Carpe Diem 1795 New Beginnings ... Rainbow

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of wonderful Kai. This month I have themed "new beginnings", so all prompts have to do with new beginnings. Today I have chosen the prompt "rainbow", but what has the rainbow to do with new beginnings? Let me explain that to you all, but maybe you have an idea yourself.

The Rainbow was a sign of God, after the flood He promised Noah that He never would send a flood again to destroy all life. So in that context ... the "rainbow" is also a new beginning. This promise to Noah you can find in Genesis Chapter 9 verses 13 to 16:

13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (New International Version)

rainbow

Here is one from my archives:

the little child sobs
'I want to cross it' -
the rainbow bridge

© Chèvrefeuille

And here is a new one:

promises
no more destroying
peace will come

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 16th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1410 Rainbow (short-haibun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our Kai. This month I ask you all to create haibun ... "go and tell your story" you all did a wonderful task in the first weeks April. I am proud ... it makes me humble, because haibun isn't really my "cup of tea" and I am for sure not a great haibun poet.

Today I have another wonderful theme to work with ... "rainbow". Maybe you can remember our "rainbow" Theme Week "color your life" back in 2016. We explored the meaning of the colors of the rainbow and maybe, just maybe it can help you to create your short-haibun this time.

I have a wonderful haiku by Kobayashi Issa for you, that haiku you have to use or at least a "revision" of it. Write your short-haibun, with a maximum of 100 words (including the haiku) and share it with us all.

Here is the haiku by Issa:

evening's fall colors -
the rainbow in the valley
fades away

© Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

A real beauty by one of the greatest haiku poets ever. Issa had a tough life, but his poems aren't affected by it.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on.

Carpe Diem #1263 neighborhood of colors

Dear Haijin, visitors and travellers,

Welcome at a new episode, the last regular, in our month of "imagination without limits ". Today I have a beautiful Italian scene for you. Look at all those colors. This village lays against the mountains as you can see. All the houses have different colors and looks like a rainbow.  Isn't it beautiful? Must be a joy to live 

there.

rainbow
against mountains
joyful life

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode of CD Imagination is Now Open for your submissions and will remain open until October 4th at noon (CET ).  I will try to publish our new weekend-meditation later on. For now. .. have fun!

PS. Now Online our new CDHK prompt-list for October. You can find it above in the menu.

Carpe Diem # 1020 rainbow

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new (belated) episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a daily haiku-meme and the place to be if you like to create and share haiku (or tanka). This month it's all about "the power of words" so all our prompts are quotes by known and unknown people around the globe.

Today I love to inspire you with a quote by the African-American poetess Maya Angelou (1928-2014). I hadn't heard from her, but as I was doing my research for this episode I ran into a beautiful quote.

Maya Angelou knew why the caged bird sings, because, as a young girl, she was that caged bird. She escaped her cage, however, then sang and soared to amazing heights.

Maya Angelou

I read her biography and I think she really was an amazing woman, and a real great and gifted poetess. Here is the quote I have chosen for your inspiration:

[…]“Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.”[…] Maya Angelou

A beautiful quote and this is what it brought me for inspiration:

behind clouds
the bright sun hides her face
spraying colors

© Chèvrefeuille

And here one from my archives which I think it fits the quote:

bridge to heaven
walking upon the colorful bow
towards eternity

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 16th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem Extra May 23rd 2016 New CDHK e-book available

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

During lack of time I will publish our new episode in our Tan Renga Challenge month later on today. I have spend a lot of time to create our new exclusive CDHK E-book of our second Theme Week "Color Your Life", about the colors of the Rainbow.

This new exclusive CDHK E-book is Now Available for download at the left of our Kai. I hope you all will like it.

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Carpe Diem Theme Week #2 Color Your Life: violet

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This is our last episode of the second Theme Week of Carpe Diem. This week we discovered the deeper meaning of the colors of the rainbow and it was a joy to create this Theme Week for you all. As you all know after the Theme Week I create an exclusive CDHK e-book in which I gather all the posts and your responses on it. If you don't want your haiku (or other shared poem) published in this Theme Week e-book please let me know by sending me an email to  carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

Today we end our journey along the colors of the rainbow. Our last color is violet. This is the color of the seventh chakra, the crown-chakra.

