Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry forms like haiku and tanka. It’s a warmhearted family of haiku poets created by Chèvrefeuille, a Dutch haiku poet. Japanese poetry is the poetry of nature and it gives an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. ++ ALL WORKS PUBLISHED ARE COPYRIGHTED AND THE RIGHTS BELONG TO THE AUTHORS ++ !!! Anonymous comments will be seen as SPAM !!!
Welcome at a new episode of our Haiku Kai. This month I love to challenge you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry forms themed LOVE. Today I love to challenge you to create Japanese poetry themed "Unconditional Love".
What a wonderful month this is. As you all know I love the novels written by Paulo Coelho. I have read almost all his novels, but the novel from which the quote for today comes I haven't read yet, but of course I intend to do that without a doubt. The novel from which I extracted the quote is titled "The Valkyries" and was published back in 1992. At that time I hadn't heard from Paulo Coelho.
The love for his novels came as I read the special edition of "The Alchemist" back in 2013, that year "The Alchemist" saw a 25th anniversary edition in an awesome beauty. I was caught by the beauty of that story and became addicted to this author. So in a way you can see this month as a kind of tribute to the beauty of Paulo Coelho's novels.
Let me give you a short preview of "The Valkyries":
The book is autobiographical, but told from the third person. It deals with the exorcism of personal demons and discovering one's strength. It also deals with relationships among people, in this case, Paulo and his wife. Together with her, he embarks on a journey through the soaring heat of the Mojave desert. During the 40 days journey, surrounded by doubts and temptations and entering their innermost conflicts and questions, they met the valkyries, strange warrior women. (Source: Wikipedia)
Before I share the quote for today I also love to share a piece of Wagner's composition "The Valkyries" (Die Walkure):
An awesome piece of music. In a way this music by Wagner shows the beauty of "The Valkyries" as written by Paulo Coelho in which a group of women on motorbikes is playing a role. Coelho and his wife meet them in the Mojave desert.
There is another religious or spiritual connection with The Bible, because as you maybe know Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the desert. Paulo and his wife are in the Mojave desert for 40 days ... no coincedence of course, because Coelho uses often religious or spiritual ideas in his novels. That's the reason why I am such a big fan of his novels ... I am a spiritual person and through the novels of Coelho I learned more and more about spirituality or better said ... my spirituality.
Okay ... back to our inspirational quote for today taken from "The Valkyries":
[...] "There is no sin but the lack of love, have courage, be capable of loving, even if love appears to be a treacherous and terrible thing. Be happy in love. Be joyful in victory. Follow the dictates of your heart." [...] (Source: The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho)
I think this quote fits the time of year and I hope you will find your inspiration to create Japanese poetry.
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 19th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode later on.
Today I have chosen a quote from a novel by Paulo Coelho that surprised me like "Eleven Minutes" did. In 2014 Paulo Coelho's new novel "Adultery" was released.
Adultery, is a story of a woman who is faced with an inevitable, life-altering choice when she chooses to break the monotony of her life. Linda is in her thirties and is facing a crisis mentally and emotionally. She begins to question the void that was growing in her, the mundane, predictable days of her life. Although her life seemed perfect in everybody's eyes a contented marriage, adorable children and a successful career - she feels a keen sense of emptiness and displeasure. But it all drastically changes when she meets a prosperous politician who happens to be her high-school boyfriend from years ago. As Linda revives the passion that was absent in her life, she would have to make a life-altering choice.
Adultery reads like a river, the story caught me immediately, not because of the theme, but because of the way Paulo Coelho describes the theme in a very nice way with a kind of love that no one would expect in a story about adultery. I read this novel only once, but I read it in one day ... the story really grabbed me. It's a story to which everyone can relate I think, not because of the adultery, but because of the hidden story ... the loss of romance, sensuality and sexuality in a marriage.
Adultery ... an amazing story written by Paulo Coelho. "Adultery" a novel about true love I would say and I think that this quote will inspire you as it did me.
[...] “Let yourself get carried away by the night from time to time. Look up at the stars and try to get drunk on the sense of infinity. The night, with all its charms, is also a path to enlightenment. Just as a dark well has thirst-quenching water at its bottom, the night, whose mystery brings us closer to the mystery of God, has a flame capable of enkindling our soul hidden in its shadows.” [...](Source: Adultery by Paulo Coelho)
hot summer night two bodies entwined in love - the full moon
Do you sense the romance, the sensuality ... sexuality? Isn't it wonderful to tell so much with as less words as possible. Isn't that the power of haiku ... or shall I say .... the power of love?
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 18th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... be inspired.
Welcome at a new edition of Carpe Diem's Summer Retreat. This year,2017, I have chosen for the theme "(unconditonal) love". Today this new Summer Retreat starts and 30 days later we will look back at a wonderful Summer Retreat I hope.
Carpe Diem's Summer Retreat is a period of 30 days in which the goal is to create haiku or tanka themed "(unconditional) love" every day. What is (unconditional) love? Let me tell you what I think it is.
