Carpe Diem #1485 creating memories

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I had to work and that wasn't easy because of the heat, but well .... we finally had some showers of rain and temperatures have become more acceptable for the Dutch, say around 25 degrees Celsius. We still have a wonderful warm summer and this is one of the summers we will never forget.

Well this wonderful Imagination Without Limits is almost over, today we have our penultimate episode. After this month we will go on a journey around the world and discover various pieces of folkmusic like fado and tarantelle. But that's for later ...

I have found a very nice photo for you to work with, it's a photo I took a few years ago somewhere in my hometown. It's in the neighborhood of my mom, that's also the neighborhood were I grew up a teenager.

the nature of my hometown (photo © Chèvrefeuille)

I have only nice memories of this neighborhood and I cherish them with whole my heart. My youngest daughter, her friend and my youngest grandson are now living in that neighborhood too. It's a photo I took while walking with my grandson to my mother, his great grandmother.

wandering
memories of long ago
creates new ones

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... what do you think ... this haiku / senryu is really awesome (how immodest) ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, the last one of July, later on.

By the way ... I am a little bit behind with commenting, but I hope to catch up a.s.a.p.

Carpe Diem #1478 Harbor

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time for a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like write and share Japanese poetry like haiku and tanka. Today I will give you a beautiful image for your inspiration. It's (again) a photo from my hometown, but I also have a question for you. Let me give you first the image for your inspiration and after that my question.

The Harbor of my hometown (image © Chèvrefeuille)

And here is my question: You may use this image for your inspiration or share an image taken in your neighborhood or hometown and share your inspired Japanese poetry on your own image.

I enter the harbor
finally home again
after the storm
seagulls cry, their sad voice
a treasure for my heart

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 25th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun and awaken your muses!

Carpe Diem #1476 Silver Park

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have an announcement to make. As you (will) see at the right of our Kai, the link towards our forum is deleted. I have deleted the forum, because it didn't work well enough and it took to much of my time to keep it up to date.
Second I have another announcement to make ... next month August 2018 we will go on a journey here at CDHK. We will visit countries all over the world for their folk music. Every regular episode will feature a music video of a kind of folk music. I will try to tell you a little bit background on that kind of folk music and I hope that will help your muses to awaken.

Okay ... back to this new episode of our wonderful Kai. As I told you earlier this month I love to share images of my hometown this month too. And today I have another wonderful image for you. It's our so called "Silver Park" and it is situated in front of the hospital were I am working as an oncology nurse. In this same "Silver Park" the youth of our town have created what they call "Silver Hills", it's a skateboard yard with all kind of tricks. It's a wonderful place to relax for them and it's really a joy to watch them while doing their tricks.

"Silver Park" (photo © Chèvrefeuille

The hospital you cannot see on this photo, but it's situated more to the right in this photo. The name of this park is derived from the Silver Birches around this park and that brought a haiku from my archives in mind:

in pale moonlight
silver birches look like ghosts
rustling leaves

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

And a new one, more inspired on the image:

sound of water
waterlilies dance in the sun
ah how refreshing!

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN (TOO) for your submissions and will remain open until July 23rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have a great day full of inspiration!

Carpe Diem #1470 A Wild Ride, the story of the Batavia

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I have had for sure a wonderful weekend. The Netherlands is "suffering" from a heatwave. Temperatures are rising towards 30 degrees Celsius and no rain at all. With all the dangers going with that of course, but that's not our theme for today.

I love to tell you a little bit more about my hometown, Lelystad The Netherlands. Lelystad is the capital of the province Flevoland. Flevoland is all polder (land created from the bottom of the sea). It's a huge province, but our history isn't very long. It goes "only" back to the sixties. My parents, me and my brother moved to Lelystad in 1968 and my family is still living here. We have seen our hometown grow to the city we are now.

One of the great prides of my hometown is a replica of the V.O.C ship Batavia. It was built on our coastline and even now the shipyard were the Batavia was built is still in business and is now building a replica of another ship of the VOC, The Seven Provinces.

Let me first give you the image you have to use for our Imagination episode of today. It's a photo taken just around the corner were I live on the shipyard of the Batavia.

Batavia shipyard at Lelystad The Netherlands (photo © Chèvrefeuille)

The above image shows how the Batavia rests at our coast just around the corner were I live. It's a wonderful ship and it's open for the public. I have been on it several times and for sure it feels like you are back in time, but the story behind the Batavia isn't something to be proud on as Dutch people. Let me tell you a little bit about Batavia's history.

Madness, mutiny and murder. The story of the Batavia is a wild ride.

The history of the Batavia Shipwreck is one of great intrigue not only for its brutality and gore but the 'Lord of the Flies' esque feel the story has. So much so, that countless books and films have retold the horrific event. The most recent venture coming from Russel Crowe after he bought the rights to Hugh Edwards' book "Angry Ghosts."

