Carpe Diem Special #136, Santoka Taneda's "there is Buddha"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all know this month we have Santoka Taneda (1882-1940) as our featured haiku poet and I think you remember our last Haiku Writing Techniques episode "free style" and that's what we are going to do again with this CD-Special.

Santoka Taneda (or Taneda Santoka, both ways are used) wrote a lot of haiku, not only as we know them, but he also wrote several haiku with the "sound of Zen" in it and our CD-Special of today is such a haiku with the "sound of Zen":

in the ceaseless sound
of the water
there is Buddha

© Santoka Taneda

Credits: brook

I think this haiku is a true Zen haiku and it's full of the "sound of Zen" in my opinion and not only based on the name of Buddha in it ... the sound of the water ... always there ... without taking a pause. Even in winter you can hear the sound of water when it's frozen ...
Haiku poets are one with nature and as you all know Buddha was one with nature too ... so that makes us all Buddha ...

The goal of this CD-Special is to write/compose an all new haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one given ... and because Santoka Taneda was a fore stander of the 'free-style' haiku you don't need to count syllables or use kigo or one of the other "classical rules" of haiku. Maybe that makes it easier, but I am not sure of that.

Here is my attempt:

drip, drip
the sound of water
kitchen sink

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until March 12th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, a new Haiku Writing Techniques, later on. For now .... have fun!
!! PS. I am hopelessly behind with commenting. I hope to catch up a.s.a.p. !!! 

Carpe Diem Time Glass #24

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here it is again ... The Time Glass feature in which the goal is to respond on the prompt and a given picture with a haiku or tanka within 24 hours. And today I just have a picture for you all ... or no ... it's a haiga which I made several years ago and which you maybe can know because I used it in our prompt-list for March.
I love to challenge you to write/compose an all new haiku (or tanka) in response on that haiga ... and if you think you can make a haiga yourself within 24 hours than you may also submit a haiga.

© Chèvrefeuille

This haiga "Japanese Garden" I made in 2006 it was from a photo which I had taken several years earlier in a theme park in the province were I live. That theme park was about agriculture here in The Netherlands. In that park there was also a Japanese garden ... that's were I have taken this photo.

As you all know the Time Glass feature is a time-challenging feature ... you have to respond within 24 hours starting tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and ending on Monday March 9th at 7.00 PM (CET). So you have just 24 hours.

Have fun!

Carpe Diem #683, Brush

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have an announcement to make ... I have already published our new prompt-list for April 2015, you can find it in the menu. And I promised you a "Vision Quest" this month (March), but I have decided to skip the "Vision Quest", because (as you all maybe know) I am also one of the co-hosts of MindLoveMisery's Menagerie were I am hosting the weekly Fairy Tale prompt on Fridays, and I think I don't have enough time to prepare the "Vision Quest". And, to close this announcement, I am already busy with creating our prompt-list for May 2015, because that will become a month full of haiku written/composed by Matsuo Basho as we are going that month "On the Trail with Basho".

Ok ... back to our prompt for today. Today I have a really nice prompt for you I think. It's in a way very close to our Haiga-theme this month ... today our prompt is brush ... As I was preparing this episode I wasn't certain of the right choice for this prompt, but it brought me immediately a "death haiku" in mind which I have shared in one of our earlier posts here at CDHK. And I love to share that "death haiku" here again with you all.

Death poem by Shinsui (* - 1769)

This "death haiku" was written by Shinsui. During his last moment, Shinsui's disciples requested that he write a death poem. He grasped his brush, painted a circle, cast the brush aside, and died. The circle— indicating the void, the essence of everything, enlightenment— is one of the most important symbols of Zen Buddhism.

He wrote this with a brush and it was a revelation ... he finally was enlightened. This death poem was the major idea for this prompt, brush. And I love to challenge you to create a haiga with just one stroke of a brush ... and compose a haiku to go along with it.

I have given it a try too .... but I am not that great with the brush ... so don't expect a wonderful painting ... it even has no haiku with brush in it ... I painted with one stroke of a brush and that's the only connection with our prompt for today.

brush-paint © Chèvrefeuille

I will reproduce the haiku in this haiga here again:

her smile
more beautiful than a sunflower
in the mirror

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I am looking forward to all of your beautiful haiga. This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until March 12th at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode, a new CD-Special with a haiku by our featured haiku poet, later on.

Carpe Diem #682, Raindrops

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our fantastic and fabulous haiku family blog. Today I have a nice (but short) post for you all. Our new episode is titled "raindrops" and the first thing which came in my mind was a song "raindrops keep falling on my head" and I love to share that song here for your inspiration (and mine of course).

The song is by B.J. Thomas and comes from the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" .... I love this song, but I only knew it sung by Sinatra, but this one is the original and it sounds great.

I hope this song will inspire you to write an all new haiku and share it with us in a haiga. Here is my attempt:

Credits: raindrops

I couldn't find a nice picture by myself, so I used the above picture to create this haiga. I hope this post will inspire you to create a beautiful haiga ...

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until March 11th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, brush, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiga with us all.

