Carpe Diem #1660 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (7) Wisteria

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019. Today I have chosen to challenge you with a haiku by Yosa Buson (1716-1784), one of the "Big Five" haiku poets. As Buson started creating haiku he used his own way of writing, because he wasn't a "fan" of Matsuo Basho (whom is seen as the "father of haiku"), but in his later life Buson went back to the way of Basho. He even illustrated the first published edition of Basho's "Narrow Road Into The Deep North" with his beautiful haiga-qualities.

Bird and Wisteria (Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858).

The above Japanese woodblock print shows you a nice composition of a bird and wisteria crafted by Utagawa Hiroshige. This woodblock print points you already the way to the haiku to use for your Tan Renga Challenge.

Here is the haiku by Buson to work with:

In the moonlight,
The color and scent of the wisteria
Seems far away.

© Yosa Buson

A fragile scene I can imagine it before my eyes. The soft light of the moon shines upon the wisteria. The wisteria's colors faint a little towards white and grey and with losing its color it also loses its scent... and the last line makes that scene very strong.

To create a Tan Renga with this haiku will not be an easy task, but I have given it a try:

In the moonlight,
The color and scent of the wisteria
Seems far away.                                                       © Buson

the sound of the thundering waves
makes the silence stronger                                      © Chèvrefeuille

Not a strong second stanza in my opinion, but I like how with this 2nd stanza there is another sense present ... hearing and the realisation that through sound the silence can become deeper. It makes the scene even stronger ...

And now it is up to you. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 15th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1609 Tan Renga Challenge Month 2019 (13) water reflection

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month we are busy with creating Tan Renga, a short chained verse written by two poets. The Tan Renga looks similar with the tanka, but the tanka is written by one poet.
Today I have a haiku by a disciple of Matsuo Basho, Takarai Kikaku. Kikaku was one of the most renown disciples of Basho and he had a very warm relation with his master. Let me tell you a little bit more about Takarai Kikaku.

Takarai Kikaku (image found on Pinterest)

Takarai Kikaku was a Japanese haikai poet and among the most accomplished disciples of Matsuo Bashō. His father was an Edo doctor, but Kikaku chose to become a professional haikai poet rather than follow in his footsteps. Kikaku’s poetry is known for its wit and its difficulty. Whereas Basho, especially in his later years, focused on the countryside and espoused an aesthetic of simplicity, Kikaku preferred the city and the opportunities it provided for extravagant play. He also preferred a more demanding form of poetry, one laced with wordplay, allusions, and juxtapositions of images that defy easy explanation. At the time of his death, he was perhaps the leading poet in Edo (today’s Tokyo), which then had a population of around one million, making it perhaps the largest city in the world at the time.

And here is the haiku to work with:

water reflection–
a flying squirrel across
the wisteria’s mantle

© Takarai Kikaku (Tr. unknown)

In this haiku Kikaku describes a wonderful scene ... and you can easily see his talent and you can even sense the master, Matsuo Basho, in it.

Vintage Japanese Shin Hanga Woodblock Print by Toshi Yoshida - Wisteria at Ushijima

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 25th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1257 Wisteria Blues (Jonathan Reid)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our "Imagination Without Limits". Today I have a beautiful image to inspire you. It was found on the Tumblr BonitaVista (which means beautiful vistas) and, after a long search on the Internet, I found the photographer who made this beautiful photo at the "Lake Como in Italy", it is titled "Wisteria Blues" (instead of "Wisteria Blossoms", as I had called it). This beautiful photo is made by Jonathan Reid and I hope it will inspire you.

Take your time to connect with the scene, Lake Como Italy, and create your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form.

Wisteria Blues © Jonathan Reid (flickr)

Look at the Wisteria blossom. Do you see how magical it looks around those lighted windows? And the lake ... seems like a mirror. And all those differences of blue ...

wisteria
blueish waterfall
reflects

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

By the way this "experimental haiku" brought another haiku in mind which I once wrote several years ago:

what a party
writing a renga together -
waterfall of flowers

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you can find your inspiration, awaken your muse and share your Japanese poetyr inspired on "Wisteria Blues" with us all.

A preview of our new CD Imagination you can find on our CDHK Tumblr.

