Carpe Diem #1797 New Beginnings ... First Snow

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First my excuses for not publishing yesterday. I had some trouble with my PC, but now it has been made, so today I will publish two episodes. This (belated) episode will be short. I will give you only the prompt and a few examples of haiku created by several haiku poets.

Today's prompt is "First Snow", it's a classical kigo for Winter and that means you have to try to create a classical haiku or tanka following the rules as I think you all will known.

The first snow
That the young Hijiri-monk has
The color of the wooden box.

© Basho

Another one by Basho:

The first snow,
When is the pillar set up
For the Great Buddha?





snow's falling!
I see it through a hole
in the shutter...

© Shiki

Well ... it's up to you now to create a haiku or tanka (classical way) themed "first snow".

Here is mine:

a cold moonlit night
just the sound of fresh fallen snow -
wandering over the moors

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 20th at noon (CEST). I will publish our new Tan Renga Wednesday episode later today. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1785 Hoarfrost (kigo for winter)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I know you all like to create haiku with a given kigo (seasonword) as we have seen here often at CDHK. So today, in our month with "Never Change A Winning Team", I have a nice kigo for you to work with. Today I love to challenge you with the following kigo: Hoarfrost.

What is "hoarfrost"? Hoarfrost is a grayish-white crystalline deposit of frozen water vapor formed in clear still weather on vegetation, fences, etc.. Here in The Netherlands we have seen that already this month. Just recently we had still weather and it was a bit misty ... and it was cold ... so the world looked awesome as described in the definition of "hoarfrost" above.

Hoarfrost

Today your task is to create a classical haiku, following the classical rules as you can read in our Carpe Diem Lecture 1 above in the menu.

Here is one about "hoarfrost" chosen from my archives, it's not a classical haiku, but ... well I hope you will forgive me for that.

fragile beauty
cranberries covered with sugar
first hoarfrost

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 28th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... be inspired!

Carpe Diem #1781 The Quest For A New Masterpiece Continues ... colorful autumn

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. This month our theme is "Never Change A Winning Team", and it's all about (mostly) haiku. At the start of CDHK I focused on haiku alone and in my opinion that worked awesome, so this month I hope to challenge you to create haiku.

Maybe you can remember our special feature "Quest For A New Masterpiece" and today I love to challenge you to create your New Masterpiece, there is only one restriction ... you have to follow the classical rules (more you can find above in our Lecture 1).

The theme for your New Masterpiece is "Colorful Autumn", so your masterpiece has to do with autumn. Look around you ... see the beauty of autumn ... let your senses come in contact with autumn and let your muses inspire you.

autumn has come
leaves re-painted by Mother Earth -
she ... the moon ... lovely

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 21st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, a new weekend meditation, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1707 cooling on the porch (hashi-i), classical haiku

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new "regular" episode in our wonderful Summer Love month here at our Haiku Kai. Today I love to challenge you to create a (or more) haiku following the classical rules as you can read in our CDHK Lecture 1 (above in the menu). For this challenge I have chosen a classical kigo, extracted from the Shiki Saijiki, "cooling on the porch (hashi-i)", it's part of the section "summer", subsection "humanity".

Cooling On The Porch (Hashi-i)

Today's classical kigo to work with is very clear I think. Isn't it a joy to cool down on the porch with a nice beer or glass of wine after a warm summer day? I for sure would enjoy that, but I don't have a porch to cool down. After a warm (or hot) summer day I enjoy the coolness of my backyard. Sometimes completely naked, but not always of course. Our backyard gives us a lot of privacy, so resting there in the nude isn't a problem.

in the mansion's backyard
the breeze cherishes my naked body
ah! that sweet coolness ...

© Chèvrefeuille

Looks somewhat artificial, because I had some trouble to create this haiku in the classical way, as is the goal for today's challenge. Well ... you all know that I am not a big fan of the classical way of writing haiku. So to me this is a real "ordeal", but if I asked it of you I have to do it myself too.

