Carpe Diem #1758 Hummingbird

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I had a great weekend, we had our grandchildren to visit together with their dad (our eldest son) and it was a very nice and fun weekend. I also visited my mom who has been diagnozed with vasculair dementia recently. She can live with care in her own home, but ofcourse as her only son I visit her often. It's always a joy to visit her, but it is not easy to see is losing her memory.

This month we are celebrating our 7th anniversary with a tribute to the small creatures and creations of Mother Nature. Those small creatures are not only insects, but also lottle birds, like the Hummingbird ... our prompt for today. To inspire you I have a wonderful short video for you (Source: You Tube Channel NGC).

I ran through my archives and found a few haiku themed "hummingbird":

a passionflower
opens her heart with golden nectar
for the hummingbird

what a pretty sight

a hummingbird searching for nectar

Lily's cup

the hummingbird

his wings waving away the wind

looks for nectar

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

Three beauties I think, but I think you all can create haiku that are far more better than the three created by me.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 13th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1756 Fly ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy ... we are celebrating our 7th anniversary and I am so glad that I can celebrate that with you all, ... my dear friends and haiku-family-members. This month we will look at the small creatures in nature, and than I don't mean only insects, but also small plants, flowers, fishes and more ... The choice was easy ... haiku is the smallest poetry form on Earth, so it's the perfect way to honor the small creatures of Creation ... Mother Nature cherish not only the big creatures, but also the small creatures ... so why not do a whole month about the small things of nature.

In our first episode I took a wonderful haiku by Basho and I have read beautiful haiku inspired on the first prompt "Sheperd's Purse". Today I love to look at another small creature in nature ... Issa wrote a lot of haiku about this small creature ... the fly. Here are a few examples of haiku by Issa:

don't be mean
to that horsefly
skylight!

let him pass
like a mosquito, a fly...
solitary priest

thin legs--
while cooling myself appraised
by a horsefly

© Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)

Three beautiful haiku by Issa in which he clearly shows that he is appreciating all matters of nature great and small. Issa wrote a lot of haiku on small creatures ... so we will see him often this month.

Horsefly

Let us celebrate our anniversary with a wonderful haiku in tribute of  the fly ...

between lettuce
I spot a mating pair of flies -
no salad today

© Chèvrefeuille

I just had to bring a little joy or humor in this one.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 9th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, dragonfly, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1755 Sheperd's Purse (1st anniversary prompt)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Happy anniversary to you all ... today the celebration of Carpe Diem's 7th anniversary ... starts. What a joy to bring this first episode of our 7th anniversary ... I started CDHK in October 2012, just for fun and to give it a try to give an all day prompt to create haiku with. It turned out to be a big success ... so I decided to go on with CDHK. Ofcourse there were several changes during the seven years of our existence. The most recent change was my choice to give you the CDHK weekend meditation. This weekend meditation feature gives me, your host, a moment to relax. I even have chosen to take a week off, but I couldn't help it ... I missed creating CDHK in those free weeks, so I decided to quit that free week.

It's really a joy to create CDHK and I am so glad that you all are participating in this wonderful community of haiku loving poets ... we have become a warmhearted family and I thank you all for that. Without you all I can not create CDHK. So ... this anniversary is not only the celebration of our 7th birthday, but also the celebration of friendship and love.

I hope you all will celebrate this month with me ...

As I told you in an earlier post this month no special guests to celebrate with us, but all small creatures like flies, bugs, sheperd's purse, little birds and little animals. Just to celebrate the beauty of the smallest poetry form on Earth ... haiku.

Haiku ... once called "hokku" or "Haikai", but as you all (maybe) know, Shiki gave haiku it's name as we use it nowadays. As you all know I see Matsuo Basho as my sensei (my master) and therefore I have chosen to start this celebration-month with a nice haiku by him. This haiku you know all ...

yoku mireba nazuna hana saku kakine kana

looking closely:
a shepherd’s purse blossoming
beneath the hedge

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Barnhill)

Sheperd's Purse

And this is the haiku I once created inspired on this real beauty by Basho:

shepherd’s purse
trembles in the summer breeze –
bees seek for honey

© Chèvrefeuille

A nice one I think (how immodest) and in it you can find (unconditional) love too I think. We have to love nature even a little herb like Shepherd’s purse. It is worth to look at it and appreciate it. It’s part of nature.

And of course in a way “bees seek for honey” is very clear about (unconditional) love.

Well .... this was the "kick-off" of our 7th anniversary ... let's go celebrate!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 7th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

PS. Tomorrow Wednesday October 2nd there will be no episode, I am still having vacation.