Carpe Diem's Weekend Meditiation #49 Clouds and Waves by Rabindranath Tagore

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 9th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new CDHK Weekend Meditation. As you know this month all the Weekend Meditations are a kind of "distillations". What does that mean? Well I will give you a long poem and you have to catch the essence of the long poem in a haiku or tanka.

This month I have chosen all poems by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), last weekend I challenged you with a poem extracted from his world famous "Gitanjali" and this weekend I have found a beautiful poem written by him on poemhunter.com "clouds and waves".

Clouds And Waves (taken from Panoramio.com, website doesn't exist anymore)

Clouds And Waves:

Mother, the folk who live up in the clouds call out to me-

"We play from the time we wake till the day ends.

We play with the golden dawn, we play with the silver moon."

I ask, "But how am I to get up to you ?"

They answer, "Come to the edge of the earth, lift up your

hands to the sky, and you will be taken up into the clouds."

"My mother is waiting for me at home, "I say, "How can I leave

her and come?"

Then they smile and float away.

But I know a nicer game than that, mother.

I shall be the cloud and you the moon.

I shall cover you with both my hands, and our house-top will

be the blue sky.

The folk who live in the waves call out to me-

"We sing from morning till night; on and on we travel and know

not where we pass."

I ask, "But how am I to join you?"

They tell me, "Come to the edge of the shore and stand with

your eyes tight shut, and you will be carried out upon the waves."

I say, "My mother always wants me at home in the everything-

how can I leave her and go?"

They smile, dance and pass by.

But I know a better game than that.

I will be the waves and you will be a strange shore.

I shall roll on and on and on, and break upon your lap with

laughter.

And no one in the world will know where we both are.

   

©️ Rabindranath Tagore

A wonderful poem. I am exited to read your responses, your "distillations". Well have an awesome weekend.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 9th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 16th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new regular episode around that same time.

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (5) The Temple Bell Stops

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new regular episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month we have our 3rd Tan Renga Challenge Month Chained Together and today I have a special TRC challenge for you. As you can see in our logo I have added "hineri", the Japanese word for "with a twist", as I have done with our special feature Renga With Basho.

So today our TRC episode has a twist. What kind of twist? Well ... I will give you the 2nd (two-lined) stanza of approximately 14 syllables and you have to create the first stanza, the hokku, of three lines following the approximately syllables count 5-7-5.

I have given it a thought also. I first had the idea to write that two lined stanza myself, but on 2nd thought I have chosen a quote by Basho and re-worked it to a reasonable 2nd stanza of two lines.

This quote was taken from his world famous haibun "Narrow Road Into The Deep North" (Oku no Hosomichi), maybe you know this quote, but that's not a problem it will make it easier to create the first stanza of the Tan Renga.

Temple Bell

Here is the 2nd stanza to work with. So remember ... you have to create the first three-lined stanza of this Tan Renga.

The temple bell stops but I still hear 
the sound coming out of the flowers

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (taken from "Narrow Road")

I think this one isn't easy, but I think it triggers your imagination and your inspiration ... I am looking forward to your completions by adding the first stanza of three lines of approximately 19 syllables. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 13th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on.

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (4) in the wolf's eyes

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our TRC "Chained Together III". This month is TRC month and Tagore month, but the Tagore episodes are for the weekend meditations. Today I have a wonderful haiku by one our longtime family-members, Hamish Managua Gunn. The haiku I have chosen was a winning haiku of one of our former kukai.
Next to being a gifted haiku poet, Hamish is also a gifted author. His exclusive CDHK E-book Shinrin Yoku, you can find in our CDHK Library. It's an anthology of so called kikobun. For sure worth to read and to download.

In The Wolf's Eyes

Here is the haiku to work with to create a Tan Renga:

Midwinternight
A  dark sky’s lights dance
In the wolf’s eyes

© Hamish Managua Gunn

What a beautiful haiku to work with. I have given it a try ... here is my continuation of this haiku into a Tan Renga:

Midwinternight
A dark sky's lights dance
In the wolf's eyes                        © Hamish Managua Gunn

fresh fallen snow sparkles
while we warm our hands           © Chèvrefeuille

Sounds romantic doesn't it?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 12th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... be inspired!

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (3) a soothing breeze

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

During lack of time, I am on the nightshift, I have only the haiku to work with to make a Tan Renga with. This episode I have chosen a haiku I wrote myself back in 2015. That haiku was a response on an episode of CDHK about Basho's "Narrow Road Into The Deep North", his world famous haibun.

