Carpe Diem #1470 A Wild Ride, the story of the Batavia

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend. I have had for sure a wonderful weekend. The Netherlands is "suffering" from a heatwave. Temperatures are rising towards 30 degrees Celsius and no rain at all. With all the dangers going with that of course, but that's not our theme for today.

I love to tell you a little bit more about my hometown, Lelystad The Netherlands. Lelystad is the capital of the province Flevoland. Flevoland is all polder (land created from the bottom of the sea). It's a huge province, but our history isn't very long. It goes "only" back to the sixties. My parents, me and my brother moved to Lelystad in 1968 and my family is still living here. We have seen our hometown grow to the city we are now.

One of the great prides of my hometown is a replica of the V.O.C ship Batavia. It was built on our coastline and even now the shipyard were the Batavia was built is still in business and is now building a replica of another ship of the VOC, The Seven Provinces.

Let me first give you the image you have to use for our Imagination episode of today. It's a photo taken just around the corner were I live on the shipyard of the Batavia.

Batavia shipyard at Lelystad The Netherlands (photo © Chèvrefeuille)

The above image shows how the Batavia rests at our coast just around the corner were I live. It's a wonderful ship and it's open for the public. I have been on it several times and for sure it feels like you are back in time, but the story behind the Batavia isn't something to be proud on as Dutch people. Let me tell you a little bit about Batavia's history.

Madness, mutiny and murder. The story of the Batavia is a wild ride.

The history of the Batavia Shipwreck is one of great intrigue not only for its brutality and gore but the 'Lord of the Flies' esque feel the story has. So much so, that countless books and films have retold the horrific event. The most recent venture coming from Russel Crowe after he bought the rights to Hugh Edwards' book "Angry Ghosts."

It might sound like the plot of an implausible Hollywood blockbuster, but the terrible tale of the Batavia is frighteningly real.
In October 1628, the Dutch East India Company’s Batavia set sail from the Netherlands to Batavia on her maiden voyage, with a cargo that included vast amounts of jewels and coins.
After making her way south, the Batavia struck a reef just 40 kilometres off the coast of Western Australia, near the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, in June 1629.
As the ship began to sink, most survivors made their way to a nearby island, which would later become known as Batavia’s Graveyard.
But the Batavia’s Commander Francisco Pelsaert surfaced on a smaller island nearby.
After discovering the islands were barren, Pelsaert, his skipper and 35 other men left the islands for Batavia, now known as Indonesia, in search of help, food and water.

Batavia on full sail

Once his commander had departed, Under merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz began to plot a mutiny.
His original plot to mutiny and seize the ship had been made before the wreck, but the Batavia had sunk before Cornelisz could put his plan into action.
Cornelisz and his motley crew of mutineers sent anyone who might oppose their plans to other islands in search of water.
Beginning with the weak and injured, Cornelisz and his men began their mass murder. With their bloodlust still not satisfied, the mutineers hunted down the men sent to other islands. In total, 125 men, women and children were massacred.
Cornelisz kept some women alive to be repeatedly raped and tortured.
One man managed to escape and swim to the men sent to find water on Wallabi Island.
With the alarm raised, word was sent to Pelsaert when he returned from Batavia in a rescue ship.

While still on the island, the mutineers were tried for the murders. After ten days of torture, they confessed and were convicted. Seven men were hanged and two were sentenced to marooning on the Australian mainland, making them the first ever recorded European settlers. (Source: National Geographic Channel)

It's not a story were we the Dutch are proud off, but it's nevertheless part of our history. The replica of the Batavia is one of the most attractive sightings in my hometown and millions have visited her.

Strong Rose

alive again
after the summer storm
strong rose

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 15th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #40 Sparkling Stars ... "the autumn full moon"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 8th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation, our special feature for the weekend. The weekend before last weekend I introduced to you a new feature "Along Memory Lane A Trip Back In Time" in which I will take you back into the rich history of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This weekend I love to go back in time to a special feature in which I shared masterpieces written by the classic and non-classic haiku poets ... Sparkling Stars ... In that feature I not only shared haiku by classical and non-classical haiku poets, but all those haiku were in a way my favorite.