PS. The owner and host of the Facebook page "My Haiku Pond" (Michael Smeer) asked me to share the following announcement with you all:

The 2nd Annual Haiku For Change Event is NOW OPEN for your entries. More about this event you can find HERE. You are invited to participate in this event.

Carpe Diem Revise That Haiku #7 Wisteria Blossom by Kiyoshi (father of Yozakura)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I had to distract you all a little bit from our Tanka Splendor month. This month we are all into tanka and I just had to give you a break ... just for fun.

So I present to you a new episode of our special feature "Revise That Haiku" in which I challenge you to re-create the given haiku by a wellknown haiku poet. To "re-vise" you need to read the Original haiku several times to come in tune with the scene it describes and than with that scene you have to create a new "re-vised" version of the given haiku.

For this "just for fun" break I love to challenge you to "re-vise" a haiku written by the father of Yozakura, Kiyoshi. Maybe you can remember his haiku I used it in the serial Wandering Spirit.

So here is the haiku to "revise":

only silence
the summer breeze caresses
Wisteria blossom

© Kiyoshi, father of Yozakura

Have fun!

This Revise That Haiku episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will be open until next Saturday November 26th at noon (CET).

Wandering Spirit --- za faasuto iyaazu (the first years)

There I was ... I was born in the Midsummer night of 1640 at Kyoto as the son of a high ranked samurai and a geisha named Fujiko, Child of the Wisteria. I can't remember her, she died as she was giving birth to me. My father told me that she was as beautiful as the Wisteria. He gave me the name ... Yozakura, Blossoms in the Moonlight. Several years later he showed me the beauty of blossoms in the moonlight especially the blossoms of the Wisteria.

My father was not an easy man, certainly not the first years of my life. I think he was angry with me, because I was alive and the woman he loved so much had died as I was born. I didn't understand that of course.
Sometimes my dad brought me to his mother, my grandmother, Emiko, Beautiful Child. She, my grandmother, was a beautiful woman. In my eyes she was very old, but she always smiled and gave me all the love and comfort I needed. Through her love I learned to accept that my dad was sometimes angry and why ...

Wisteria Garden

One day my father took me by the hand, I had just turned four, and said: "Yozakura, it is time. Come I will show you your mother's grave". We walked to a beautiful garden and every were I looked I saw Wisteria blossoms in wonderful  colors. In the middle of this garden I saw a marble grave on which the name of my mother was calligraphed.
"This is your mother's grave my son. Here I was almost all those days you were at your grandmother's place. I couldn't stand you, because I thought you were guilty of the dead of your mother, but recently I got to know a priest, a Shinto priest named Daisuke, Great Helper. He was for sure a great helper my son. He taught me how to cope with the loss of your mother. Daisuke was the one who said that I had to create a garden for your mother in which I could mourn and talk with her. Daisuke once asked me if I had children. I told him about you Yozakura".
I looked at him with tears in my eyes and took his hand. "Dad", I whispered. "Yes my son". I wiped away my tears. "I love you dad. Grandmother told me why you abandoned me in a way. I understand that. Thank you for showing me this wonderful garden in honor of my mother". He knelt next to me and kissed me on my forehead. I felt his tears on my face. "I am sorry my son ... I am sorry. Can you forgive me?" I hugged him. We had no need for words ... only the silence and the beauty of the wonderful Wisteria garden for my mother.

only silence
the summer breeze caresses
Wisteria blossom

© Kiyoshi (my father, his name means "pure")

Yozakura (1640-1716)

to be continued

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #107

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Friday again and it is time for a new Tan Renga Challenge. This week I have chosen to go back in time. The above logo was one of the first logos I created for the Tan Renga Challenge (TRC) and the TRC this week is a haiku which was submitted to our first CDHK kukai "Wisteria". You can find all the entries for that kukai in our Library, choose "Petal Lanterns" to read all those beauties.

In "Petal Lanterns" you will find the following haiku by Pat R (a.k.a. Jazzytower):

wisteria sways -
pendulous blossoms in breeze
unspoken promise

© Pat R (a.k.a. Jazzytower)

This haiku by Pat R is our Tan Renga Challenge for this week.

Wisteria (also known as "blue rain"

Here is my attempt to make this Tan Renga complete:

wisteria sways -
pendulous blossoms in breeze
unspoken promise                      (Pat R)

drinking tea on the veranda      
the sweet perfume of blue rain   (Chèvrefeuille)

Have fun!