I challenge you to create the 2nd stanza of two lines with approximately 14 syllables to make the Tan Renga complete.

a soothing breeze
cicadas sing their song
sound of water

© Chèvrefeuille (2015)

I am looking forward to all of your continuations and completions. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 11th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem's Renga With Basho #7 I'm a wanderer

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is time for a new episode of Carpe Diem's Renga With Basho the special feature in which I challenge you to create a renga together with the master, with Basho. I will give you six (6) haiku written by Basho. You can choose your own line-up of the haiku. Your task is to create the two-lined stanza between the haiku. Try to create a closed chain through bringing the "hokku" (starting verse) and the "ageku" (closing verse) connected.

Your renga must have a minimum of six (6) verses and may have a maximum of twelve (12) verses. This renga form (12 verses) is called Juunichoo.

Here are the six haiku by Basho, translated by Robert Hass:

all the day long-

yet not long enough for the skylark,

singing, singing.

by the old temple,

peach blossoms;

a man treading rice

the shallows –

a crane’s thighs splashed

in cool waves   

I'm a wanderer

so let that be my name –

the first winter rain                         

dragonfly

the dragonfly

can't quite land
on that blade of grass.

autumn moonlight--
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

A nice selection of Basho's haiku. Enjoy the fun, making a renga together with the master is really awesome.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 11th at noon (CEST). Have fun!



Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (2) winds howl in rage

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our Carpe Diem TRC month. This month it's all Tan Renga challenges in our regular episodes. Tan Renga is a nice way of writing together, like in a renga. Tan Renga looks similar with Tanka, but is not written by one poet, but by two poets. (More on Tan Renga above in the menu).

Today's episode is a haiku by Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), your task is to complete the Tan Renga by adding your two-lined stanza (approximately 7-7 syllables).

Cover of our exclusive CDHK E-book about haiku by Soseki

In May 2016 we had a nice Theme Week about Natsume Soseki's haiku. (See for our exclusive CDHK E-book our Library)

Here is the haiku to work with and create a Tan Renga with:

over the wintry forest
winds howl in rage
with no leaves to blow

©️ Natsume Soseki

And here is my continuation of this nice haiku by Soseki:

body poppers dance on the square
while the first flakes of snow fall

©️ Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not as strong as I had hoped, but in a way I love this continuation. It makes the scene in the haiku much stronger, but also very dfferent, because "body popping" is a modern dance style. I don't think the had "body popping" in Soseki's time. (see for some "popping" the video hereafter)

Well ... it's up to you now.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 10th at noon (CEST). I will (try to) publish our new TRC-episode later on.

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge September 2018 Chained Together III (1) Morning Sun

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first regular episode of our wonderful Kai, a haiku loving family. This month all our regular episodes will be Tan Renga Challenges (TRC). I have titled this month "Chained Together III", because this is the 3rd time that I create a TRC month. Maybe you can remember that I created an exclusive CDHK E-book from the first month we had a TRC-month and that E-book was titled "Chained Together" (you can find this e-book in our CDHK Library, use the link at the left side of our Kai).

What is Tan Renga?

Maybe you know the Tanka that poem with 5 lines following the syllables count 5-7-5-7-7. A beautiful Japanese poetry form which I not often create, because I am not such a great Tanka poet. The Tanka is a poem written by one poet and that's the difference with the Tan Renga.

Sparkling Dew

The Tan Renga has also 5 lines following (approximately) the same syllables count as the Tanka, but the Tan Renga is written by two poets. One poet writes the first stanza of three (3) lines in the following example that will be Jane Reichhold:

Here is the first stanza of this example Tan Renga:

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew                      (Jane Reichhold)

The goal for the second poet is to create the second stanza of two (2) lines through association on the first stanza (as we do in a renga). For this example I have written the second stanza:

her bright shining eyes
she unpacks her new doll     (your host)

This is what you call a Tan Renga. It's possible to leave a blanc line between the two stanzas, but you can also make it unite with each other. Than this is the result:

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew                      (Jane Reichhold)
her bright shining eyes
she unpacks her new doll     (your host)

It's a great way of being creative with the work of another poet, like we do with our special feature "Renga With Basho".

Every regular episode I will give you a haiku written by a classical or non-classical haiku poet to work with. You have to create the second (two-lined) stanza through association on the scenes and images in the given haiku (or "hokku").

TRC September 2018: (1) Morning Sun by Jane Reichhold

For this first regular episode I love to challenge you to create a Tan Renga with the above given haiku by Jane Reichhold.

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew

© Jane Reichhold

Well ... enjoy this wonderful TRC month chain your verse together with the given verse.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 9th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new TRC later on. For now ... have fun!