Carpe Diem #439, expectation

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This new month of Carpe Diem is almost a week on track and I hsve read wonderful haiku written by you. I think you have had expectations when I published our prompt-list for April as I do too.
I have great expectations for our first upcoming 'ghost-writing' week and I have already read a few of the posts by our 'ghost-writers' for this month ... I am looking forward to your responses on this 'ghost-writing'-posts.

Today our prompt is expectation and that is in my opinion a real spring prompt. We all have expectations e.g. what color will that blossom have, how will the weather be ... and so on.
Jane Reichhold gives the following example of expectation:

on a bridge

a young couple discuss
old lovers

(c) Jane Reicchold

Credits: Lovers on a Bridge

What a beautiful haiku. Haven't we done that all? Discussing former relations with the ones we love now? My wife had expectations and I had too as we started our relationship ... well I think our expectations have become true after almost 25 years together.

It will not be easy to write a new haiku as beautiful as the one by Jane, but I have to try.

my first day at work
what do they expect from me?
unconditional love?

unconditional love
shared with the ones I love -
wild flower bouquet

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Wild Flower Bouquet

Not as good as I had hoped, but well ... I enjoyed writing them and that's enough, don't you think so too?
This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until April 8th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, our first episode written by one of the five ghost-writers, later on today.
For now have fun, be inspired and share your haiku on expectations with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

Carpe Diem #438, dreams

Dear Haijin,visitors and travelers,

Spring has started really now ... what a joy to see how Mother Earth is getting back her colorful face ... this is were we all have dreamed about as winter ruled the world. The sweet scent of blossoming trees and flowers. The thousands of green colors of the new leaves ... finally a dream came true ... spring is here in all her beauty. One of the examples for this prompt written by Jane Reichhold:

dreaming I was
the sleeve of your coat
I learned your secret

Reverent Marten Luther King had a dream too ... equality for all races, he is quoted a lot with his one-liner "I have a dream" (I have even used his quote for one of our features at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Special), but that dream is still a dream as we all know. There are still politicians who are calling for un-equality of races. Here in The Netherlands a man, Geert Wilders, is such a politician. Not my kind of politics.

Reverent Marten Luther King

I was brought up with the idea of "Love your neighbor like yourself" and that is still my drive to do what I do,  e.g. in my work as an oncology-nurse, love is the emotion which is the strongest drive for me. As an haiku-poet I try to expose that unconditional love for everyone and everything through my haiku ... For this episode I wrote a cascading haiku as I was inspired and on a roll.

dreaming of a new day
a new world of equality
full of strong love

full of strong love
I compose haiku for the world
sharing my dreams

sharing my dreams
with everyone and everthing
a new spring day

a new spring day
as thousand birds sing their song
in praise of God

in praise of God
nature is coming back to life
living its dream

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Shaper of Dreams

Give words to your dreams and be inspired by this post to write your haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun and share your dream with our haiku-family at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until April 7th 12.59 AM (CET). I will try to post our new episode laterer on today.

Namaste

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge #29, Bastet's "the mountain shining"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you maybe can remember last year we had an every week Tan Renga Challenge, but during our pilgrimage-months I hadn't time to prepare those Tan Renga Challenges, so from this month on we will have our Tan Renga Challenge back every friday. For these Tan Renga Challenges I use haiku written by you, my dear haijin, of course after asking permission.

The goal of this Tan Renga Challenge is to complete the Tan Renga by writing the second stanza. Let me tell you a little bit more about Tan Renga. Tan Renga looks very similar to Tanka (5-7-5-7-7), but is not written by one haiku-poet, but by two haiku-poets, it's a kind of collaborative writing.
The first stanza of a Tan Renga, is the haiku (5-7-5) and the second stanza, for asfaras I know it has no special name, has two lines of respectively 7-7 syllables. Of course you don't have to use that 7-7 syllables rule, but if you want to ... please feel free.

Credits: The Mountain Shining

This week's Tan Renga Challenge (number 25) is started by Bastet of "Bastet and Sekhmet's Library" and this is the haiku (the first stanza) of "the mountain shining":

the mountain shining
first light streaks through the valley
lazy clouds float by

(c) Bastet

The goal is to write the second stanza to complete the Tan Renga. This is my completion of this Tan Renga.

the mountain shining
first light streaks through the valley
lazy clouds float by   (Bastet)

at the horizon sounds of thunder
and lightning brightens the sky    (Chèvrefeuille) 

Well .... now it is up to you to complete this Tan Renga started by Bastet . have fun, be inspired and share your completed Tan Renga with Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

This episode of CD's Tan Renga Challenge will stay open until next friday April 11th 11.59 AM (CET) and is NOW OPEN for your submissions.

