Carpe Diem "Only the First Line" #2

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our first episode of "Only the First Line" wasn't a big success, but maybe this second episode will be more inspiration for you all. The goal of this feature is to write a haiku with the given first line. That given first line must be used as the first line of your haiku.
This feature is very similar with our other Special feature "Make The Haiku Complete". So if you would read more than visit our first weblog "Carpe Diem Haiku Kai"

Here is the First Line which you have to use for your haiku. By the way ... you may write a classical or a non-classical haiku that's all up to you. The only thing you have to do is use the give line as your first line.

hunger moon

"Hunger Moon" is the name of the full moon of January as it is mentioned in Thomas's Old Farmers Almanac (founded in 1792). During this month the wolves once roamed the countryside, thus suggesting the name wolf moon. In cold and temperate climates of the Northern Hemisphere, it was difficult to find food during January, thus the name hunger moon.

hunger moon
the howling of wolves -
cry of a crow

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Wolves

This episode will stay on until January 26th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode of "Only the First Line" that same day. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions. Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Special.

Carpe Diem "senryu & kyoka"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

An all new feature for fun. This feature is about the satirical and humorfull kind of haiku and tanka. So it's about senryu and kyoka. There is no consensus about the differences between haiku & senryu and tanka & kyoka, but the most known differences are the following, as you know other differences ... please share them with us.

1. Haiku and Tanka are mostly about:

- nature and the role of mankind in it
- have a deeper meaning
- lack of humor
- and the use of 'cutting-words' and 'seasonwords'

2. Senryu and Kyoka are mostly about:

- human affaires
- humor
- satire
- mostly no deeper meaning or spiritual background
- no use of 'cutting-words' and 'seasonwords'.

Those differences are not commonly used, because a lot of haiku and tanka are also senryu and kyoka, so it's a short line on which we are continuosly balancing.

This new Special feature is about senryu and kyoka. So if you love to participate you have to share a 'real' senryu or kyoka. For this feature I have chosen to give a prompt which you've to use. For this first episode of Carpe Diem's "senryu and kyoka", the prompt is: wedding ring.
So the challenge is to write a senryu or kyoka (respectively 5-7-5 or 5-7-5-7-7) with wedding ring.

Let's give it a try, first a senryu:

between the dishes
the shimmering of a wedding ring -
caught in a wine-glass

And a kyoka in which I have used the above senryu and wrote two lines towards it to make it a kyoka.

between the dishes
the shimmering of a wedding ring -
caught in a wine-glass
a faint smile on her face
she remembers a hot night

Well ... this wasn't easy, because senryu and kyoka aren't my 'cup of tea'. Now it's up to you to write a senryu or kyoka (or both). Have fun, be inspired and share your senryu or kyoka with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Special.

This episode of 'senryu and kyoka' will stay open for your submissions until February 14th 11.59 AM (CET) and is NOW OPEN for your submissions.

Namaste

Carpe Diem "Haiga Festival" #2, "rainbow"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's a joy to share the second episode of Carpe Diem "Haiga Festival" with you all here at Carpe Diem's Special features weblog. Until now this new weblog is a success, but I love to see more contributors to this Special Features weblog, so ... feel free to invite others to visit us here.

Haiga is a nice kind of art and poetry it's a photo, painting or other kind of image with a haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka included. The picture and the poem are making eachother stronger or making eachother clearer.I have created a few haiga in the past years and I liked doing it ... so I hope you all appreciate this feature and I will (try to) publish an every week episode of Haiga Festival.

For this feature the only task is to share a Haiga with us. Maybe you have a special memory going with it ... or maybe your haiga is just that beautiful to share. This feature will not have a given prompt ... it's just free ... feel free to share your haiga which you like.

Today I love to share a Haiga which I included in my 2010 collection of haiku "Dew On The Fields". It's a wonderful Haiga I think, but that's up to you to say.

the little child sobs
'I want to cross it' --
the rainbow bridge

Well ... do you like it?Now it's up to you to share a Haiga with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Special. This episode of CD Haiga Festival is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will stay open until January 23th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will (try to) publish a new episode on that same date.Have fun, feel free to share your Haiga ... no given prompt here (smiles) ... just your Haiga which you love to share.