Sparkling Stars is a bit similar with the CD-Specials, but there is a little difference. I will introduce a 'masterpiece' of one of the classic haiku-poets (well-known and less-known) to inspire you to write a new haiku. Here is the difference with the CD-Specials. Those new haiku, inspired on the 'masterpiece', have to follow the classical rules of haiku:

1. 5-7-5 syllables
2. a kigo (or seasonword)
3. a kireji (or cutting word, in Western languages mostly interpunction)
4. a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water
5. a deeper meaning (could be Zen-Buddhistic or other spiritual or religious thought)
6. and the first and the third line are interchangeable.

For this weekend meditation "along memory lane, a trip back in time" I have chosen one of the haiku I used in this feature earlier here at CDHK ... I even had the guts to reproduce the whole episode ... sorry for that. I like to take the easy way sometimes.

Sometimes I am an a melancholic mood, mostly after a busy day at work, than I have to go outside in the late evening to smell the perfume of the coming night, to look at the stars and if she, the moon, is there I look at her in pure adoration. I love her. Sometimes she stands there high in the sky in full regalia, sharing her sun-reflected light with me. Sometimes she looks a bit sad and ashamed than she hides her beautiful face behind a veil of clouds. She doesn't know that I love her and that I adore her beauty. Her beauty is the best as she hides behind a thin veil of clouds. Than she is surrounded with a beautiful halo which is so colorful and bright ... than she looks like a queen, a goddess ...
Not so long ago I had such a melancholic mood. I went outside and looked up to the dark sky ... there she was, my love, almost full and clothed with a gorgeous light orange gown ... "Wow", I thought. "You're looking great my love!"

the night deepens
darker and darker the sky
without the streetlights
the night sky looks like a light show
the full moon and thousands of stars

© Chèvrefeuille

Isn't it a wonderful tribute to her, the moon, whom I love so much? As I look at my loving wife ... than I see her everlasting beauty, than she, is my full moon.

Why such a long introduction? Well ... I will explain that. To the Japanese, ancient and modern, the moon of autumn is the most beautiful gift of Mother Nature. There are countless haiku written inspired on the beauty of the autumn moon.
As I look at my own haiku-archive I can almost say that at least one third of them is about the moon in all her occurring images.

Basho also has written a lot of haiku about the moon and for sure the most 'moon'-haiku are about the moon of autumn. The haiku which I have chosen for this episode of "Sparkling Stars" isn't the best haiku by Basho, but it needed this long introduction, because it tells you more about my love for the moon and the love for the moon by Basho.

The Way of Haiku requires not only a Franciscan poverty, but the concentration of all the energies of mind and body, a perpetual sinking of oneself into things. Basho tells us, and it is to be noted, we believe him:

meigetsu ya ike o megurite yo mo sugara

the autumn full moon:
all night long
I paced round the lake.

© Basho

All night gazing at the moon, and only this poor verse to show for it? But it must be remembered that Basho was a teacher. And thus we too, when we look at the moon, look at it with the eyes of Basho, those eyes that gazed at that moon and its reflection in the placid water of the lake.

Full Moon of July (photo © Alison Hale)

Call me a nutcase, a dreamer or a fool, but I think that I am like Basho, that we all are like Basho, because we all are gazing at the beauty of our planet. We all are in love with the beauty of Mother Nature ... and that makes us all moon-lovers.

tears of joy

spilled into the old pond -

the moon's reflection

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like the read and that it will inspire you to write an all new haiku about the moon maybe or about the beauty of Mother Nature. Have fun, be inspired and share your "sparkling star" with us all here at our Haiku Kai.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 8th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 15th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem #1469 Finding The Path

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this belated episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month it's all about finding inspiration through images. Images found on the Internet and made by myself. According to the images I use from the Internet, ... as you all know I always give credit, but as I was preparing this month I forgot to make a list from all the credits, so I am searching for the images again to give credits. If you are the owner of the images used here please let me know through our emailaddress: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com

For today I have a beautiful image of a compass ... A compass we use to find our way and by finding the way through a compass .... you can give it a spiritual or religious meaning. In the image I share the compass lays on the Bible and points toward "finding the way" ... Well enough to tell about this image.

