Carpe Diem Time Glass 2019-02 shimmering dew

!! This Time Glass episode is open for your submissions until Monday 18th 6:oo AM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I had some spare-time so I thought I will give you a new CD Time Glass episode. As you all know a while ago I changed the responding time of our Kai into seven days, a whole week, but (as you all know) haiku is an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. That short time can help you to create your haiku (or tanka) based on that single moment.

I love to improve your haiku (and tanka) writing skills so I think this "Time Glass" feature can help you with that. But ... we are a haiku loving family from all over the world and we live all in different time zones, so I think it's a good thing to extend the (original) 24 hours of the "Time Glass" feature to 36 hours to respond on the theme.

That theme can be a haiku, a tanka, a waka, an image or just a word. For this Time Glass episode I have chosen a haiku written by myself to inspire you:

Shimmering Dew

dewdrops shimmer
in the flower of the Morning Glory
a diamond necklace

© Chèvrefeuille (2014)

Well ... a nice time challenge I think. Try to create your haiku or tanka inspired on this given haiku and share it with us within 36 hours. That means this episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 18th 6:00 AM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Rebirth of an Old Feature: Time Glass 1 Crystal

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you can remember that we once had a time-challenging feature titled "Time Glass". The goal was to create haiku or tanka inspired on a theme within 24 hours, so a real time challenge. I love to "restart" that feature. Why? Well as you all know a while ago I changed the responding time of our Kai into seven days, a whole week, but (as you all know) haiku is an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. That short time can help you to create your haiku (or tanka) based on that single moment.

I love to improve your haiku (and tanka) writing skills so I think this "Time Glass" feature can help you with that. But ... we are a haiku loving family from all over the world and we live all in different time zones, so I think it's a good thing to extend the (original) 24 hours of the "Time Glass" feature to 36 hours to respond on the theme.

That theme can be a haiku, a tanka, a waka, an image or just a word  And for the "rebrith" of this feature I have chosen for a haiku and an image to inspire you.

First the image:

Crystal Sunlight (image found on Flickr)

And here is the haiku, one I created myself inspired on the above image:

crystal clear sunlight
reflects all colors in the mirror -
shadow of a dragon

© Chèvrefeuille (2014)

Well ... a nice time challenge I think. Try to create your haiku or tanka inspired on this "rebirth" of the Time Glass feature and share it with us within 36 hours. That means this episode is open for your submissions around 3:00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until February 6th 03:00 AM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1546 Abstract Autumn

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our Carpe Diem Autumn Retreat has ended. So I thought to choose a nice abstract piece of art, but this time the theme is "abstract autumn". What is abstract autumn? Well ... a painting in which you cannot see its trees or something, but through the colors you know immediately that the painting has to do with autumn. In the modern painting "abstract autumn" you cannot see trees or bushes, but you can see the colors of autumn, red, yellow, orange, brown and all kinds of little differences in those colors ... the colors are autumn and it gives you the opportunity to go with the flow, to think outside of the box to create your Japanese poetry like haiku or choka.

yellow, red,
orange and deep purple
dance

© Chèvrefeuille

What do you see if you read this haiku? I think it's an abstract autumn haiku inspired on the painting hereafter.

Abstract Autumn (image found on Pinterest)

Try to imagine autumn through this painting. Haiku is an impression ... what's your impression?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 22nd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun, go with the flow, think outside the box and share your impression with us all.

Carpe Diem #1526 Quote ... impressionism

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai were we are celebrating our 6th anniversary with all prompts following the alphabet. Today we have arrived at the letter Q. I had some difficulties to find a theme for this episode, but than I realized that we have our "Use That Quote" feature so I have chosen "quote" and I have a nice quote for you to work with.

Maybe you can remember that we had a month about "impressionism" and I have chosen a quote from that month, but first this wonderful painting by Claude Monet, the "Godfather" of impressionism.

