Carpe Diem #101, Bamboo

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In my last post, about the 100th prompt, I told you about the Anthology which I will prepare as a gift to you all. Of course I will ask you all if I may use your haiku in that Anthology. Before that I will make a selection of haiku which I would like to use. As that selection is completed I will post it here on Carpe Diem and than I will ask you all if I may use your haiku. Every haiku will be accompanied with the name of the author of course. OK back to this new episode of Carpe Diem.

It was an awesome day yesterday. We had our 100th prompt anniversary and you all have granted me with wonderful haiku on 'Angels'. I am so proud to see that Carpe Diem is a growing community for haijin and that it gives so much joy and inspiration. Thank you all for your daily effort to write and share your haiku here. Namaste.

Credits: bamboo

Today we share haiku on 'bamboo'. Throughout Japanese culture and history, the bamboo tree has been viewed with reverence and respect for its delicate beauty and as a symbol of endurance. It appears slender and vulnerable, yet it holds strength. Bamboo is also in great demand for use in making many products, including items used in the sacred tea ceremony.
Because of its spiritual significance, the bamboo tree motif is incorporated throughout Japan's landscaping, arts, architecture and temple gardens.
When I started writing haiku, in the late eighties, I didn't know much about it. I just tried and it became a great addiction. I love writing haiku, it gives me a lot of joy and fulfillment. Back in those days I wrote my haiku in my maiden language Dutch.
In the late nineties I created my first Anthology of my haiku, and I became my own publisher. That first Anthology was titled 'Emptiness' or in my language 'Leegte'. 'Emptiness' was more than the title of the Anthology, it also meant to say that also the emptiness around the haiku (in the page lay-out) is part of the haiku, that emptiness is also part of Zen Buddhism, the spiritual source of haiku.
'Emptiness' included haiku which I wrote between 1988 ans 1998. One of the haiku which I included was about 'bamboo':

rustling bamboo
brings my mind into ecstasy
whispers secrets

In Dutch:

ruisende bamboe
brengt mijn geest in vervoering
fluistert geheimen

Credits: Bamboo with Lady Bug

Another 'bamboo'-haiku which I included in 'Emptiness' was the next one:

lightning and thunder -
sound of raindrops
on bamboo leaves

Aren't they beautiful? With this haiku I won my first literature prize ever. Something to be proud on. It was a recognition for the way I was writing haiku. In the years following I became an Internationally known haijin and I took on my 'Nom de Plume' Chèvrefeuille, which means 'Honeysuckle'.

Well ... I hope I have inspired you all to write haiku on 'bamboo' and I hope to read wonderfully composed haiku. Have fun, be inspired and creative. And please ... share your haiku (and comments) with Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'til January 22th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). Our prompt for January 22th will be: 'sweet memories'.

Carpe Diem #100, Angels

!!!! I am a bit late, but I finally found a piece of time !!!!

!!! OUR 100TH PROMPT !!!

   

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joyous event we have today ... Today our 100th prompt of Carpe Diem ... a real milestone I think. As I started this daily haiku meme last October I only dreamed about that it will become a success and now we have our 100th prompt really I am glad and I will thank you all for your daily effort to write and share a haiku for Carpe Diem. I feel humble and honored that you all will share your haiku here on Carpe Diem.

Today we share haiku on 'Angels', those wonderful creatures, messengers of God, or those who are in our hearts forever. I know that I have a few guardian angels (one of them my dear brother, whom I lost at the age of 35 to lungcancer).



Credits: Angel

 he ... once the oldest
now ... forever young
my guardian angel

my guardian angel
always there to watch my step -
warm memories

warm memories
my oldest brother now an angel -
once a pain in the ...

Credits: Angels (unfortunately a website in Dutch)



her sweet smile
warms my cold heart
she my little angel

she my little angel
the youngest of four
has left the nest

What do I have in store to grant you all with my honest and deep gratitute? Next to this Carpe Diem episode just a:

And ... I am preparing a e-book for you all with an anthology of the haiku shared by you all since the start of Carpe Diem. I hope to share that e-book with you all as we have our 150th prompt ...

Once again I thank you all for participating in Carpe Diem's daily haiku meme and your daily effort to write and share your haiku with us all. Thank you.

This prompt will stay on 'till January 21th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will publish our next episode of Carpe Diem, 'bamboo',  later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). For now ... have fun, be inspired and creative and share your haiku with us here on Carpe Diem.

Carpe Diem #99, Love Story

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Tomorrow we have a little celebration, because we will reach a milestone ... the 100th episode of Carpe Diem. I hope to make that a nice anniversary with a wonderful post. Our 100th prompt will be 'angels', a nice one I think, but that's for later.

Today we share haiku on Love Story a nice one too I think. Love Story was a movie which came in roulation in 1970. Love Story, a short summary.

Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail. Oliver and Jenny continue to build their life together. Relying only on each other, they believe love can fix anything. But fate has other plans. Soon, what began as a brutally honest friendship becomes the love story of their lives.  

 

I can't remember if I have seen it (I think not I was 7 yrs old at that time), but I have heard it was a wonderful movie. 

two hearts as one
the love story of their lives -
a pair of swans

a pair of swans
forever and ever together
even in death

Well ... that's my haiku pair for today's prompt. Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us here on Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'till January 20th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our 100th episode of Carpe Diem's daily haiku meme later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). That will be 'angels'.