Violet is the color of good judgment. It is the color of people seeking spiritual fulfillment. It is said if you surround yourself with violet you will have peace of mind. Violet is a good color to use in meditation.

Violet has been used to symbolize magic and mystery, as well as royalty. Being the combination of red and blue, the warmest and coolest colors, violet is believed to be the ideal color. Most children love the color violet. Violet is the color most favored by artists.

Violet is a combination of blue and red. Red is a focusing, dynamic and active energy while blue is cooling, calming and expansive. Violet brings a new dynamic to the expansion of blue and the activity of red. Red brings practicality to the undirected expansiveness of the blue, and allows more creative energy to emerge. For this reason, violet is associated with imagination and inspiration.

Violet is an important energy for those who use blue and indigo skills in the psychic field. The red in violet offers a grounding effect.

a violet mask
hides her red eyed face
lost spirituality

© Chèvrefeuille

in deep silence

I see the violet color
of spirituality

cold and warm colors

fused to deep violet
balanced again

© Chèvrefeuille

A last one on rainbow again, for closure so to say of this wonderful Theme Week about `Color Your Life` at Carpe Diem. Not one by myself but one of Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827).

yûmomiji tani zankô no kie kakaru

evening's fall colors -
the rainbow in the valley
fades away

© Issa

Thank you all so much for participating in this Carpe Diem Theme Week "Color Your Life", I have read wonderful haiku, all very wonderfully composed and colorful. It has been a pleasure to host this Theme Week.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions
and will remain open until March 27th 7.00 PM (CET).

Carpe Diem Theme Week #2 Color Your Life: Indigo

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our second Carpe Diem Theme Week “Color Your Life” is almost over. We have just two days ahead of us. Today our rainbow color is indigo. What can I tell about Indigo? Let's look at the spiritual meaning of Indigo.

Indigo is the color of the Third Eye Chakra

Indigo is the color of the deep midnight sky. It can have a negative effect when used during a depressed state, because it will deepen the mood. Indigo symbolizes a mystical borderland of wisdom, self-mastery and spiritual realization. While blue is the color of communication with others, indigo turns the blue inward, to increase personal thought, profound insights, and instant understandings. While blue can be fast, Indigo is almost instantaneous. Inventors use indigo skills for inspirations that seem to 'come out of the blue'.

Cosmic Rainbow

spiritual future

called Indigo child
third eye fully open
travel into oblivion
visiting ancestors

© Chèvrefeuille

Indigo ... a wonderful blue color ... strong rooted in spirituality. It's the color of the Third Eye, in the middle of our forehead.

Tomorrow we have our last rainbow color violet and that will close this second Carpe Diem Theme Week “Color Your Life”. It was really a joy to read all your posts on all those wonderful rainbow colors. Thank you all for participating in Carpe Diem.

As you all (maybe) know it’s my intention to create an e-book about this second Theme Week of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. In that e-book I not only wish to re-produce the posts, but also your submitted haiku. Just to give you a present to read again.

If you don’t want to be published in this e-book “Color Your Life”, than please let me know through sending an email to our CDHK email-address: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

This episode of our second CD-Theme Week is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 26th at 7.00 PM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Theme Week #2 Color Your Life: blue

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In case of you have missed the latest CD-Extra "for closure", you can find that post HERE.

Welcome at this belated Theme Week episode "blue". In our 2nd CD Theme Week we are exploring the deeper meaning of the colors of the rainbow and today that's "blue". Blue is one of my favorite colors, because it fits my idea of freedom. Blue in my opinion stands for freedom, because of the color of water and the sky. To be free like a fish in the ocean or a bird in the sky that's what blue means to me.

At the start of CDHK I have done a "rainbow"-week and to make it myself a little bit easy I have chosen (again) to use that former post on "blue".

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Today it's all blue what we will write for Carpe Diem. Blue is my favorite color. I love blue clothes and therefore I wear mostly jeans. Jeans giving me a good feeling, a feeling of joy and freedom ... and they are almost commonly blue. So this prompt must be an easy one to write haiku about.

wearing blue jeans

sign of happiness and freedom -

bleached with stones

jeans almost falling apart
can't throw them away

Blue ... the color of the sky, the color of the sea, blues the music I love.