I think love is a strong sense, but each of us will respond on love in a different way. Love is not only something you have for a person, but it can also be for art, literature, nature and as I speak for myself ... haiku, maybe my love for haiku is even more stronger than the love for my wife, children and grandchildren. For sure my love for haiku is very strong, but my love for my wife (and I have a lot of love to give) is everlasting and unconditional.
Love, Unconditional Love
[...] “All
men and all women are connected by an energy which many people call love, but
which is, in fact, the raw material from which the universe was built. This
energy cannot be manipulated, it leads us gently forward, it contains all we
have to learn in this life. If we try to make it go in the direction we want,
we end up desperate, frustrated, disillusioned, because that energy is free and
wild.We could spend the rest of our life saying
that we love such a person or thing, when the truth is that we are merely
suffering because, instead of accepting love’s strength, we are trying to
diminish it so that it fits the world in which we imagine we live”. [...](Source: The Zahir by Paulo Coelho).
lotus flowers rising from the depths of the pond everlasting love like a river flows onwards uncertain of its goal
Maybe you
know "Manuscript found in Accra" another wonderful novel by Paulo
Coelho. In that novel he says the following:
[...]
"Love changes, love heals. Love is just a word until we decide that she
can take possession of us Love is
just a word until someone gives meaning to it". [...](Source: Manuscript
found in Accra - Paulo Coelho)
Haiku is love, a love that grabs you by the
throat and takes you into an adventure to discover the beauty of our world in
all her beautiful details and bring that into the tine form of haiku that shows
us a scene, a moment that lasts only one heartbeat. The main character in one of my novels (Never To Return) says the following on (unconditional) love:
[...]
"Unconditional love is never-ending. Unconditional love is bound together
with the Collective Consciousness which binds together every living creature
with the Universe. Unconditional love makes us one." [...](source: Never to Return)
"Real (unconditional)
Love" is in my opinion the only base for haiku. Without real love, for all
and everything, creating haiku is not possible.
As I
discovered haiku I fell in love ... in love with that universal beauty that
binds all artists (poets, musicians, painters, sculptors and more) together.
a little verse lighted a
fire in my heart addicted to
love
Well ... I wish you all a wonderful Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2017 and I hope to read wonderful haiku or tanka. The Summer Retreat 2017 is open for your submissions tonight at 10.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 15th 10.00 PM (CET).
PS. Try to give your submitted poems for this Summer Retreat a number, because then it will be easier to link up to the linking widget.
With this month (March) I started to "re-organize" Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I am only posting on weekdays and the weekends I use to recover and to meditate and contemplate about the next moves here at CDHK.
I love to hear from you how you think about this new "re-organized" CDHK, more for my own health maybe, but I can understand that several of you are missing the daily posts. So please let me know.
The submissions time for the Cherry Blossom kukai has closed last week, so I am busy with the gathering of the haiku. I will publish them for judging after the weekend.
Than a last question I have: Do you have ideas for the prompts here at CDHK? Please let me know.
To conclude this CD-Extra I love to announce our CDHK Summer Retreat 2017. Of course not yet, but I have "set" the date. The CDHK Summer Retreat 2017 Unconditional Love starts April 15th 10.00 PM (CET) and will run until May 15th 10.00 PM (CET). 30 Days of writing haiku or tanka once a day themed unconditional love. I am looking forward to this new Summer Retreat and I hope you will too.
Logo Summer Retreat 2017 Unconditional Love (photo found on Pinterest)
a little
verse
lighted a fire in my heart
addicted to love
We are counting down to Christmas and Christmas time is the time of year in which we look back, or look forward. We stand still by what is going on in the world and how to cope with that.
Peace
Recently another attack on the Western world took place in Berlin. A truck driver who drove his truck into the people visiting a christmasfair with a lot of casualties and deads. Christmas symbol for peace, symbol for love will be different forever ... again terror wins. We have seen it over the past years terror becomes stronger and stronger and all based on religion and religious ideas and feelings.
Why do religions clash with each other? They all belief in a supreme being who will lead them on their way to salvation, the only difference is the path they walk.
As I look back than tears flow over my cheeks, my heart is in pain, love, unconditional love has gone, but I will stand up to that feeling .... religions have to respect each other's ideas and dogmas and they certainly cannot discipline people who think and belief different. Maybe ... we have to realize a World Religion, a religion based on unconditional love without being disrespectful to those who belief in a different way .... a religion based on unconditional love can spread that love and that love can be a wave, that wave can bring peace to the world.
I am still hoping and praying that peace will be here once and I hope it will be soon ... our world doesn't need more terror, war and all of those things that create sadness and hate. What our world need is light, that light is what we celebrate in this time of year. That light has nothing to do with Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism ... that light has to do with unconditional love a love so strong that it can change the world, let unconditional love bring back the light to the world and than peace will certainly follow.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and I wish you all that unconditional love will shine a light on your lives and on our world.