Carpe Diem's Imagination, a new feature.

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to introduce today our new Carpe Diem feature. I have called it Carpe Diem's Imagination. In this new feature I will share on an irregular base a photo, picture or painting meant for your inspiration and imagination.
The goal of this new feature is 'to paint the picture with words', so the picture can be your inspiration source to write a haiku about. 

I will share here today the first episode of Carpe Diem's Imagination.

Be inspired and share your imagination with your haiku here. Give it a try and maybe this will be a nice feature to do now and than.

For this Carpe Diem's Imagination episode you can share your haiku 'till January 25th 11.59 AM (CET).

Carpe Diem #98, circus

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am so sorry that I am (again) late with posting our new episode, but I had a busy evening shift at the hospital so I hadn't time to prepare our new episode. We are on our way to our 100th episode and that will be a milestone for us all. I hadn't thought that this daily haiku meme would be a success.
Today we share on circus a wonderful kind of entertainment for every one I think. For this episode I have chosen for a video of Cirque du Soleil for our inspiration. I love Cirque du Soleil and I think they are the world's best circus.

Really this is a wonderful new trailer of Alegria (January 2011). A nice overview of all kinds of circus acts in this nice show 'Alegria'.


trapeze workers
high above the screaming crowd
flying humans

flying humans
chasing their dreams to fly like birds -
no more limits


Have fun! Be inspired and creative and share your wonderful haiku with us here on Carpe Diem. I am looking forward to your posts.

This prompt will stay on 'till January 19th 11.59 AM (CET) and I hope to publish our new episode of Carpe Diem later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). I am in the nightshift, so I can't guarantee that I will be able to post around that time. So please ... if that's happening ... forgive me. Our new prompt for January 19th will be love story.

Carpe Diem Special #17, Shiki's 'cold winter blast'

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I wonder ... how long Carpe Diem will go on? I hope a life long, but that's not only up to me. You my dear friends are the incentives ... as long as you all post your haiku here Carpe Diem will stay on. I am so glad to see that we have gotten new contributors ... awesome!

Yesterday we had prompt #97, so another milestone is coming with a few days ... Carpe Diem prompt #100 ... I hadn't thought that Carpe Diem would come to such a milestone, but it has ... that prompt will be 'Angels', a lovely prompt I think, but that's about a few days. Let's go back to our Special prompt for today another haiku written by Masaoka Shiki, our haiku master for this month.

Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

A little history about the Special by Shiki I love to share here with you all.

When he was 24, he had a 3 day walk around Musashino (fields around present Warabi-shi and Kumagawa-shi in Saitama Prefecture where there used to be lots of rice paddy fields and forests.) at the end of the year 1891, when he realized that word play would not enough to express the truth and that we should write things as they are. He had an open-eye to haiku for the first time. He composed:

samui fuyubura suto sugegasano watashino kubini katto kadoo 

cold winter blast

a cord of a sedge hat

cut into my neck 

It was his first haiku in the meaning of haiku ... as his role model, Matsuo Basho, did when he traveled through the Deep North of the Southern Island of Japan. 

Credits: Modern Musashino

In nowadays Japan, Musashino is a great city. If Shiki only could see what has happened to this city he went to and wrote the haiku for today.

Well ... the goal of the Carpe Diem Special is to write a new haiku inspired on the one given and if possible in the same tone and Spirit as the haiku master. So let me give it a try ...

covered with snow
after a cold winter blast
rice paddy fields

rice paddy fields
left bare after the harvest
room for the cold wind

a cold winter blast -

with my bare frozen hands 
keeping my hat down

Hm ... not bad I think, how modest, but well ... sometimes you have to give yourself a tap on the shoulder (smiles).

This Special prompt will stay on 'til January 18th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new prompt for Carpe Diem later on today around (hopefully) 10.00 PM (CET). That will be 'circus' .

Carpe Diem #97, crocus

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am a bit late today, but I had other things to do, but I have to publish this new episode of Carpe Diem.
I have read wonderful haiku on yesterday's prompt 'ember' suggested by Bjorn. It was a joy to read them and comment them. Several contributors used sunset (or sun rise) as an image for 'ember'. It was really a surprise to read that in some way you are connected with each other. Looks like a commonly consciousness and that, my dear friends, I like very much in haiku.
Haiku making us one ... isn't it wonderful?

Today we share haiku on 'crocus', one of the first flowers of Spring. Here in The Netherlands, now cold and covered with snow, we have had a period of soft winter, to warm for the time of year. And here and there fragile flowers and trees started to bloom. Mother Nature is in some way confused I think and I hope that those fragile blossoming will survive this cold period with snow and frost.

fragile crocus
blooming in the ice wind
how strong will it be?


snow falls gently
covers fragile crocuses
purple disappears 


early Spring feeling
a snowman melts in the sun
reveals crocuses


How strong will they be those little crocuses?


snow has gone
colorful crocuses blooming
longing for Spring


Have fun, be inspired and creative and share your haiku with us here on Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'til January 17th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode of Carpe Diem (hopefully) later on today around 10.00 PM (CET).
That will be a new Carpe Diem Special, a haiku by Masaoka Shiki, our haiku master for this month. To give you the chance to write your haiku inspired on the one by Shiki I will give his haiku here already:


samui fuyubura suto sugegasano watashino kubini katto kadoo

cold winter blast
a cord of a sedge hat
cut into my neck