards this "hokku" by Jane. Your 2nd stanza has two lines (approximately following 7-7 syllables). Please share this "hokku" by Jane Reichhold also in your post.

Maybe I can challenge you a little bit more ... let's try to create a Soliloquy no Renga with this "hokku" by Jane. A Soliloquy no Renga is a "renga" written by one poet with a maximum of eight (8) stanza. The last stanza is the "ageku" and must close the chain through association on the first stanza, the "hokku". You can find more on Soliloquy no Renga (a renga form which I created) HERE.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 23rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, a new CD special by our third guest Herman van Rompuy, later on.

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #78 Soliloquy no Renga "autumn night" by Santoka Taneda

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here is our first Tokubetsudesu episode of May. I couldn't find a nice theme for this Tokubetsudesu so I decided to challenge you to write a Soliloquy no Renga in this Tan Renga month. Maybe you can remember that I invented this solo renga a few years ago, but I will tell you again what a Soliloquy no Renga is.

As the name already says ... Soliloquy no Renga is a renga written by one poet. It challenges you to associate on your own stanzas to create a "solo-renga". A renga has two kinds of stanzas, three lined stanza and two lined stanza (as renga and Tan Renga). You may decide yourself how long you will make your Soliloquy no Renga, but at least 6 stanzas.

Logo of CD-Soliloquy no Renga

For this Tokubetsudesu Soliloquy no Renga challenge I have a nice haiku by Santoka Taneda (1882-1940). Santoka Taneda is known for his 'free-styled' haiku, no syllables-count, no kigo. He was really a free thinker in haiku-land.

Here is the starting verse of this week's Soliloquy no Renga challenge:

Aki noyo ya inu kara morattari neko ni ataetari

Autumn night--

I received it from the dog

And gave it to the cat.

© Santoka Taneda

Santoka Taneda (1882-1940)

It has become a short episode, because of lack of time. I hope to come up with a Soliloquy no Renga based on this haiku by Santoka Taneda myself later on.

This Tokubetsudesu episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 8th at noon (CET). I will publish our next Tan Renga Challenge based on a haiku by Chiyo-Ni (as you can find on our twitter account) later on.