Awesome! Blues ... my kind of music ... giving me joy and the feeling of freedom.

blues night
at the pub around the corner
drinking Guinness

patches of clouds
torn apart and drifting away
ah! that blue sky

My brother was a big fan of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and they had a song which I listen often. It was called 'Mr. Blue Sky'. It gives me that great feeling that my brother is in heaven. He passed away several years ago died of lung cancer. I miss him every day. So I love to share that song by ELO here:

in memoriam

mister blue sky high in heaven
still missing him

I hope you enjoyed this episode on Blue and I hope that it inspired you all to write wonderful haiku. Please leave a comment after linking.

This episode of our 2nd Theme Week is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until march 26th at 7.00 PM (CET).

Carpe Diem Theme Week #2 Color Your Life: Green

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our fantastic CDHK Theme Week about the colors of the rainbow. I have another nice episode for you all, but I have taken the easy way this time. At the start of CDHK I have done a week about the colors of the rainbow and because of the events here at CDHK and in the world (Belgium) I decided to re-produce the "old" episode on "green" here again with you.

Isn't it a great rainbow-week? I love to write all those colorful posts and I shall try to do that today again with green the fourth color of that graceful colored bow ... set as a gift to us by God. It's His promise to the world that He will never leave us alone ... it's a token of His Love.

Green is the color that belongs to the 4th chakra Anahata (at the center of the chest also called Heart Chakra). It's stimulating healing and makes self-love stronger and with that the love for others. As I already mentioned in my 'Red'-post Green is the spiritual color for love. Green is aligned with Venus and the Moon and has effect on our ability to share unconditional love and compassion. Wow! What a strong color!

unconditional love

shared with the world
green heart beats

© Chèvrefeuille

Did you know that there are green flowers? I only know one kind of succulent with green flowers. I don't know the name, but I have it in my garden at the front of my house.

almost invisible

between colored leaves
succulent's flowers

the color of the heart
green and not red as ever
ah! what a shock

© Chèvrefeuille

Green the color of love, the color of the heart. Let the green color sent you unconditional love her strong energy.

Here are a few other haiku inspired on the color green which I extracted from my archives:

touching the spikes
of green barley covered with raindrops -
refreshing tears

on the green paddy
no more rice planting songs -
just rustling of rice

late at night
picking young greens in the kitchen garden -
the almost full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

And to conclude this episode of our 2nd Theme Week I love to share a so called “rengay” (invented by Garry Gay) which I wrote together with my sensei Basho inspired on a beautiful “hokku” by him. (The hokku used is translated by myself)

breathtaking
sprouting green leaves
in the sunlight

sunbeams in the mirror
her smile even brighter

in the mirror
a man in the autumn of his life
his hair turned gray

gray misty morning
cows legs in the meadow
crowing of a cock

colorful field of flowers
finally exposed to the sun

breathtaking
colors sparkling in dewdrops
just one heartbeat

© Chèvrefeuille

It has become a nice episode for our Theme Week I would say and I hope it will inspire you to write haiku, tanka or another Japanese poetry form. Have fun!

This Theme Week episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 24th 7.00 PM (CET). I am looking forward to your responses.

Carpe Diem Theme Week #2 Color Your Life: Yellow

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are busy with our second Theme Week here at Carpe Diem and I really love to make this Theme Week, because it makes me somewhat sentimental. Why? Well at the start of CDHK (than called Carpe Diem) I had a "Rainbow"-week too and I have warm memories to that week so that's why it makes me somewhat sentimental.
As I see were I started in 2012 and see now what we have become ... than I am a proud host and a blessed haiku poet.

Introduction:


Today I will look at the color yellow and there are a few meanings which came immediately in my mind. Yellow, is the color of new life, Easter, but also the color of hate and it also means friendship. So these meanings are all very strong, but let us look at the other deeper meaning of this color.

Here is already a haiku from my archive. This one was first published as a "one-line" haiku, but I re-worked it to the three line form.

on the banks of the stream
as far as I can see
a yellow sea of ​​flowers

© Chèvrefeuille

Color Your Life: Yellow


Yellow is the brightest color the human eye can see. It means youth, as we can see in the variety of yellow flowers in spring. It gives you a feeling of joy and happiness. Yellow has to do with learning too, it resonates with the left (logical) side of the brain, therefore you can say that yellow is a male color. Yellow can give a boost to your creativity.