Water Lillies (Claude Monet)

A wonderful painting I think and in this one you can see what "impressionism" means. The Water Lilies are just a faint image of the reality, but you can see that it are Water lilies. It's done with strong short brush-lines and when you look at it from a distance than those strong brush lines are flowing together to become a wonderful image/painting.

[...] "Haiku are very similar with Impressionism, because in the three lines of a haiku we have to catch a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water, this is very similar with the idea of painting with the light of the day during the day as is one of the major rules in Impressionism." [...] (Chèvrefeuille)

Maybe it's a bit immodest to use a quote by myself, but I think this quote gives you the inspiration you need to create a haiku (or tanka) as if you were an impressionist painter.

strange perfume
from a faraway place
morning haze

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 28th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem's Vision Quest revived #1 deep silence

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you can remember our "vision quest", that special feature we have had here at CDHK (started in 2014) a three days challenge to write a haiku in response on a shared haiku. Maybe you can remember that you had only 24 hours time to respond. I love to do a "vision quest" again, because it helps you to improve your haiku writing skills. What do I mean? Well ... haiku (as we know) catches a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water, or in an eye-blink. That's what I love to try in the "vision quest", creating haiku in an eye blink.

For this first revived edition of the CDHK Vision Quest I have a wonderful haiku for you which I wrote for the Winter Retreat 2016 to inspire you:

the sound of rain
on the tin roof of the cabin
deepens the silence

© Chèvrefeuille

Let me first tell you a little bit about the idea of the "Vision Quest".

A vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures. The ceremony of the Vision Quest is one of the most universal and ancient means to find spiritual guidance and purpose. A Vision Quest can provide deep understanding of one's life purpose.

A traditional Native American Vision Quest consists of a person spending one to four days and nights secluded in nature. This provides time for deep communion with the fundamental forces and spiritual energies of creation and self-identity. During this time of intense spiritual communication a person can receive profound insight into themselves and the world. This insight, typically in the form of a dream of Vision, relates directly to their purpose and destiny in life.

In many Native American groups the vision quest is a turning point in life taken to find oneself and the intended spiritual and life direction. The Vision Quest is often used as a Rite of Passage, marking the transition between childhood and full acceptance into society as an adult. A person’s first Vision Quest is typically done during their transformative teenage years. When an older child is ready, he will go on a personal, spiritual quest alone in the wilderness, often in conjunction with a period of fasting. This usually lasts for a number of days while the child is attuned to the spirit world. Usually, a Guardian animal or force of nature will come in a vision or dream and give guidance for the child's life.  A Vision Quest helps the teenager to access spiritual communication and form complex abstract thoughts. Through this Rite of Passage the child becomes an adult, taking responsibility for themselves and their individual contribution to a healthy society. The child returns to the tribe and once the child has grown he or she will pursue that direction in life. After a vision quest, the child may become an apprentice of an adult in the tribe of the shown direction (Medicine Man, boat-maker and so on).

 

I like the idea of a Vision Quest to find the purpose of your life. Three days being one with nature and nature alone. In deep contact with nature, feeling the vibrations of nature's spirits. And that's what I hope this Vision Quest will do with you. Maybe not that deep, but I hope it will give you the possibility to improve the "one-moment" skill of haiku.

in deep silence
surrounded by nature's spirits
finding the path

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you will participate in this Vision Quest, three days of writing haiku (only haiku), within 24 hours. The Vision Quest takes three days so you have to create three haiku, every day one haiku.

 

 

Carpe Diem #1135 that moment ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This will be another short episode, because I have to prepare an exam I have to do next Friday. It is not an easy exam so ... I need that time, but of course I cannot let you without inspiration. Therefore I have chosen to share a scene which Paulo encounters while on his road to Santiago.
As you all know haiku is only an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. I love to challenge you to use the given scene to create haiku or tanka ... life in that short moment ... feel the power of haiku.

A beautiful scene in the above image ... in this scene you can see a bit of the scene Paulo saw.

