Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #58 Dodoitsu

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Recently we decided, as a family of haiku poets, to open CDHK for other Japanese poetry forms. And to "warm-up" I have another Tokubetsudesu episode for you. This week I will tell you something more about a, not so well known, Japanese poetry form, dodoitsu.

Dodoitsu is a form of Japanese poetry developed towards the end of the Edo Period. Often concerning love or work, and usually comical, Dodoitsu poems consist of four lines with the syllabic structure 7-7-7-5 and no rhyme or metre.

One Night

one night I searched for a star
what I found was a full moon
now my every day is
full of shooting stars

© Ben Gieske (2012)

Credits: Shooting Stars

And this is what Jane Reichhold tells us about dodoitsu:

Recently there has been some interest in a minor Japanese genre called the "dodoitsu" that has a small following among English writers. It was a traditional form for popular and folk songs and the name ("quickly city to city") appears to refer to the speed with which such new songs spread. In Japanese, the "dodoitsu" contains twenty-six sound units (onji) composed of four phrases in 7-7-7-5 sound units. Its hard to find examples of "dodoitsu" among literature because most of these songs, sung in the accompaniment of the shamisen (a banjo-like instrument with three strings), relied on the oral tradition and are therefore lost to us. Since the subject matter was either love or humor as viewed by inhabitants of the pleasure quarters, the existing works have attracted very little attention in English.

The above "dodoitsu" however is a nice example. As I sought the Internet I ran into a recently written "dodoitsu" which I love to share here:

Love Like Raindrops

Love, like raindrops falling down
Embraced the dried barren earth
Each drop a soothing caress
That softens... and wins.

© CynthiaBuhain-Baello (2015)

I think this a nice poetry form which (maybe) needs more attention, because it's fun to compose them and it helps to make you maore creative and that will also have its influence on your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry forms.

Honeysuckle

Of course I had to try it myself and this is what it has become:

her shadow on the white wall
her nude silhouette arouses me
I smell her fragile perfume
Honeysuckle blooms

© Chèvrefeuille

Wow ... what a nice dodoitsu (with a twist) I know, I know ... that sounds immodest, but I am really proud on this very first dodoitsu ever composed by me. I think this poetry form can become another addiction of mine ...

I hope you all like this episode and this "new" poetry form, dodoitsu, and I hope to read your dodoitsu soon. Have fun!

This Tokubetsudesu episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until August 28th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, White Nile, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem's Little Ones #1

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I recieved a question of Maggie Grace and she asked me if it was possible to make a new feature on Carpe Diem about one liners and other shorter verses then haiku. So I love to introduce a new feature ... (drum-roll) I give you ... CARPE DIEM LITTLE ONES ... As the name says it's all about little ones ... shorter forms of haiku. E.g Pi-ku, One-Line haiku (Monoku) or the Modern way of haiku.

What's a Pi-ku?

Pi-ku is a haiku form based on the mathematical number Pi, it's value is 3,14 this value is seen in the three lines: 1st = 3 syllables; 2nd = 1 syllable and 3rd = 4 syllables. I will give an example:

the sun rises
the heat
already tangible

Several days ago I published a Carpe Diem Freestyle episode in which I shared another Pi-ku. Bjorn of Rudberg's Writings stated in a comment on that episode "maybe it's possible to use more digits of the Pi number".
First I thought ... that isn't possible, but I think it's worth a try. So I sought on the Internet for all the digits of Pi and I came with 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

I like this way of making the Pi-ku a longer poem, maybe you, my dear friends, can make an even longer Pi-ku ... just have to try it.

Modern haiku?

Modern haiku are not so different from the haiku, but the syllables count isn't important in that modern form and the lay-out of a verse looks sometimes different, more playfull. For example this one by (c) Bill Pauly :

divorce -
        she
            nueters her dog

Or e.g. this one by (c) Emily Romano :

cowboyyellonghornery

Another example of a modern haiku:

gonggoinggone   in

(c) Peter Yovu

Not really my style, but it is very funny to play with haiku and the form. For the One-Line haiku you can read the Carpe Diem Lecture .

Of course there will be other forms of haiku, maybe you know another one, well ... share it with us all here on Carpe Diem. There are so much other ways to write haiku. As you all know I am a big fan of Basho's Kanshicho-style in which the syllables count isn't anymore a rule. That style is more in the line of the Western haiku form.

This new feature is bi-weekly online and this is our first episode. This episode will be online 'til August 8th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode of 'Little Ones' later on that day around 8.00 PM (CET).
Well ... have fun with this new feature and I am looking forward to all of your wonderful posts.

Namaste