Carpe Diem "Spiritual Ways" #1

 

Dear haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to introduce an all new Special feature on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Special titled: "Carpe Diem Spiritual Ways".

As you (maybe) all know, haiku has a strong connection with Buddhism. A lot of haiku have a Buddhistic layer and for example Basho, Issa and Chiyo-Ni (a female haiku-poet) were Buddhist, Chiyo-Ni was a Buddhist monk.
A few years ago I wrote a short essay about haiku for Wonder Haiku Worlds in which I stated that haiku can be read (seen) as a 'Koan', the impossible question which can give Enlightenment. I think that (all) haiku can really be seen as such a koan, but that's just my idea, my vision.
If you're a loyal 'follower' of our Carpe Diem weblogs than you know that we are on a journey to Shikoku which started this month with all daily prompts about the Trans Siberian Railroad straight through the Soviet Union and the next two months we will go on a pilgrimage along the 88 shrines on the Island Shikoku and I will tell you more about the Buddhistic 'rules' of haiku.

OK ... back to this new Special feature. I have named it "Spiritual Ways" and the goal is to write a haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka with a spiritual layer in it. With this new feature I hope to promote the Spiritual Way of haiku and to make you all aware of that 'classical rule'  in haiku. I know it will not be easy, but that's the challenge. As Iread my haiku than I have written a lot of haiku with that Spiritual Way hidden in it. Sometimes even clear in my haiku, but mostly hidden beneath the surface of the haiku.

Lonely Flower

Let's give it a try to write, compose, a few haiku written with a spiritual layer. First I love to share a few oldies which I wrote in the years laying behind us.

lonely flower
my companion for a night -
I bow my head

(c) Chèvrefeuille

In this haiku the deeper layer is the 'loneliness' and the 'selflessness' of a Buddhistic monk. I wrote this haiku as I was wandering through a big parc outside of the city where I live. I remember that it was a nice sunny late autumn day and I was completely alone in that parc. My thoughts went to a moment back in time in which I felt completely alone. It was not long after that my only brother died of lungcancer (1995). As my thoughts went on a run with me I saw a lonely flower between the bare branches. It was a, as we call it here in The Netherlands, a 'Hondsroos'  ('dog rose'). I plucked it and took it with me. As I arrived at my home there was nobody at home and I was completely alone, I had only that 'dog rose' and that comforted me.

Another one in which the 'Spiritual Way' was more clear I wrote in response to a photo of praying hands.

strong hands praying
at the corner of the street -
God be with you

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Praying Hands

As you can read in both haiku there's a kind of spirituality in it and that's the goal of this new Special feature "Spiritual Ways" ... let me share another haiku for this new feature.

deep silence
only whispered prayers -
the scent of incense

(c) Chèvrefeuille 

I hope you did like this new Special feature and that it will give you joy and inspiration to write, compose your haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka with a "Spiritual Way".
This Special feature will be open for your submissions until January 28th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will (try to) publish a new episode of "Spiritual Ways" that same day. !! This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions !!

Carpe Diem's "Sweet Memories" #2, "A Lonely Flower"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's a New Year and in this time of year (and before) most of us will have moments in which they are thinking back to nice times or sad times ... We all have Memories. As we are on board of the Trans Siberian Railroad on a trip straight through the Soviet Union ... we are in touch with the memories of Paulo Coelho for example, but during that journey I have also read wonderful haiku based on Sweet (and sad) Memories.
Memories are part of our life and sometimes those memories have brought nice haiku in the past, but they can also bring new haiku right now. Every haiku you have written during your lifetime has a memory build in it.
This special feature is meant to be for those haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka which bring (Sweet) Memories to you. Here you can share a haiku written around such a memory.

For this episode of "Sweet Memories" I have chosen to share my first English haiku ever which I wrote somewhere back in 2005. That haiku I published on Wonder Haiku Worlds and it brought me (finally) what I once dreamed for, becoming Internationally known as a haiku-poet. That first haiku was translated in a lot of other languages and was published in a world wide anthology "Spasms of Light" in 2011.

a lonely flower
my companion
for one night

(c) Chèvrefeuille, 2005

Really a nice haiku and I than couldn't think that it would bring fame.

