Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #116 Renga With ... waiting for the full moon

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday February 16th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Weekend Meditation episode. This weekend I love to challenge you to create a Renga With ... That beautiful feature in which you have the opportunity to create haiku with known and unknown haiku masters.

This weekend I love to challenge you to create a renga with the so called "big five" (Basho, Issa, Buson, Chiyo-Ni and Shiki). And, how immodest, one of my own haiku.

Here are the six haiku to work with:

the autumn wind:
thickets and fields also,
Fuha Barrier

© Basho

a dandelion

now and then interrupting

the butterfly's dream

© Chiyo-Ni

the thunderstorm having cleared up

the evening sun shines on a tree

where a cicada is chirping 

© Shiki

simply trust:

do not also the petals flutter down,

just like that?

© Issa

in nooks and corners

cold remains:

flowers of the plum

© Buson

ancient warriors ghosts

mists over the foreign highlands -

waiting for the full moon

© Chèvrefeuille

Six nice haiku I think. Now it's up to you to create a renga with them by adding your two-lined stanza of approx. 7-7 syllables. You can choose your own "line-up". Enjoy this Renga challenge and have a wonderful weekend.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday, February 16th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 23rd at noon (CET). Enjoy!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #58 Quest For A New Masterpiece "autumn"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday November 11th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies. It feels that time is fleeing faster than ever, but that's just a feeling I have. As you all know at the end of October (25th to be precise) the hospital were I am working has gone in bankruptcy. A time of uncertainty became part of my life as I have never felt earlier in my life, but ... what a joy I felt as I got a new job as an oncology nurse in a University Hospital in Amsterdam. I will start with my new job on December 7th and I am excited, because it's an opportunity once in a lifetime to get a job inwhich I can grow further. My new job gives me the opportunity to become a hematology nurse.
You all will understand that I am happy with how things have gone.

Okay back to our weekend meditation. This weekend I love to challenge you to go (again) on a quest for a new masterpiece. We have done that a few times earlier here at CDHK and you all did a great job.

This month our theme is "the leaves are falling" or autumn and so your new masterpiece must be an autumn haiku or autumn tanka. To create a masterpiece you have to "play" with the classical rules as we know them: Let me give you those rules again:

A moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water;
a seasonword (or kigo);
a cutting word (or kireji);
nature and man as part of it;
5-7-5 syllables (for haiku) and 5-7-5-7-7 (for tanka);
a deeper spiritual meaning (for haiku) and love (for tanka);
interchangeable first and third line (for haiku) and a pivot between the two "tanka-stanza".

All classical rules for haiku and tanka and maybe you can bring in one of the 'haiku writing techniques' or 'tanka writing techniques' I introduced to you here at CDHK. It's a lot to deal with to create your masterpiece, so a tough weekend-meditation this week.

Well ... a nice (but tough) challenge this weekend meditation. This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday November 11th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 18th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #48 Tagore's Gitanjali

New Logo Weekend Meditation Autumn 2018

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 2nd at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation of September 2018. Meteorological autumn starts this weekend on September 1st, so I have created a new logo for our CD Weekend Meditation. The above image shows you the beauty of colorful autumn leaves and those colors are to me what makes autumn my favorite season, maybe it's that unconscious connection with Basho, because he loved autumn dearly not only for it's colors, but also for the beauty of the moon and the deeper meaning of "letting go" and departure.

Let me first tell you what September is bringing us this year. Maybe you can remember that I asked you to choose between a whole month about Rabindranath Tagore or a whole month of Tan Renga Challenges. I understand that you all had some difficulties with this choice, so I have decided (as Xenia proposed) to bring both themes into this month. This month we will have all Tan Renga Challenges as our regular episodes, but the weekend meditations will be all wonderful poems by Rabindranath Tagore. Starting today with his world famous Gitanjali poem(s).