This Tan Renga Challenge is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Friday July 22nd at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem Utabukuro #11 (restarting an old feature) "Wisteria Beans" by Matsuo Basho

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to "restart" an old special feature we have had here at Carpe Diem haiku Kai. Maybe you can remember that special feature or maybe you can remember one of the latest Tokubetsudesu episodes

This feature is based on a haiku by Basho which he wrote when he was around 22 years of age, it's one of his earliest known haiku according to Jane Reichhold. I have called this new feature "Carpe Diem Utabukuro" , which means "poem bag".

The logo above is a bag with a wonderful print of a Japanese woodblock and in the logo you can read the romaji translation of the haiku on which this new feature is based. I will give that haiku here again:

hana ni akanu
nageki ya kochi no
utabukuro

© Basho

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), my sensei

And this is the translation by Jane Reichhold:

flower buds
sadly spring winds cannot open
a poem bag

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

In her compilation of all Basho's haiku "Basho, the complete haiku" she gives the following description of this haiku:

1667 - spring. Because Basho has used kochi instead of the conventional ware for "my", the verse has two distinct versions. The associative technique is the idea that the flowers are not yet opened and neither is Basho's bag of poems (Utabukuro). The unopened purse of poems is like the flower bud in its potential for beauty.

The goal of this CDHK feature is not difficult, because I just ask you to share a haiku or tanka which you admire. That haiku or tanka can be one of a classical or non-classical haiku poet or one by you. You can choose whatever you like, but it has to be a haiku or tanka. Maybe the haiku brings you sweet (or sad) memories or you just like it. Explain why you have chosen that haiku or tanka to share here "in" CDHK's Utabukuro, poem bag and ... that's the second task for this feature, write/compose an all new haiku inspired on the one you have chosen.

Wisteria

For this "restarting" Utabukuro episode I have chosen a beautiful haiku by my sensei, Matsuo Basho.

fuji no mi wa   haikai ni se n   kana no ato

wisteria beans

let's make that a theme for haikai

a flower fruit 

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

With this haiku came a preface, which was very common in Basho's time:

"A certain Sogyu of Seki visited me when I stayed in Ogaki. I composed this for him in the lingering scent of the flowers which Sogi (1421-1502, a famous renga poet) had called the flowers of Fujishiro (white wisteria) Misaka". When Sogi had passed through this same area, he had seen some white wisteria growing on the slope and had written: 'seki koe te / koko mo fujishiro / misaka kana' (crossing  Seki / there still are the white wisteria / at the town in Misaka).

In this verse the second sentence refers to renga. Haiku which are included in a renga are called haikai. As you (maybe) know Basho was a renga-master and he has written a lot of "hokku" and "haikai".

Waterfall of Flowers

And here is my haiku inspired on this beauty by Basho, my sensei, I hope he will like it.

what a party
writing a renga together -
waterfall of flowers

© Chèvrefeuille

It's a new haiku in which I have tried to draw a picture of a renga session. Writing renga together with friends is a joyfull activity. Try it yourself it will be wonderful to write renga with friends (as we have done twice already here at CDHK).

This Utabukuro episode is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Saturday at noon (CET). I am looking forward to your favorites and newly written haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form. Have fun!

Carpe Diem Special #149, Rallentanda's a carpet of purple

credits logo-image

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to bring our first CD-Special of this month. As you all (maybe) know the winner of our first kukai "wisteria", Rallentanda, won the opportunity to be our featured haiku poetess this month. And as you can see at the left "A Carpet of Purple" the e-book Rallentanda won for an anthology of her own haiku is available now for download.

For this first CD-Special I have chosen to inspire you all with Rallentanda's winning haiku. As you (maybe) know the goal of the CD-Specials is to write an all new haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one given.

wisteria
fragrant chandeliers drop
a carpet of purple

© Rallentanda 

It's a real beauty and you, my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, have chosen this haiku as our first kukai winner ....

Credits: Wisteria

Here is my inspired haiku, not a new one, but one from the archives:

in the moonlight
Wisteria flowers look fragile -
a gust of wind

© Chèvrefeuille

By the way .... remember that our second kukai "summertime" is running. You can submit your haiku (max three) until June 15th to our emailaddress:

carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

I am looking forward to your "summertime" haiku ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 4th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, a new episode of Tokubetsudesu, later on.