If I would "redo" this one into my way of writing haiku than it would be:

in the backyard
the evening breeze
coolness

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

Well ... I hope you all have enjoyed your weekend ... This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 28th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #93 Carpe Diem's Utopia ... transportation

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

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. This weekend I have chosen for a new episode of our "Carpe Diem's Utopia" feature, in which I challenge you to create classical haiku or tanka with a modern theme. This weekend the theme to use is "transportation". Let me first reproduce the introduction to this feature here again.

A Utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia. One could also say that utopia is a perfect "place" that has been designed so there are no problems.

Utopia focuses on equality in economics, government and justice, though by no means exclusively, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying based on ideology. According to Lyman Tower Sargent "there are socialist, capitalist, monarchical, democratic, anarchist, ecological, feminist, patriarchal, egalitarian, hierarchical, racist, left-wing, right-wing, reformist, Naturism/Nude Christians, free love, nuclear family, extended family, gay, lesbian and many more utopias [...] Utopianism, some argue, is essential for the improvement of the human condition. But if used wrongly, it becomes dangerous. Utopia has an inherent contradictory nature here." Sargent argues that utopia's nature is inherently contradictory, because societies are not homogenous and have desires which conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. If any two desires cannot be simultaneously satisfied, true utopia cannot be attained because in utopia all desires are satisfied.

It's a dreamworld I think, but it can be of use for our haiku writing skills, because that's the task of this new feature ... creating a utopian (excellent) haiku (or tanka) by using the classical rules as you can find above in the CD Lecture 1.

A nice task from a modern view. The haiku or tanka have to have a modern theme, but has to follow the classical rules.

Here is an example of a "utopian" haiku on "transportation":

cars without a driver
moving towards their arrival point
in deep silence

© Chèvrefeuille, your host

Not a very strong example, but I think you understand the goal.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 14th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 21st at noon (CEST). Have a wonderful weekend full of utopian inspiration.

Carpe Diem Extra March 21st 2019 ... sneak preview 2nd quarter 2019

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to give you a sneak preview for our 2nd quarter of 2019, but first I have a question for you all. This month we are on the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage, but it seems like you all have not enough inspiration for this month. So I love to hear from you what is the matter? CDHK was a blossoming group of poets that share their love for Japanese poetry, but ... I don't know what is happening but it looks like CDHK has no future anymore.

As you all know I love to create CDHK, but if enthousiasm starts to become smaller than I don't know if I will go on with CDHK. Ofcourse there will be all kinds of reasons why the responses are not that much anymore. Maybe it's the theme for this month or maybe it takes to much of your time. So please let me know what I can change to bring back your enthousiasm. Maybe you have ideas for new themes, new features or maybe another way of making CDHK.

Okay ... let me tell you my ideas for the 2nd quarter of 2019.

April 2019:

I have ran through our rich history and I found a few months in which there was an awesome response. Those months were all about classical and non-classical kigo (seasonwords). So in April all our prompts will be classical and non-classical kigo for Spring.

such a sad event
young cherry blossoms frozen
in a cold spring night

© Chèvrefeuille (2016)

May 2019:

Another theme on which your responses were wonderful were the Tan Renga Challenge months. That wonderful kind of chained verse that brings poets together. In May I will create a month full of Tan Renga Challenges with ofcourse also several hineri (with a twist) episodes.
Tan Renga is a chained verse of two stanza, the first stanza has three lines and the second stanza has two lines. The second stanza is created through association on the scenes in the first stanza. Tan Renga looks similar with Tanka, but is written by two poets (as in a renga).

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew                                                      (Jane Reichhold)

her bright shining eyes
she unpacks her new doll                                     (your host)

June 2019:

In June I will challenge you (again) because in that month I hope to bring a month full of Troiku, that creative new way of haiku-ing that I invented back in 2012. In June I hope to challenge you to create a Troiku Hineri every week.

morning dew
vanished in a second as the sun rises -
life is short


morning dew
makes the spiderweb crystaline
nature's treasure

vanished in a second as the sun rises
the fragile hoarfrost on the branches -
ice skating

life is short
I see the thin grey hair of my parents
I become grey too

© Chèvrefeuille

I am looking forward to this 2nd quarter and I hope you will too.

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host