But ... yellow has also a different side as I wrote above it's the color of hate. Here are a few other ideas about the meaning of yellow:

The color yellow puts emotions aside, and thoughts comes from the head rather than from the heart. Yellow color meaning shows that it relies mostly on itself and prefers not to get emotionally involved. It relates to our ego, our self-confidence, how we see ourselves and how others see us.

If you are undergoing major changes in your life, you may find that you will not tolerate the color yellow very well – this will usually pass. It just means that you currently find it difficult to cope with all the new things in your life, and that yellow vibrates too fast for you, making you stressed. Add a little green or a soft orange color in your life for some time to restore your energy balance. It is worth mentioning that many older people do not respond well to large amounts of yellow, because the color vibrates too fast for them. (Source: color meanings)

My response:

Yellow ... not really a color I would wear or use in my home, but of course I enjoy the yellow flowers of spring and yellow light of the sun. Here is another haiku from my archives.

amazing sight
a yellow sea as far as I can see
Safflower field

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 23rd 10.00 PM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Theme Week #2 Color Your Life -- Orange

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you could have read I am still a little bit in shock after a publishing permission issue so for this second episode of our second Theme Week Color Your Life I have chosen to reproduce an earlier post on orange. My excuses for that ... it's with tears in my eyes and an aching heart that I have to choose the easy way today.

Introduction:

I have read wonderful haiku on Red and today the second color of our wonderful rainbow-week is on ... that will be orange another nice warm color. In my country (The Netherlands) we have our Royal Family of Orange, orange is a strong color in my country, but orange can also stand for a citrus fruit. Orange flowers and more orange to see around us ... what do you think of a beautiful sunset or sunrise ... well we shall see what I can do with this theme orange ... have to write at least one haiku.

Orange: 

Orange is a very strong color associated with creative energy. Nature grows through the sun (orange?) and therefore I think we will all have a slight reference towards orange as being the color of creativity. We have to cherish that energy, because we need it to create our haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry forms.

Orange combines red and yellow. It contains the fiery energy of red with the wisdom and control of yellow. Orange is a dynamic energy like red but more thoughtful and controlled.

Orange brings about: creativity; playfulness; exploration on a practical level; relief from boredom and equilibrium.

orange chrysanthemums

in full bloom standing proudly
waving in the wind

© Chèvrefeuille

My response:

I have to admit that I never have had seen a orange house, but as I was surfing the WWW I ran into a wonderful picture of a orange house somewhere in Bogota. And I had to write a haiku going along with it.

all day sunrise
what a joy to live in
my orange house

© Chèvrefeuille

And I just had to include a troiku based on “all day sunrise”:

all day sunrise
what a joy to live in
my orange house

all day sunrise
Mother Nature is confused
the longest day

what a joy to live in
a world full of fantasy
patches of clouds

my orange house
save harbor for my children
‘till when will it last?

© Chèvrefeuille

Of course I couldn’t close this episode of our Theme Week without creating a new haiku inspired on “orange”:

after the storm
drinking tea on the porch
royal sunset

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this Theme Week episode.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 22nd 7:00 PM (CET). !!! Beware of the shorter time you have to respond !!!

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #73 pi-ku another nice poetry form (reprise)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our weekly feature Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu. This week I love to challenge you to write a so called "pi-ku" as a kind of tribute to "Pi-day" which was on March 14. Why is this day called "Pi-day"? Because of the numbers of this date 3.14, which is the value of "Pi".

I remember that we have done this earlier in one of our episodes of "Carpe Diem Little Ones" that special feature about other little poetry  forms like haiku. I will give you an example of a pi-ku.

the sun rises
the heat
already tangible

© Chèvrefeuille

I sought the Internet for all the digits of Pi and I found the next (short) value: 3,14159 26535 89793 23846 ... and the digits go on and on, everlasting ...