[...] "We arrived one afternoon at the ruins of an old castle of the Order of the Knights Templar. We sat down to rest, and while Petrus smoked his usual cigarette, I drank a bit of the wine leftover from lunch. I studied the view that surrounded us: a few peasant houses, the tower of the castle, the undulating fields ready for sowing. To my right appeared a shepherd, guiding his flock past the walls of the castle, bound for home. The sky was red, and the dust raised by the animals blurred the view, making it look like a dream or a magic vision. The shepherd waved to us, and we waved back. The sheep passed in front of us and continued down the road. .... It was an impressive scene … " [...] (Source: The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho)

I think this will do it ... I hope I have inspired you to create haiku or tanka based on a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 30th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #676, The Orchard

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This is our last episode of our Impressionism month ... I am a bit sad, but I am also excited, because we start with a new month full of wonder. For this last episode I have chosen a impressionism painting by Camille Pissarro, the father of impressionism, the father of divers impressionism painters.

Camille Pissarro (French: [kamij pisaʁo]; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.

In 1873 he helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the "pivotal" figure in holding the group together and encouraging the other members. Art historian John Rewald called Pissarro the "dean of the Impressionist painters", not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also "by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality". Cézanne said "he was a father for me. A man to consult and a little like the good Lord," and he was also one of Gauguin's masters. Renoir referred to his work as "revolutionary", through his artistic portrayals of the "common man", as Pissarro insisted on painting individuals in natural settings without "artifice or grandeur".

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

Pissarro is the only artist to have shown his work at all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions, from 1874 to 1886. He "acted as a father figure not only to the Impressionists" but to all four of the major Post-Impressionists, including Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

Credits: Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes (1872) - Camille Pissarro

This guy is awesome I think and I like his features ... look that beard, those eyes with the wrinkles a great image of him. To me he looks really like a father-figure ... and I had never heard of him, but his paintings I knew ...
And this particular one is one of his masterpieces worth to be honored with a masterpiece haiku ... can I do that? I have to try ..., but let me first look at a few haiku about "the orchard" by other haiku poets. I have found two wonderful haiku written by two modern haiku poets, I couldn't retrieve an e-mail-address, so I credit them (as I always do by the way):

Heavy rain all night—
with closed eyes I see
the orchard, the dripping leaves.

© Billy Collins (From “She was just seventeen”)

Flowering orchard,
born again every year.
I welcome the blossoms

© Herman van Rompuy (former president of the EU)

Well ... I think these haiku are great and really wonderful ... and now I have to write/compose one myself ...

harvesting apples
in the backyard of my granddad
the old orchard

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Credits: The Olive Orchard - Vincent Van Gogh 1889

sweet perfume
harvesting the ripe olives
to make oil

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This was our last episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai this month ... it was a pleasure and a joy to be your host (this month together with Jen of Blog It Or Lose It) and I have enjoyed all of your wonderful haiku and tanka and not to forget the beautiful haibun and even sometimes a troiku ... really it was an awesome month. I am proud to be your host, and I feel humble that I may be your host here at CDHK. I am looking forward to our new month of Carpe Diem in which we will become our own "impressionists", because March will be the month of our Haiga Festival.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 2nd at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode, companionship, later on.

Carpe Diem #675, House (au Auvers)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a lovely month we have had this February and what a joy it will be to go on with images next month, but than made by yourself, because next month it is haiga-festival month. Of course I will give you all more time to respond, I will prolong the time to respond with 24 hours.

Ok back to today's prompt House (au Auvers) a wonderful painting (post-impressionism) by Vincent Van Gogh. In his last years he lived at Auvers were he has painted a lot of Auvers houses and I couldn't decide which to use, so I have chosen for a not so well known painting of a House au Auvers by Van Gogh.