Carpe Diem Special #85, Soen Nakagawa's "illumined by the moon"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month our featured haiku-poet is Soen Nakagawa, Roshi in the Rinzai Buddhism-tradition. He has written wonderful haiku, but that isn't wellknown ...
The goal of this CD-Special is to write a new haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the given one of our featured haiku-poet. So I hope that these haiku, which I share this month, all written by Soen Nakagawa will bring you a lot of inspiration ... so let us start with this challenge. Here is the haiku, written by Soen Nakagawa, for your inspiration:

how solemn
each patch of grass
illumined by the moon

(c) Soen Nakagawa (1907-1984)

A wonderful haiku I think in which the Zen Buddhistic mind of Soen Nakagawa is very much present. This haiku brings me a wonderful vision ... the first sultry spring evening, or spring night, the almost full moon at a almost cloudless nightsky illumines the young green leaves and the young grass, it's magical and mysterious ... wonderfull.

This haiku by Soen Nakagawa inspired me to write the following haiku:

the light of full moon
enchants the fragile blossoms
of the cherry tree

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Cherry Blossom in the Moonlight

Awesome!

This special episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until April 6th 11.59 AM (CET). I will try to post our next episode, dreams, later on today.

For now, have fun, be inspired and share your haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one by Soen Nakagawa with our haiku-community. 

Carpe Diem's "Only the first line ... " #5 "Under the Willow"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Just a treat for your inspiration. A new episode of Carpe Diem's "only the first line". In this special feature the goal is to write a new haiku which starts with a given fîrst line.

For this episode of CD's "only the first line" I have chosen the next 'first line'. To make this a real challenge I have one 'rule' which you have to use.
Which one? Well ... the haiku has to follow the syllables-count 5-7-5, the classic rule.
The first line you have to use is:

"under the willow"

Have fun, be inspired and share your classical (counted) haiku starting with the above mentioned line with us all.

Here is my attempt:

under the willow
hiding for the midday-heat
newly wed couple

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Under the Willow

I hope you all did enjoy this 'little treat'. You can submit your haiku starting with the given first line and with the classic syllables-count until April 20th 11.59 AM (CET).

Namaste

Carpe Diem #437, Desire

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a wonderful season spring is ... as I look around me I can see nature come to life again and that makes me really happy. All winter we desired the coming of spring and now ... spring is here in full bloom and in all its kinds of green ... awesome.

Today our modern kigo is desire and I think that I speak for us all that desire brings happiness and romance ... desire ... the portal to love ... and new life.

Cover of Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku"

In Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku", on which the prompts of this month are based, desire is in the part about "spring moods", but the haiku/senryu she uses in that part are not all about nature or spring. Desire ... a mood not strange, to nobody I think. We all desire something. The example which I have chosen to use is a wonderful one, but with a sad undertone, but in the deeper layer lays 'desire' ...

kids laughing
in the neighbor's house
the childless couple

(c) Jane Reichhold

A very strong verse in which 'desire' hides in the last line "the childless couple". Before I got to know my wife I had of course desire too for kids, but I was a loner and hadn't met the right one. So I desired children, but a relation wasn't there, so one I thought "I will never have kids", but than I met my wife and she had already two kids (they were 12 and 9 on that moment) and my desire for kids became true. After we were married we got two wonderful kids together and so I had four kids then.

As I look at the situation now ... well I am blessed, I have four wonderful kids and seven grandchildren. No more desire for kids, because I have them now. Almost 25 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed that I would become a dad and a granddad. 

cold winter night
dreaming about the coming of spring -
cherry trees blooming

(c) Chèvrefeuille

longing for spring
snowdrops reaching for the sun
above the snow

(c) Chèvrefeuille

snowdrops above the snow

I hope you did like this episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai ... and that it inspires you to compose haiku about desire. This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until April 5th 11.59 AM (CET). Have fun, be inspired and share. I will (try to) post our next episode later on today, that will be our first CD Special with the featured haiku-poet of this month Soen Nakagawa.

Carpe Diem #436, companionship

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy ... really it's spring here in The Netherlands. Nature is in full bloom, trees are blossoming, narcissus in full bloom and so on ... so I am really in awe ... Mother Earth has started to put on here spring-clothes ... finally.
Today or next 'spring-prompt' is on ... companionship ... and it brought immediately my first English haiku (2005) in mind. I have shared that one last April here at Carpe Diem.

a lonely flower
my companion
for one night

(c) Chèvrefeuille



companionship


And this is the haiku which Jane Reichhold used as one of the examples for this kigo:

meeting an old friend
at the mountain stream
a bear

(c) Jane Reichhold

It's een nice haiku and I can picture it very well. Companionship ... is what binds us together as a haiku-family ... and that companionship is very strong.

And of course I want to share a new haiku/senryu with you all inspired mostly on the photo above. A nice one I think.

companionship -
seated along the high way
scrounger and his dog

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Well ... this is it for today. I hope this post will inspire you all to write a wonderful haiku or two or more (smiles). This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until April 4th 11.59 AM (CET). I will (try to) post our new episode later on today. That will be: Desire.

Namaste.