~ My response to a CDHK challenge for a tan renga based on a Jane Reichhold haiku harks back to the often-quoted opening lines of a William Blake poem. ~
Tag: CDHK
Geometry of Hope
The CDHK challenge [Carpe Diem Haiku Kai #1856: Restarting?] laments the nasty strife of the past 2+ years but finds a glimmer of hope in a haiga where the image is a superb sunrise photo. My response is another haiga, with 2 haiku and another visual metaphor.
Two on Mortality in 3-5-3
~ Mortality #1 ~
Emergent
from dancing atoms,
life is short.
Emergent
from dancing atoms,
life is short.
~ Mortality #2 ~
Let’s live life
with defiant joy,
all the way.
Let’s live life
with defiant joy,
all the way.
Carpe Diem Haiku Kai … #1850 dried grass
“Dried grass” in the challenge comes from Basho’s last haiku, written as he was dying. My response imagines him rallying to console his grieving companions.
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Snow Fall
Carpe Diem Haiku Kai has the theme “autumn leaves” for November of 2020 and the subtheme “colors of life” for the CDHK episode posted 2020-11-17. Where I live, snow rarely falls before the leaves do. When it does, the resulting colors may foretell the colors of awakening life in the coming spring.
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Carpe Diem #1839 colors of life
Snow Fall
Bright white and strong pink:
early snow on burning bush
predicts apple blooms.
Ozzie Had His Head on Straight
David Eppley’s photo of a bald eagle named Ozzie was among the fan favorites in the Weather Channel’s 2016 Photo Contest. The same excellent photo inspired a haiku that can respond to a CDHK challenge about daffodils. Really.
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Carpe Diem #1832 Narcissus (Daffodils)
Mythornithology
When we saw himself,
Narcissus forgot to drink.
Eagle had more sense.
Click here to see more images and read interesting facts about flowers in the genus Narcissus (AKA daffodils).
Click here to see more images from the Weather Channel’s 2016 Photo Contest.
Eight Years and Counting
The year 2020 is not all bad. Carpe Diem Haiku Kai (which is one of the islands of light in an ocean of darkness) celebrated its eighth anniversary on 2020-10-01. The fine haiku poet who founded and curates CDHK suggested writing “a nice festive haiku or tanka” for the occasion.
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CDHK Celebrates its 8th anniversary – Carpe Diem 1829
Introduction to a new month.
My response salutes the pluralism and progressivism implicit in CDHK. We can honor and build upon the past w/o being confined by it.
Old Pond & Beyond
To sing of all that’s
true and good and beautiful,
write haiku poems.
Then and Now
From a CDHK challenge: «… create a haiku with the … “baransu” (balance) … technique … through association on the separated lines of the haiku.» The challenge goes on to illustrate how an association with one of the ideas in each line can inspire the next line. (Of course, it is also good to have some unexpected twists between lines.) Here are two balanced haiku for an unbalanced world, with pivotal word(s) highlighted.
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Carpe Diem Exploring The Beauty Of Haiku #1828 Baransu (balance)
Pilgrim Then
Shinto shrine ritual:
wash hands before entering.
Predates pandemic.
Carrier Now
He rants with no mask.
Virus-laden spit may fly
beyond two meters.
Hmmm. Now spit can fly beyond two megameters.
Image Credits
© David Carillet | 123RF Stock Photo
Squirrely Juxtaposition
In many a haiku poem, there is an unexpected juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas. Much of the fun is in realizing how the ideas fit together in the context of the haiku. Here is a 3-5-3 haiku with two ideas that U might expect to see juxtaposed, but not in this way. I saw what I saw.
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Carpe Diem Exploring The Beauty Of Haiku #1826 Juxtaposition
Both in Sciuridae
Chipmunk does
rodenta yoga:
flying squirrel.
Nerdy 😉 Notes
- When I first saw the chipmunk with belly down and legs spread out, it looked remarkably like a flying squirrel on a long glide. Despite being well paid for modeling by seeds that fall from my bird feeder, the chipmunk did not hold the exact position while I fetched and focused the camera.
- While at least one yoga position is named for a kind of snake (the “cobra”), no position known to me is named for a kind of squirrel. Too bad. The chipmunk’s “flying squirrel” position is one that even I might be able to master, on the floor if not in the air.
- Wanna count syllables? Where I live, the word [squirrel] has one syllable and rhymes with [swirl]. Elsewhere, it can have two syllables. Maybe more.
Widower’s Song #4
The first three songs are haiku in a previous post. This new song is a tanka in response to a CDHK prompt. A vase with this special urn’s shape and colors would have pleased Edith, and that means a lot to me.
Widower’s Song #4: This Urn
It held her ashes,
waiting until daffodils
came for them in spring.
Then it held one last bouquet
of her favorite flowers.