Let us try to make a Pi-ku with the above digits in red (3,14159) the lines of the Pi-ku and the syllables-count would become the following:

1st line 3 syllables; 2nd line 1 syllable; 3rd line 4 syllables; 4th line 1 syllable; 5th line 5 syllables and the 6th line would be 9 syllables. To me this sounds great and will be for sure a challenge. So let me try to make my Pi-ku longer with those new lines and their syllables-count:

the sun rises
the heat
already tangible
mist
spirals above the stream
another day starts in mysterious ways 

© Chèvrefeuille 

Sunrise

Isn't it a wonderful (extended) pi-ku?

As you all know next week we will have our second Theme Week here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Last month the theme was "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" and in our second Theme Week we will "Color Our Life". I can hear you all think "coloring my life?" Yes ... we are going to explore the spiritual meaning of the colors of the rainbow.

At the start of Carpe Diem, back in 2012, I had also a week about the colors of the rainbow and in our next Theme Week "Color Your Life" we will have a reprise week (so to say). By the way ... at the end of this 2nd edition of Carpe Diem Theme Week I will create a new e-book (as I did last month for the Theme Week) in which I will gather all the episodes and all of your submissions.

Logo of our 2nd Carpe Diem Theme Week "Color Your Life"

yûmomiji tani zankô no kie kakaru

evening's fall colors -
the rainbow in the valley
fades away

© Issa 

I am looking forward to this new Theme Week, it will be a busy week, that's for sure, because I have to create two posts every day that week, but I enjoy it very much ... so I cannot wait until it is next week.

For closure a last message; The voting for our "Time"-kukai has closed. I will count the votes and I hope to publish the results later this week. Be patient.

I am busy with the creation of an anthology in which I have gathered all the submitted haiku for the "Winter"- en "Time"-kukai. I will give you the title already for this new CDHK e-book: "Melting To Nothingness" and it is taken from the following haiku by Nimi Arora:

a moments rest
melting to nothingness
snowflakes sigh

© Nimi Arora

Weel ... it has become another nice episode I would say. This Tokubetsudesu episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 18th at noon (CET). 

Carpe Diem Perpetuum Mobile #2 rainbows sparkle (or movement in haiku)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I had some spare time, so here is (against my earlier thoughts) an episode of one of our special features.

A while ago (somewhere in July 2015) I introduced CD Perpetuum Mobile to you. A special feature about movement in our beloved haiku. Movement? What is movement? How do I catch movement in my haiku? To catch movement in your haiku you can try movement as in "driving a car" or "the swirling of autumn leaves", but movement can also be "the change of seasons" or "the erosion of pebbles through water or sand". All examples of movement. To catch movement in a haiku is not easy, because sometimes it can look artificial and that, my dear Haijin, is something you and I don't want to see/read in our haiku.

Haiku is the poetry of nature and nature is always in motion. Seasons come and go, the moon changes every 28 days and so on, the only thing which is steady and without clear motion is our sun, that big star of our Milky Way around which the planets are rotating.

Nature is always moving and so it's like a perpetuum mobile. As I look at haiku on it selves than haiku is always changing too. As long as haiku exists the rules of writing them have changed like the waves, they have come and go and come again. So our beloved haiku is a perpetuum mobile in it's pure form I think.

seasons come and go
the everlasting motion of nature -
perpetuum mobile

© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: The Oceans are always in motion

A haiku must be fluid, it has to flow, but how can we bring that fluid, that flow into haiku? I think the only way to do that is being one with the scene, the moment, we have to describe in our haiku, but ... I can almost hear you think "haiku is an impression" as I love to call it.

Maybe you can remember our first series of Haiku Writing Techniques or our Impressionism month in which I stated that haiku is an impression, a surprise, but if we look at haiku that way and we have to bring movement into our haiku than we cannot be non-artificial, but still ... This sounds like a koan, that Zen question that enlightens you as you find the unexpected answer, the unexpected deeper meaning and beauty of your haiku.
Most haiku can be seen/read as such a koan, because you describe a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water that touched you and gave you a kind of insight ... or maybe a revelation.

dew drops shimmer
on colorful leaves
rainbows sparkle

© Chèvrefeuille

Do you see/read the movement? The light of the sun, the shimmering dew drops in which rainbows sparkle, and those colorful leaves making the sensational movement even better.