Credits: House au Auvers - Vincent Van Gogh

It's a wonderful painting and I think you can see that this painting is from the post impressionism time. It's more a realistic image and not an impression. I think this is one of his most beautiful paintings and I think it will inspire you all ... in a great way.

green and yellow
shadows dance on the wall
a gentle breeze

(c) Chèvrefeuille

I have tried to catch an "impression" of the painting in this haiku and I even have tried to bring in a few Writing Techniques e.g. karumi and wabi sabi. I don't know if I have succeeded, but I like this haiku a lot.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 1st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, The Orchard, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku (or tanka) with us all.

Carpe Diem #674, Channel

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have a not so well-known painter of impressionism for you, she is from Russia and she has painted beautiful paintings. This painting is titled "expactation", it shows a Venice channel.

Sapozhnikova Svetlana is a modern Russian artist, but she has painted a few wonderful impressionism paintings. One of them I will share here with you.

Credits: Expectation - (c) Sapozhnikova Svetlana

It is very nice painting I think and it is really an impression of a scene somewhere on the day. It's somewhat "spooky" or "hazy" and in the background it looks like the world is vanishing.

And here is another painting also by Sapozhnikova Svetlana with the same scene only on a different time of the day as you can see at the used colors. This one is also a beauty.

Credits: Another sight on the channel (c) Sapozhnikova Svetlana

It's the same sphere as in the first painting and it inspired me to write the following haiku, or "impression"

the sky colors
in the most bright blue and pink
a new day rises

a new day rises
above the Venice channels
fading carnival sounds

fading carnival sounds
even the sun and clouds
are crying

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Well ... these are not my best haiku I think, but I like them for their impressions. Now it's up to you my dear Haijin to compose an all new haiku.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 26th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, another new episode of our Haiku Writing Techniques, later on.

Carpe Diem #673, Rehearsal

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I had a great weekend off and I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to Jen Carpe Diem Haiku Kai could go on and I think she did great. Thank you Jen from the bottom of my heart ... thank you!

I am already busy with our new promplist for March and I hope to publish it this week. I think I have managed to make another nice list, but there will be a few prompts which we are "revisiting", but that has more the do with the main idea of March ... Haiga ... As you maybe know haiga is a special form of poetry in which a haiku is published within a photo, painting or other kind of image. Mostly the image fits the haiku or makes the haiku more transparent ... And I have found a nice haiku-poet (a comtemporary of Shiki) for our CD-Specials.

But ... we have still a few days to go in February and we are still on our journey through impressionism and "my statement that a haiku is an impression". Today I have a wonderful painting for your inspiration by Edgar Degas "Dance Rehearsal in the Studio of the Opera".

Credits: Dance Rehearsal in the Studio of the Opera

Edgar Degas was one of the founders of the Impressionist movement and prominent artist in the last half of the 19th century. Born to wealthy family, he began his schooling with a baccalaureate in literature in 1853. Due to the wishes of his father, who wanted him to go to law school, he enrolled at the University of Paris in 1853 to pursue a law degree, where he made little effort. Degas, who at age 18 had transformed one of the rooms is his house into a studio, and was a registered copyist at the Louvre by 1853, left law school after two years, and a year later traveled to Italy studying the art of the great masters.

His paintings were exhibited at the Paris Salon beginning in 1865, but they attracted little attention, and his subject matte slowly transitioned from history paintings to more contemporary subjects. In 1870, at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, he enrolled as a member of the National Guard, but his eyesight, which was found defective during rifle training, was troublesome and so he could not serve. Three years later, in 1873, Degas’ father died, revealing a massive amount of business debt held by his brother, Rene. Degas was forced to sell the family home and many family paintings in order to cover the debt, and for the first time, had to rely on the income from his paintings for survival. It was in 1874 that he began producing his most successful works.

I ran through my archive, because I remembered a series of haiku about ballet ... and I found a nice series about ballet and a wonderful acrostic haiku (with liaison) which I love to share here:

she watches him
from behind the curtains
prima ballerina

prima ballerina
dances in the arms of her boyfriend -
just a dream

just a dream
to become happy again and in love
dying lady swan

© Chèvrefeuille

And here is the acrostic with liaison:

A rainy day
Under the umbrella
Tears of Joy
u
t
United again by
Music of the Swan lake
Newly weds

© Chèvrefeuille

In this one the theme is "autumn" and the "liaison" is "tutu". Can we call these haiku which I share here impressions? Or shall I try to write/compose new haiku for this episode?

