Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge Month May 7th a haiku by Tomas Tranströmer

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I love to challenge you to create a Tan Renga based on a haiku by Tomas Tranströmer. Maybe you can remember him as one of our featured haiku poets in 2015.
Tomas has won the Literature Prize of Nobel's Institute for his haiku and what he has meant for this short poem in Sweden and all over the world.
A short episode I think, but I hadn't time enough to create this post.
Here is the "hokku", the haiku by Tomas Tranströmer:

A dragonfly pair
fastened to one another
went flickering past

©Tomas Tranströmer

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 11th at noon (CET). Have fun! I have posted the haiku for the Tan Renga Challenge May 8th, a haiku by Issa. You can find that haiku at our Twitter account..

Carpe Diem Special #119, Tomas Tranströmer's 5th "a wild boar plays the organ"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy it was to discover the haiku by Tranströmer this month. I am a bit sad today, because today we have our last Carpe Diem Special with a haiku written by Tranströmer our featured haiku-poet this month. By the way next month we will have another wonderful haiku-poet to discover namely Richard Wright (1908-1960), but that's for next month.

Today I love to share the following haiku by Tranströmer:

then the leaves whispered:
a wild boar plays the organ.
and the bells all rang

© Tomas Tranströmer

This haiku feels like a fairytale ... it's a fairytale in its own ... so maybe it's an idea to try to write a fairytale-like haiku in response on this one by Tranströmer ... well it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers.

And to give that idea a try myself I love to reproduce a haiku which I once wrote in response on the fairytale "The Nightingale":

what a sadness
artificial Nightingale's broken -
faraway birdsong

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 30th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, paradise, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Special #118, Tomas Tranströmer's fourth "in time with the moon" (Vision Quest day 2)

!! I had forgotten to give the linking widget, so this 2nd day of our Vision Quest starts at 22.00 PM (CET) and will close tomorrow at 22.00 PM (CET) Sorry for this trouble ... !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to bring our second Vision Quest Day (and our CD-Special #118) with a haiku by our featured haiku poet Tomas Tranströmer. As you all know we are busy with our second Vision Quest in which you have to respond on the given prompt within 24 hours trying to look at the deeper layers of haiku, or in other words the spirituality in haiku. I think that the haiku by Tranströmer is a great start for this second Vision Quest day.

and the night streams in
from east to west, traveling
in time with the moon

© Tomas Tranströmer

Can I write/compose a haiku in the same tone, sense and spirit as the one by Tranströmer? With looking deeper into the hidden layers, the spirituality in the haiku? I don't know, but I have to try of course. So here I go ...

As I look at the scene in the above haiku than the first thing which came in mind is the eastern philosophy coming with the wind to the western world. We are (as you maybe know) now in the Age of Aquarius, the time in which humanity will grow in it's spirituality ... And than I see the moon in all her beauty and stages in front of my eyes ... she is the embodiment of time, so I have to use her image in my haiku ... Reading this haiku again and again ... I get the picture finally and than I see my Alter Ego, the Unknown haiku poet Yozakura ... he smiles at me and nods ... he whispers "you can do it" ... than the revelation, the scene, the Aha-moment ...

rustling bamboo leaves

whispering my deeper thoughts -

the bright moonlight

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open for just 24 hours until November 22nd at 7.00 PM (CET). I will publish our third day of our Vision Quest later on. Than we have transformation for prompt ... For now ... have fun! 

Carpe Diem Special #117, Tomas Tranströmer's 3rd "a mother of stone"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all know I have changed a few things here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. No more extra features on their own, but caught in our regular (or in the Special) episodes. So for this new CD-Special, a haiku by our featured haiku-poet Tomas Tranströmer, I have chosen for the following "former extra feature" "Romancing the haiku", in which the goal was to write a "romantic" haiku ... So next to the goal of our Specials, writing in the same spirit as the featured haiku-poet, you have to write a "romantic" haiku.

I have found a few wonderful haiku written by Tranströmer while he worked in Hällby Youth Prison (1959). He published nine haiku in that time he was working at that juvenile prison.

Night—a twelve-wheeler
goes by making the dreams of
the inmates shiver

The boy drinks his milk
and sleeps cozy in his cell,
a mother of stone

© Tomas Tranströmer

Juvenile prison ... not really a romantic place I think, but in these both haiku you can hear somewhat like romance. What are the dreams of inmates? How much do they love their mother, father, sister or brother?

There must be something of romance inside prison.

ten p.m. - lights go out

the inmates dream their dreams -

a heart on the beach

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... I think I have caught the romance of being inside of prison. Let me try another one ...

Credits: Shower

taking a shower

furtive glances exchanged

between cell mates

© Chèvrefeuille

Maybe ... to much romance, but I think there will be a kind of love in prison in the positive way of course.

Well ... I hope you did like this episode and I hope it will inspire you all to write an all new haiku in the spirit of Tranströmer and with a touch of romance. Have fun!

This CD-Special is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 pm (CET) and will remain open until November 18th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, guardian angel, later on.

Carpe Diem Special #116, Tomas Tranströmer's "and the frigid sea"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's time for our second CD-Special by Tomas Tranströmer, our featured haiku-poet (and Nobel-Prize winner) this month.
I learned to know this haiku-poet by Björn. I had never heard of him, but recently I read an article in the magazine of the Dutch Haiku Association (HKN) about him and I was "sold". What a wonderful haiku Tranströmer has written and what a great idea to know that he got the Nobel Prize for Literature ... awesome ... don't you think so too?

For this CD-Special I have the following haiku by Tranströmer for your inspiration ... the goal is to write/compose an all new haiku inspired on his haiku trying to become in his sense, tone and spirit.

Credits: Oak Tree and The Moon

Oak trees and the moon.
Light and mute constellations.
And the frigid sea

© Tomas Tranströmer

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, symbiotic, later on.

Carpe Diem Special #115, Tomas Tranströmer's "The Orchid Blossoms "

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to present to you the first CD-Special of November. As you all know Tomas Tranströmer, a Swedish haiku-poet (and Nobel-prize winner), is our featured haiku poet this month. Tranströmer was brought to my attention by Björn Rudberg and I am glad he did, because Tranströmer has written wonderful haiku, American haiku and haiku-like poetry.
In our Sparkling Stars episode of last Saturday I have already introduced him to you all, so no need for more introduction I think. Let's go and do some haiku-ing.

Credits: Orchids

The orchid blossoms.
Oil tankers are gliding past.
And the moon is full

© Tomas Tranströmer

Isn't it a wonderful haiku? Orchids are so beautiful and fragile ... I like them a lot. There are a lot of Orchid species and that's just a joy. Orchids are a beautiful present of our Creator.
I found a nice haiku by "my master" Matsuo Basho which I love to share here:

ran no ka ya   cho no tusubasa ni   takimono su

orchid fragrance
from the butterfly's wings
scenting the clothes

© Basho

And I love to share my attempt to write a haiku in the same tone, sense and spirit as the one by Tranströmer.
the cobweb scattered
by the fluttering of wings
a blue butterfly

© Chèvrefeuille

And now it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers to write your haiku inspired on the one by Tomas Tranströmer. So have fun! This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 6th at noon. I will publish our next episode, a new GW-post, later on.