Carpe Diem #1761 Sparrows (Renga With ...)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a wonderful month this is ... our 7th anniversary ... I like it. I am so glad to see that you all are celebrating with me that CDHK exist seven years ... I never could have dreamed that CDHK would be alive and kicking after 7 years ... but here we are ... celebrating our 7th birthday. We have seen participants from all over the world. The most participants from the start are still here, but we also seen participants leave to never come back, but those who left and returned ... thank you.

Thank you all for your rich poems, your active participation and the love you share with us in that small Japanese poem ... haiku. This month we are celebrating this beautiful small poem with a tribute to all small creatures on Earth and today I love to challenge you with another small, sometimes a real pain in the ass, bird ... the sparrow.

Sparrows ... those small little (pricks), but there are a lot of haiku written about them. One haiku master especially created a lot of haiku about the sparrows ... and I think you all know him, Kobayashi Issa. Issa is one of the "big five" haiku masters next to Basho, Buson, Chiyo-Ni and Shiki. He had a very tough life, he lost several of his kids to death and his wife too. He was a Buddhist-Shinto believer and honored nature in a great way. Issa honored even those mosqitos and other smal creatures like the sparrows.

For this episode I love to challenge you to create a Renga, or better said: a Junicho. The Junicho is a renga of 12 stanza, this is the renga format we always use in the Renga With specials ... so I will give you six (6) haiku written by Issa to work with. Your task is to add your two-lined stanza (approx. 7-7 syllables) and create a Junicho with him. (By the way, the name Junicho came in use in the 20th century, so it's a young form of renga).

Kobayashi Issa

I will give you the six haiku by Issa. You can create your own "line-up" and the first stanza (hokku) and the last stanza (ageku) have to be connected with each other, this is "to close the chain".

spring peace--
after rain, a gang war
garden sparrows

don't let the plum blossom guard
cut your tongues...
Sparrows! *

(* note: Issa alludes to an old Japanese fairy tale in which a mean old woman cut a sparrow's tongue with scissors because the sparrow pecked at her starch. Here, Issa warns the chirping sparrows that their tongues might be in similar jeopardy, hinting that the guard is a mean old grouch.)

are the sparrows too
having a private party?
plum blossoms

while I watch
he's off to make a living alone...
baby sparrow

Sparrows on Bamboo (woodblock print by Ohara Koson)

living in harmony--
the sparrow has
both parents!

on the tip of the
newly sprouted bamboo...
a baby sparrow

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)

Six beautiful haiku crafted by Issa for your enjoyment and inspiration. Create your renga with Issa today and share it as a tribute to the sparrows and to celebrate our 7th birthday.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 17th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Time Glass #23, Bamboo

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Sunday again and that means ... time for another time challenging Tima Glass episode in which I challenge you all to write a haiku (or tanka) inspired on a given prompt and image within 24 hours.
This week, because of our Haiga Festival, I have chosen to challenge you with the following prompt "BAMBOO" and with a haiga which I have made a while ago (December 2013). By the way the haiku used in this haiga is far older than the haiga ... the haiku is a translation of a (Dutch) haiku which I wrote somewhere in the nineties..

So .... this Time Glass episode has the prompt BAMBOO and you have to/may use the haiga for your inspiration.

Share your inspired haiku (or tanka, or haiga) within 24 hours with us all here at our Haiku Kai. This Time Glass episode starts tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will end on Monday March 2nd at 7.00 PM (CET). So you have just 24 hours to respond. Not an easy task, but it can train you in catching the moment, the impression, as long as a heartbeat.

Carpe Diem #113, Joyful

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another day in haiku paradise. Yesterday we had our first Chiyo-Ni Special and I have read wonderful haiku nspired on the one I gave by Chiyo-Ni. It was a real joy to read and comment them. Well ... a nice 'bridge' to our prompt for today (smiles).
Today we share haiku on 'Joyful' and I hope that you all enjoy this prompt. I am looking forward to your 'joyful-haiku'.

A haiku by Issa:

matsu nae ya yagate tanin no yusuzumi

pine sapling -
before long, strangers enjoy
evening's cool

Another one also by Issa:

yo suzumi no yaku soku arishi kado no tsuki

keeping her appointment
to enjoy evening's cool air -
moon at the gate

Credits: Moon at the Gate

A last one by Issa:

urestuge ya kaki no ko take mo waka-zakari

Joyful!
the fence's little bamboo
at the peak of youth

Credits: Bamboo fence

Isn't it a joy to read those haiku? I wonder if I can write my own haiku on 'Joyful'?

joyful laughter
children playing on the beach -
dragonkite flying

in the frontyard
children play hide and seek -
kookaburra laughs

Awesome! What a joy to write haiku on joyful (smiles).