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

The weekend meditations will be all "distillations". I will give you a poem by Tagore and I challenge you to create haiku or tanka from it or bring the "long poem" back to its essential meaning and write a haiku (or tanka) about it.

The Logo I Used For This Special Feature Here At CDHK

Let me first tell you a little bit more about Rabindranath Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), was a Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

One of his most famous works is Gītāñjali, a collection of poetry. It was published in India in 1910. Tagore then translated it into prose poems in English, as Gitanjali: Song Offerings, and it was published in 1912 with an introduction by William Butler Yeats.

Medieval Indian lyrics of devotion provided Tagore’s model for the poems of Gītāñjali. He also composed music for these lyrics. Love is the principal subject, although some poems detail the internal conflict between spiritual longings and earthly desires. Much of his imagery is drawn from nature, and the dominant mood is minor-key and muted. The collection helped win the Nobel Prize for Literature for Tagore in 1913, but some later critics did not agree that it represents Tagore’s finest work.

Gitanjali, song offerings (cover)

Gitanjali, Song Offerings ... it sounds amazing, but can you bring it back to its essential meaning? Can you bring the following poem back to its essential and create a haiku (or tanka) with it? Well that's the goal for this weekend meditation ...

The time that my journey takes is long and the way of it long.

I came out on the chariot of the first gleam of light, 

and pursued my voyage through the wildernesses of worlds

leaving my track on many a star and planet.

It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself,

and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune.

The traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, 

and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach 

the innermost shrine at the end.

My eyes strayed far and wide before 

I shut them and said `Here art thou!'

The question and the cry `Oh, where?' melt into tears of a thousand streams 

and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance `I am!'

© Rabindranath Tagore (taken from "Gitanjali")

A nice task for this weekend I think ... so have fun, be inspired and enjoy your weekend.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 2nd at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 9th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our first regular episode around that time too.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #45 Gogyohka, a modern way of writing/creating tanka

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday August 12th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend-meditation. This time I have a nice "trip along memory-lane" feature for you. Maybe you can remember our special feature "Little Ones", a feature in which I introduced other small forms of poetry. For this weekend I have done that too.

Logo Little Ones feature

For this weekend meditation I have chosen a modern way of tanka-writing known as "gogyohka", a poetry form invented by Enta Kusakabe. I had never heard of this poetry form, but as I read about `gogyohka` on the website Finger Printing Eyes of Pat my attention was immediately caught.

Gogyohka is a nice new way of writing - creating tanka and here is how it works:

Gogyohka is a new form of poetry which has been developed in Japan. Gogyohka simply means verse which is written in five lines, but each line generally represents one phrase and has a different feel to five-line verse commonly found in Western poetry.

I wasted time,

and now

doth time

waste

me.

To be

or

not to be,

that is

the question

If you make each short phrase stand alone as a separate line in this way, then you have something a little different to what is generally considered standard 5-line verse in the Western sense.

This new form of verse was developed by a poet called Enta Kusakabe. The idea was to take the traditional form of Tanka poetry (which is written in five lines) and liberate its structure, creating a freer form of verse. Kusakabe, who was born in 1938, first came up with the concept in 1957. From the 1990s onwards he began his efforts to spread Gogyohka as a new movement in poetry, and there are now around half a million people writing this form of verse in Japan.

There is a long tradition of lay people writing short poetry in Japanese society  (currently there are around three million Japanese writing Haiku, one million writing Tanka and one million writing Senryu).

Traditional Tanka is based on a 5,7,5,7,7 syllable pattern. For languages such as English, however, it is difficult to compose verse within these restraints. Non-Japanese Tanka is, therefore, written freely in five lines, like Gogyohka. That is to say, Gogyohka is already being written internationally in the form of Tanka.

While a degree of freedom is inevitable in Tanka, in the case of Gogyohka the freedom of the verse is natural, and this can be used to great effect: the freedom of expression in Tanka is passive, whereas the freedom in Gogyohka is active and vibrant.

