Carpe Diem Tanka Splendor #14 storm

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are almost halfway this Tanka Splendor month and I think we have accomplished already improvement of our Tanka Writing skills. I have read beautiful tanka and that makes me happy, not only for you and myself, but also for Jane Reichhold. Jane was not only a great haiku poetess, but also a great tanka poetess. Jane encouraged me to go on with CDHK, but she also encouraged me to write tanka. Of course ... I have done that, but tanka isn't really my "cup of tea". I think, as I look at myself, writing tanka isn't easy especially as you started to create haiku.
Haiku needs not to much words to be wonderful and tanka ... maybe it's a prolonged haiku, because of the extra two lines I don't really know. I find it difficult to expand my poems, mostly haiku, to the length of a tanka, but ... well I just have to follow what Jane once said: "Go on Kris, go on writing tanka, because you have it in you. You are a guy with the strength of love and energy hidden in you. You are a very sensitive guy ... so you just have to write tanka it's a form that fits you like a glove".

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

I hope there will be a day that I can say "this is the day I decided to create tanka, because I can do that like no other". Sounds a bit immodest don't you think so too?
As I started this month that energy which Jane sensed was the "trigger" to bring a whole month full of Tanka, not only to improve your tanka skills, but also to improve my own tanka skills.

This month we are exploring tanka through the Ten Tanka Writing Techniques by Teika and (as we are halfway this month) we have had already five Tanka Writing Techniques which we can use in our challenge for today.
Today our prompt is storm. In every relationship there is time of "storm" we even had our own "storm" several months ago as we discussed publishing rights. Well ... you all know what happened.

I have tried to create a tanka in which I have used our prompt, storm, and I came up with this one:

around the mansion
daisies standing strong together
after the storm

his hands create a new necklace
her soft virgin white neck

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 18th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, bushclover, later on. For now ... have fun!

!! Don't forget that our first "Winter Retreat - Find The Silence" will start on November 15th 10.00 PM (CET), a period of 30 days to write haiku or tanka themed "find the silence" every day. !!

Carpe Diem Tanka Splendor #13 Teika's Fifth Tanka Writing Technique "Lofty Style" (full moon)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Carpe Diem's Tanka Splendor month. Today I love to introduce the fifth Tanka Writing Technique by Teika "Lofty Style". It wasn't easy to explain the meaning of this technique so I share a short explanation and a tanka to show what is meant here.

Lofty style - taketakaki tei, a method of achieving grandeur and elevation

One of the traditional examples of this style is the poem by Fujiwara Yoshitsune (1169-1206) composed on the given theme of "the moon at dawn" in the Shinkokinshū #16:1545:

ana no to o / oshiakegata no / kumonma yori / kamiyo no tsuki / kage zo nokoreru

the coming dawn
pushes open the Gates of Heaven
from the clouds
the moon from the Age of Gods
is an image left behind

A beautiful tanka I would say and in this one we can easily see what this Tanka Writing Technique is about. The goal of this technique is to bring your tanka to a higher level, even a more spiritual level I would say. So this technique can bring the "love and romance" which is one of the main themes of tanka to the highest spiritual level, maybe even to the (so called) Tantric level, a more spiritual experience in which sexuality is a main factor.

So with this fifth technique I think we enter the more basic thought that tanka was used as a love poem or love letter.

Tantra

candles  

champagne and chocolates

your sweet perfume becoming one with each other in front of the fireplace

© Chèvrefeuille Another one now with the "regular" prompt "full moon":

in the full moonlight

wandering along the beach the sound of the surf two hearts go bare foot as one without knowing each other

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 17th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, storm, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Tanka Splendor #12 Romance

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

My apologies for posting our episode of today later than planned. I had a busy week at work and hadn't time to create our post.

This month it is all about Tanka Splendor (title taken from the online magazine Tanka Splendor by Jane reichhold) and the Ten Tanka Writing Techniques by Teika. Tomorrow we will explore the fifth Tanka Writing Technique, but today I only will share the prompt for today romance.

As I told you in our earlier episodes Tanka (derived from waka) is a kind of love poem, our love letter, shared between secret lovers. So tanka is meant to be for love and our prompt for today fits that like a glove.