Carpe Diem Little Creatures #19, "Violets"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Saturday again and this week we have a new episode of our bi-weekly "Little Creatures" feature in which the goal is to write a classical haiku (following the rules as mentioned in Lecture 1) and share it with us all.
In this special feature I share haiku about "little creatures" (insects, birds, flowers etc.) composed by classical or non-classical haiku-poets, known and unknown. And this week I have chosen for a haiku composed by my haiku-master Basho.

yamaji kite naniyara yukashi sumire-gusa

coming along the mountain path,
there is something touching
about these violets

© Basho (Tr. R.H.Blyth)

Naniyara expresses Basho's unwillingness to notice the violet, to make a verse on it. Somehow or other it compels him to notice it, importuning him like a weeping infant;

"a violet by a mossy stone half hidden from the eye"

This flower and the heart of Basho's have some deep affinity. It's even said that Basho wrote this while on one of his journeys encountering a beautiful man. As you maybe know Basho was interested in the homosexual love. The truth will be staying in the middle ....

Buson also wrote about violets, but his observation was more objective and not subjective as is the one by Basho.

suwaritaru fune wo agareba sumire kana

getting off the boat
that had grounded, -
the violets!

© Buson (Tr. R.H. Blyth)

Violets

Basho's verse is extended and "explained" by Gyodai:

sumire tsumeba chiisaki haru no kokoro kana

picking a violet, -
the slender
heart of spring!

© Gyodai

And here is another beauty written by Naojo:

tsumu mo ashi tsumanu mo ashiki sumire kana

to pluck it is a pity,
to leave it is a pity,
Ah, this violet!

© Naojo

For closure, when  the violet is held in the hand, it seems alsmost an extension of one's own body, giving a feeling of intimacy beyond the power of the eye. Koshu describes this in his haiku:

te ni toreba nao utsukushiki sumire kana

the violet:
held in the hand,
yet more lovely

© Koshu

This last verse (by Koshu) could have been written by Basho as one would follow the explanation that Basho was interested in the love between man ...

Violets

All wonderful haiku I think and that little flower, the violet, is so fragile and beautiful, it's a haiku by itself. Here is my attempt to write/compose an all new haiku in the classical way:

fragile and a beauty,
the purple leaves like velvet,
cherished in the rain

© Chèvrefeuille

The above version is in my opinion very artificial, but I ask you to write a classic haiku so I have to do that myself too. However my first version of this above haiku is more beautiful (as I may say so). It's not in the classical way, more like the "free style" of Santoka Taneda (1882-1940) so if you don't mind I love to share that (first) version also here:

fragile beauty,
these purple leaves like velvet,
cherished in the rain

© Chèvrefeuille

By the way ... I think you have noticed it. In these two haiku by myself I have used punctuation and that's new for my haiku ... I never use punctuation, because without punctuation the reader, you, can decide the tone by yourself. With punctuation I take your freedom of mind away ... and that's certainly not my way of being a haiku poet.

This episode is open for your submissions today at noon (CET) and it will remain open until next Saturday March 14th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Time Machine #5, Kite(s)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to take you with me on a CDHK journey through time and this time we will travel to spring 2013 especially March 2013. That month we had all classical kigo (seasonwords) for spring and one of them was Tako (Kite) ... and I recall that I composed a haiku with a dragonkite as theme. It was really a nice haiku than, but I don't know if I would compose such a haiku again.

against the blue sky
the devilish dragon kite
just like yesterday

© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: Dragon kite

I even can recall that I have done several episodes about kites. I also did one on my birthday (April 20) last year and I brought a reprise episode in October 2014 while we were celebrating our second anniversary as a Haiku Family.

I have something with kites I think ... so I have tried to write an all new haiku on kite(s):

happiness
kites against the blue sky
laughter of children

© Chèvrefeuille

And I found another nice "kite"-haiku on my personal weblog:

'look up there grandpa'
my grandson points to the sky -
yellow dragon kite

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this journey back in time to the earlier years of our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and I hope it will inspire you to write/compose an all new haiku, tanka, troiku or haibun. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 9th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, raindrops, later on.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #76, Hamish Gunn's "only emptiness "

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another week has gone and it's Friday again ... so time for a new Tan Renga Challenge (TCR) in which I challenge you to write a second stanza to complete a Tan Renga (a short chained poem written by two poets) with a given "hokku" or "first stanza" by one of our Carpe Diem Haiku Family members. This week I have chosen a haiku written by Hamish Gunn which he wrote in response on our Haiku Writing Techniques on Wabi Sabi ... here is his haiku:

in the space between the trees
only emptiness
without emptiness no forest

© Hamish Gunn

Credits: Emptiness

The above picture is in strong contrast with Hamish's haiku ... he writes about emptiness between the trees and I will try to write a second stanza towards it more on a concrete idea as the empty hall in the picture. So here is my attempt to write a second stanza towards the "hokku" by Hamish:

in the space between the trees
only emptiness
without emptiness no forest                      (HG)

cicadas' voices resonate
through the old mansion's empty hall        (Ch)

Hm ... not as strong as I had hoped, but maybe I will come with another one later this week ... for now ... have fun!
Try to write the second stanza (two lines respectively 7-7 syllables, no obligation) to make this Tan Renga complete or continue the painted scenery.

This episode of our TCR is open for your submissions today at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Friday March 13th at noon.