Carpe Diem "Time Glass" #8

Dear Haijin, visitors, travelers,

It's time (well ... 15 minutes to early) again for our time challenging "Time Glass" feature in which the goal is to write a haiku inspired on a photo, painting or something and a prompt within 12 hours. This week I think I have a nice Time Glass episode for you all.

It's almost Halloween or Hallowe'en (/ˌhæləˈwiːn, -oʊˈiːn, ˌhɑːl-/; a contraction of "All Hallows' Evening"), also known as Allhalloween,  All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It initiates the triduum of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers. Within Allhallowtide, the traditional focus of All Hallows' Eve revolves around the theme of using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death."

According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic Samhain. Other scholars maintain that it originated independently of Samhain and has solely Christian roots.  

Credits: Halloween Pumpkin

Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related "guising"), attending costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted house attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular,  although in other locations, these solemn customs are less pronounced in favor of a more commercialized and secularized celebration. Because many Western Christian denominations encourage, although no longer require, abstinence from meat on All Hallows' Eve, the tradition of eating certain vegetarian foods for this vigil day developed, including the consumption of apples, colcannon, cider, potato pancakes, and soul cakes. (Source: Wikipedia)

Well .... I think you know what the prompt will be ... yes ....

HALLOWEEN

I am looking forward to all your responses. And remember you have only 12 hours to respond on this Time Glass feature.

This Time Glass episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Tuesday October 28th 7.00 AM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #30, Garry Gay on "thinking out of the box or misdirection"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at our 1000th post on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I never had dreamed that I would publish that much in two years time. From the beginning of CDHK until today we have had already 1000 posts. Awesome, a new milestone.

As I told you earlier this week's Ghost Writer post is written by Garry Gay, who last year was one of our featured haiku poets. Garry Gay was born in Glendale, California in 1951. He received a BPA degree from Brooks Institute of Photography in 1974 and has been a professional photographer since his graduation. He is skilled in all formats and has been creating digital images since 1993. His award winning Polaroid Transfers have hung in numerous juried art shows. He is a proud member of Advertising Photographers of America, Film Arts Foundation, Friends of Photography, Artrails, and the Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County.

Greatly influenced by Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North, he has steadily been writing haiku from 1975 to the present. He is one of the co-founders of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, serving as their first president from 1989-1990. In 1991 he was elected president of the Haiku Society of America.

Garry is also the inventor of the Rengay, a modern version of the Renga. I am glad that he will be our one time Ghost Writer and I am honored that he will do that for us.

new snow--
the path you made last night
has gone with you

(c) Garry Gay

Garry is a photographer and the above photo and haiku are © by him. I hope you all like the Ghost Writer post by Garry.

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October Inspiration

October is the first full month of autumn. It evokes iconic words that are very useful for inspiration in haiku writing.  It is also called Indian Summer where I live in California.  The days are starting to get shorter, they are very warm, almost warmer then summer, and are bathed in a golden glow.

Credits: Indian Summer Québec Canada

I love October, the leaves are starting to turn, the nights are a little bit cooler, the time for candlelight and crackling fires is drawing near. The abundance of summer’s bounty is dying, the colors of earth and foliage are changing, and nature is preparing for the coming winter. There is much that inspires poetic instincts in autumn.

You begin to see everyone putting pumpkins on their porches. Halloween is a big holiday here in the US. Decorations begin to appear everywhere. Skulls and skeletons are in people’s windows or hanging on their doors. There are so many poems to be written with the Halloween theme. I have always liked anything to do with skeletons, maybe its dark and macabre, but it fascinates me. Try to think outside of the box when you use Halloween topics. It’s a good source of humor as well. Everyone likes to dress up in costume and scare each other. This leads to good fun. There are haunted houses, lots of candy to be given out and spooky places to visit, like the cemetery late at night.

Here is an example of thinking out side of the box or misdirection.

My skeleton
going for a walk
in the cemetery

This poem has both a subject of death, yet a dash of humor. A misdirection if you will as my skeleton is still living yet visiting the graveyard. Enjoy the environment of the rich colors and creepy Halloween decorations of October and create your on haunting  misdirection’s.

Garry Gay

Garry Gay

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Well I hope you did like this GW-post by Garry Gay. Thank you Garry for providing us with this "October Inspiration" for Carpe Diem's Ghost Writer feature.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 24th at noon. I will publish our next episode, the fourth haiku by our featured haiku poetess Shiba Sonome, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.

Carpe Diem #48, mist

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another day in Carpe Diem paradise (smiles). Today Dulcina provided the prompt mist and I think that's a nice one to write haiku about. So let's go do some haiku composing.

Credits: Ken Sturm - Freeland Mist

a haunted forest
with pines reaching to the sky
clad in mist

clad in mist
the pine tree forest
so mysterious

In my country we have in some regions stories about as we call them 'witte wieven' or in English 'white bitches' those are stories to frighten children that they can't go outside when it's dark. Something like the 'boogie-man'. The 'white bitches' are witches that look like tendrils of mist and you can see them in the dark forests of e.g pine trees that we have a lot of in my country. But the 'white bitches' are also in the wetlands and on the heath.

Credits: White Bitches (in Dutch: Witte Wieven)

spooky heath
white bitches dancing -
it's a mystery

tendrils of mist
scaring little children
'the boogie-man comes!'

stories told
white bitches dancing on the heath
just tendrils of mist

Well ... I love it ... those stories are great and I like them very much. What a nice idea to bring such a story in haiku. Thank you Dulcina for this wonderful and inspiring prompt.

This prompt will stay on 'till November 20th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new prompt rose today around 10.00 PM (CET).

Have fun, be inspired and creative. Share your creativity with Carpe Diem.

Carpe Diem #32, All Souls Night/Halloween

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today our first Carpe Diem prompt for November All Souls Night/Halloween and a new logo for this month. I wonder how this month will go. Will Carpe Diem grow further? Will I read wonderful haiku again? We shall see.
Our first Carpe Diem month was really great. I am glad that I can host this event for another month. Of course at the end of this month I will grant the Carpe Diem Award for November to one of our haijins. Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with Carpe Diem.
Our first prompt isn't easy and therefore I hope to inspire you with a nice You Tube video of Loreena McKennitt 'Mummer's Dance', this is also the prompt for tomorrow, but I had to share this wonderful video based on the wonderful song by Loreena McKennitt.

Listen to the music and maybe it will inspire you to write a haiku.

Here's mine:

all souls night
the sound of howling wolves
awaken the dead

awaken the dead
by singing holy hymns
all souls night

I love it when a haiku feels good.

This prompt will stay on 'till November 2nd 11.59 AM (CET). The new episode of Carpe Diem I will post today around 10.00 PM (CET). The prompt than is mummer's dance/all souls day.

Enjoy the fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us here on Carpe Diem.