Today I love to inspire you with an image to create a tanka about romance.

Here is my attempt to create a tanka with our prompt for today:

queen of flowers
saying "I love you"
a bouquet of roses
wrapped in a love poem
full of everlasting love

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 17th at noon (CET). I will publish our next episode, the fifth Tanka Writing Technique by Teika, later on.

Have fun!

Carpe Diem Tanka Splendor #11 fireplace

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today not a very long episode, because of the prompt for today. As I told you in one of our earlier episodes tanka is about love, or has to do with human affairs such as love, sexuality and sensuality. This month we already saw four Tanka Writing Techniques which we can use to create a great tanka. First we had: Mystery and Depth; than we had: Appropriate Statement; the third tanka writing technique was Elegant Beauty and yesterday we had our 4th Technique Conviction of Feeling. Those four Tanka Writing Techniques by Teika we can use for today's prompt fireplace.

Fireplace one of the most romantic places I think. You can lay down in front of the fireplace with your love drinking a glass of wine, eat something and to made love. It is always warm in front of the fireplace and that warmth will turn up the heat for the both of you.

After a long day at work you need to relax together with the one you love. You are looking forward to a nice evening with your love. You put on the fireplace and than the warmth arouses you. One by one you take off your clothes, your skin warmed by the fire, but also your senses start to warm up. After a couple of glasses wine you finally come to the point ...

Well .... enough I would say. Let the fireplace warm you and be one with the love of your life.

red wine
sparkles in crystal glasses
flames grow
temperature is rising
intense French kiss

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you are inspired. Let the warmth of the fireplace inspire you and create your tanka.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 15th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, romance, later on.

Carpe Diem Tanka Splendor #10 Teika's 4th Tanka Writing Technique - convicting feeling (abandoned beach)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our Tanka Splendor month in which we are exploring the Ten Tanka Writing Techniques by Teika. Today I will introduce to you Teika's 4th Tanka Writing Technique "Convicting Feeling".

Conviction of feeling - ushintei

This is Teika's most famous poetical ideal; one that he most developed in his middle and later years. Over this time he came to give ushin two distinct senses. One, in the narrow sense of "deep feeling" as one of the ten styles and in the broader sense of "conviction of feeling" - the quality that must be part of every good poem. Teika felt this could not be an adopted "style" but could result only if the poet "approached the art with the utmost seriousness and concentration". These strong words of stubborn and uncompromising demand were typical of Teika's goal of the highest stand of artistic integrity.
Another interpretation of the style is that it uses a highly subjective sense in which the speaker's feeling pervade the imagery and rhetoric of the poem. It is especially appropriate for poems expressing love or grief.

Given as example is this poem by Princess Shikishi, #9:1034 in the Shinkokinshū:

tama no o yo / taenaba taene / nagaraeba / shinoburu koto no / yowari mo zo suru

jewel of my soul
threaded on the string
that should break
how to endure these things
I am getting weaker

As I was preparing this episode I thought immediately at the "koan"-idea of haiku, because "koan" was (is) connected with Zen Buddhism and in a way I thought of meditaition and contemplation. This idea is based on what Teika says above: "approached the art with the utmost seriousness and concentration". In that sentence I feel meditation and contemplation. But how do you work with that?

Let me give it a try to explain that to you. I think that if you have seen something what caught your attention, a scene just around the corner, that you will try to catch in your poem than you first write down what you have seen. Than you sit down at your desk or whatever were. You read your notes again and again. You can see the scene in front of your eyes and than you look at it with a distance as if you weren't there. The scene comes alive. What do you see? What feeling gives the scene? and so on. In a way you become one (part of) with the scene. As if it happens to you. You look at it again. Concentrate on the scene, think it over, contemplate about it ... and than as struck by lightning you see your poem. The scene unfolds in your poem ... perfection.


Well ... I hope you did like this episode and I hope I have inspired you to write tanka.


This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 14th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem Universal Jane #6 first frost

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is Wednesday again and as you all know on Wednesdays I have our special feature in honor of Jane Reichhold, Universal Jane, for you. I decided that our regular prompt for Tanka Splendor of today, first frost, will be included in this Universal Jane episode.

