Carpe Diem Writing and Enjoying Haiku #3 classical haiku

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 23rd at 7.00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's almost weekend and that means ... time for a new episode of our "weekend-meditation" feature. This weekend I have a nice episode for you of "Carpe Diem Writing and Enjoying Haiku", inspired on the book by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016).
In the last episode of "Writing and Enjoying Haiku" you had to create haiku without rules, this time, I love to challenge you to create haiku following the rules, the most basic rules of haiku. You may choose your own theme, but you have to follow the following rules:

1. A kigo seasonword)
2. A kireji (cutting-word or punctuation)
3. 5-7-5 syllables (onji)
4. The theme is nature
5. A spiritual, Zen-Buddhistic layer / meaning
6. First and Third line are interchangeable
7. In your haiku you may not use "I", because in haiku the poet isn't visible

All rules ... you (we) have to follow, but as Basho once said "forget the rules". Well for this episode of Writing and Enjoying Haiku you (we) cannot forget the rules.

As you all (maybe) know I am not a haiku poet that follows the rules, I am more like Santoka Taneda and try to create my haiku in the "free-style" way. So this challenge will not be easy for me, but of course I had to give it a try and created this haiku following the rules:

a fragile cobweb
dressed in crystalline dewdrops
treasure at sunrise

© Chèvrefeuille

Pff ... that wasn't easy. In my opinion this is a nice haiku, but it looks somewhat artificial, but after re-reading I had to change my opinion. It has become a real nice haiku. I think all the "rules" are in it, but about the Zen-Buddhistic layer I am not sure. What do you think?

This "weekend-meditation" is open for your submissions next Sunday July 23rd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 28th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, dunes, also around 7:00 PM (CET) next Sunday. Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem "Sparkling Stars" #12, Tranströmer's "Inner Voice"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's time for a new episode of CD's Sparkling Stars feature in which I share haiku written by classical or non-classical haiku poets for your inspiration. This episode I love to introduce to you all our featured haiku-poet of November, Tomas Tranströmer (1931-). (You can find our new prompt-list in the above menu).

Tomas Tranströmer (born Stockholm, Sweden,15 April 1931) is a Swedish writer, poet and translator, whose poetry has been translated into over 60 languages. Tranströmer is acclaimed as one of the most important European and Scandinavian writers since World War II. Critics have praised Tranströmer’s poems for their accessibility, even in translation; his poems capture the long Swedish winters, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature. He was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature.

I have to tell you that I had never heard of him until last year. I read an article about him in the magazine of the Dutch Haiku Circle (Dutch Haiku Association). That article was about Swedish and Scandinavian haiku poets and in that article Tranström was mentioned. Not so long ago Björn Rudberg brought Tranströmer to my attention. So ... well it's faith I think, I had to do something with Tranström. I decided to make him our featured haiku poet for November.

Tomas Tranströmer (1931-)

Here are a few haiku (haiku-like, American haiku) written/composed by him:

up along the slopes
under the sun – the goats
were grazing on fire.

on the balcony
standing in a cage of sunbeams –
like a rainbow

something has happened.
the moon lit up the room.
God knew about it.

hear the sighing rain.
I whisper a secret, to reach
all the way in there.

a scene on the platform.
what a strange calm –
the inner voice

© Tomas Tranströmer

Ineer Voice

I adore his way of composing haiku or haiku-like poems. In his work you can find the strong religious feelings of him towards nature and God. I think that he had to be the Noble Prize Winner of Literature in 2011 ... his work is really awesome.

For this episode of CD's Sparkling Stars I love to challenge you to write a classical haiku based on "Inner Voice". So you have to follow the classical rules:

• 5-7-5 sylables
• a seasonword (kigo)
• a cutting word (kireji), mostly interpunction in Western haiku
• a moment as short as the sound of a pebble tthrown into water
• a deeper (spiritual/religious) meaning

I know it will not be an easy task, but ... you have a whole week to try. I (of course) have given it a try too. Here is my classical haiku inspired on "Inner Voice".

in deep silence
searching for the Inner Voice --
sound of temple bells

© Chèvrefeuille

I didn´t succeed in the given task myself ... it wasn´t easy to compose this haiku on `Inner Voice`, but it was a real joy to make it.

This episode of Sparkling Stars is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Saturday November 8th at noon (CET). For now ... have fun!