Carpe Diem #1205 Smile

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to bring you all a new episode in our wonderful magical experience through Tibet. As I was preparing the prompt-list for this month, our prompt for today was one of the few I was looking forward to, because this is a joyful prompt ... Today our prompt is smile.

Tibetans are called the smiling people, they always are friendly and are smiling. Their smile is really beautiful and even in the smile of the smallest of them all, the little children, you can see the spiritual energy of the Tibetans. Their smile full of compassion, full of unconditional love ...

The Tibetans are a strong, loving and non-violence race. The Dalai Lama, their spiritual (and constitutional) leader can be proud. Tibetans are the best friends you can have I think, because they will always be there for you. They will even help you earlier than they would help themselves.

Smile

The Tibetan smile full of compassion ... full of love ... I hope you can and will see that around you not even in the people around you, but also in our wondetful natural surroundings, our nature ... nature smiles always, you only have to be aware of it ... enjoy nature ... look at the beauty of nature and see in it that wonderful loving and compassionate smile of the Tibetans.

Smiling ... it's powerful and so spiritual. A smile says more than thousand words. Smile also points towards humor and the Tibetan people have a beautiful humor notwithstanding the annexation by China. Tibetans ... well they are the strongest people of the world.

she smiles
while planting her seeds
in the stone hard soil

smiling
bowing and laughing
compassion

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until June 17th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, yoga, later on. For now ... be inspired and keep on smiling ...!

Carpe Diem #921 Absurdity / Humor

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a very delayed episode of our regular CDHK prompts in which we are exploring the senses together with Hamish Gunn.
Here at CDHK the prompt "absurdity / humor" has been listed earlier in our existence and maybe you can remember that I am not a haiku poet who uses humor and absurdity in his haiku, so I am looking forward to your responses.

Introduction

Of course I have tried to write haiku with a kind of humor in it. Before I met Jane Reichhold I would call those haiku, senryu, but "senryu" is not a broad accepted name.

it's a strange sight
like a waterfall they fall
drunken sailors

along the seashore
hand in hand with the love of my life
a seagull shits on my head

© Chèvrefeuille

 

Absurdity / Humor

 

Hamish on Absurdity / Humor

Humor comes in many flavors, any of which may appeal to one person but not to another, and which may be enjoyed in alternation or in combination. Here are names and descriptions of the different kinds of humor:

Anecdotal - refers to comic personal stories that may be true or partly true but embellished.

Blue -also called  risque or broad humor, which refers to unrestrained, unsubtle humor often marked by coarse jokes and sexual situations.

Burlesque, or Slapstick - Ridicules by imitating with caricature, or exaggerated characterization.

Deadpan/Dry - Delivered with an impassive, expressionless, matter-of-fact presentation.

Farcical - Comedy based on improbable coincidences and with satirical elements, punctuated at times with overwrought, frantic action.

High/highbrow - Humor pertaining to cultured, sophisticated themes.

Droll, or Ironic/Absurd - Humor involving incongruity and discordance with norms, in which the intended meaning is opposite, or nearly opposite, to the literal meaning.

Mordant - Caustic or biting humor

Parodic - Comic imitation often intended to ridicule an author, an artistic endeavor, or a genre.

Self-deprecating - Humor in which performers target themselves and their foibles or misfortunes for comic effect.

Stand-up - A form of comedy delivery in which a comic entertains an audience with jokes and humorous stories.

Writing a humorous haiku is no easy task. But it is worth trying, and giving your haiku humor, using perhaps one of the techniques outlined above.

My response
Humor ... not really my "cup of tea", but as you could read above I have tried to write haiku with humor in it. Here is another attempt and I think it's in the "anecdotal"  way:

proud like a peacock
the  businessman steps around
stumbles over the sill

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 22nd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, sight (colors), later on. By the way, our next episode of our first CDHK Theme Week I will publish also later today, sorry for the delay.

On The Trail With Basho Encore #11 drinking friends (humor)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Humor ... was, and is still, part of haiku. Basho also used humor in his haiku. However humor isn't something I use in haiku. In some of my haiku it's possible that there is a touch of humor, but I did that unconscious and not on purpose.

In our next “On The Trail With Basho Encore” – episode I have chosen a haiku in which Basho used humor very clearly. He has written this at Ryumon Falls at the southern foot of Mount Ryumondake in Yoshino, province of Nara. This is the area with Japan's most notable display of cherry trees. This verse uses a comparative technique: Basho is comparing how a person who is drunk stands (or doesn't stand) with the shape of a waterfall and with the way branches loaded with blossoms hang down. (Source: Jane Reichhold).

sake nomi ni    katara n kakaru    taki no hana

drinking friends
to talk I'll hang over like this
a waterfall of flowers

© Basho

Not a common (counted) verse in this translation by Jane Reichhold, but I think that's no problem. I myself don't count the syllables when writing my haiku.

