Carpe Diem #1697 Renga With Jane Reichhold ... placing the flute

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. This month it's all about "Summer Love" in the broadest sense of the word. So I hope this month will trigger you to create wonderful "summer love" poems.

The weekend is almost over and I hope you all have had a great weekend full of inspiration. I had a busy weekend, because I had to work at the nursing home for the elderly people were I am working since the start of this year after the bankrupcy of the hospital were I was working. It's still a strange feeling that a hospital can go in bankrupcy, but well I have still the work that I love ... being an oncology-nurse. At this new workplace I have the responsibility for the care for our oncology patients and I am responsible for the implementation of the oncology care. A wonderful challenge I can say, but it takes a lot of my time, but ... it gives me a lot satisfaction.

For this new regular episode I have chosen to challenge you to create a "Renga with Jane Reichhold". I have extracted six haiku from her "A Dictionary of Haiku", Summer section, to work with. I hope you all will enjoy this challenge and (of course) I hope your Renga With Jane will be a tribute for her to honor her. She is still missed dearly ...

Here are the six haiku I have chosen:

wind perfumed
from a woman's shoulder
desert night

dancing on the beach
I jab a stick into the sky
to break up the blue

days so complete
words become the calls of birds
the high tide wind

placing the flute

placing the flute
against her lips something
slips into place

I'm not old
all night my eyes have held
the ancient stars

moon white water
lovers in the secret cove
Saturday night

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Six beautiful haiku to work with. You can chose your own "line-up", add your two lined stanza (approx. 7-7 syllables) and try to make the "chain complete". The first (hokku) and the last (ageku) haiku have to have a slight connection.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 14th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, full of summer love, later on. For now ... have fun!!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #68 Tan Renga With Jane Reichhold "her gentle spirit"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday 20th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation, that special feature for the weekend here at CDHK. Today, January 18th, Jane would have become 82 yrs. You all know that she decided to end her life herself, because she couldn't longer live with the pain of fibromyalgia ... so this weekend I will reshare an episode of our month in honor of Jane back in 2016:

Today I have chosen another nice modern kigo extracted from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku", a complete saijiki in which Jane gathered modern kigo and gave examples of all those modern kigo by creating wonderful haiku. Today I hope to inspire you with calm through the following haiku by Jane:

a certain calm
in summer's passing
flowers

flat seas
with the butterfly's flight
a certain calm

the hour silent
before the birds awake
waves on sand

© Jane Reichhold

These haiku are wonderful and I can read Jane's fingerprints all over them. In a way Jane Reichhold created the "western" haiku without losing the respect for the Japanese haiku. She created beauty and shared it with the world. Without her the "western" haiku had died long ago, but that's my humble opinion.

As I read the above trio of haiku I felt Jane's presence and that inspired me to create the following haiku:

her gentle spirit
the calm of an early morning
a bird's song

© Chèvrefeuille

I love this haiku ... one of my best I would say (how immodest) ... Jane and I are connected in a very nice spiritual way and I hope to feel her presence forever.

The challenge for this weekend meditation is to create Tan Renga with the above three given haiku by Jane Reichhold. A Tan Renga looks like a Tanka, but is written by two poets instead of one poet. It's a kind of chained poem. You have to create the second stanza of each Tan Renga. (See also above in the menu)

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 20th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 27th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #65 Crossroads ... Troiku ... New Year's Eve

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday December 30th 2018 at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have a few announcements to make: next month January 2019 all our prompts will be modern and classic kigo (seasonwords). This is the last weekend meditation of 2018 and in the last month of 2018 we were on a roadtrip along the Pan American Highway. We have only one regular episode to go, December 31st, and that means that we will not reach the end of our trip. To complete the Pan American Highway I will create next month an (extra) feature, because I love to complete our roadtrip along the Pan American Highway.
Second: Next month I will probably start in a new job more close to my home. As you all know recently I started in a new job at the VU Medical Center Amsterdam, but it turns out that traveling to the VU Medical Center has a big impact on my health and well being. So I have decided to resign my job.

Okay ... back to our weekend meditation, the last of 2018, ... I have chosen to challenge you with a "Crossroads" episode with a "twist". The goal of this weekend meditation is to create a "fusion ku" and a Troiku with that "fusion ku". The theme I have chosen for this last weekend meditation is "New Year's Eve" and here are the haiku to work with, both by Jane Reichhold and taken from her online "dictionary of haiku":

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

a new year
rising from wild seas
a few stars

filling
the glass with candlelight
champagne

© Jane Reichhold

As you all know Jane was a very close friend of mine and she was co-host several years here at CDHK. Back in 2016 she died, but she will never be forgotten. Her spirit is dwelling here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and she is still missed.

