Carpe Diem #1599 Tan Renga Challenge Month 2019 (3) garden at sunrise

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry. This month it's Tan Renga Challenge month and that means that I challenge you to complete a Tan Renga.
A Tan Renga is a short chained verse created by two poets and looks in it's final form very much alike with the tanka. Tanka is another nice short Japanese poetry form but instead of 3 lines it has 5 lines. There is little difference between the Tanka and the Tan Renga ... a tanka is written by one poet and the Tan Renga is written by two poets.

For today's Tan Renga Challenge I have chosen a wonderful masterpiece by Ken Gierke, better known as RivrVlogr. Last weekend I challenged you to create a new masterpiece and this one Ken wrote is a real masterpiece in my opinion. So I have asked him for permission to use his haiku for this new Tan Renga Challenge.

Sunflower Field At Sunset (image found on Flickr)

The theme for our last weekend-meditation was Sunflower and Ken has created a wonderful haiku to work with and create a Tan Renga with. You have to add the second stanza (2-lines approx. 14 syllables) through association on the scenes in the haiku. Here is that beauty by Ken:

garden at sunrise
shadows erased by first rays
sunflowers turning

© Ken Gierke (RivrVlogr)

Wow ... what a gorgeous haiku. Here is my attempt to complete the Tan Renga:

garden at sunrise
shadows erased by first rays
sunflowers turning                             © Ken Gierke

while a nightingale sings
an aubade for the Creator                     © Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... I like this completion (how immodest) it makes the scene created by Ken even more stronger and intense.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 11th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem Rebirth of an Old Feature: Time Glass 1 Crystal

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you can remember that we once had a time-challenging feature titled "Time Glass". The goal was to create haiku or tanka inspired on a theme within 24 hours, so a real time challenge. I love to "restart" that feature. Why? Well as you all know a while ago I changed the responding time of our Kai into seven days, a whole week, but (as you all know) haiku is an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. That short time can help you to create your haiku (or tanka) based on that single moment.

I love to improve your haiku (and tanka) writing skills so I think this "Time Glass" feature can help you with that. But ... we are a haiku loving family from all over the world and we live all in different time zones, so I think it's a good thing to extend the (original) 24 hours of the "Time Glass" feature to 36 hours to respond on the theme.

That theme can be a haiku, a tanka, a waka, an image or just a word  And for the "rebrith" of this feature I have chosen for a haiku and an image to inspire you.

First the image:

Crystal Sunlight (image found on Flickr)

And here is the haiku, one I created myself inspired on the above image:

crystal clear sunlight
reflects all colors in the mirror -
shadow of a dragon

© Chèvrefeuille (2014)

Well ... a nice time challenge I think. Try to create your haiku or tanka inspired on this "rebirth" of the Time Glass feature and share it with us within 36 hours. That means this episode is open for your submissions around 3:00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until February 6th 03:00 AM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1598 Tan Renga Challenge Month 2019 (2) bright enough

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new week in another wonderful month of Carpe Diem. This month it is Tan Renga Challenge (TRC) Month so I will challenge you to make a Tan Renga complete with a given haiku.

I hope you all have had a nice weekend. And that you all are ready for a new week. For today's TRC I have chosen a haiku by Jane Reichhold to create a Tan Renga with:

bright enough
to write a poem
the cold moon

© Jane Reichhold

Bright Moon

Well .... it's your turn to create a Tan Renga with this beauty by Jane Reichhold.

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

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!