Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #70 The Quest For A New Masterpiece continues ... sunflower

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday February 3rd at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation ... that feature that gives me the opportunity to take a few days of. I love this feature and it's every weekend a new challenge to come up with a new feature episode. This weekend meditation I have chosen to challenge you (again) with an episode of our "Quest For A New Masterpiece".

What makes a haiku (or tanka) a masterpiece? Well ... I will give it a try to tell you what a haiku (or tanka) makes a masterpiece in my opinion:

First: It has to describe a moment that got your attention.
Second: You have to use the right words. Words that describe the moment in its true way.
Third: Maybe ... use the classical way of creating haiku (or tanka) (as mentioned in CDHK Lecture One above in the menu).
Fourth: It has been written right from the heart or soul not the mind.
Fifth: It's (maybe) in the sense and tone of the classical haiku (tanka) poets.
Sixth: It has to be ... how shall I say it ... be your child, your creation ... in a masterpiece we can read, between the lines, the poet who created it.

I think you all can name several masterpieces of the classic haiku poets, but also of modern haiku poets.

Sunflower Fields Tuscany Italy

For this weekend meditation I love tochallenge you to create a (new) masterpiece themed "sunflowers". I will give you an example:

on the piazza
drinking wine with my love
sunflower field in front

© Chèvrefeuille (2016)

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday February 3rd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 11th at noon (CET). Have a wonderful weekend.

Carpe Diem #1597 Tan Renga Challenge Month 2019 (1) morning tea

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new month here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. Yesterday I told you that I hadn't decided yet, but now ... as you can see ... I have made my choice. This month I challenge you to create Tan Renga.

For those who don't know what a Tan Renga is I will give a short explanation about 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 to create. The Tanka is a poem written by one poet and that's the difference with the Tan Renga.

The Tan Renga has also 5 lines following 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 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)

Morning Sun

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 as I do mostly. 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 wonderful way to create a short linked verse. This month I will give you a haiku every day to work with and create a Tan Renga with.

For this first episode of our new Tan Renga Challenge Month I have chosen a nice haiku written by (my master) Matsuo Basho:

for his morning tea
a monk sits down in utter silence-
confronted by chrysanthemums

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. unknown)

A beautiful, not so well known, haiku by Basho. I think this haiku can become a wonderful Tan Renga through your creative minds.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 7th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun!

PS. I would love to create an exclusive CDHK E-book about this Tan Renga Challenge Month and I hope you all will agree with that.

Carpe Diem #1596 Black Forest

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last episode of our wonderful January 2019 month in which we have explored the beauty of classical and modern kigo (seasonword). For this last episode I have a nice modern kigo taken from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku". Today I love to challenge you to create a "fusion-ku" with the two given haiku Jane Reichhold. The modern kigo for today is "Black Forest" and here are the haiku to work with:

black forest
night extinguishes
the snow

sun and snow
still in the pines
the black forest

© Jane Reichhold (Extracted from her "A Dictionary of Haiku", a modern saijiki)

Black Forest

Look at the image above ... this is what "Black Forest" is. Bare branches covered with snow. It makes nature awesome, but also mysterious and magical. I think Jane has made a wonderful choice with this modern kigo.

Here is my humble attempt to create a "fusion-ku" with these two haiku by Jane:

pines covered with snow
the sweet perfume melts in the sun
ah! listen ... that dripping

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... I don't know ... is this a "fusion-ku"? It's for sure (how immodest) a good haiku, not a masterpiece, but its one of my best since a long time.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 6th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, the first of February, later on. By the way I Haven't yet decided which theme we will have in February. I have two ideas, first a Tan Renga Challenge month or ... second another journey. I will decide later ... so I hope I can surprise you all.

Carpe Diem #1595 hawk (taka)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the penultimate episode of January 2019. This month we were exploring seasonwords for winter. Seasonwords (or kigo) are words that can be used to place a time-frame into your haiku (or tanka). Seasonwords, as the name already says are words that point to a specific season. In classical Japan there were five seasons, New Year, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. That classical tradition is still in use nowadays, but as you all know New Year season is only something of Japan and few other countries in that same region.

As we talk about classical haiku than the use of a kigo (seasonword) is one of the classical rules next to the 5-7-5 syllables-structure, a cuttingword (kireji), a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water, a deeper meaning (mostly spiritual or Buddhistic) and the interchangeable first and third line. Back in our rich CDHK history we saw several other classical rules, but the ones I mentioned are the most known and common in use.

Today I have a classical kigo for you to work with. It's taken from the section Winter subsection Animals of the Shiki classical saijiki. So today you have to create haiku with "hawk (taka)".