It might sound like the plot of an implausible Hollywood blockbuster, but the terrible tale of the Batavia is frighteningly real.
In October 1628, the Dutch East India Company’s Batavia set sail from the Netherlands to Batavia on her maiden voyage, with a cargo that included vast amounts of jewels and coins.
After making her way south, the Batavia struck a reef just 40 kilometres off the coast of Western Australia, near the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, in June 1629.
As the ship began to sink, most survivors made their way to a nearby island, which would later become known as Batavia’s Graveyard.
But the Batavia’s Commander Francisco Pelsaert surfaced on a smaller island nearby.
After discovering the islands were barren, Pelsaert, his skipper and 35 other men left the islands for Batavia, now known as Indonesia, in search of help, food and water.

Batavia on full sail

Once his commander had departed, Under merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz began to plot a mutiny.
His original plot to mutiny and seize the ship had been made before the wreck, but the Batavia had sunk before Cornelisz could put his plan into action.
Cornelisz and his motley crew of mutineers sent anyone who might oppose their plans to other islands in search of water.
Beginning with the weak and injured, Cornelisz and his men began their mass murder. With their bloodlust still not satisfied, the mutineers hunted down the men sent to other islands. In total, 125 men, women and children were massacred.
Cornelisz kept some women alive to be repeatedly raped and tortured.
One man managed to escape and swim to the men sent to find water on Wallabi Island.
With the alarm raised, word was sent to Pelsaert when he returned from Batavia in a rescue ship.

While still on the island, the mutineers were tried for the murders. After ten days of torture, they confessed and were convicted. Seven men were hanged and two were sentenced to marooning on the Australian mainland, making them the first ever recorded European settlers. (Source: National Geographic Channel)

It's not a story were we the Dutch are proud off, but it's nevertheless part of our history. The replica of the Batavia is one of the most attractive sightings in my hometown and millions have visited her.

Strong Rose

alive again
after the summer storm
strong rose

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 15th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1467 bench in the park

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month I hope to inspire you through images I found on Internet, but also images made by myself. This month I hope to show you sometimes images taken in my hometown, Lelystad The Netherlands, for example today I love to inspire you through an image taken in a park just around the corner in my neighborhood. I hope this image inspires you.

Bench in the park

This park is just around the corner of my home. It's a nice park to walk the dog and go out fishing, but this park to me is also a place to meditate and contemplate. I often sit down on one of the benches and let my thoughts go where ever they want to go. Just sitting there in silence ... it gives me new energy and inspiration.

without thoughts
the sun cherishes my naked body
day dreaming

© Chèvrefeuille

I can hear you think ... "really? naked in the middle of the neighborhood?" Yes it's true of course without offending other people in the park. (smiles)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... enjoy the peace and silence of the park.

Carpe Diem #1241 Exposure (Antony Gormley)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of CDHK. We are exploring "modern art" this month and try to create art ourselves with haiku, tanka or another Japanese poetry form. Today I love to invite you to virtual visiting the harbor of my hometown, Lelystad The Netherlands, were we will find a wonderful and somewhat strange piece of "modern art" created by Antony Gormley ... Exposure ....

Exposure (Antony Gormley) 

This is what Antony Gormley tells us about "Exposure":

[...] "My concept of how sculpture works in the landscape is that it is a still point in a moving world. The whole idea of EXPOSURE is that this work, made at a particular time, rooted to ground, reacts over time to the changing environment. One of the known environmental changes that is happening is the rising of the sea level through global warming. It is critical to me that at the time of its making this work reacts with the viewer, the walking viewer, on the top of the polder and that the surface that the viewer stands on is the surface that the work stands on. The work cannot have a plinth. Over time, should the rising of the sea level mean that there has to be a rising of the dike, this means that there should be a progressive burying of the work."[...] (Source: Antony Gormley)

Exposure as seen from the dike (photo by Chèvrefeuille)

I am a big fan of this sculpture, but there are a lot of people who don't like it.

My hometown has several harbors, but at the most important one you can observe this statue called 'exposure'. It's a great steel structure and it shows a squatting man that looks over the IJsselmeer (a large lake, a former sea called Zuiderzee) the result of the Dutch reclaim of land from the waters. In my hometown 'exposure' is sometimes called 'the shitting man', because it looks like someone who's shitting in free nature.

Batavia Harbor, in the background (to the left) you can see Exposure too (photo by Chèvrefeuille)

"Exposure" is guarding our harbor and it's a wonderful piece of art. You can say that "exposure" is the business card of our town.

guardian angel
looks out over the harbor
a shitting man
constructed out of steel
exposed to the weather

© Chèvrefeuille

Of course I had to try to create a new poem inspired on this beautiful piece of Modern Art, but I couldn't come up with something, so I decided to "re-do" an "oldie" as you have read above.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 28th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode later on, but I don't know yet which piece of modern art I am going to use, ... for now have fun!