So this last weekend meditation of 2018 is in honor of Jane Reichhold (1937-2016). Let her be proud on us all.

Have a great weekend!

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday, December 30th 2019, at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 6th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem's Writing and Enjoying Haiku #1 Introduction

Cover / Logo

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 25th at 7.00 PM (CET) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is with pleasure and pride that I introduce to you an all new feature for the "weekend-meditation". Recently I tried the "Haiku Puzzler" as a "weekend-meditation", but it was a too difficult "puzzler" or you didn't like the idea of a "Haiku Puzzler" for the "weekend-meditation", so I decided to skip the "Haiku Puzzler" and bring up our new feature in honor of Jane Reichhold (1937-2016).
Maybe you know her hands-on-guide for haiku "Writing and Enjoying Haiku", from which I have extracted the title of this new "weekend-meditation" feature.

In "Writing and Enjoying Haiku" Jane brought up the idea of haiku writing as a kind of meditation and a way to find spiritual peace. And that's what the goal is of this new "weekend-meditation" feature.

Jane Reichhold, Queen of Haiku and Tanka

A few years ago I was send a gift by Jane for my birthday, a nice box full of books written by her. For example she gave me "Basho, the complete haiku", one of her best books in my opinion, but she also gave me a copy of her Hands On Guide "Writing and Enjoying Haiku". This small book was an eye-opener ... I had never looked at haiku as a way of finding peace, but after reading it I was overwhelmed by her beautiful mind and her knowledge. So it was then that a seed was sown for a new feature. I never had thought that I would use this idea that soon ... well it was through her death that this idea started to grow and finally blossomed ....

I love to start with a quote taken from the back-cover of Jane's Hands On Guide:

[...] "Writing and Enjoying Haiku shows how haiku can bring a centered, calming atmosphere into one's life, by focusing on the outer realities of life instead of the naggings of the inner mind, by gaining a new appreciation for the world of nature, and by preserving moments, days, and events so that they are not lost forever in the passage of time." [...]

the passage of time

[...] "Though the word "enjoying" is the third word in the title (of this book), for me enjoying anything and everything is the primary function of our lives. True, the function (of this book) is to teach you how to write haiku, but I want you to first learn to touch a point of pleasure within yourself with haiku.
To do this, you will need to open the arms of your mind to take in some haiku already snapped up out of the art and written down." [...]

The above quote is from the introduction of Jane's Hands On Guide and she already gives us a task in these words "learn to touch a point of pleasure within yourself with haiku". Let us start again with being a "rookie" in haiku world and let us learn to appreciate haiku right now by reading a few beauties collected from Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. To learn to appreciate haiku we have to learn how to read again, and re-read again ... making the haiku come to life and let it be part of you, let it be your pleasure ... maybe while reading these examples you have the urge to change something ... feel free to do so ... bring the haiku to life through your mind, your heart and your pencil.

goosefeather pen (image found on Pinterest)

I have the following haiku for you to "contemplate" and "meditate". Read and re-read them and try to bring the scene(s) to life. Try to become one with the haiku.
And as I wrote earlier in this post ... feel free to change the haiku if you have the urge to change them, that you can only achieve through "living" the haiku.

wisteria sways -
pendulous blossoms in breeze
unspoken promise

© Jazzy

petal lanterns —
a waterfall of flowers
her lips touch mine

© Hamish

scent of summer
jasmin blooming on the fence
bees hum in the daisy bush

© Cressida

summer heat
no shadows to turn to
rain at last

© Chèvrefeuille

Four haiku extracted from our CDHK E-book "Petal Lanterns". Written by four of our CDHK family members (including myself).

What is the goal of this "weekend-meditation"? Well to "learn" to read  haiku, to become one with haiku and trying to be the haiku. And if you had the urge to change something than share your "re-done" haiku with us. The second goal is to create haiku (or tanka) in which the reader can find, feel, touch, hear or see the scene as you have seen it and maybe your readers will also try to become one with your haiku, or will give words to their urge to change something.

Well ... I hope you did like this new "weekend-meditation" feature in honor and tribute of Jane Reichhold.

!!! Submissions for this "weekend-meditation" can be linked to the linking widget next Sunday, June 25th at 7.00 PM (CET). and will remain open until June 30th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Shambhala, later on. For now ... have fun and have a wonderful creative weekend.