In The Spotlight at Carpe Diem #3 Valentina Ranaldi-Adams

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is my pleasure to bring a new episode of "In The Spotlight" at Carpe Diem. In this feature I introduce Haijin without a personal weblog. This time I love to introduce Valentina Ranaldi-Adams to you all. I got to know Valentina through an email she send me with a wonderful haiku for one of our Souchou magazine editions. I was immediately "sold" as I read her haiku and it is really a honor to introduce her here at Carpe Diem. She also submitted haiku for our "Winter" kukai, so she also was included in our exclusive CDHK e-book "Melting to Nothingness" in which I gathered all the haiku submitted for the kukai "winter"  and "time".

Here is her submissions (for the "time"-kukai):

countdown begins
on New Year's Eve
lost in your kiss

© Valentina Ranaldi-Adams

Valentina is a very gifted haiku poetess who submits haiku for several magazines, she was published in Akisame, the weekly newsletter of the European Haiku Society and in Cattails of the United Haiku and Tanka Society and ... last but not least in our own e-zine.

I have asked her to introduce herself to us:

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams (photo rights Valentina)

Hello to everyone. 

My name is Valentina Ranaldi My name is Valentina Ranaldi- Adams and I live in the USA. I want to thank Chèvrefeuille for inviting me to be "In The Spotlight".

As an adult, I have always been attracted to activities that involve precision.  I studied mathematics asa university student.  I worked as a computer programmer for several years.  Now I write haiku. 
All of these activities involve precision in thoughts and in words.

I usually only write a haiku when I am inspired by a moment.  This is a moment that I want to captureand to remember.  Often I experience these moments without ever leaving my home.   Yet by sharing my haiku and by reading the haiku of others, I feel a connection to haijin around the globe.

Chèvrefeuille graciously offered to print some of my haiku.

Since I am a member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS), I begin with one that was
published in the May 2016 edition of  "cattails, the collected works of UHTS". 

Winter Solstice (Art Work)

winter solstice

the glass begins

to fill again

                    

Next is one that I entered into the 2016 Sharpening the Green Pencil Contest, organized by the Romanian Kukai Group.  All of the contest's entries were translated into Romanian and published in a booklet.  I include the translation by Ana Drobot.

train window                          

one swan glides                      

on a half-thawed lake              

geamul trenului
o lebădă alunecă
pe lacul pe jumătate dezghețat

The Four Seasons

I conclude with four new and unpublished haiku. There is one for each seaon of the year, beginning with summer.

the hum

and the heat increase -

cicadas in June                     

leaves                                 

in a firestorm of colors                

harbingers of winter  

            

continuous rain

falls on deep snow     

thick mist rises

crab apple blossoms - 

each petal 

an inspiration   

© Valentina Ranaldi-Adams

Well ... I think I can rest my case .... Valentina Ranaldi-Adams is a great and gifted haiku poetess.

I am looking forward to your responses. As you all know for "In The Spotlight" at Carpe Diem there is no possibility to link your responses to the post, but if you love to leave haiku or tanka inspired on this "In The Spotlight" episode than feel free to do that in the comment field. 

Do you know a haiku poet or poetess to bring "In The Spotlight"  at Carpe Diem? Let me know.

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille, your host.

In The Spotlight at Carpe Diem #2 Joyce Lorenson

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to bring a new episode of our "In The Spotlight at Carpe Diem" feature. Last week I introduced to you Robert Gibson a.k.a. Ubugu and today I love to introduce to you another great haiku poetess who shares her haiku through the mail with us.

For starters I love to share a haiga created by Joyce inspired on "puddles" after that Joyce will tell you something about herself.

© haiku by Joyce Lorenson

This is what Joyce tells about herself:

[...] "I was born in 1944 in Rhode Island, U.S.A., and lived my first years on my grandfather's dairy farm by the sea, where my father and grandfather were fishermen and farmers. My childhood was spent working with my parents and brothers on our farms, a wonderful time so in tune with nature.

I grew up in the company of cows, surrounded by a river, a pond, fields, orchards and woods, and all the animals and birds that are part of that landscape. My entire life has been spent here in New England not far from where I was born. At age twelve I was introduced to poetry at school and was smitten. I decided I wanted to be a poet, but sadly I felt I had no ability and abandoned the idea.

Around that time I also discovered the culture of Japan and became enamored of all things Japanese. Upon graduating high school, I soon married and had a family, years later I became a florist, never losing my love of poetry, but not writing. 

Joyce Lorenson (2016)

Five years ago I decided it was now or never, I had to give writing a go. After writing several traditional free verse poems, I began to feel a shorter form would suit me better. Having always loved haiku, a year ago I thought I would try my hand at it and found it very enjoyable, but challenging, which also suits me.

I continually strive to improve my haiku. I have been very lucky to have had several poems published, a long awaited dream come true, as well as my dream of visiting Japan, which I did twice. I also paint, make botanical prints, and am a bird and nature watcher as I still live in a rural area." [...]

A wonderful biography in which we already read that Joyce is close to nature ... haiku has done it again ... haiku found another 'real' haiku poet living close to nature and with nature. As you have read above Joyce was already in love with nature on a young age and I am glad that she granted me also permission to use a childhood photo of her.

Joyce already studying nature on my grandfather's farm

I am honored that Joyce would participate in this new feature at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I have several haiku written by her inspired on our prompts which I love to share here too.

