Carpe Diem Extra February 29th 2020

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I will not publish a weekend meditation this weekend. I need a weekend off, so i decided to not publish.

Have a great weekend!

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host.

Carpe Diem #1819 romance on the beach (haibun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This is our last regular episode in this CDHK Love Month. For this last episode I have chosen a nice theme I think Romance On The Beach, and this time I love to challenge you to create a haibun (prose and poetry) with a maximum of 100 words (including the poems).





Video © Rodica Madan

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 5th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1818 ... the color of love

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a belated episode of our wonderful Kai. So I will give you only the prompt for today.
Today I have chosen The Color Of Love for you to work with.

too old for new love
the moon rises each night
as I remember
the backseats of strange cars
it's helpful light afterwards

© Jane Reichhold

A beautiful tanka in which we find the beauty of the rising moon, but also the beauty of discovering sexuality as teenagers. Maybe you can remember having the first kiss in a car, or the first time having sex on the backseat of a car. In this tanka you can find that strong romantic atmosphere.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 4th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Wednesday (hineri) #15 Cherry Tree in Full Bloom

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our special feature "Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Wednesday", that nice feature in which I challenge you to complete a Tan Renga from a given haiku. This week I have chosen for a "hineri" episode or an episode of the Tan Renga Wednesday with a twist.

This week I will give you the second stanza, the two-lined one, of the Tan Renga. You have to create the first stanza, the three-lined (hokku), to complete the Tan Renga. For this episode I have created a whole new 2nd stanza to work with:

shadows become longer
cherry tree in full bloom grows

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... enjoy this Tan Renga Wednesday !

Cherry Trees in Full Bloom (Japan)

This Tan Renga Wednesday is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1817 Renga With ... Jane Reichhold ... Moonlight Moving

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are counting down to the end of this wonderful month full of Love. Only four days left (regular episodes) and than we will start a new month full of exciting words and views ... next month we will do a reprise visit at Shikoku Island.

Today however we are still in the Love mood and with love we know there comes ... desire ... Today I love to challenge you to create a Renga With Jane Reichhold, our beloved and so missed co-host of CDHK may she rest in peace.

The goal of this feature, Renga With ..., is to add your two-lined verses / stanza through association on the scenes in the given haiku ... together with Jane Reichhold you are creating in that way a so called "Junicho" (a 12-stanza renga).

Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

Here are the six (6) haiku by Jane Reichhold, extracted from her online Saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", section Spring, sub-section Moods:

morning fog
dreams not buried
deep enough

spring sunshine
the strangeness of his perfectly
normal thumbnail

kids laughing
in the neighbor's house
the childless couple

moonlight moving
with the gate as the servant girl
takes an evening

Desire In The Moonlight

Saturday rain
desire by a warm stove
for an affair

waterfall
delicate forms
for a spirit

© Jane Reichhold

As always you can choose your own "line-up", but ... your Renga With ... has to start with the following haiku:

moonlight moving
with the gate as the servant girl
takes an evening

What an awesome series of haiku on desire to work with ... love cannot exist without desire ... Create your Renga With Jane Reichhold ... enjoy!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1816 kittens

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new week of our wonderful Haiku Kai. February is running towards its end, so we have only a few days to go this week to conclude our wonderful Love Month. It was a wonderful month full of love in all its beauty.

Next month I hope to take you all on a trip to Shikoku Island, that wonderful island with its 88 temples, the Shikoku pilgrimage is for Buddhists what the pilgrimage to Mecca is for our muslim citizens. Shikoku Island is a pilgrimage you have to do once in a lifetime ... Several years ago we also walked this pilgrimage along the 88 temples, but I think it's a wonderful reprise worth. But that's for next month.

Shikoku Island (photo © Dorinser)

Okay ... back to our Love Month. In this wonderful Love Month we have seen several kinds of Love, but as far as I can recall, we hadn't a prompt about animal love. So today I love to challenge you to create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form about animal love, especially "kittens", but all other animals are okay too.

I found a nice haiku by Don Iannone ... he made it into a haiga:

Isn't it a beauty?

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until March 1st at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #117 the cold night

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday, February 23rd at 7:00 PM (CET) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new weekend meditation here at our wonderful Haiku Kai. I am a bit late with publishing, but I am in the nightshift. This weekend I will give you a nice "fusion-ku" challenge, or "crossroads". That nice special feature in which I ask you to create a "fusion-ku" from two given haiku. Your "fusion-ku" you have to use to create a Troiku (more about Troiku, you can find above in the menu).

Here are the two haiku to create your fusion-ku with and create your Troiku:

spring snow
purifies earth and heaven
our enemies perish

© Mizuhara Shûôshi

the cold night
comes out of the stones
all morning

© Jim Kacian

stones

Two beautiful haiku, with two very different scenes ... both haiku-poets are modern time poets and they are both well known also.

Your task ... create a "fusion-ku" from the two haiku given and create with your "fusion-ku" a Troiku, that nice modern way of creating haiku, based on the Russian sleigh "troika".

Have a wonderful weekend. This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday February 23rd at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until March 1st at noon (CET).