Well ... I just had to write/compose a few new haiku for this episode and here is the result:

ballet dancers
ghostly images covered in smoke
modern swan lake

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Or this one ... more like an "impression" of the scene on the painting:

dark theater
in the dim light of the full moon
end of life dancers

(c) Chèvrefeuille

A wonderful painting and I hope it will inspire you to write an all new haiku (or tanka) ... it was really a joy to prepare this episode for you all and I am looking forward to all of your responses.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 25th at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, Channel, later on. And of course tonight there will be another episode of our Time Glass feature in which you have to respond on a given prompt (and image) within 24 hours.

Carpe Diem #671, Sunday Afternoon

!! I publish this episode earlier, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a marvelous month we have ... we have seen wonderful paintings and they inspired us to write wonderful "impressions" ... haiku and tanka. And now we will go further on this discovery of impressionism and today we are looking at a painting by Georges Seurat (1859-1891), A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884). It is one of his most famous works.

In 1879 Georges Seurat enlisted as a soldier in the French army and was back home by 1880. Later, he ran a small painter’s studio in Paris, and in 1883 showed his work publicly for the first time. The following year, Seurat began to work on La Grand Jatte and exhibited the painting in the spring of 1886 with the Impressionists. With La Grande Jatte, Seurat was immediately acknowledged as the leader of a new and rebellious form of Impressionism called Neo-Impressionism. Seurat spent over two years painting A Sunday Afternoon, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park. He reworked the original as well as completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches. He sat in the park, creating numerous sketches of the various figures in order to perfect their form. He concentrated on the issues of color, light, and form. (Source: Wikipedia)

A Sunday Afternoon - Georges Seurat

This painting shows us a nice scene in which people are relaxing in the park. They enjoy the weather, the view, nature and each other. Seurat's painting is an awesome example of pointillism, a Neo-Impressionism technique. We can see human like figures, but there are no details ... these humans are impressions of humans.

sunday afternoon
a walk through the park with the one I love -
quality time

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Not a strong verse, but the painting brought nice memories back ... of the time my wife and I had just met (more than 25 yrs ago). So I just had to do something with those memories.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 21st at noon (CET). Our next episode will be done by Jen of Blog It Or Lose It. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your "impressions", your haiku with us all.

Carpe Diem #670, Bathing

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I haven't enough time today to write a "big" post so I decided to just give you the title and painting which was my choice for today's prompt. I love to present to you a painting by Paul Cézanne ... I think it's a nice example of late impressionism and it's really an impression from a bathing scene. Paul Cézanne painted this painting between 1898 and 1905. It is considered one of the masterpieces of modern art, and is often considered Cézanne's finest work. Cézanne worked on the painting for seven years, and it remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1906.

This painting is titled "Large Bathers" and is part of a series of paintings (as was very common in impressionism). With each version of the bathers, Cézanne moved away from the traditional presentation of paintings, intentionally creating works which would not appeal to the novice viewer. He did this in order to avoid fleeting fads and give a timeless quality to his work, and in so doing paved the way for future artists to disregard current trends and paint pieces which would appeal equally to all generations. The abstract nude females present in Large Bathers give the painting tension and density. It is exceptional among his work in symmetrical dimensions, with the adaption of the nude forms to the triangular pattern of the trees and river. Using the same technique as employed in painting landscapes and still lifes, Large Bathers is reminiscent of the work of Titian and Peter Paul Rubens. Comparisons are also often made with the other famous group of nude women of the same period, Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. (Source: Wikipedia)

Credits: Large Bathers - Paul Cézanne

It's a nice scene and I think it can inspire you to write an all new haiku (or tanka). I had some trouble to compose a haiku inspired on this painting, but ... after a while I came up with the following haiku:

skinny dipping
between frogs and waterlilies -
one with nature

© Chèvrefeuille

By the way it's not only inspired on this painting. As I looked at this painting a sweet memory came to mind ....