Kusakabe believes that all languages share an inherent quality, that words are a form of breath which can be uttered and felt. He came to the conclusion that this kind of poetry would work in any language and that writing it would help people to develop their thoughts. He resolved to spread the word about Gogyohka around the world.

There are a few people in New York who have already joined the Gogyohka cause, so Kusakabe decided to begin his global mission there.

◇Here is an example of a Gogyohka.

What kind of

stained glass

have your

rose-coloured cheeks

passed through

                                       Enta Kusakabe

It's a wonderful kind of poetry I think, but I couldn't come up with a good "gogyohka", because I have to dive somewhat deeper in this matter. Therefore it's a great idea to make the "gogyohka" the theme for this weekend-meditation.

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday August 12th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 19th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend.



Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #44 Troiku Challenge: Against The Sky

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday August 5th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our Haiku Kai. Last weekend I challenged you with a Troiku Challenge and I thought this weekend we will do that again, so I have another nice challenge for you to create a so called "fusion"- haiku and to create a Troiku (more on Troiku you can find above in the menu) with that "fusion"- haiku. This weekend I have chosen two beauties by Yosa Buson, also one of the five greatest haiku poets ever.

Next to haiku writing Buson was also a great haiga artist. He created the haiga of Basho's "Oku No Hosomichi" (Small Road Into The Deep North) when it was first published.

Kanji for Success (Image found on Pinterest)

Here are the haiku to work with:

before the white chrysanthemum
the scissors hesitate
a moment

calligraphy of geese
against the sky --
the moon seals it

(C) Yosa Buson (Tr. Robert Hass)

Well two nice haiku to work with I think. And as the kanji above already says "success".

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday August 5th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 12th at noon (CEST). Have a wonderful weekend.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #40 Sparkling Stars ... "the autumn full moon"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 8th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation, our special feature for the weekend. The weekend before last weekend I introduced to you a new feature "Along Memory Lane A Trip Back In Time" in which I will take you back into the rich history of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This weekend I love to go back in time to a special feature in which I shared masterpieces written by the classic and non-classic haiku poets ... Sparkling Stars ... In that feature I not only shared haiku by classical and non-classical haiku poets, but all those haiku were in a way my favorite.

Sparkling Stars is a bit similar with the CD-Specials, but there is a little difference. I will introduce a 'masterpiece' of one of the classic haiku-poets (well-known and less-known) to inspire you to write a new haiku. Here is the difference with the CD-Specials. Those new haiku, inspired on the 'masterpiece', have to follow the classical rules of haiku:

1. 5-7-5 syllables
2. a kigo (or seasonword)
3. a kireji (or cutting word, in Western languages mostly interpunction)
4. a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water
5. a deeper meaning (could be Zen-Buddhistic or other spiritual or religious thought)
6. and the first and the third line are interchangeable.

For this weekend meditation "along memory lane, a trip back in time" I have chosen one of the haiku I used in this feature earlier here at CDHK ... I even had the guts to reproduce the whole episode ... sorry for that. I like to take the easy way sometimes.

Sometimes I am an a melancholic mood, mostly after a busy day at work, than I have to go outside in the late evening to smell the perfume of the coming night, to look at the stars and if she, the moon, is there I look at her in pure adoration. I love her. Sometimes she stands there high in the sky in full regalia, sharing her sun-reflected light with me. Sometimes she looks a bit sad and ashamed than she hides her beautiful face behind a veil of clouds. She doesn't know that I love her and that I adore her beauty. Her beauty is the best as she hides behind a thin veil of clouds. Than she is surrounded with a beautiful halo which is so colorful and bright ... than she looks like a queen, a goddess ...
Not so long ago I had such a melancholic mood. I went outside and looked up to the dark sky ... there she was, my love, almost full and clothed with a gorgeous light orange gown ... "Wow", I thought. "You're looking great my love!"

the night deepens
darker and darker the sky
without the streetlights
the night sky looks like a light show
the full moon and thousands of stars

© Chèvrefeuille

Isn't it a wonderful tribute to her, the moon, whom I love so much? As I look at my loving wife ... than I see her everlasting beauty, than she, is my full moon.