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Love in Norway
There are several good musical compositions that I hear too often because my radio station loves to air them. For years, Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite was like that. Then I heard one orchestra play it their (unique?) way, with deep love and infectious joy.
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Carpe Diem #1805 Introducing our new Theme … Love month
The lightly edited screenshot ending this post links to a performance by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. They love this music, and it shows. Near the end of the last movement, they even dance. When was the last time U saw classical musicians dance while performing?
No Trolls Here
Free from penguin suits
and long gowns that wipe the floor,
love and skill combine.
They rescue Grieg’s Holberg Suite
from bland transits thru the notes.
Between Seasons in 2019
Where I live, 11-19 is usually too late for fall colors and too early for snowflakes. Recent past and near future met when Fortune smiled on an out-of-season CDHK challenge posted 2019-11-14.
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Carpe Diem #1781 The Quest For A New Masterpiece Continues … colorful autumn
Between Seasons #1
Lost autumn colors,
but garden flag remembers.
Snow on power lines.
The rules and examples for this challenge allow marking the cut with punctuation and tweaking the cut when swapping the initial and final lines. Let’s do that.
Between Seasons #2
Snow on power lines.
But garden flag remembers
lost autumn colors.
Gray Squirrel
North American gray squirrels are famously good at raiding “squirrel-proof” bird feeders. At best, the obstacles persuade most squirrels to look elsewhere (most of the time). Dunno about Japanese squirrels, but they do have a tradition to uphold.
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Gurērisu
Jump! Grab! Swing hips up!
Nimble ninja hogs the seeds.
Birds have a long wait.
And So It Goes
When I posted an ant haiku in 2016, I had no appropriate image and did not know the Japanese word [ensō]. My response to a CDHK prompt for an ant haiku embellishes the haiku from 2016 with a new image based on a freehand circle. Ensō it goes.
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Kiss Overlay © OlyaTropinina | 123RF Stock Photo
Mission Accomplished?
Ant with wings staggers,
then dies. Did I see him smirk?
Had he banged a queen?
Enemy of My Enemy
To a female mosquito, I look like lunch: a big bag of nice warm blood. So the mosquito is my enemy. But I also have a friend. My haiku about their interaction could respond to a prompt for either the friend or the enemy.
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One day in 2015, I happened to arrange my lunch veggies so as to look a little like a dragonfly, with snow peas as wings. Hmmm. Maybe I could pull more veggies from the fridge and make an arrangement that looks a lot like a dragonfly to me. (No real dragonfly would be fooled.) This little project reminded me that a dragonfly is the enemy of my enemy, and thus my friend.
What’s for Lunch?
Mosquitoes in flight
are seen as meat on the hoof
by a dragonfly.
What Lovers Watch
The prose and poetry below respond to a CDHK challenge about love in summer. At 50 words in total (not counting boilerplate), they could have responded to an earlier challenge in the same series but were not ready in time. Can’t rush love (or barbecue).
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© Betty Shelton | 123RF Stock Photo
Lovers joined the crowd on the beach last night, watching fireworks shot from a barge. Now they watch the sunset.
© Dan Hahn
Sunset on the Next Day
The clouds burn yellow,
smolder red, and fade to gray.
The love keeps burning.
Rockets lit the sky last night;
more fireworks in bed tonight.
Emptiness Revisited
Empty talk and empty bowls elicit different responses.
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Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #81
Poetry Archive (5) loneliness or emptiness
Choose a haiku, tanka or other form of Japanese poetry from your archive and share it with us all. Tell us why you have chosen that poem … and create a new poem inspired on your choice.
A short sequence of 3-5-3 haiku dealt with emptiness for a challenge in another series. I like the way the first haiku sets up the second one, so the whole sequence is my archive choice. Can I write a new poem for the current challenge? Yes, and there is a reason to put it before the archive choice. The new poem is a 5-7-5 haiku:
Not Alone
Lonely in the crowd
and weary of empty talk,
I seek solitude.
Lonely in the crowd
and weary of empty talk,
I seek solitude.
© Igor Zakowski | 123RF Stock Photo
(Image has been cropped.)
Here and There in 3-5-3
Emptiness Here
Empty bowl
atop microwave,
just for looks.
Empty bowl
atop microwave,
just for looks.
Emptiness There
Empty bowl,
heavy with nothing.
Hunger pangs.
Empty bowl,
heavy with nothing.
Hunger pangs.
I give to several charities that help hungry people in many places with a mix of short-term and long-term efforts. In particular, my next gift to CARE will be matched 5X. The matching grant offer on CARE.org/match will expire 2019-05-25. (A popup on CARE.org has another match that expires sooner, on 04-30.) If U can give more than whatever U may have already given to charities like CARE this year, now is a good time.
Mellow Curmudgeon 