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until February 19th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our new episode, a new episode of our Haiku Writing Techniques, the second on Wabi Sabi, later on.

By the way I will take a few days off next weekend and I have asked Jen of Blog It Or Lose It to help me out. She said yes ... so our regular prompts of Friday 20th, Saturday 21th and Sunday 22th will be done by Jen.
As you maybe know it's my goal to have every month a weekend off, so if you would like to fill in for me next month, than please let me know. That free weekend will be Friday March 20th until Sunday March 22nd. You're free to do with the given prompts of those days, but you have to follow the prompts according to our promptlist which I hope to publish next week.

Carpe Diem #669, Scream

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are going further with our exploration of impressionism here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. And today I have an impresionism/expressionism (?) painting which you either like or dislike.
"The Scream" is a very wellknown painting and as I stated above you like or dislike it. I am one of the people who dislikes this painting, but I know there are many people who like it, maybe that's because of the idea behind it. Let me tell you a little bit more about the ispirational background of this painting by Edvard Munch.

Credits: The Scream Edvard Munch

The original German title given to the work by Munch is Der Schrei der Natur ("The Scream of Nature"). The Norwegian word skrik usually is translated as scream, but is cognate with the English shriek. Occasionally, the painting also has been called The Cry.  
In his diary in an entry headed, Nice 22 January 1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image:

[...] “One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream.” [...]

This memory was later rendered by Munch as a poem, which he hand-painted onto the frame of the 1895 pastel version of the work:

I was walking along the road with two friends
the sun was setting
suddenly the sky turned blood red
I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence
there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city
my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety
and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.

© Edvard Munch

Among theories advanced to account for the reddish sky in the background is the artist's memory of the effects of the powerful volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, which deeply tinted sunset skies red in parts of the Western hemisphere for months during 1883 and 1884, about a decade before Munch painted The Scream.
This explanation has been disputed by scholars, who note that Munch was an expressive painter and was not primarily interested in literal renderings of what he had seen. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the proximity of both a slaughterhouse and a lunatic asylum to the site depicted in the painting may have offered some inspiration. The scene was identified as being the view from a road overlooking Oslo, the Oslofjord and Hovedøya, from the hill of Ekeberg. At the time of painting the work, Munch's manic depressive sister Laura Catherine was a patient at the asylum at the foot of Ekeberg.

Edvard Munch (Source: Wikipedia)

In 1978, the Munch scholar Robert Rosenblum suggested that the strange, sexless creature in the foreground of the painting was inspired by a Peruvian mummy, which Munch could have seen at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. This mummy, which was buried in a fetal position with its hands alongside its face, also struck the imagination of Munch's friend Paul Gauguin: it stood as a model for the central figure in his painting, Human misery (Grape harvest at Arles) and for the old woman at the left in his painting, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (Source: Wikipedia)

I don't know if this painting is impressionism, but as I look at it and read the behind story then I think it's surely an impressionism painting ... the sexless creature has no real human features and the surroundings look more like an impression than the real world.

through the night
screeching tires resonate against the walls -
a hazy moon

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this new episode and I hope it will inspire you all to write an all new haiku (or tanka) impression ...

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 18th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, bathing, later on.

Carpe Diem #668, dreams

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

How do you like our journey through the world of Impressionism until now? For me its really an adventure, because I am not that familiar with Impressionism so to me its an eye-opener too. All those wonderful paintings I have already seen look like dreams ... and that brings me to our prompt for today dreams.
Once Martin Luther King said "I have a dream" and with him I can say that too. Once I had a dream to write a novel and God grace I have fulfilled that dream in 2007. A second novel followed. Another dream I had was "to become a wellknown haiku-poet" and that dream is still growing. With my first English haiku, which I wrote in 2005, that dream started to become true ... and now ... ten years later I have reached that dream ... here I am, the host of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai (CDHK), a weblog about haiku where I can share my knowledge and my haiku with the world ... and you my dear Haijin ... are the incentives to make CDHK even a better place to be. Without your participation I could not make CDHK and last but not least ... CDHK brought me in contact with wellknown haiku poets all over the world and with a great and loving haiku family ... you my dear Haijin. Thank you, Arigato, all for helping me to make CDHK the place to be if you like to write and share haiku. And what are your dreams? Do you have dreams?