Why such a long introduction? Well ... I will explain that. To the Japanese, ancient and modern, the moon of autumn is the most beautiful gift of Mother Nature. There are countless haiku written inspired on the beauty of the autumn moon.
As I look at my own haiku-archive I can almost say that at least one third of them is about the moon in all her occurring images.

Basho also has written a lot of haiku about the moon and for sure the most 'moon'-haiku are about the moon of autumn. The haiku which I have chosen for this episode of "Sparkling Stars" isn't the best haiku by Basho, but it needed this long introduction, because it tells you more about my love for the moon and the love for the moon by Basho.

The Way of Haiku requires not only a Franciscan poverty, but the concentration of all the energies of mind and body, a perpetual sinking of oneself into things. Basho tells us, and it is to be noted, we believe him:

meigetsu ya ike o megurite yo mo sugara

the autumn full moon:
all night long
I paced round the lake.

© Basho

All night gazing at the moon, and only this poor verse to show for it? But it must be remembered that Basho was a teacher. And thus we too, when we look at the moon, look at it with the eyes of Basho, those eyes that gazed at that moon and its reflection in the placid water of the lake.

Full Moon of July (photo © Alison Hale)

Call me a nutcase, a dreamer or a fool, but I think that I am like Basho, that we all are like Basho, because we all are gazing at the beauty of our planet. We all are in love with the beauty of Mother Nature ... and that makes us all moon-lovers.

tears of joy

spilled into the old pond -

the moon's reflection

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like the read and that it will inspire you to write an all new haiku about the moon maybe or about the beauty of Mother Nature. Have fun, be inspired and share your "sparkling star" with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 8th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 15th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #39 Troiku Challenge "a distant mountain"

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 1st at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry. Every weekend I have a wonderful challenge for you. You can respond on Sunday July 1st at 7:00 PM (CEST), so you have time to meditate and contemplate on the given challenge before responding.

This weekend I love to challenge you again with a Troiku Challenge. In this Troiku Challenge you have to create first a so called "fusion"-haiku and than you have to create a Troiku (more on Troiku you can find in the menu above) with your "fusion"-haiku.

Paulownia Tree

For this Troiku Challenge I have chosen two haiku by Takahama Kyoshi (1874–1959) to work with. Kyoshi is not a renown haiku poet, but he has written wonderful haiku. (You can find more of his haiku HERE).

a distant mountain
seen in the sunlight:
a desolate field

a leaf of a paulownia tree
has fallen
in the sunlight

© Takahama Kyoshi (Tr. Katsuya Hiromoto)

Two nice haiku. Not easy to work with I think, but ... I think you can do it. Create a "fusion"-haiku from these two haiku and than create a Troiku with your "fusion"-haiku.

Have a great weekend and remember ... this episode is open for your submissions next Sunday July 1st at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 8th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #38 A Trip Along Memory Lane #1 Carpe Diem Special

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 24th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I welcome you all at a new episode of our Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation, our weekend challenge or our meditation and contemplation feature for the weekend. This weekend I have a new feature for you to work with, but I have to tell you something about the background of this feature.

As you all know I started with Carpe Diem Haiku Kai (then titled only Carpe Diem) back in October 2012. Before I started with CDHK I had some experience with writing haiku (or tanka) every day on two other websites. Those websites however did this for just one month (February and September). I was a very active participant in those daily memes and I missed it almost immediately after writing the last episode of the daily haiku meme in September 2012. So I wanted to fill that hole and decided to create my own daily haiku meme. Well ... right on that moment I created Carpe Diem, now renown as Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, and started to create every day haiku (or tanka).
To make Carpe Diem more attractive I created several special features. The first special feature I created was simply titled Carpe Diem Special and in that feature I introduced several known and unknown haiku poets and gave a haiku written by them. The goal was to create a haiku in the same tone and sense as the given haiku. In other words I tried to inspire my visitors to create haiku in the way of the given classic haiku poet.