Have fun, be creative and inspired. Share your 'joyful-haiku' with Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'till February 6th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode, Mariachi, later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). That will be our first prompt for a little musical trip around the world.

Carpe Diem #101, Bamboo

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In my last post, about the 100th prompt, I told you about the Anthology which I will prepare as a gift to you all. Of course I will ask you all if I may use your haiku in that Anthology. Before that I will make a selection of haiku which I would like to use. As that selection is completed I will post it here on Carpe Diem and than I will ask you all if I may use your haiku. Every haiku will be accompanied with the name of the author of course. OK back to this new episode of Carpe Diem.

It was an awesome day yesterday. We had our 100th prompt anniversary and you all have granted me with wonderful haiku on 'Angels'. I am so proud to see that Carpe Diem is a growing community for haijin and that it gives so much joy and inspiration. Thank you all for your daily effort to write and share your haiku here. Namaste.

Credits: bamboo

Today we share haiku on 'bamboo'. Throughout Japanese culture and history, the bamboo tree has been viewed with reverence and respect for its delicate beauty and as a symbol of endurance. It appears slender and vulnerable, yet it holds strength. Bamboo is also in great demand for use in making many products, including items used in the sacred tea ceremony.
Because of its spiritual significance, the bamboo tree motif is incorporated throughout Japan's landscaping, arts, architecture and temple gardens.
When I started writing haiku, in the late eighties, I didn't know much about it. I just tried and it became a great addiction. I love writing haiku, it gives me a lot of joy and fulfillment. Back in those days I wrote my haiku in my maiden language Dutch.
In the late nineties I created my first Anthology of my haiku, and I became my own publisher. That first Anthology was titled 'Emptiness' or in my language 'Leegte'. 'Emptiness' was more than the title of the Anthology, it also meant to say that also the emptiness around the haiku (in the page lay-out) is part of the haiku, that emptiness is also part of Zen Buddhism, the spiritual source of haiku.
'Emptiness' included haiku which I wrote between 1988 ans 1998. One of the haiku which I included was about 'bamboo':

rustling bamboo
brings my mind into ecstasy
whispers secrets

In Dutch:

ruisende bamboe
brengt mijn geest in vervoering
fluistert geheimen

Credits: Bamboo with Lady Bug

Another 'bamboo'-haiku which I included in 'Emptiness' was the next one:

lightning and thunder -
sound of raindrops
on bamboo leaves

Aren't they beautiful? With this haiku I won my first literature prize ever. Something to be proud on. It was a recognition for the way I was writing haiku. In the years following I became an Internationally known haijin and I took on my 'Nom de Plume' Chèvrefeuille, which means 'Honeysuckle'.

Well ... I hope I have inspired you all to write haiku on 'bamboo' and I hope to read wonderfully composed haiku. Have fun, be inspired and creative. And please ... share your haiku (and comments) with Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'til January 22th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). Our prompt for January 22th will be: 'sweet memories'.

Carpe Diem #53, Rain (provided by Bjorn Brudberg)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today Bjorn Brudberg provided us with the prompt rain  a wonderful prompt to write haiku with. I can remember that I have once posted on Chèvrefeuille's Haikublog a haiku for Haiku Heights September Challenge 2012 with rain for prompt. I even recall that episode was a good one. So I hope for today that you, my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, can write lovely haiku on rain. I am looking forward to your posts.

Credits: Rain

What a beautiful rain-photo don't you think too? For inspiration maybe? Let's go and do some haiku composing on rain.

I love to share a haiku written by Kobayashi Issa, our November haiku-master:

spring rain -
growing side by side
the talking pines

The Pines 'voices' refer to the sighing of wind through their branches. And 'growing side by side' refers to married people. With this haiku came a prescript 'Congratulations on a new marriage'.

Another one by Issa:

the bright moon in raindrops
from the eaves ...
the geese depart

Both verses by Issa are well done ... they paint each a nice imagery ... in this Issa was a master.

OK ... now I have to write a haiku or two by myself ... let me think ...

on bamboo sprouts
the shimmering sunlight
in raindrops

Another one:

the old pond's face
trembled by the heavy rains -
my face wrinkled

And what do you think of this one?

every raindrop
a little rainbow diamond
in the early sunlight

Well ... what a joy to write these little gems for you my dear friends.

For closure a nice haiga. Enjoy today's prompt, be inspired and creative, share your haiku with us on Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'till November 26th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new prompt love later on today around 10.00 PM (CET).

Namaste