ARIGATO

Well ... back to our prompt of today, dreams. I have found a wonderful post-impressionism painting by Henri Rousseau, The Dream. The Dream (French: Le Rêve, occasionally also known as Le Songe or Rêve exotique) is a large oil-on-canvas painting created by Henri Rousseau in 1910, one of more than 25 Rousseau paintings with a jungle theme. His last completed work, it was first exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants from 18 March to 1 May 1910, a few months before his death on 2 September 1910. Rousseau's earlier works had received a negative reception, but poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire remarked on its debut: "The picture radiates beauty, that is indisputable. I believe nobody will laugh this year."
The Dream is the largest of the jungle paintings. It features an almost surreal portrait of Yadwigha (Jadwiga), Rousseau's Polish mistress from his youth, lying naked on a divan to the left of the painting, gazing over a landscape of lush jungle foliage, including lotus flowers, and animals including birds, monkeys, an elephant, a lion and lioness, and a snake. The stylised forms of the jungle plants are based on Rousseau's observations at the Paris Museum of Natural History and its Jardin des Plantes. The nude's left arm reaches towards the lions and a black snake charmer who faces the viewer playing his flute, barely visible in the gloom of the jungle under the dim light of the full moon. A pink-bellied snake slithers through the undergrowth, its sinuous form reflecting the curves of the woman's hips and leg.

Credits: The Dream post-impressionism painting by Henri Rousseau

Suspecting that some viewers did not understand the painting, Rousseau wrote a poem to accompany it, Inscription pour La Rêve:

Yadwigha in a beautiful dream
Having fallen gently to sleep
Heard the sounds of a reed instrument
Played by a well-intentioned [snake] charmer.
As the moon reflected
On the rivers [or flowers], the verdant trees,
The wild snakes lend an ear
To the joyous tunes of the instrument.

One possible interpretation of the painting, offered by Rousseau in a letter to art critic André Dupont, is that it depicts a woman reclining on a couch in Paris, dreaming she is listening to a flute player in the jungle.

To make this episode complete I love to share a nice piece of Shakuhachi (Japanese Bamboo flute) music ... maybe this is a kind of music which the female on the painting did hear.

As you know we had a special feature at CDHK titled "Distillation" in which I gave a "long poem" to distil a haiku from. That's maybe a possibility for you to use for this episode. I first thought to do that myself, but I came up with another (beautiful) haiku.

This is the first version:

while the world sleeps
the birds of the night are singing their song
to honor the moon

(c) Chèvrefeuille

And I have tried to step in the footsteps of Jane and have tried to use her idea of making this haiku stronger by using less words, this is the second version.

world asleep
birds sing their song
moonlight serenade

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this episode and that it will inspire you to write/compose an all new haiku. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 17th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, scream, later on. For now .... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #73, Suzanne's "Poppies"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Impressionism is our leading theme this month and I am glad that I have found a wonderful haiku to start this week's Tan Renga Challenge with. This week I have chosen to share a haiga by Suzanne of Art and Life She submitted it for our "poppies" prompt a few days ago.
As I visited her weblog and saw this haiga I was in awe ... what a great haiga she had shared on poppies and I just had to use it for a Tan Renga Challenge. So here it is (I will give the haiga also):

Credits: Haiga "poppies" by Suzanne of "Art and Life"

And here is the haiku:

red poppies of Troy
- the blood of the fallen
bright on the grass

© Suzanne

A wonderful "impression" and with the photo a strong haiga which only can leave you in awe I think.
The goal of this Tan Renga Challenge is to complete or continue it by writing/composing the second (two lined) stanza towards it. Tan Renga is a short chained verse written by two poets and looks very similar with Tanka, but Tanka is written by one poet. That second stanza has two lines with each 7 syllables, but that is, as you all know, not an obligation.