You all know that Jane was not only a great haiku poetess, but also a great tanka poetess, so this month of Tanka Splendor, I love to share tanka written by Jane Reichhold to inspire you.

Here are three beautiful tanka from Jane Reichhold's "A Gift of Tanka" (AHA-Books 1990):

white frost
tundra swans in the meadow
down from the north
the sharp city boy she loved
when her world was young

windchimes

sudden storm
the silence of wind chimes
tangled in jasmine
gossips speak our names
tying us together


high-tide beach
blue into the clear sky
the openness
for all things to become
the rush of another wave

© Jane Reichhold

These tanka have the beauty of Jane's spirit and I have tried to create a tanka in honor of her, using the prompt first frost 

after the hot summer
finally the beauty of Mother Earth
her crescendo
colorful leaves covered
with the first frost 

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 13th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, the fourth Tanka Writing Technique by Teika, later on.

Wandering Spirit - dizasutaa (disaster)

As the years passed I became more and more intrigued with my dad's grocery shop. He taught me how to sell and how to approach our customers. I know that all our customers were happy to see me and they bought almost all something from our grocery shop. They loved me, because I was always happy and honest.
One day a lone monk visited our grocery shop. He needed some fruits and vegetables, but couldn't pay for it. So he offered me to teach me how to write waka and he even recited a few beauties. One of those waka was written by Saigyo and I immediately fell in love with this waka:

along the way
where water is running
in the willow shade
I have stopped to rest
for a little while

At that time I couldn't dream that I would meet one of the best Japanese haiku poets ever, but that's for another part of my story.

I had a nice life with my dad. We often visited the garden of my mother especially when the Wisterias were in full bloom. After 17 years I stilled missed her, but I had learned to cope with it and so was my dad. 
Of course I visited my samourai-master, Hoshina Masayuki, as often as I could. We still were lovers after I returned to my dad. I don't have sad feelings to the time with Hoshina, of course I first was anxious, but Hoshina was always very loving and caring as we slept together. Yes he was a great teacher and a wonderful lover. 

The Great Fire of Edo (Meireki no Taika)

One day, I just had returned from one of my visits to Hoshina, a great disaster had taken place. As I approached Edo I saw that the city was on fire. Everywhere I saw people running, screaming and crying with all black smudges all over their faces. "Don't go into the city", one man said to me, but I had to, because I was anxious for what had happened to my dad. The man tried to hold me, but I pulled back. "I have to go into the city!" I screamed. "My dad ..." 
As I ran into the city almost everyone who I passed yelled at me that I had to go back. Than ... "No!" My dad's grocery was on fire too, but I couldn't see my dad. "Dad! Dad!" I tried to enter the grocery, but the flames were to hot and to big. I felt to the ground and hit the ground with my fists. "Dad! Dad!" 
I don't know how long I had sat there on the ground screaming and crying. I had no feeling of time and wasn't in the present time anymore ... I don't know how long I sat there, but finally I stood up and walked into the still smoldering ashes of my dad's grocery. And than I saw him ... at least what once was my father. I recognized him, because he wore a necklace with an engraving of a blooming Wisteria. A necklace he had made himself to honor my mother to hold her close to his heart. I took the necklace from his skeleton and I put it on. That day I left my city carrying a little urn with the ashes of my dad ... I now was an orphan ... I became a wandering spirit on the age of 17 and a beggar.

Small Wooden Shinto Shrine

Several months later I learned what had been the cause of the Great Fire of Edo. The fire was said to have been started accidentally by a priest who was cremating an allegedly cursed kimono. The kimono had been owned in succession by three teenage girls who all died before ever being able to wear it. When the garment was being burned, a large gust of wind fanned the flames causing the wooden temple to ignite.

カースト・カモーナ バーﾝド・ザ・ホール・スィッティー・ダウﾝ ア・ガスト・アヴ・ワイﾝド

kaasuto kamoona baando za hooru sittii daun a gasuto avu waindo

cursed kimono
burned the whole city down
a gust of wind

© Yozakura (ヨザックラ)

To be continued