This weekend I love to bring a "new" episode of this Carpe Diem Special feature, but of course I had several other special features here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai for example the weekly Tan Renga Challenge or "Little Ones" and more.

Credits Logo

 Okay ... here is the first "stop" on our Trip Along Memory Lane, a trip back in time: This weekend I have (as said above) an episode of that feature titled "Carpe Diem Special" and the goal is to create a new haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry in the same tone and sense as the given haiku. For this Carpe Diem Special I have chosen haiku written by a not so renown haiku poet: Sumitaku Kenshin (1961-1987).

Sumitaku Kenshin

Sumitaku Kenshin wrote mostly one-lined haiku-like poems, so it's a little bit strange to share these with you, because we are all haiku poets that use the three-line lay-out of haiku, but well ... maybe it inspires you to explore this way of writing haiku ... you never know.

Here are the (5) haiku to work with:

While lost in talking, the stars have grown more and more distinct 

How happy! Bathing in the tub full to overflowing 

A dragonfly, with its thin wings sick in summer 

Autumn is lonely, a mosquito bites me 

A lonely night, someone begins to laugh 

All nice one-line haiku to inspire you, but don't forget ... the task is to create in the same sense and tone.

Well ... I wish you all a wonder weekend and I am looking forward to your responses on this new weekend-meditation feature "Along Memory Lane, A Trip Back In Time".

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday June 24th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 1st at noon (CEST). For now ... have fun and have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #37 Troiku Challenge "Time"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 17th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies ... I have said that very often here at CDHK, but it is so true. Time slips through our fingers like grains of sand. I remember that I started writing haiku back in the late eighties and than several years later, 2005, I published my first english haiku. And now ... look were we are now. In 2012 I started CDHK to promote the beauty of haiku and later other Japanese poetry forms like tanka and sedoka. We are "running" towards our 6th anniversary and I hope you all will celebrate that we me next October.

Time ... also a prompt we have seen here often e.g. back in January 2017, while we were on our pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I made an episode about Time (here) or what do you think of this episode written by our friend Hamish Manaqua Gunn back in February 2016 (here).

Okay ... up we go ... no sentimental journey here (smiles). This weekend meditation I love to challenge you again to create a Troiku with a "fusion"-haiku. And this weekend I love to challenge you to create a "fusion"-haiku with the following haiku themed "time":

perpetual snow
reflects the sunlight - 
I dream of a nude beach

© Chèvrefeuille

through tears
cherry blossoms scattered
by the breeze


© Chèvrefeuille

I can almost hear you all think ... what have these haiku to do with time? But I think you can relate to the "time"-theme in these haiku.

The goal? Create a "fusion"-haiku from these two haiku and than use your "fusion"-haiku to create a Troiku with (more on Troiku? above in the menu).

Well .... have a great weekend full of inspiration .... awaken your muses and enjoy creating your once in year masterpiece ...

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday June 17th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until Sunday June 24th at noon (CEST). Enjoy your weekend!

PS. Do you have ideas for our 6th anniversary in October? Than please let me know.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #35 Troiku Challenge "summer solstice"

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 3rd at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first CDHK weekend-meditation of this month and summer 2018. I have created a new logo for this special weekend feature and I have chosen a few new "challenges". In this first weekend-meditation of June 2018 I have chosen to challenge you to create a Troiku, that creative way of haiku-ing. (more about Troiku above in the menu).

Maybe you can remember one of our last episodes of "crossroads". I challenged you to create a so called "fusion"-haiku from two given haiku and to create a Troiku with your "fusion'-haiku. I was glad to see that you liked that challenge, so that's the reason why I choose "Troiku Challenge" for this weekend-meditation.