Credits: whirling leaves

Or what do you think of this one, from my archives:

waterfall of colors
leaves whirl through the street -
departing summer

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

In this haiku the movement, the motion is very clear present "leaves whirl through the street" ... all movement. Haiku becomes very lively through using movement ... so try it sometimes ... or just now.
The goal of this feature is trying to catch the perpetual motion of the seasons, of nature. This feature has no prompt, sometimes a theme, but mostly I will challenge you to catch movement in your haiku, movement of nature in specific.

This CD Perpetuum Mobile episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 22nd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Time Glass #16, Rainbow



!! Sorry I am a little bit late with this Time Glass episode, but I have decided to start it right now at 11.55 PM (CET) and it will close January 6th at 11.55 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
 

It's time for our first CD Time Glass episode of 2015. I will first explain the goal of this Time Glass feature. CD Time Glass is a time challenge. You've to respond within 24 hours after opening ... I will give a image and a prompt which you've to use for your inspiration.

 

Credits: Rainbow Colored Sky

As you have read in the title of this CD Time Glass the prompt for this episode is rainbow ... So you have to write a haiku (or Tanka) inspired on the given image and the prompt rainbow within 24 hours starting tonight at 11.55 PM (CET) and ends tomorrow night at 11.55 PM (CET).
 

Why such a 'short' time? Haiku (or Tanka) describes a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. This Time Glass feature learns you to respond in an eye-blink. So ... look carefully at the given image and try to write a haiku in an eye-blink. Have fun!

Carpe Diem "Time Glass" a time challenging feature #11, "Rainbow"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Last week I hadn't enough time to publish a "Time Glass" episode, but this week I love to challenge you again to write a haiku in 18 hours (instead of 24 or 12 hours).
The goal for this feature is to write a haiku inspired on a photo, image, painting or something and a given prompt. To respond on this Time Glass ... you have just 18 hours ... As I started this feature you had to respond within 12 hours, the last time you could respond within 24 hours, but now I have taken the golden middle way ... 18 hours ... I think 18 hours will give you all the possibility to respond.

This week's Time Glass prompt is: RAINBOW and I have the following photo (a haiga by myself) for you all for your inspiration:

I am looking forward to all of your wonderful responses and remember ... you have only 18 hours to respond. You don't have to use the classical rules, but if you want to ... please feel free to use them.

This "Time Glass" episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 25th 1.00 PM (CET). Have fun! !! Don't forget our regular prompt published a little bit earlier than this Time Glass episode !!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #45, "Double Rainbow"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I have found a little space to create this new Tan Renga Challenge, so the delay isn't very big. For this week's Tan Renga Challenge I have a nice first stanza composed by Ese of Ese's Voice. The goal of this Tan Renga Challenge is to compose a second stanza of two lines (7-7 syllables, no obligation by the way) to continue the scene/story of the first stanza ...

This is the haiku by Ese which I have chosen for starting the Tan Renga of this week:

double rainbow
arches across stormy sky
time to count blessings

© Ese of Ese’s Voice

Credits: Double Rainbow

A wonderful haiku to start with I think ... and now it's up to you to make this Tan Renga complete by composing the second stanza to it.

I love to compose my second stanza inspired on the last line of the haiku by Ese "time to count blessings" so here is my completed Tan Renga.

double rainbow
arches across stormy sky
time to count blessings                             (Ese)

the joy and laughter of my kids

resonates at the family barbeque               (Chèvrefeuille)

Well ... what do you think? 

This Tan Renga Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until next Friday. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your continuation or completion of this Tan Renga with us all.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #31,

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another week has gone by and I have read wonderful continuations on our last Tan Renga Challenge ... so it's time for a new Tan Renga Challenge ...
By the way: first this ... I have asked several of you, my dear Haijin, if I may use their haiku for this Tan Renga Challenges, but ... and I am terribly sorry ... I have lost my list of whom I have asked and which haiku. Please if I have asked you if I may use your haiku? Please let me know.
Second: I am hopelessly behind with commenting, but I will catch up asap.

For this Tan Renga Challenge I have chosen a haiku written by myself. It's a 'revision' of a haiku by Kikaku which I published lately on my new weblog "Ancient Haiku-poets Revisited".
I challenge you all to write a second stanza to this haiku, traditionally that second stanza is 7-7 syllables, but that ... as you all know ... is not an obligation.