For this feature you don't get a prompt, you may share what you want ... of course that has to be a haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka (smiles), the only thing is that the haiku you share has a story, a memory. Just feel free to share your memories caught in haiku.

This episode of "Sweet Memories" will be open for your submissions until January 28th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will try to publish a new episode of 'sweet memories' on that same day. !! This episode is NOW OPEN !!

Carpe Diem's 'only the first line'

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to introduce a new Special feature ... titled "only the first line" it's somewhat similar with our Special feature "Make the haiku complete", but in this new feature the goal is to write a whole new haiku with only the given first line. The given first line must be used as given. For example as the first line is "cherry blossoms bloom" than you have to use that line as the first line of your haiku.

This new feature is based on a challenge the Dutch Haiku Association gave his members last autumn and I enjoyed it very much ... it wasn't easy and the written haiku were all so different. I think you all will like this new Special feature a lot.

Shimmering pebble

You may write a classical or a non-classical haiku with that first line it's all up to you. Well ... I hope you understand the goal of this Special feature ... so let us go do it ... here is the first line of the haiku you have to write.

shimmering pebble

Not so bad I think to write a haiku with this above line used as the first line ... so good luck ...

My attempt:

shimmering pebble
hidden between colored leaves
a little treasure

(C) Chèvrefeuille, your host

colored leaves

This episode of Carpe Diem's "only the first line" is now open for your submissions and will stay open until January 19th 11.59 AM (CET). Have fun be inspired and share your haiku starting with the first line shimmering pebble.

Carpe Diem's "Kamishibai" #8 ...my neighborhood ...

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's time for an all new episode of our Special feature on writing Haibun. This is our new episode of Carpe Diem's Kamishibai. Kamishibai (meaning 'storyteller') is a Special feature in which the goal is to write a haibun. A haibun is a short story or travelogue in which haiku are included. It's a classical poetry form which was performed for example by Matsuo Basho. Basho made ten (10) journeys through Japan and noted his adventures in a haibun. His most known haibun is called: "Oki No Hosomichi", "The Narrow Road to the Deep North", a great haibun about you can read more on our first weblog "Carpe Diem Haiku Kai".

The task for this episode of "Carpe Diem's Kamishibai" is to write a haibun about your neighborhood, must be easy ...

My neighborhood in autumn

At least one evening in the week I walk through my neighborhood, just for fun. I love looking through windows at the people in their homes and in this time of year (around the december holidays) it's really a joy to do that, but in all seasons it's a joy. Here is my (short) haibun "my neighborhood".

It's almost around 10 PM (CET) as I walk through my neighborhood. It's a bit cold, a bright star-spotted sky and the almost full moon are leading me on my path. It's a few days before Christmas and in a lot of homes the Christmastree already has been decorated. As I walk on I rest a while looking through the window of one of my neighbor's. They are decorating the Christmastree and I can hear Christmas-songs through the open window of their kitchen. The windows are partly steamed. I hear the laughter of the young kids and the soft bark of a little dog.
As I look closer I can see that the female neighbor is pregnant ... and as I can see ... almost ready to give birth. She enjoys the look of her children as they are decorating the Christmas tree. Than a flash of pain goes over her face. She sits down and her husband looks at her. I can't hear what he's saying, but it seems that he's worried. His wife nods ... they leave the Christmas tree for what it is and ...
Not much later I hear that they are leaving ... she is in labour.

Christmas decorations

Several days later as I walk again through my neighborhood. I stop at the same house. I hear the sound of a new born and as I look closer I can see that this family is standing together around the Christmas tree ... singing Christmas songs. On her arms she holds a little boy. As I walk on ... it starts to snow. "This is how it's meant to be", I think.

really it's Christmas
a little child is born -
snow is falling 


I hope you did like this haibun, it's not of this time, but I had to share it with you all. Now it's up to you. Write a haibun about "your neighborhood" and share it with us all. This "Kamishibai" episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will be open until February 12th 11.59 AM (CET).