Carpe Diem Extra 2015 - 5 A question for you all

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

A while ago I got a question for you all in my email by Leslie Moon a.k.a Moondustwriter and I love to share her question with you all here at our Carpe Diem Haiku Family.

This is the email by Leslie:

[...] In November I started formulating a plan to write and publish a book where the proceeds would benefit children orphaned by ebola (specifically in the country of Liberia.)

Originally I was considering short stories based on the publisher's suggestion. I realized a corporate effort by a community of poets would have a beautiful voice.

Then I thought about two communities that are personal who work/write together well - the Carpe Diem Haiku Kai community and the Poets United community.

So I am asking you if you would consider a corporate project of haiku and poetry that would be put together in one beautiful book.

I earlier had approached a photojournalist who has spent some time in Liberia to use some of his work and he agreed.

The project for you as moderator would be as simple as putting a call for submission on your Carpe Diem site. I would have a link for people from the group to make their submissions. Sadly there would be no renumeration for any of the writers. This will be a published book so it does give the poets the pride of having their work in print. Other than a modest amount that the publisher will take out for layout costs, the funds will go to at least one orphanage.

I thank you Kristjaan for the kindness and goodness that you convey each day in your words.

Many thanks

Leslie Moon

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As I understand the above question than Leslie will make a book to raise funds for an orphanage in Liberia (hit by Ebola). I think this is a great opportunity to promote our beloved haiku as an art-form of poetry and it gives you all the chance to have poems in print. It's benefit project so you don't get paid for it, but the joy it will give and the love which it will spread will be your reward.
Especially for this "benefit" project for an orphanage in Liberia I have created a new emailaddress to which you can email your haiku which you love to donate to this project of Leslie Moon.

carpediemhaikukai2015orphanage@gmail.com

I hope that you all will give it a thought to donate haiku to this project by Leslie Moon.

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille, your host

Carpe Diem #662, Water Lilies

!! I publish this episode earlier, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Impressionism ... is our leading theme this month and I will often use paintings by the "Godfather" of Impressionism, Claude Monet. Impressionism, the name says it all, ... it's an impression of the scene, but that sounds more easy than it really is, because the impressionists were mostly painting in plain-air, so outside, and were obsessed with the light during the day. The daylight in the morning is very different, with the light of noon for example and the day light of a late summer evening is also very different with the day.
Impressionists painted impressions and during the years this style changed to pointillism and cubism.

For today's prompt, Water Lilies, I have chosen another nice painting by Claude Monet, this one is one of his most known paintings and it is often used to show what Impressionism means.

A wonderful painting I think and in this one you can see what "impressionism" means. The Water Lilies are just a faint image of the reality, but you can see that it are Water lilies. It's done with strong short brush-lines and when you look at it from a distance than those strong brush lines are flowing together to become a wonderful image/painting.

Haiku are very similar with Impressionism, because in the three lines of a haiku we have to catch a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water, this is very similar with the idea of painting with the light of the day during the day as is one of the major rules in Impressionism.

I found a wonderful "water lily" haiku written by Sylvia Forges-Ryan in which she brings together this idea which I wrote above "haiku is Impressionism";

Among these lilies
in Monet’s pond
Basho’s water sound

© Sylvia Forges-Ryan & Edward Ryan

And they noted:

Here’s that splash again, only now it brings together the spontaneity of Nature―Basho’s “water sound” ―and the art of a painted garden. Even in a pond as beautiful as Monet’s, filled with a mass of lovely water lilies, the frog still goes “pop!” The splash breaks through the stillness of the art.

An awesome haiku I think ... isn't it great to see how an ancient poem (frogpond haiku) and an ancient painting (Waterlilies) are melting together in one haiku?
That frog, responsible for the sound of water, will not be stopped by the Water lilies ... he has to make that sound, that one moment on which a haiku is based.

Awesome ... isn't it? We are all haiku poets, but we are also Impressionistic painters ... (smiles). 

Here is my impression of "water lily". It's one from my archive, but I think it fits this episode very well ...

strange perfume
from a faraway place
lotuses blooming

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 7th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, Starry Night, later on.

Carpe Diem "Sparkling Stars"#17, Basho's "door of grass"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all could have read I hadn't time to publish our new "Sparkling Stars" episode last Saturday, so here it is ... sorry for the delay... (smiles).In this episode of our “Sparkling Stars” feature, I will tell you about the first verse which Basho recorded for his haibun 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North'. This haibun by Basho has become a classic piece of literature and I think there are a lot of people who know this haibun.

As you all know this “Sparkling Stars” feature is meant for introducing haiku of known and un-known, classical and non-classical, haiku poets. I hope to inspire you to write an all new haiku in response of this “Sparkling Stars”-episode.

"Narrow Road"

Basho had a lot of friends and disciples at the time that he went on his journey to the far north. They all had come to visit him and to say goodbye. many of them had presents and gifts for Basho. Things he could use on his journey.

They accompanied him on the first two or three Japanese miles, say the first 10 km. When he went off he wrote:

kusa no to mo   sumi kawara yo zo   hina no ie

this door of grass
the resident changes for a time
a house of dolls

© Basho

When Basho left his Banana tree cottage, he turned it over to Heiemon, who was married with a family. Thus, already, in Basho's bachelor quarters was the red ramp put up for the festival of the dolls for the girls of the family.