Finding The Path (image found on Dreamtime)

without compass
I rely on the stars
and she ... the moon

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 12th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, a new weekend meditation, later on. For now ... have fun! Find your Path ....

Carpe Diem #1468 fragile

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

My apologies for being late with publishing. I am on the nightshift so I couldn't be on time today. This month I hope to inspire you through beautiful images I found on the Internet or have made myself.

Today I have a wonderful image for you. I have given it the title "fragile" and I think you all will understand why I have chosen this image.

fragile

faded beauty
returned fragility
dandelion seeds

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped ... I didn't really found a connexion with this image. Of course I like the image. I see a good looking guy, muscled I think, laying in the grass with a faded dandelion in his hand ... the title I chose has to do with the contrast between the muscled guy and the fragile dandelion's seeds.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 11th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1467 bench in the park

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month I hope to inspire you through images I found on Internet, but also images made by myself. This month I hope to show you sometimes images taken in my hometown, Lelystad The Netherlands, for example today I love to inspire you through an image taken in a park just around the corner in my neighborhood. I hope this image inspires you.

Bench in the park

This park is just around the corner of my home. It's a nice park to walk the dog and go out fishing, but this park to me is also a place to meditate and contemplate. I often sit down on one of the benches and let my thoughts go where ever they want to go. Just sitting there in silence ... it gives me new energy and inspiration.

without thoughts
the sun cherishes my naked body
day dreaming

© Chèvrefeuille

I can hear you think ... "really? naked in the middle of the neighborhood?" Yes it's true of course without offending other people in the park. (smiles)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... enjoy the peace and silence of the park.

Carpe Diem #1466 Contemplation

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you did like our first Imagination Without Limits episode "the blue door" and that it inspired you to create your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form. Today I have a wonderful new image for you that I have given the title "contemplation". Look at the image, let it speak to you, become one with the scenen and awaken your muse.

Here is your image for today:

contemplation

The above image of a young monk praying I use as the wallpaper for my smartphone. It gives me a kind of inner strenght, silence and the feeling that I am following the right path. By the way I find this young monk very attractive. I don't know if you can accept that a guy says this about another guy. Look at his face .... smooth serene soft devoted in deep contemplation he prays for the world and for his own wellness ... He has his eyes open ... with a clear loving and acceptation of all and everything around him. It's a strong face ... full of gratitude ...

his eyes
radiating love
in silence

© Chèvrefeuille (experimental haiku)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 9th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun ... awaken your muse.

Carpe Diem #1465 The Blue Door

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. Welcome at the first (regular) episode of a new month full of prompts, themes and wonderful images. July 2018 starts with a nice image to kick off this wonderful new month full of Imagination Without Limits.

This month all the prompts will be images for your inspiration. Last year we had also a month full of Imagination Without Limits and that was a big success. So I hope this month, this 2nd edition of Imagination Without Limits will also be a great success.

In every episode I will share an image for your inspiration. If possible use the image given, but if you like to use your own images than that's okay too.

Here is our first image to work with:

The Blue Door

Look at this image. I ran into it while surfing around on the Internet and I was caught by the mystery of this Blue Door. What's behind it? Who lives there? How will the house behind this Blue Door look? Where will it bring me too .... imagine that you enter through this Blue Door ....

sound of water
behind the blue door
a garden of peace

© Chèvrefeuille

Let the image speak to you and let your muse help you to find the inspiration ... step into the mystery behind the Blue Door.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 8th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, another inspiring image, later on. For now ... have fun!