Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Sunday Time Challenge #4: War

 Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our special feature "Sunday Time Challenge", that special feature in which you have to respond within 24 hours. As you have noticed I have chosen a (maybe) strange theme for today ... "War", but we are at War, not only against Covid-19, but since a few days we have a real war "just around the corner" at the East borders of Europe. Russia started a war against the Ukraine. It's sad to see this happening and it makes me a little scared. As I said this war is taking place "just around the corner".

I never could imagine that this kind of terror could take place at the European borders ... All European citizens are holding their breath at the moment ... What's going to happen in upcoming weeks? Does this "terror" signal a 3rd WW?

A few days ago I decided to sign out of our CDHK Carpe Diem Twitter account, which I used to respond on the things happening all around the world, next to publishing haiku. I really signed out, but within a day or two I decided to login again, just to stay posted on the things happening around us.
What news is true and what news is false/fake? I don't know. That feeling I have since the start of the C-pandemic more than two years ago.

Ancient Warrior From Thailand

Is this so called "Great Reset" (as said by the World Economic Forum (WEF)) really happening? It feels so unreal this whole ... what do I say? This "conspiracy"? Is this a "real" plan? Our future is at stake if this "Great Reset" is real. Than a New World Order will take over, than we will have a Global Government that decides everything, than we will be enslaved!

I really don't know what I have to believe, I don't know how long the "Free World" will stay free. I, ofcourse, hope this is just a Nightmare and that we will awaken in the world as we have known it, but ...

WAR is not what we seek for, we seek for PEACE and LOVE ... I really hope this is a Nightmare ...

Maybe you remember these haiku:

summer grasses
all that remains
of warriors’ dreams

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

ancient warriors ghosts
mists over the foreign highlands -
waiting for the full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

WAR ... can be an inspiration for poets as you can read in the above two haiku. There is nothing wrong with being inspired by such a theme, but in our real life ... WAR is not welcome ... I pray for both Russia and Ukraine and I hope this war will be a short one. I really hope we will awaken from just a Nightmare.

This episode of our Sunday Time Challenge is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will close on Monday February 28th at 3:00 AM (CET). You can add your submission to the linking widget hidden in our logo below.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #80 Quest For A New Masterpiece ... summer grasses

!! open for your submissions next Sunday April 14th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Really time flies and certainly this week time wasn't on my side. I have had a very busy week, but could find some peace and relaxation in creating our wonderful Haiku Kai. What an every day joy it is to create CDHK for you my dear CDHK family members. And what a joy this month is, we are exploring classical and non-classical kigo (seasonwords) for spring ... yes it's a joy.

This weekend I love to challenge you (again) to create your masterpiece. Yes I have for you a new episode of our special feature "Quest For A New Masterpiece". As you all know there are several haiku that are renown all over the world, those haiku, like for example Basho's "Frogpond" and "Crow on a bare branch" are such masterpieces, but I know for sure that we all have the talent to create our own masterpieces.

Summer Grasses (canvas by Home Comforts)

This weekend I love to challenge you to create your masterpiece inspired on an other renown haiku by Matsuo Basho ... "summer grasses"

summer grasses
all that remains
of warriors’ dreams

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Maybe you remember a haiku that I wrote inspired on this renown haiku by Basho:

ancient warriors ghosts
mists over the foreign highlands -
waiting for the full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

You all know I am more of the "freestyle" way of haikuing, but this one is according to the classical rules. That makes this "Quest" a little bit more difficult, because I love to challenge you to create your classical haiku in which you use the rules as you can read above in the menu in CD Lecture 1.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday April 14th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until April 21st at noon (CEST). So I hope you are inspired and for closure all that remains now is to wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Carpe Diem #1337 Tan Renga Challenge "in the fields"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize, because I miscalculated that our CDHK episode of today (28/12) was the last regular episode of this month. I thought it was already Friday instead of Thursday. So I asked myself "What to do now?" Well ... I think I do an extra CDHK Tan Renga Challenge. So today I have a nice Tan Renga Challenge for you. 

For those who are new let me first explain what a Tan Renga is. A Tan Renga is a short chained poem written by two poets. The first poet gives the "hokku" or "starting verse" and the second adds a second stanza of two lines through associating on the images in the "hokku". A Tan Renga looks similar with the Tanka (5-lined poem), but is written by two poets instead of one poet. (More about Tan Renga you can find above in the menu where you also can find an exclusive CDHK E-book "Chained Together" in which I gathered all the Tan Renga which we created back in May 2016.

For this "extra" episode I have chosen three haiku from which you can start your Tan Renga. Here are the haiku (or "hokku") to use. You may use one, two or all three to create Tan Renga with.

ancient warriors ghosts

mists over the foreign highlands -

waiting for the full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

This one is inspired on that beautiful haiku "summer grasses" by Basho.

rice-planting

in the fields

with ripe rice plants for the Gods

the sickle is used . . .

© Takezaki Shisen 

And this last one ... another beauty ...

white poppy

it must have bloomed

from a wintry shower

© Basho

And now it's up to you to create your Tan Renga by adding your two-lined stanza (approximately 7-7 syllables) through associating on the scenes in the given haiku ("hokku"). As I wrote above you may choose one, two or all haiku to use for this Tan Renga Challenge.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 4th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new "weekend-meditation" later on.