Basho and his good friend and student Sora left in this journey on May 16th. This verse fits with Basho's first sentence of the book: 'The months and days are the passing guests of a hundred generations, and the years that come and go are travelers, also'.

 

Several years ago I wrote my own version of 'The Journey to the Far North'. The first verse I wrote for 'My Narrow Road' (after the preface) was:

the last night
I couldn't sleep -
a Nightingale sings

© Chèvrefeuille

followed by a verse with farewell words:

a farewell verse
scribbled on a receipt
don't forget me (*)

© Chèvrefeuille

(*) This haiku I used in one of my novels which I have written.

I wonder ... these are for sure haiku in the Spirit of Chèvrefeuille :), but are they in the spirit of Basho?

This episode will be open for your submissions today at noon (CET) and will remain open until February 14^th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next bi-weekly feature “Little Creatures” Saturday February 10^th. For now … have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.

Carpe Diem Haiku Writing Techniques #5, comparison

!! I publish this episode earlier, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to present a new episode of our Haiku Writing Techniques. This time it's all about "comparison". Here is what I found about "comparison" in Jane Reichhold's "Bare Bones, school of haiku":

In the words of Betty Drevniok: "In haiku the SOMETHING and the SOMETHING ELSE are set down together in clearly stated images. Together they complete and fulfill each other as ONE PARTICULAR EVENT." She rather leaves the reader to understand that the idea of comparison is showing how two different things are similar or share similar aspects.

a spring nap
downstream cherry trees
in bud

What is expressed, but not said, is the thought that buds on a tree can be compared to flowers taking a nap. One could also ask to what other images could cherry buds be compared? A long list of items can form in one's mind and be substituted for the first line. Or one can turn the idea around and ask what in the spring landscape can be compared to a nap without naming things that close their eyes to sleep. By changing either of these images one can come up with one's own haiku while getting a new appreciation and awareness of comparison.

Rabbit Ear Iris

Here is a haiku example with "comparison" in it by Basho:

rabbit year iris
how much it looks like
its image in water

(C) Basho

Or this one by Robert Mainone:

a sky full of stars
how improbable
my parents would meet

© Robert Mainone

A haiku needs two parts. In this haiku the “sky full of stars” is compared to “the meeting of parents” and the million-to-one chance of that happening. The poet has achieved an aha moment! with the connection.
This Haiku Writing Technique is not easy, but at the other hand it's an easy to choose way to make your haiku a beauty.

I couldn't come up with a great haiku in which I use "comparison", so I have ran through my archive and found a haiku which I think can be used as an example in this episode about "comparison".

seeking for relief
aching of a broken heart -
love isn't forever

© Chèvrefeuille (published earlier on my personal haiku page)

Comparison ... a nice way to write/compose haiku ... it brings you in a way immediately two lines and you have just to write a third line towards it to make your haiku complete.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 6th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, Water Lilies, later on.

!! PS. I hadn't time to publish a new episode of "Sparkling Stars" last Saturday, so I have decided to publish that "late" episode this Wednesday February 4th !!

Carpe Diem #661, Poplars

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all can see I have a wonderful logo for this month and our new prompt-list you can find in the menu above. This month I will try to dive deeper in the matter of Impressionism. And today our prompt is Poplars it's based on a wonderful Impressionistic painting by Monet.

Credits: Poplars On The Epte - Monet

This painting is part of a series of paintings which Claude Monet created in the summer and fall of 1891. It's an awesome series about poplars and in that series Monet is experimenting with the plain-air light. He paints impressions of poplars. Sometimes very clear but also somewhat faint, but ... well it's an impression ...

poplars reflection
in the rippling brook -
no longer a poplar

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 5th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, another Haiku Writing Technique, later on. For now .... have fun ...

Carpe Diem Time Glass #19, Lightness

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am a bit late with this new Time Glass episode in which the goal is to respond within 24 hours on a given picture and prompt. This month I have a central theme for our Haiku Kai, Impressionism, all our prompts are in some way connected to this kind of art and so this special feature Time Glass has also that theme.

Japanese Woodblock prints are wonderful impressions of nature and so I think this woodblock print of a Butterfly with Plum blossoms can be of great value for your inspiration.

And here is the prompt Lightness .....
The goal of this Time Glass feature is to respond within 24 hours. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 2nd at 8.00 PM (CET) So you have just 24 hours to respond. Good luck, have fun!

Carpe Diem Special #130, Fuyuko Tomita's "shadow"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to introduce our new featured haiku poet for this month. This month we will have all haiku written/composed by Fuyuko Tomita, a well known haiku poetess and a fellow Dutchman. You can find more about her in our prompt-list for February or on her website: www.fuyukotomita.com. I have emailed her for permission to use her haiku. I haven't had that permission yet, but I love to share this haiku by her with you all to inspire you.

Wa ga kage yo ano kado kara wa omae hitori

Shadow,
when I turn the corner
you will be alone

(c) Fuyuko Tomita

Fuyuko Tomita

I think this is a nice haiku and I like the scene which she paints with her words. Really a great haiku in my opinion.
The goal of this CD-Special is to write/compose an all new haiku inspired on the given haiku and in the same sense, tone and spirit as the given haiku.

Here is my attempt to write an all new haiku inspired on this beauty by Fuyuko Tomita:

lost in the evening
my shadow has left me alone -
night without moon

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope this haiku will inspire you to write an all new one. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 4th at noon (CET). Have fun!