Magnolia:

magnolia blossoms
their lemony fragrance

lifting my spirits

lake:

lights along the shore

shimmering reflections

ripple in the lake

glowing in the dark

friendly lights

far side of the lake

inspired on Sara's kikobun:

dappled summer morning
picking silver blushed berries
tongues dyed indigo *

*This is taken from a poem I wrote about going blueberrying as a child.

haiga muddy road by Joyce Lorenson

A kikobun:

Nestled below Kamakura hills we descended down the path to visit the temple complex. It was a warm, sunny day with the scents of spring and bird song. The history and architecture filled us with awe and respect. After strolling about the grounds, we left, climbing the uphill path in contemplation when suddenly the stillness was broken by a loud blast of noise. We turned, looking back and down into the valley, and witnessed a chain of saffron robed monks walking in a procession from the temple, their leader blowing on a conch shell horn, a very Zen moment.

conch shell blast
quaking leaves
in the vacillating air

ginkgo:

an ancient gingko
girdled with a shimenawa
prayers of pilgrims

rain: 

unexpected rain
on the Kamakura station platform
a man selling umbrella

spatter of rain

on our umbrella
counting koi

waking to rain
in a lamp lit puddle
swirling leaves

haiga "prayers for rain" by Joyce Lorenson

falling leaves:

leaves sailing

in a whirl of wind
our separate lives

pagoda:

emerging from a cloud
of cherry blossoms

five storied pagoda

birds miss the point
piercing the sky
pagoda at Kan'ei-ji

I think you all think the same about Joyce her haiku and haiga. Joyce is a very gifted haiku poetess and I am so proud that I had the honor to create this "In The Spotlight" episode about her.

Do you know a haiku poet / ess without a weblog or website who loves to be published online here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai? Please let me know through an email to our emailaddress: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

I am looking forward to your responses. As you know there is no linking possibility for this special feature, but you can respond through the comment-field.

In The Spotlight at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1 Ubugu

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first episode of our new feature in which I will give haiku poets / esses without their own website or weblog a stage to share their haiku. In this new feature, "In The Spoltight At Carpe Diem Haiku Kai" I will introduce haiku poets / esses to you who have shared their haiku with me through e-mail.

In this first episode I love to introduce to you Ubugu (nom de plume of Robert Gibson). Ubugu has emailed me several times and he creates wonderful haiku in my opinion. All his haiku are inspired on the prompts here at CDHK and that makes it a joy to place him in the spotlight.

Ubugu (penname of Robert Gibson)

 Here is what he emailed me about himself:

My nom de plume "ubuge" is a Japanese botanical term. Think dandelion fluff. Strictly defined as: not the fruit or seed but the appendage or group of appendages aiding in the transport of the fruit or seed. This recognizes daemonic cryptomnesia, and thereby releases me to continue on my merry way without fear of indictment.

Speaking of merry ways, Carpe Diem Haiku Kai has kept me skipping along since the beginning of this year when she found me. Some points for meditation afforded pause...

that touch
urgent on my shoulder
begs me stay

© Ubugu

Ubugu jr.

And recently Ubugu send me another beautiful piece about himself:

Life on the river, when we are allowed to stay still and absorb the view, eventually suggests that the landings and signs along the way obscure a bounty of unknowables.  I emerged in 1944, a war baby, a preborn bastard  fathered by a Air Corps Cadet, carried to term by a teenage Wisconsin girl.  Hardly uncommon, and practically excusable: grasping for handholds while the world wages war.    The LZ was Shamrock Texas, the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado.  My paternal grandparents, Dust Bowl survivors and suitcase farmers, made a place for me.  At age 6, I was given over to Cheviot Hills Military Academy, an exclusive Culver City, California boarding school.  How this was financially possible still today ranks among my chief unknowables.  There, everything by the numbers.  I learned to make my letters by the numbers.  I learned to eat by the numbers.  The environment was sterile and unbending.  Then words came along.  Then sentences.  Then books.  The marks rose off the page, transfiguring into ideas and pictures. The word for yellow was indeed yellow.  The more words and I played together – coming easy as remembering -- the better acquainted we became.    And thus began my lives in letters.     At every juncture, language patiently adjusted to my level; that which I couldn’t understand was salted away for future processing.
  

In my forty-fourth year, haiku formally found me. I was writing my second book, Rubbings – A Vietnam Pastoral, and found myself high-centered.  The Higginson/Harter book that literally flew off the bookstore shelf offered a parsimonious dimension to writing I was made ready to learn.  From then on, the architecture and resonance from little stacks of pebbles joined the Rubbings narrative. 

pendulous spirit

a cloud passes

behind the moon

i feel you there

tho when i look - nothing

blinded angel,

to touch me

i must reach to you

mist and meadow

when I see my friend

distance ceases

Now in my seventy-first year, a mental haibun travels with me: in a remote old forest of tall redwoods and ferns, a small cabin. I lean out from a paneless opening, charmed by the wonder in all I see. The peace is complete save this forest whisper:

everything here

is for you

it is not yours

© Robert Gibson (penname: Ubugu)

Houston, Texas USA

And here are haiku he shared through the mail with me:

Haiku by Ubugu:

fishing:

learning to row -
grandfather teaches steering on
something behind

clouds:

many skies, many seas
a visiting ladybug
likewise

absurdity / humor:

funny
his sudden toupee
-- not to him

undou:

pendulous spirit --
a cloud ducks behind
the moon

hearing:

whispering pines --
so - why listen for the voice
of a solitary needle?

© Ubugu

Well ... I think Robert or Ubugu is a great and gifted haiku poet and I think that these haiku he shared with us here can be a source of inspiration. However ... for this new CDHK feature I will not create a linking widget, but if you would like to share your inspired haiku than feel free to share them with us in the comment field.

Next week I will place another wonderful haiku poetess in the spotlight on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

PS. I will publish our next episode, a new Tokubetsudesu, later than planned.