Carpe Diem #1530 Universe ... Soliloquy No Renga (solo-renga)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Thank you all for your kind words according to my unemployment. It's hard, but the love and warmth I get from so many people around me are giving me strength to go on. Of course it will take time to recover from this, but I am so glad that I can change my thoughts to haiku and our warmhearted family of Haiku Poets, because I love you all for being part of this family.

This month we are celebrating our 6th anniversary. All our prompts / themes are following the alphabet and today we have arrived at the letter U ... I have chosen the theme "universe" and I love to challenge you to create a Soliloquy No Renga (solo-renga) inspired on the following haiku:

circle of life
seasons come and go ... always
the Cosmos leads us

© Chèvrefeuille

The Universe

As I wrote above the goal is to create a Soliloquy No Renga or solo-renga. You have to create a solo-renga starting with the given haiku. Your solo-renga may have a maximum of 12 stanzas and a minimum of six stanzas.

More about Soliloquy No Renga you can find HERE.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 2nd at noon (CET). I will publish our new weekend-meditation immediately hereafter.

Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation #15 Soliloquy no Renga "the dust of stars"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday January 14th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Weekend-meditation here at Carpe Diem. This feature I created to give myself some free time and I think it works great. This weekend I love to challenge you to create a Soliloquy no renga (or a Solo-Renga). Let me first tell you what the Soliloquy no Renga is, maybe you know it, but for those who are new here ...

As you all know haiku came from 'hokku' the opening verse of a Renga or chained verse ... Renga was a collaborative kind of poetry in which several poets were participating. Basho, one of the four greatest haiku-poets (next to Buson, Issa and Shiki) transformed the 'hokku' into a poetry-form on itselves, the haiku ...

I love to bring you back to the roots of our beloved haiku and created what I will call 'Soliloquy No Renga', a Renga written by one poet. Soliloquy means monologue and is a synonym for it.

The goal of this new feature is to write a Soliloquy No Renga, a Renga composed by one person. With this new feature it is possible to help you to be more associative, because you have to compose an all new renga with at least six (6) links.
As you all know a renga has stanzas of three and two lines. The first verse "hokku" gives the title to the renga and sets the entire image of your renga. By association on the verse before the verse you have to write you can make the renga a complete story.
This new feature is just for fun and I hope it will bring you the fun and inspiration as I had in mind. You can choose on your own how much links you use, but at least (as I said above) six (6) links. The last link has to make the "circle complete" and in that way has a link with the first verse. That last verse is called "ageku".

I will give you the "hokku" for the Soliloquy No Renga and than it's up to you. That "hokku" can be a haiku by a classic or modern haiku-poet. This weekend I have chosen to give you a nice haiku created by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016). And I have taken it from our exclusive CDHK E-book "All My Years" (downloadable at the right side of our Kai):

Here is the haiku which is the "hokku" for this Soliloquy No Renga:

silence
the dust of stars
shining radiance

© Jane Reichhold

And now it's up to you to create a Soliloquy No Renga starting with this verse by Jane Reichhold. Have fun ... !

This CDHK Weekend-Meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 14th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 21st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, the first Voyage by Sindbad, later on.

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #53, Soliloquy no Renga "Ah! Those Cherry Blossoms"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another week has gone and it's time (again) for a new Tokubetsudesu episode in which I will bring the so called "Soliloquy no Renga" again for your inspiration. (You can find more about the Soliloquy no Renga HERE).

As you all know haiku came from 'hokku' the opening verse of a Renga or chained verse ... Renga was a collaborative kind of poetry in which several poets were participating. Basho, one of the four greatest haiku-poets (next to Buson, Issa and Shiki) transformed the 'hokku' into a poetry-form on itselves, the haiku ...I love to bring you back to the roots of our beloved haiku and created what I will call 'Soliloquy no Renga', a Renga written by one poet. Soliloquy means monologue and is a synonym for it.

Logo of Soliloquy no Renga

The goal of this feature is to write a Soliloquy no Renga, a Renga composed by one person. With this feature it is possible to help you to be more associative, because you have to compose an all new renga with at least six (6) links.As you all know a renga has stanzas of three and two lines. The first verse "hokku" gives the title to the renga and sets the entire image of your renga. By association on the verse before the verse you have to write you can make the renga a complete story. The Soliloquy no Renga is just for fun and I hope it will bring you the fun and inspiration as I had in mind. You can choose on your own how much links you use, but at least (as I said above) six (6) links. The last link has to make the "circle complete" and in that way has a link with the first verse. That last verse is called "ageku".

For this Soliloquy no Renga I have chosen a haiku written by myself in January 2015, so it's a very recent haiku to work with. This haiku is the "hokku" (starting verse) of this Soliloquy no Renga.

Credits: Woodblock print "Sakura" by Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950)

Hokku:

Ah! those cherry blossoms
their beauty amazes me again -
finally spring is here

© Chèvrefeuille

The following stanza have two lines, three lines, two lines and so on. You can make the Soliloquy no Renga as long as you would like, but it has to have at least six (6) stanza.

I am looking forward to all of your responses ... have fun!

This Tokubetsudesu episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 24th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, Kuchinashi (Jasmine), later on. For now ... have fun!