Hawk (Taka)

What a majestic bird this is and what a wonderful spiritual meaning this Hawk has. The hawk symbolizes the ability to use intuition and higher vision in order to complete tasks or make important decisions. ... Hawks represent the messengers of the spirit world, so seeing them definitely means the universe wants you to learn powerful lessons or expand your knowledge and wisdom.

Here is an example of a haiku by Masaoka Shiki with this kigo and a few more other haiku:

toward those short trees

we saw a hawk descending

on a day in spring.

© Masaoka Shiki

by a singular stroke

of luck, I saw a solitary hawk circling

above the promontory of Irago.

© Matsuo Basho

between bare branches

high above the white world

hawks looking for prey

messenger of heaven

circling high above my head -

re-thinking my life

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I think Hawk can give you a lot of inspiration and I am looking forward to all your responses. By the way that brings me to the following. As you have noticed I am not commenting a lot, my excuses for that, because I am far behind with commenting and I hope, I really hope to catch up a.s.a.p.

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 last episode of this month later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1594 Cliffs ... Renga With Jane Reichhold

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy this month was and still is. We have explored classical and modern kigo for winter. We have had nice kigo and I challenged you with beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold, all extracted from her modern saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku". We even created a winter renga with Jane Reichhold.

Today I have another nice modern kigo extracted from her modern saijiki. That kigo has a little sad taste, because I have chosen for the modern kigo "cliffs" and we all know that Jane choose to end her own life by jumping of a cliff back in 2016.

Cliffs in Winter (Lake Baikal)

What a wonderful sight those cliffs in winter ... Today I challenge you to create a renga with Jane Reichhold's haiku. As you all know you may choose your own "line-up" and try to create a "closed chain" through an association on the "hokku" (starting verse) in the "ageku" (closing verse). You have to add the two lined stanza (approximately 14 syllables) to complete this Renga With Jane Reichhold.

Here are the six haiku to work with. All haiku are themed through "cliffs", our modern kigo for today.

frozen cliffs
swept by lighthouse beams
soft in the dark

giant waves
sea cliff rocks
summer sea secure

high tossed mists
warmed in morning sun
above winter cliffs

Snow on the sandstone cliffs along the shoreline of Prince Edward Island National Park, Canada

after the storm
sandstone cliffs relax pebbles
into the beach

high tide
brings storm waves
to cliff dwellers

sea spray
the cliff laced
by crystal

© Jane Reichhold (Extracted from "A Dictionary of Haiku")

A nice series of haiku I would say and a wonderful opportunity to create a Renga With Jane Reichhold, one of the most wonderful modern haiku poets and a close friend she was. Her spirit is still moving around here at CDHK.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 4th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. 

Carpe Diem #1593 flowers out of season (kaeribana)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all  have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. I had to work this weekend, but nevertheless I had a wonderful weekend. Our youngest grandson (4 yrs) stayed with us and that was a real joy. And today we had two of our older grandkids visiting us. So I had a wonderful weekend.

This month full of classical and modern seasonwords (kigo) for winter is almost over. We have four days to go this month, so four kigo for winter to share with you for inspiration. Today I have chosen a classical kigo ... flowers out of season (kaeribana). Literally this kigo means "returnig flowers", so this one is a kigo for late winter.

Here I have a classical example by Kobayashi Issa:

yama-gawa no ushiro tsumetashi kaeri-bana

by a mountain stream
catching a chill...
out-of-season blooms

© Issa (Tr. David Lanoue)

kaeri-bana (crocus)

The first flowers we can see at the end of winter are "snowdrops", "crocus" and maybe "daffodils" and of course more kinds of flowers.

I think this classical kigo will inspire you to create your masterpieces. So try to create a classical haiku (or tanka) following the classical rules ... and let it be one of your new masterpieces ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 3rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun! Have a great week!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #69 Returning To Now

!! open for your submissions next Sunday January 27th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies ... we say that very often and it's true. This is our last weekend meditation of January and I have chosen for a special feature from our rich history ... As you know I love to share wonderful music to inspire you. Especially the music of Karunesh I love to share here to inspire you. Karunesh
has created a wonderful kind of music that he calls "fusion". He integrates several kinds of music to one wonderful piece of music.

I once had the opportunity to have an interview with him and he has ... what we call charisma and he really creates wonderful music. For this weekend I love to challenge you to create a haiku inspired on the music of Karunesh and to create a Troiku with that haiku.

Here is the music video by Juan F

This track is titled "Returning To Now" and it's created in 2001. ("Returning To Now" is part of the album "Zen Breakfast")

Listen to the music, let it inspire you. Meditate and contemplate on it and share your Troiku with us all here at our wonderful Haiku Kai.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday January 27th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 3rd at noon (CET). Have a wonderful inspirational weekend.