I will give you two haiku to create a "fusion"-haiku with and to create a Troiku from that "fusion"-haiku. For this first "Troiku Challenge" I have chosen two haiku created by myself (how immodest).

Shinto Summer Solstice at the Wedded Rocks

between the wedded rocks (*)
the sun rises to her highest throne
summer solstice

mountain stream
the ice has melted - dances in the sun
crystal waterdrops

© Chèvrefeuille

(*) Meoto Iwa, or the Loved one-and-loved one Rocks, are a couple of small rocky stacks in the sea off Futami, Mie, Japan. They are joined by a shimenawa (a heavy rope of rice straw) and are considered sacred by worshippers at the neighbouring Futami Okitama. According to Shinto, the rocks represent the union of the creator of kami, Izanagi and Izanami. The rocks, therefore, celebrate the union in marriage of man and woman. The rope, which weighs over a ton, must be replaced several times a year in a special ceremony. The larger rock, said to be male, has a small torii at its peak.
The best time to see the rocks is at dawn during the summer, when the sun appears to rise between them. Mount Fuji is visible in the distance. At low tide, the rocks are not separated by water.

And now it is up to you to create a "fusion"-haiku and with that "fusion"-haiku a Troiku. Have a wonderful weekend full of inspiration.

This episode is open for your submissions next Sunday June 3rd at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new regular episode later on. I hope to publish our new prompt-list also later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation #28 Revise That Haiku ... Yosa Buson's "Frost On The Temple"

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday April 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend-meditation here at our Haiku Kai. This weekend I have another nice Revise That Haiku task. This special feature triggers you to look from all sides to one or two classical haiku and try to "revise" them. It's a nice way to improve your own haiku writing skills.

This weekend I love to give you a task to revise two haiku by Yosa Buson (1716-1784). Yosa Buson, or Yosa no Buson, was a Japanese poet and painter from the Edo period. Along with Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa, Buson is considered among the greatest poets of the Edo Period. Buson was born in the village of Kema in Settsu Province.

"Wild Horses" painting by Yosa Buson

Here are the two haiku by Buson to "revise":

the millstone has turned
thirty-three times in its course —
frost on the temple

© Yosa Buson

a branch snaps under snow
waking me from a dream of the cherries
flowering on Yoshino

© Yosa Buson

Two not so renown haiku I think, but maybe that makes it a little bit easier to "revise" them. Well ... have a wonderful weekend.

This episode is open for your submissions next Sunday April 15th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until April 22nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, praying, next Sunday too. For now ... have a great weekend with a lot of joy, love and inspiration.

Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation #24 Revise That Haiku ... Improve your haiku writing skills

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday March 18th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is time again to lean back and watch back on the last week ... time again for a new Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation with an all new logo as you can see. I have chosen a spring landscape, because on the Northern hemisphere, where I live, spring almost starts.

This weekend I love to challenge you again to revise two classical haiku by renown haiku poets. This weekend I have chosen to challenge you with a haiku by Yosa Buson and one by Masaoka Shiki, both are known as part of the five greatest haiku-poets ever (Basho, Issa, Buson, Chiyo-Ni and Shiki).

The goal of this feature "revise that haiku" speaks for itself I think ... you have to "revise" a haiku.

Here are the haiku to "revise" this weekend:

in the moonlight,
the color and scent of the wisteria
seems far away

© Yosa Buson (1716-1784)

Wisteria

And here is the other haiku by Masaoka Shiki:

a mountain village
under the piled-up snow
the sound of water

© Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

Two wonderful haiku to work with I think. A challenge too ... but that's what revise that haiku is meant for. It even can help to improve your haiku writing skills, because you are just for a moment the classical haiku poet ...

This episode is open for your submissions next Sunday March 18th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 25th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend full of inspiration.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #23 Kamishibai, the art of story telling

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Last weekend I challenged you to revise a few classical, renown, haiku by (my master) Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). And as you maybe know Basho was a great storyteller too. His haibun "The Narrow Road Into The Deep North", is a renown classical work and here at CDHK we have read it together several years ago. Several years ago I also introduced a special feature here at CDHK titled "Kamishibai, the art of story telling". (More about Kamishibai you can find HERE).

