Carpe Diem #1365 Silk

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this delayed post of yesterday. I hadn't enough time to create this post yesterday, so my excuses for that inconvenience, but here it is our episode of today Silk I remember that I have created several other posts about silk, but this month while we are on a journey along the Silk Road such a n episode cannot be missed.
Maybe you know that I am also hosting a feature at Mind Love Misery's Menagerie, "heeding Haiku With ..." Yesterday (Wednesday February 7th) I published an episode about "silk", so I will (and can) make it myself a little bit easier and ... of course I will do that for this delayed post.

The Silk Road was a really renown trade route, or better said routes, straight through Asia. This month we are focusing especially on the Northern and Southern Route around the Teklamakan Desert on the main land of China. The Silk Road got its name especially from the fine silk that was made in China and other regions around the Silk Road. Later it became a very rich trade route not only for the wealth of the silk, but also of pottery, porcelain, spices and more.

I wonder ... will there have been relationships growing around the Silk Road? It was a well used trade route and people from all over the globe came along it and met each other. It just must have been also a route of love, intimacy, sensuality and sexuality. There must have been love relations ... growing I don't know that for sure of course, but it just had to be.

A wonderful piece of Chinese silk

Imagine ... a rich trader has fallen in love with a beautiful woman (or man) and he loves to give his love a wonderful piece of clothing what would be more beautiful than a wonderful piece of Chinese silk to create a kimono or something of. Than his love would be very grateful and maybe love him even more than she (he) already does. What can it bring such nice piece of clothing than give the love a boost ... Isn't that what we all long for ... love and more love?

I love to challenge you to create a haiku or tanka about love, sensuality, sexuality or maybe lust in which silk plays a role. Just give it a try to bring love into haiku or try to create a tanka is it was meant to be ... a love poem.

Let me give you an example from my archives:

arousing my senses
the sweet coolness of silk blankets
shared with my love

© Chèvrefeuille

Or what do you think of this beauty by our friend Hamish Managua Gunn which he wrote for us back in 2015:

her cinnamon taste— 
and the silk she wraps herself in
for both I travel miles!

© Hamish Managua Gunn

silken kimono
the coolness of the shadow
hot summer day

kimono slipping
fingertips discover silk road
ecstatic sigh

© Chèvrefeuille

All poems in which you can sense love and sensuality embraced with a touch of silk. Must be a joy to create haiku with this theme.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 15th at noon (CET). I will try to post our new episode,  Kashgar (Northern route), later on. Please forgive me if I am not reaching that goal, because I have the evening shift and it is very busy at work.

Carpe Diem #1078 embroidery thread

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you have noticed I have published already two episodes today, so this third episode will not be a very long one, but I think there is no need to create a long episode. Today I love to challenge you to create a haiku or tanka with another nice tool for art and creativity embroidery thread.

As I was younger, say a teenager, I loved to embroider, yes even guys can love that. I was studying to become a teacher and I had to learn to embroider (and all other kinds of art-work) and I loved it. I created several "art-pieces" with embroidering.

Japanese embroidery (with silk)

Take a close look at this image above ... it looks like a woodblock or a painting, but it is a real piece of embroidery art. The above image shows a beautiful piece of Japanese embroidery with silk. Isn't it awesome?

stitch by stitch
paradise birds come to life
an empty cocoon

© Chèvrefeuille

Enjoy this short episode and be inspired through it.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will will remain open until October 27th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, the fourth CD Special by our second guest Kala Ramesh, later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #104, Silk

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another Carpe Diem day is on, today we share haiku on 'silk'. Silk is an expensive fabric, because there is a lot silk needed for creating for example 'silk blankets'. Silk is a 100% natural fabric produced by the silkworm.

Silkworm

Silk was a trading article along the so called 'Silk Route'. The Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive transcontinental network.

The German terms "Seidenstraße" and "Seidenstraßen"- 'the Silk Road(s)' or 'Silk Route(s)' were coined by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872. Some scholars prefer the term "Silk Routes" because the road included an extensive network of routes, though few were more than rough caravan tracks.

The Silk Route, the red one over land and the blue one over sea.

The Silk Road or Silk Route is a modern term referring to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa. Extending 4,000 miles (6,500 km), the Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade along it, which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). The central Asian sections of the trade routes were expanded around 114 BC by the Han dynasty, largely through the missions and explorations of Zhang Qian, but earlier trade routes across the continents already existed.

Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, India, Persia, Europe and Arabia. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague (the "Black Death"), also traveled along the Silk Routes.

The main traders during Antiquity were the Indian and Bactrian traders, then from the 5th to the 8th century the Sogdian traders, then afterward the Arab and Persian traders. 

I found a wonderful haiku written by Issa with silkworms:

uchinaka ni kigen toraruru kaiko kana

the whole house
pays them court -
silkworms

It is said that the families with silkworms in their attics were very careful of the silkworms' moods. They were careful not to make loud noises, display discord, etc. because they needed the silkworms to spin uninterrupted (a cocoon is made of one long strand of silk. If a silkworm stops spinning, it may not have enough silk left to make another cocoon)

And another haiku also by Issa about silkworms:

tamadana ya hata-hata mushi no cha wo tateru

ancestors' altar -
for gnawing silkworms, too
a tea offering

The ancestors' altar (tama-dana) is an altar for the spirits of the dead used during the O-Bon Festival. The O-Bon Festival of the Dead takes place in the Eighth Month in the old lunar calendar. At this time, people light lanterns to guide their ancestors' spirits back home.  

Credits: O-Bon Festival

Isn't it a wonderful haiku that last one? Even the silkworms are honored during the O-Bon Festival.

When I was searching for another haiku on silk I ran into a haiku written by Buson. In that haiku he uses the 'Silk tree'. I didn't know that kind of tree, so I sought for a photo and I found one. As I look at that picture ... I am in awe ... what a wonderful tree.

Credits: Silk-Tree

This was the haiku which I found:

amenohiya madakini kurete nemuno hana

a rainy day
quickly falls the night -
silk tree blossoms

Albizia commonly called "silk plant", "silk tree" or "sirise". Peculiarly, the obsolete form of spelling the generic name - with double 'z' - has stuck, so that another commonly used term is "albizzias" (though the form "albizias" is also found, particularly in species that are not widely known under a common name). The generic name refers to the Italian nobleman Filippo degli Albizzi, who in the mid-18th century introduced the plants to Europe.

They are usually small trees or shrubs with a short lifespan - though the famous Samán del Guère near Maracay in Venezuela is a huge Albizia saman specimen and several hundred years old. The leaves are pinnately or bipinnately compound. Their small flowers are in bundles, with stamens much longer than the petals. The stamens are usually showy, although in some species such as A. canescens the flowers are inconspicuous. 

Credits: Silk Tree Blossom

Awesome, just awesome ... I am on a role with this prompt, but it's a wonderful prompt and I hope to see wonderful haiku on 'silk'.
Have fun, be inspired, be creative and share your haiku with Carpe Diem.

These haiku are my contribution for your inspiration:

arousing my senses
the sweet coolness of silk blankets
shared with my love

silk tree blossoms
in a soothing summer rain
trembling in silence

trembling in silence
silk tree blossoms, so fragile,
in a summer breeze

This prompt will stay on 'till January 26th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will publish our new prompt 'eyes' later on today around 10.00 PM (CET).

By the way do you have prompt suggestions? Please share them in the 'prompt suggestion' section. And I have already published our new prompt list for February.