Carpe Diem Extra #20 - 2015 "And the Winner Is !!! The results of our first Kukai "Wisteria"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It’s my pleasure to announce our first Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Kukai winner. It was really a joy to make this Kukai and I have read wonderful haiku about “Wisteria”.
There were 11 contestants who wrote 23 haiku in total. As you know the contestants of the Kukai, had the opportunity to be the judge for this Kukai. I emailed them  an anonymous list of the haiku with the question to give points to the haiku. They had 6 points to share:  3 for the best haiku, 2 for the second best haiku and 1 for the third best haiku.

haru no hi no iri-tokoro nari fuji no hana

the setting place
for the spring sun...
wisteria blossoms

© Issa

At the end of the voting as I gathered the points there finally were two winners. To decide who the winner would be I emailed Jane Reichhold the two haiku to judge them for me and helping me out with this dilemma. Jane’s vote was worth 2 points. She gave the winning haiku a wonderful comment which I love to share here:

[…] “The idea that chandeliers are fragrant is new. The combination of chandeliers and carpet is perfect. I feel there is much to admire in this haiku”. […]

In her comment I have removed the number of the haiku to make it more exciting … Now it is time to announce our first Carpe Diem Haiku Kai winner … (drum roll) …

The winner of the first CDHK Kukai is Rallentanda with her haiku:

wisteria
fragrant chandeliers drop
a carpet of purple

© Rallentanda

!!!! CONGRATULATIONS RALLENTANDA !!!!

And the runner up, the second place, in our first CDHK Kukai is Lolly with her haiku:

entwined
in white wisteria vine …
spring moon

© Lolly

!!!! CONGRATULATIONS LOLLY !!!!

And here are the results of the haiku. I will give the numbers of the haiku and the points given:

9 points : haiku 22 (winner) 7 points : haiku 4 (runner up)
5 points: haiku 1, 5, 12 & 13
4 points: haiku 17 & 20
3 points: haiku 8, 10, 15, 18, 21 & 23
2 points : haiku 14 & 16
1 point : haiku 6 & 19
0 point : haiku 2, 3, 7, 9 & 11

You did all great and for those who haven’t won this time there will be a new change, a new opportunity in our next CDHK Kukai “Summertime”.

I love to share here one of my haiku on Wisteria to close this first Kukai. Thank you all for being part of this experience ... thank you for your wonderful haiku submitted for our first CDHK Kukai "Wisteria".

Credits: Wisteria

in the moonlight
Wisteria flowers look fragile -
a gust of wind

© Chèvrefeuille

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Our second CDHK Kukai "Summertime" is NOW OPEN for submissions. You can submit a maximum of three (new, not published earlier) haiku to our email-address before June 15th 2015. After this closing date I will gather all the haiku and email the anonymous list of haiku to those who have participated in the Kukai for judging the submitted haiku.
If you submit haiku for this second CDHK Kukai "Summertime" please write in the subject-line "Kukai Summertime".

at the seashore
wind of summer through my hair
the shortest night

© Chèvrefeuille

You can submit haiku about "summertime", try to use different haiku writing techniques (read the e-book above in the menu) as e.g. juxtaposition or baransu.You can send your haiku (max 3)to our email-address:

carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

Don't forget to write "Kukai Summertime" in the subject-line! Good luck! And have fun!

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Chèvrefeuille, your host

 

Carpe Diem Extra #19 - 2015 Update Kukai "Wisteria"

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

After gathering all the votes I ended up with two winners. Of course that's not possible ... so I have asked Jane Reichhold to help me out. Her vote was worth 2 points. Today (April 29th) she emailed her 'vote'.

I will announce the winner next week. I have decided to grant the second runner up also a kind of price. The second runner up will be given the opportunity to choose from his/her haiku two or three verses which I will use in the first episode of Tokubetsudesu in June.

Be patient ... next week you will know who has won our first Kukai.

I already announce today our theme for our new Kukai, however you cannot yet submit for our 2nd Kukai, but you can already give it a thought. Our new Kukai starts at May 7th and the theme is "summertime".