Credits: Rainbow

Here is the first stanza of our 31st Tan Renga Challenge:

in the backyard
the rainbow in the birdbath breaks -
a sipping Magpie 

(c)Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I like this haiku and I think that it's an inspiration to write a second stanza to it, because Tan Renga is written by two poets, I couldn't write a second stanza to make this Tan Renga complete, but ... I turned it into a Tanka and here it is:

in the backyard
the rainbow in the birdbath breaks -
a sipping Magpie
raindrops shimmer on green leaves
thousand sparkling colors

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This Tan Renga Challenge episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 25th 11.59 AM (CET). Have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with us all.

Carpe Diem Preview 7, looking back

Dear haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are almost halfway our second Carpe Diem month. So it's time to look back to all those wonderful little gems and diamonds you've shared.
We started with two days of Halloween, All Souls Night and All Souls Day. I read wonderful haiku e.g.the set by Green Speck.

all souls night invite,
party of the afterlive,
red delicacies

spooky haunted house,
sorry tales, revisited,
scary adventures

(c) Green Speck

Dulcina of Dulcina's garden provided us with a wonderful series inspired on the Galician Legend 'La Santa Compana'. I will reproduce a few haiku:

souls' night procession
wanders through roads and forests,
barefoot, candle lights

chains sound in the mist
white cloaks, shrouds, hoods, in full pain -
Galiza's Legend

(c) Dulcina

Or this one written by myself:

in the chapel
the sound of whispering voices
All Souls Day

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Bjorn Brudberg wrote this haiku for All Souls Day:

graveyard memories
visiting the relatives
flickering candles

flickering candles
communicate with elders
souls of ancestors

(c) Bjorn Brudberg

Magical Mystical Teacher came up with:

in a desert place,
far from the mummers dance,
twisted spirits roam

(c) Magical Mystical Teacher

Another wonderful haiku on All Souls Day was written by Kathy Donlan of 'A rest from Moon viewing':

wisps of cloud
a hazy halo
wreaths the moon 

(c) Kathy Donlan

After Halloween, we entered the Rainbow-week which was inspired on haiku by Kaykuala. He wrote a wonderful post for our first Carpe Diem month on the prompt rainbow and in this second Carpe Diem month he did it again.

spanning Tokyo Bay
Odaiba leisure island
the destination

(c) Kaykuala

The above haiku was inspired on the Rainbow-bridge over Tokyo Bay.

Rainbow-bridge over Tokyo Bay

Loredana Donovan of 'Blogging Away' wrote the next haiku on rainbow This one was part of a haiku series 'After The Storm'. I will reproduce one of that series:

follow the rainbow
into the heights of the sky -
find serenity

(c) Loredana Donovan

Joanne of 4Joy granted us with the next set of haiku inspired on rainbow.

we will meet again
through curtain of mist o'ver bridge
wondrous reunion

joyous times now past
meeting again in new love
to hold you once more

(c) Joanne

Rinkly Rimes posted a brilliant haiku:

a curve of beauty
multi-coloured perfection
a gift after rain

(c) Rinkly Rimes

It was a colorful Rainbow-week, every color of the rainbow was used and brought wonderful haiku. It was really a joy to host the Rainbow-week. And I granted all of our contributors with the Rainbow Week Award. I will reproduce here of every color a haiku or few.

RED:

mysterious sight
the rising of the Red Moon
midsummer event

(c) Chèvrefeuille

red geraniums
ruby apples, scarlet leaves, 
fires natures' kindling

(c) Becca Givens 

wind from Lake Michigan
hitting trees in November
foliage keeps bright red

(c) Rheumatologe Lothar

ORANGE:

orange leaves shining
glimmering in sunlight days
seasons moving on

(c) Carol and ArtMuseDog

an orange
the size of the sun
fills my plate

(c) Mark M. Redfearn

YELLOW:

memories from past
yellow flowers on her grave
left us long ago

(c) Bjorn Brudberg

white daisies
sun-streaked freckled face
day is done

(c) Becca Givens

golden fall delight
tamarack shines on road side
needles fall to soon

(c) Siggi of Maine

the rays through the leaf
reveal the veins still alive
beating in the tree

(c) Dulcina

GREEN:

unconditional love
shared with the world
green heart beats

(c) Chèvrefeuille

summer time visit
La Coca mist fills the space,
cools air, spirit calms

(c) Siggi of Maine

Credits: Blue Jay

BLUE:

Sagura woman
imploring blue sky for help -
lizard flicks its tongue

(c) Magical Mystical Teacher

blue of a sky and
accompanied with sunshine
is one so refined

(c) Kaykuala

my lady blue eyes
mere idlers and vagabonds
seek to win your hand

(c) Mark M. Redfearn

INDIGO:

color made from plant
indigo truly depth hue
folklore tales speak words

(c) Carol and ArtMuseDog

dull is the pain, grief
red, green, blue, orange, yellow
quietly earth breaks

(c) Shakira

indigo inked night
luminous silvery moon
enchanted faeries

(c) Becca Givens

indigo night sea,
stars above, burning brightly;
fall night warms spirit

(c) Siggi of Maine

when God was a child
with lips painted indigo,
she danced with the moon

(c) Mark M. Redfearn

clad in indigo
nomads through the desert
oasis waiting far away

(c) Rheumatologe Lothar

VIOLET:

little small faces
staring deep into my eyes
Delta Violets

(c) Chèvrefeuille

violet mountains
painted by the setting sun
we haste further on

(c) Bjorn Brudberg

remember Violet?
Mr. Wonka, chocolates?
Give me more prompts. NOW!

(c) Robyn

the lenten altar
purple shrouded crucifix
invisible sight

(c) Joanna - 4joy

tender winter's night
soft violet casts for snow's shade
passion in the cold

(c) Siggi of Maine

On November 11th we had our first Special. This month the Specials are haiku written by Kobayashi Issa (for short: Issa) and his first inspirational haiku was one with the meaning of his name, 'cup of tea', in it:

rising into
the year's first sky ...
tea smoke

(c) Issa 

This haiku inspired me to write:

tea smoke wisps
on New Year's Day
just like last year

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Carol and ArtMuseDog wrote:

leaves fallen down
little heroes of nature
food for tomorrow

(c) Carol and ArtMuseDog

Bjorn Brudberg was also inspired and posted a nice haiku set:

fragrant tea
new year promises
willow sleeps

(c) Bjorn Brudberg

Or Dulcina's post:

climbing millky clouds
on January's first morning
coffee aroma

(c) Dulcina

collecting on glass
tea pot steaming warm liquid
new year chill dispelled

(c) Joanne - 4joy

steaming cup of tea
smudging first sky's winsome face -
mist from the Lowlands

(c) Mark M. Redfearn

A few of you, my dear haijin, used the wrong haiku by Issa because I gave another one by Issa in my last Rainbow week post:

evening's fall colors -
the rainbow in the valley
fades away

(c) Issa

Dulcina and Siggi of Maine used that haiku by Issa. By the way nothing wrong with that (smiles). Siggi wrote the next haiku inspired on that 'wrong' haiku by Issa:

rainbows every day
reminders hope is nearby
stop, look and listen

(c) Siggi of Maine

Our 'hero' prompt inspired several haijin to share their heroes with Carpe Diem, a little selection:

all dogs are heroes
they just need an occasion
to prove their courage

(c) Dulcina

hero legacy
monument to celebrate
conquest of a deer

(c) Bjorn Brudberg

I am stranded here
night is black and I see you
hero on rickshaw

(c) Tarun Mazumdar

Mahatma Gandhi
fighter for freedom
without violence

(c) Chèvrefeuille

As I post this Carpe Diem Preview the prompt 'fire' (provided by Dulcina) is still on, so that prompt I will look back at in the Preview of the second half. I already have read nice haiku on Fire e.g. this one by WabiSabi  :

winter sunrise
melts an old icicle-heart
with fire

(c) Wabi Sabi

This haiku by WabiSabi concludes this first Carpe Diem Preview in which I looked back to all your wonderfully composed haiku.
  

Thank you all for giving me a purpose to go on with Carpe Diem.

Namaste, Shalom, Blessed Be