A Waterfall of Flowers

To write a haiku by myself in the Spirit of Basho's and inspired on this haiku isn't easy, but I just have to try. I have written a few haiku in the sense and tone of this one by Basho. I only can hope that it has also a little bit of Basho's humor in it.

on the way home
drunken sailors bend over
to vomit

it's a strange sight
like a waterfall they fall
drunken sailors

Ah! that sight
a waterfall of flowers
when vomiting

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like this “Encore” episode. I have decided to make “Encore” a bi-weekly feature on Friday. And as it is “Encore” there will be no Tan Renga Challenge. I hope you don’t mind that little change.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Friday 21st at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #738 not permitted to tell

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

During his journey into the deep north (Oku no Hosomichi) Basho visited famous places known from poetry and literature or known from religious meaning. He visited also Mount Yudano (meaning "bathroom") a very sacred (and secretive) Shinto place. Today's episode not permitted to tell is written after his visit to Mount Yudano.

According to Jane Reichhold, Basho wrote the following haiku on Mount Yudano (bathroom). On this mountain was a spectacular waterfall which had been a Shinto place of worship since early times. Only men could visit it and only after a rigorous climb with several rituals and services in various temples. At the gate, after purification rites, they must remove their shoes to climb the rocks barefoot. In addition, before being allowed to view this wonder, each men had to swear never to reveal what he witnessed there. In modern times, in interests of disclosure, the secret of Mount Yudano has been revealed.

Due to the wearing away of the rock and the reddish minerals in the thermal-warmed water, the waterfall looks exactly like the private parts of a woman complete with sounds and gushing water. The practice can be thought of as worshiping the reproductive aspect of the feminine earth.

The priest Ekaku had asked Basho to write some poems on his visit to the three holy mountains of Dewa. Basho couldn't do that because it was an awesome experience for him and so he couldn't find the words. Also it was forbidden to talk about what he had witnessed on the mountain.

katara re nu   yudano ni nurasu   tometo kana

not permitted to tell
how sleeves are wetted
in the bathroom

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

Mount Yudano

It's a strange story, but it has also something ... spiritual. To write a haiku in the same tone and sense as Basho did ... looks like climbing a mountain barefoot, but I will try.

what has happened?
petals of red roses around
the morning glory

© Chèvrefeuille

another haiku inspired by the one of Basho:

secret admirer -
petals of red roses around
my morning glory

© Chèvrefeuille

A little bit of humor. Why? ... "my morning glory" refers to a certain male body part.

Blue Morning Glory

As I created this episode I didn't need time, because on one of my other personal weblogs I revisit haiku by Basho and this haiku (with a slightly different first line) I used several years ago on that weblog. So this episode comes from my archives so to say. (That weblog is titled "Basho Revisited")

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 25th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, tonight my skin, later on. For now .... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.

Carpe Diem Ghost Writer #25, Björn Rudberg on "Haiku and Humor"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I have a nice GW-post for you all. This time it's a Ghost Writer post by Björn Rudberg of Björn Rudbergs Writings and he invites us to bring humor into our haiku. Humoer in haiku isn't my "cup of tea", but sometimes I try it of course. I will look for a few examples and post them in response on this GW-post. Have fun!

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Humor in Haiku and renga

One thing we use to little in haiku is the dry humor you can sometimes find in classical haiku. Maybe we are too respectful to the form sometimes, still when reading through I see (often with apologies) attempts in this direction. Today I would like you to take an approach to the dry wit of haiku writing, 

We have had even classic example previously here, consider for example this one by Issa:

spring peace -
a mountain monk peeks
through the hedge

The combination of the monk and peeking through the hedge removes some of the respect for the monk and make him a human of flesh and blood, and spring is an excellent time when this might happen to a monk full of hormones.

Another way of doing humor in haiku is a concept of renku haikai no renga (俳諧の連歌, "comic linked verse"),. This is similar to renga in the sense that we create a comic effect in collaborative poetry.

A classic example is:

The robe of haze is wet at its hem

to which the disrespectful response was:

Princess Sao of spring pissed as she started

Imagine, a deity like the princess of spring gets wet by peeing on herself.

So today I want you to either, write a classic haiku with humor embedded, or take a classic haiku (maybe from our earlier challenges), and to a tan renku, where your second stanza create an effect of humor through coarseness and disrespect. 

Do not be afraid, this is a day to be merry.

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Well ... let us have a smile on our faces or let us laugh out loud ... it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers.

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until September 19th at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode, river, later on.