Namaste,
 

Chèvrefeuille, your host.

Carpe Diem Extra #12 - 2015, Our first Kukai "Wisteria"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you have read in one of the earlier posts ... I love to start our first Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Kukai, a haiku contest in which we are all the judges and by giving points we will decide with each other who is the winner. Let me tell you something more about Kukai ...

What is a Kukai?

A kukai is a peer reviewed poetry contest. A topic is assigned by your host(s), and all poets submit their poems on that topic to the following email address: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

An anonymous list is then distributed to all participating poets and they are invited to vote. Votes are returned to the host(s) who tally the votes and resend the poems to the participants, this time with names and points revealed.

How does OUR CDHK Kukai work?

I will give you a theme (or prompt/topic) to write/compose haiku about. Most times that will be a modern or classical kigo (unless otherwise stated). You don’t need to follow the classical haiku rules, but feel free to do so.
You can send your submissions for this first CDHK Kukai to the above email-address. Please write CDHK Kukai March 2015 in the subject box.

You may send a maximum of three, never published earlier, haiku including your name (or penname). !! Only haiku !!
Please send your submission for our first kukai before April 15^th at noon (CET). I will make an anonymous list of the submitted haiku and will email it to you.
Then it’s your turn to be judge. You may give 3, 2 and 1 point (3 for the best in your opinion) to three of the haiku. Of course you may not give your own haiku points.
When you are ready with judging the haiku than please email the anonymous list back to our above email-address. (Please write scored or judged haiku in the subject box).

I will gather the points and after that I will publish the list (with names) here at our Haiku Kai.

I hope to see a lot of haiku for this first kukai and I hope it will bring us joy.

This first Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Kukai (March 2015) is NOW OPEN for your submissions and our theme for this first CDHK Kukai is WISTERIA

Credits: Wisteria (Bonsai)

 

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #27, Yozakura, the Unknown Haiku poet

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at our new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, October 2014. This month we will celebrate our second anniversary with all wonderful prompts, Special features and new features to come. You can find this month's prompt-list above in the menu-line or HERE.

Today it's Ghost Writer Wednesday and I think I have a wonderful Ghost Writer for you. He will introduce himself in his GW-post and I hope you will like his story and the task he will give you. Are you ready?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BLOSSOMS IN THE MOONLIGHT

My name is Yozakura, which means "Blossoms in the Moonlight" and I am an unknown Soloku poet or as you call it nowadays, haiku poet. I was born in the Midsummer night of 1640 at Kyoto as a son of a high ranked samourai and a geisha named Fujiko which means "Child of the Wisteria". I can't remember her, because she died as I was born, but my father told me she was as beautiful as the Wisteria.

Credits: Wisteria (or Blue Rain)

My dad raised me alone and taught me all I know about art and poetry. When I was around 20 years old my dad passed away ... I was an orphan now. Being an orphan brought me strong feelings of sadness and sorrow, but it also made me who I am now. To forget my loneliness I started wandering around begging and sometimes I had the luck that I could work for a few weeks, but after my dad's death I never became the same Yozakura again until I met this wonderful man that composed wonderful poems together with his friends and other poets.
He was a great man, a specialist in composing hokku for renga. He was really great and had a revolutionary thought about hokku. I remember one night at his home, if you could call it a home, it was just a hut, that we had a renga party. He suddenly had a revelation of some kind.
"Yozakura!" He said. "I have a wonderful idea". I looked at him, with a kind of adoration in my eyes. He smiled at me and said: "Listen ... Yozakura, what do you think of this idea?" I waited breathless. He had an amazing charisma, it was like he had a lightness around him. "I am gonna make a new poetry form of this hokku. Why we use hokku only to start a renga? Why don't we use it as an alone-standing peom? Listen to this one Yozakura:

an old pond
frog jumps in -
water sound!

"It would be a great hokku, but also on it's own its a great poem. I will call this poetry form 'Soloku'". He looked at me. "Well ... what do you say Yozakura?"
"I don't know master Basho ... but you are right. This is a wonderful stand alone poem and I like that name you have given it 'Soloku'. It's somewhat like myself. My parents died and I am an orphan, but I have done it so well. My life as an orphan has brought me so much happiness and joy and of course there is sadness and sorrow too, but I managed being alone and have become who I am now". Tears rolled over my cheeks. Basho embraced me. "You have done well Yozakura. I am proud to be your friend and your master as I am proud to be your disciple too Yozakura. You have teached me a lot too. I love you". Than he gave me a kiss on my forehead and said: "Come on Yozakura we have something to celebrate ... the birth of a new poetry form, 'Soloku'".