This weekend I love to challenge you to create a haibun, be the storyteller like Basho, Of course this is a challenge so there are a few rules:

Your haibun may have a maximum of 250 words (including the haiku). The haiku in your haibun have to be classical, so with 5-7-5 syllables, a seasonword, a cuttingword, an interchangeable first and third line, a deeper meaning and of course nature. The haiku has to be that really short moment similar with the sound of a pebble thrown into water.

Than a last "rule", your haibun must be themed "springtime".

Daffodils (sign of springtime)

Well have a wonderful weekend.

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday March 11th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 18th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new regular episode around that time too.

Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation #22 Revise That Haiku ... Improve Your Haiku Writing Skills

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday March 4th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this belated weekend-meditation. This weekend I love to challenge you to revise two renown haiku by Matsuo Basho. Every one of us will have this experience I think. Sometimes you write a haiku, but a while later you are revising your first version. Nothing wrong with ... even the most renown haiku poets did this, Basho also was known for his revisions. During a period in his life say 1681-1683 he wrote his haiku in the way of the Chinese verse. He left the strict rules of haiku and tried to write his haiku in the Chinese way. After this short period we know that Basho revised his haiku that he had written in the way of the Chinese verse back to the classical way.

This weekend I love to challenge you to revise two of his renown haiku, "frogpond" and "crow". I know that this is quit something to revise these haiku, but remember it's a way of improving your own haiku skills.

old pond
a frog jumps in
sound of water

© Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

autumn evening;
a crow perched
on a withered bough

© Basho (Tr. R. H. Blyth)

Two really beautiful haiku by the master and now you may revise them. Have a great weekend full of inspiration.

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday March 4th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 11th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Background on "a crow perched".

Carpe Diem Weekend-Meditation #20 Revise That Haiku

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday February 18th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new CDHK Weekend-Meditation. This weekend I love to challenge you to "revise" a haiku created by one of the classical haiku poets. This weekend-meditation that will be a haiku created by Chiyo Ni (1703-1775). Let me first tell you a little bit more about Chiyo-Ni.

Chiyo-ni (Kaga no Chiyo) was a Japanese poet of the Edo period, widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of haiku. Being one of the few women haiku poets in pre-modern Japanese literature, Chiyo-ni has been seen an influential figure. Before her time, haiku by women were often dismissed and ignored. She began writing Haiku at seven and by age seventeen she had become very popular all over Japan and she continued writing throughout her life. Influenced by the renowned poet Matsuo Bashō but emerging and as independent figure with a unique voice in her own right, Chiyo-ni dedication toward her career not only paved a way for her career but it also opened a path for other women to follow. Chiyo-ni is known as a "forerunner, who played the role of encouraging international cultural exchange".

She is perhaps best known for this haiku:

morning glory!
the well bucket-entangled,
I ask for water

© Chiyo-Ni

Today, the morning glory is a favorite flower for the people of her home town, because she left a number of poems on that flower.

Chiyo-ni standing beside a well. This woodcut by Utagawa Kuniyoshi illustrates her most famous haiku: finding a bucket entangled in the vines of a morning glory, she will go ask for water rather than disturb the flower.

The "Morning Glory" haiku is one of her renown haiku. I think you all have read this one very often. This is the haiku you have to "revise" this weekend. It will not be an easy task, but I think you all will succeed in this task.

Of course I have given it a try myself, and it was for sure not easy, but I think this "revision" is really nice (how immodest).

in the light of dawn
Morning Glory embraces the well
my neighbor gives me water

© Chèvrefeuille

What do you think of this "revision"? Please share your thoughts through the comment-field.

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday February 18th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 25th at noon (CET). Have a great weekend and enjoy this challenge to revise this renown haiku by Chiyo-Ni.