Here is my attempt to write a second stanza towards this beautiful haiku by Suzanne:

red poppies of Troy

- the blood of the fallen

bright on the grass                                (© Suzanne)

heritage of battles once fought

freedom lost forever ... silence               (© Chèvrefeuille)

That wasn't an easy task, but I succeeded. I tried to turn it in a positive way and I think this second stanza brings that, but maybe you, my dear readers, have other ideas about that. Feel free to share your thoughts.

This Tan Renga Challenge is open for your submissions today at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Friday February 20th at noon (CET). For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #667, Tulips

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today we have a nice Dutch prompt, however ... Today our prompt is Tulips the flower which we, the Dutch, have made better and better, but the Tulip is not an original biological invention of the Dutch. The Tulip is a wild flower which was brought to The Netherlands from Turkey by Carolus Clusius in the 16th century. Clusius became director of the Leiden Hortus Botanicus and planted the first Tulips in The Netherlands. Why has it become a major symbol of the Dutch? Next to the wooden shoes and windmills? I honestly don't know. The only thing the Dutch have done is making the Tulip better.

Tulips field by Vincent Van Gogh (?)

Our Tulip, now a major export-article, is similar with haiku. Haiku is adopted by the world from Japan. And in every country there are haiku-poets standing up, making a name in haiku and changing the rules of haiku every day again. Haiku rules change, but the basics stay always in use, as is the original Tulip.

Today i love to share a painting by Vincent van Gogh for your inspiration. Van Gogh, i think, is more a post-impressionistic painter, but that is just my idea. Van Gogh has made wonderful paintings, but became famous after his death. 

I once wrote a haiku suite about him, i am translating it now and I hope to share it here with you this month. I composed it as i was just starting to become involved with haiku (and tanka).
Back to our prompt for today, Tulips, here is an Acrostic haiku with Tulips in the lead:

In this “acrostic haiku” POETRY is the Acrostichon and EAST the Liaison. (For more about this form visit: DevianArt)

Perfect way
Of writing haiku
Eastern thoughts
a
s
Tulip bulbs
Redder than red
Year after year

Not an easy form, but it challenged me so I had to try it. 

Haiku is an impression and more than poetry  think, because you have to tell a lot with just a few words caught in three lines. So it is an impression of the moment you love to share. This is what haiku made an Art ..., but, as Jane says in her 'Writing and Enjoying Haiku', "everyone has a haiku poet hidden inside ... s/he has to come out that cocoon which is our body". Well ... she (Jane) not really said that ... it is more my impression of what she is saying.

Credits: Tulip Fields The Netherlands

We, the Dutch, are very proud on our Tulips which are very famous around the globe. So ... in a way I am very proud that I can and may share an episode about Tulips here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. (And I don't have Tulips in my own garden, something to be ashamed of? No ... I don't really like Tulips.)

I couldn't come up with a Tulips haiku today, so I share an "oldie" in which I have changed "flowers" into "tulips". Here it is, it was first published at my personal weblog Chèvrefeuille's Haiku-blog. Feel free to visit it.

I am confused
winter has departed
snow in april

snow in april
without hesitation tulips bloom
colors between white

colors between white
such a strange ambiguity
for Mother Earth

for Mother Earth
no doubts at all today
I am confused

© Chèvrefeuille

I like this cascading-style for haiku and I have composed several of them which you can mostly find at my own weblog as mentioned above. Feel free to visit and maybe you can try this cascading-styled haiku once.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 15th at noon (CET). i will try to publish our new episode, our third CD-Special with a haiku by Fuyuko Tomita, later on. For now .... have fun!