It was great to experience this and I stayed a long time at Basho's home. Maybe I was in love with him, maybe I wasn't, but I know for sure there was a kind of love in our friendship.

How did you became involved with 'Soloku' or as you call it nowadays haiku? Will you tell me? And please will you do me the honor to write a 'Soloku' about that moment?"

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

During the years I have been your host already I have told you a lot about how I became involved with haiku. So I think there is no need for me to tell you that again, but of course I have to write a haiku to honor Yozakura, the Unknown Haiku poet, who died in the autumn of 1716. He survived Basho, but has never forgotten him. Yozakura has not a lot 'Soloku' left behind, but I have to share a beauty written by him:

yoake ni arau tsuyude watashino ashisaichoubi

at dawn

I wash my feet with dew

the longest day

© Yozakura (1640-1716)

A wonderfully composed haiku very much in the smae spirit as Basho once wrote. I will try to find more 'soloku' written by Yozakura and maybe I will introduce him in November's CD-Specials ... I will give it a thought.

Here is my response on Yozakura's question:

in the moonlight
Wisteria flowers look fragile -
a gust of wind

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this GW-post by Yozakura, the Unknown Haiku poet, and I hope you will be inspired to share your story about becoming 'addicted' to haiku with us all. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 3rd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, Rough Sea, later on.

Carpe Diem #506 Issa (1), ''westward waves of wisteria''

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today we have our first haiku by Issa. As Basho did during his life so did Issa too. Issa created his own style of writing haiku and especially he wrote a lot of haiku about bugs and other little creatures e.g. spiders and flies. He also composed a lot of haiku about his children whom he all lost on a very young age. Issa had a sad life all his loved ones died eraly in their lives. Issa was a Buddhist priest of the Jodo Shinshu sect and lived from 1763 'til 1828. 

I love his haiku, but sometimes I read haiku written by him, which I haven't read earlier. Such a haiku I share here today for your inspiration. This following haiku was handed by Jen of Blog It or Lose It who has looked more closely to the ''little bugs'' haiku of Issa. However the haiku I am gonna share is not about ''little bugs'' it's about the Buddhist Paradise of Amida Buddha which lays behind the Western horizon according to their teaching.

Credits: Meditating

shônin no nishi no fujinami ima ya saku

the holy man's
westward waves of wisteria
fresh-bloomed

© Kobayashi Issa

It's a wonderful haiku with a deeper layer pointing to Amida Buddha's Paradise in the second line ... It will not be easy to write a new haiku inspired on this one by Issa, but of course I have to try and I hope I will succeed.

Wisteria waves
on the soft spring breeze -
the crow of a rooster

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a strong one, but I think I did honor Issa with this haiku ... I think it's in the same sense and tone, but is it also in the same spirit?

Credits: Wisteria

Wisteria blooming
climbing against the wall -
Ah! That blue door ...

© Chèvrefeuille

Sorry ... I couldn't help I had to write a haiku inspired on that photo ...

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until July 7th at noon. I will try to post our next episode, the first haiku by Shiki our last haiku-poet of the ''big-five'', later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all ...

Carpe Diem Imagination #5, Wisteria

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to share a new Carpe Diem Imagination episode with you all. Today I have a wonderful photo of the Wisteria, a beautiful climbing plant with deep blueish and purpleish flowers.

Wisteria (also spelled Wistaria or Wysteria) is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the Eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Some species are popular ornamental plants, especially in China and Japan. An aquatic flowering plant with the common name wisteria or 'water wisteria' is in fact Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae.

Wisteria

Issa, one the four greatest haiku masters, wrote the next haiku on Wisteria:

haru no hi no iri-tokoro nari fuji no hana

the setting place
for the spring sun...
wisteria blossoms

Have fun, be inspired. Let the photo be your inspiration source for your haiku for Carpe Diem Imagination. This episode of CP's Imagination will stay on 'til April 11th 11.59 AM (CET).