Carpe Diem "Time Glass" #6 "Pine Tree"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's time for another episode of our "Time Glass" feature in which the goal is to compose and link-up a haiku inspired on a given photo and a prompt within 12 hours. This feature will bring you into that "moment" as short as the sound of a pebble thrown in water, one of the base-rules of haiku.
Of course you are all free to participate or to not participate ...
For this episode I have tried to bring our Second Anniversary in this feature by using a photo and prompt extracted from one of our older episodes.

Mountain Landscape

You have to use this photo and the prompt PINE TREE for your inspiration. So try to become one with the photo and the prompt to explore that "moment" become part of it and let it inspire you.

I am looking forward to your responses. And don't forget "you have to respond within 12 hours" starting tonight at 7.00 PM (CET).

This episode will be open until October 14th 7.00 AM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Special #29, Onitsura's 'voice of the pine-tree'

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This Carpe Diem month is about to end, just two to go and than a new Carpe Diem month will start. April will be a very special Carpe Diem month to me. In that month I will become 50 yrs of age and it's also the month in which I hope to celebrate my 25th anniversary as a haiku-poet. As I have told you all already in April the Carpe Diem Specials will be haiku of my own. I am writing under the 'nom de plume' Chèvrefeuille, which means Honeysuckle. I hope to share wonderful haiku. I think I have written almost 10.000 haiku (could be even more, but I have never counted my haiku). So I can choose from a broad range of haiku. But that's for our next month.

Today I love to share the last haiku written by our haiku-master of this month, Onitsura, for this Carpe Diem Special. I have given that haiku already in my yesterday episode and I love to give that wonderful haiku here again.

suzukaze ya koku ni michite matsu no koe

the cool breeze
fills the empty vault of heaven
with the voice of the pine-tree

(c) Onitsura (1660-1738)

Credits: Pine tree bonsai (visit this site, it's a wonderful site on bonsai)

Onitsura was a contemporary of Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) the most known haiku-master ever I think and he is my role-model. I even have a weblog on which I 'revisit' haiku written by Basho. You can find that weblog HERE. Onitsura tried to write his haiku in the style of Basho and followed his rules for writing haiku. As you may know a classical haiku has a few rules:

• syllables count (5-7-5)
• a kigo (seasonword)
• three lines, but the classical haiku poets used to write their haiku as one-line
• in haiku is nature (and the place of human kind in nature) very important. It's sometimes called 'the poetry of nature'
• a haiku describes a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. (Maybe we can say: 'haiku ist einer Aha-Erlebnis').
• haiku is mostly based on the philosophy of the haiku-poet and in the classical haiku setting it was based on Zen-Buddhism.

Back to the haiku written by Onitsura. R.H. Blyth wrote a comment on this haiku in his Haiku Volume 3 Summer-Autumn. (Blyth wrote several books about Haiku, but his four Volume series Haiku is 'the Bible of haiku'.

Blyth wrote:

[...] Which is it makes the sound, the pine-tree or the breeze? Is empty space warm or cool? The region of the poem is not different from that of these questions, the answer to them, - not the logical or purely intellectual answer, but the answer that willy-nilly we have to accept. If you arein the state of mind to accept the answer willingly, life accomplishes its ultimate and only object, to be lived. [...]

I found a wonderful haiku written by Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), one of the four haiku-masters:

waga matsu mo katajikenasa ya haru no ame

my pine tree too
is grateful...
spring rain

It's a nice haiku and refers to the soul of haiku, nature, and to the idea that everything and everyone has a soul. Even a stone has a soul. It's as deep in it's layers as the one by Onitsura. 

To write another haiku inspired on the one by Onitsura isn't easy, because I would love to touch the soul and spirit of Onitsura in that new haiku. So here I go ... meditating and contemplating on the haiku by Onitsura, trying to come in touch with his haiku, to become one with his haiku and his soul and mind.

in touch with the gods
pine trees reaching for heaven -
skylarks sing their song

skylarks sing their song
high against the bright blue sky
in honor of the gods

in honor of the gods
pine trees and skylarks together
reaching for heaven

reaching for heaven
sending up my prayers and become
in touch with the gods

What a lovely cascading haiku. Looks like the growing of the soul ... chakra's opening to heaven, my spirit joins in with nature ... feeling like the pine trees and skylarks.
I think that I have touch the soul, mind and spirit of Onitsura ... I am blessed.

Well ... this concludes the last Carpe Diem Special for March. I hope you enjoyed the read and I hope to read wonderfully composed haiku inspired on the one by Onitsura. Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us here on Carpe Diem and with the world.

This Special will stay on 'till March 31th (Easter Sunday) 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our last episode of Carpe Diem's March later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). That will be: Yanagi (willow). That's our last classical kigo of Spring. I hope to prepare a new month of classical Japanese kigo in the first month of Summer, June. 

PS.: I am still busy with preparing our new prompt-list for April, but I will succeed. Be patient, I will soon publish the new prompt-list.

Carpe Diem Special #9, plum blossom

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

A new Carpe Diem Special, the last one for this month and also the last one with a haiku written by Issa. Our next haiku-master who will provides us with his haiku is Buson, also one of the four greatest haiku poets.

Today a haiku written by Issa on Pine Trees and Plum Blossom. I think this is an example of Issa's brilliance. Issa's brilliance is sometimes discussed, because there are several sources who state that Issa wasn't a haiku poet, but just a poet. I think however that Issa is for sure a haiku master and that he for sure can be mentioned in one breath with Basho, Buson and Shiki.

In Issa's haiku we can see, feel and read that he was a devotee of Buddha Amida, a sect of Buddhism.
This haiku I have chosen is (in my opinion) a masterpiece and in this masterpiece we can find Buddhism as Issa was devoted too.  

As we look closer to this haiku we see the strong pine tree rising to the sky, always green whole year through and the fragility of the plum blossom. In this is Buddhism ... eternity, but also transience. This haiku is balanced and the picture it paints is gorgeous.  

In this Issa humanized the plum blossom and suggests that it is resting on the roots of the pine tree on it's downward journey. The plum blossom will the food for the pine tree when completely decayed ... it becomes one with the pine tree. All is one ... a true Buddhist lesson.

Credits and Copyright: Pine Tree and Plum Blossom

matsu ga ne [ni] hito iki shite wa ume no hana

catching its breath
on the pine tree's root...
plum blossom

This haiku Issa wrote in 1805.

To write a new one inspired by this beauty of Issa will not be easy ... so good luck and have fun, be inspired and creative. Share your creativity with Carpe Diem.

My inspiration:

fragile plum blossom
struggles in the Spring Breeze -
petals fall in the mud  

even a pine tree
falls in love with the blooming plum -
just like humans

Well it was fun. I loved writing these haiku and this last Carpe Diem Special on Issa for you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers.

This Special will stay on 'till November 30th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our last prompt for November first snow later on today around 10.00 PM (CET).