Carpe Diem Crossroads #7 this autumn sky (Sōgi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Well ... it wasn't really what I wanted to do today, but I have a third post for you today. It is time again for a new episode of our "crossroads" feature, the feature in which I challenge you to create a so called "fusion-haiku" based on two given haiku. Today I have two haiku for you by a not so renown classical haiku poet Sōgi.

Sōgi (1421–1502), was a Japanese poet. He came from a humble family from the province of Kii or Ōmi, and died in Hakone on September 1, 1502. Sōgi was a Zen monk from the Shokokuji temple in Kyoto and he studied poetry, both waka and renga. In his 30's he became a professional renga poet.

During his travels to almost every corner of Japan, he was welcomed by the most powerful political, military and literary figures of his day. He attracted more disciples than any other poet of his generation. After traveling throughout Japan, he returned to Kyoto where he commanded great respect.

Sōgi

He is best-remembered for his renga, wherein two or more poets collaborate to create a poem, by writing alternate stanzas. In Sōgi's day, such renga were typically 100 verses in length. Arising from the court tradition of waka, renga was cultivated by the warrior class as well as by courtiers, and some of the best renga poets, such as Sōgi, were commoners.

Sōgi is considered the greatest master of renga, his two most famous works being "Three Poets at Minase" (Minase sangin hyakuin, 1488) and "Three Poets at Yuyama" (Yuyama sangin hyakuin, 1491).[3] This outstanding poet left more than 90 works (anthologies, diaries, poetic criticisms and manuals, among others). Before his death, he wrote "Sōgi Alone", which mostly includes his memoirs.

Here are the two haiku to create your "fusion-haiku" with:

ah, for coolness,
it rivals the water's depth -
this autumn sky

© Sōgi

And this one, in a translation by myself:

abandoned house
the garden taken over -
butterfly home

© Sōgi (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Woodblock print Orchid and Butterflies (image found on Pinterest)

And here is my "fusion-haiku":

in the autumn sky
vague silhouette of a butterfly
first raindrops fall

© Chèvrefeuille

Have fun!

This episode of "crossroads" is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 29th at noon (CEST). See you ....!

Carpe Diem Special #184 Ese's fifth "still beautiful"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is with sadness in my heart that I welcome you at our last CD Special of November in which I shared haiku from a wonderful and very gifted haiku poetess ... Ese of Ese's Voice. She has written a lot of beauties and for this last CD special of November I hope I did make the right choice.

Back in January 2015 we had a pre-Basho haiku poet as our featured haiku poet, Iio Sogi(1421-1502). I shared the following haiku by Sogi as the last featured haiku for January 2015 and this haiku was an inspiration for a lot of our family members and also for Ese.

This was the haiku which I shared:

Now that they end
There is no flower that can compare
With cherry blossoms

© Iio Sogi (1421-1502)

A beauty ... I think and this was my response on this beauty by Sogi:

Ah! those cherry blossoms
everywhere I look their beauty amazes me again -
finally spring is here

© Chèvrefeuille

I remember that I wasn't really impressed by my own haiku inspired on Sogi’s, but the one by Ese was really a beauty, she even came up with two haiku inspired on the one by Sogi. In her first response on Sogi’s haiku I sense his tone and spirit, and in her second response it was very clear to me that it was a real wonderful haiku in the spirit of Ese.

Cherry Blossom (photo © Chèvrefeuille)

Let us first look at the haiku she wrote in Sogi’s spirit:

first cherry blossoms
despite the bites of morning frost
still beautiful

© Ese

Read and re-read Ese’s haiku, read it aloud and you will sense, feel the spirit of Sogi ... did you try it? Have I said to much?

And here is her second, in which I really can feel Ese’s spirit ... try to read and re-read it saying it aloud and I know for sure that you can feel Ese’s spirit ... she is really a gifted haiku poetess and I hope to read a lot more beauties composed by her.

left behind
in the frozen pond
white feather

© Ese

I hope you all did like the CD-Specials of this month and I hope I did make the right choices from her oeuvre of haiku ...

Well ... you know the drill .... try to compose an all new haiku inspired on the haiku by Ese trying to touch her spirit ...

a shimmer

between colorful leaves
white pebble

© Chèvrefeuille

dark forest
a full moon walk -
Nightingale's song

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope that you all are inspired to come up with an all new haiku (or two) in the spirit of Ese.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until December 1st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Tavn Bogd (Five Mountains), later on.

I also hope to publish our new prompt-list for December in which we will follow Basho again on his journey into the deep north. We will see where he has been and we will read ALL the haiku from his famous haibun "narrow road into the deep north". I am looking forward to it ... and I hope you all will do the same.

Carpe Diem Special #129, Sogi's 5th haiku

Dear haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a sad idea today I present you all our last haiku by our featured haiku-poet Iio Sogi (1424-1502) a pre-Basho haiku-poet and renga master. A lot of his haiku were once "hokku" (starting verse for a renga), but there aren't a lot of haiku preserved of him. I had a very small choice. Today's haiku by Sogi is the "hokku" of a "Dokugin", a solo-renga, titled "Sogi Alone" written by, as the title shows you, Iio Sogi. I had never heard of this "Dokugin", but I think it's great discovery, but were does that bring me with my "Soliloquy no Renga", which I presented as a new idea ...?

Well ... that doesn't matter in this CD-Special it's all about haiku by Iio Sogi and this one is just wonderful and I hope it will inspire you all to write an all new haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one I gave:

Now that they end
There is no flower that can compare
With cherry blossoms

© Iio Sogi

And this is my haiku which I wrote inspired on this one by Sogi:

Ah! those cherry blossoms

every where I look their beauty amazes me again -

finally spring is here

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but it's in my opinion close to the one by Sogi.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 29th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, a new Haiku Writing Techniques episode, later on. For now .... have fun, be inspired and share.

Carpe Diem Special #127, Sogi's third "dewy evening "

!! I am a little bit late with this episode ... sorry guys and girls !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's time for our third haiku by our featured haiku poet Iio Sogi (1424-1502) a pre-Basho haiku-ist. As I was preparing this episode I sought for the first "haiku-like" poetry form and I ran into Kanshi (a Chinese poetry form used in the Heian Period in Japan, Kanshi was also based on "onji" (sound-units) and also in the sequence of haiku 5-7-5-7 .... This haiku-like form is from the 8th century.

Ok ... back to our Special for today. I have found a wonderful haiku written by Iio Sogi and I think it can inspire you all to write an all new haiku (or tanka) and share it with us all. Here is the third haiku by Sogi:

Both grasses and trees
waiting for the moon
dewy evening

© Iio Sogi

The goal of this CD-Special is to write an all new haiku trying to touch the same sense, tone and spirit as the one given. And for this episode I love to challenge you a little bit more. Try to write a haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit and use that haiku to write a Troiku (the description of Troiku you can find in the menu-line above), of course that's not an obligation, but I would like to see some troiku here.

hoarfrost

Here is my attempt:

morning dew
vanished in a second as the sun rises -
life is short

© Chèvrefeuille

And of course I had to write a Troiku myself also, here is my Troiku extracted from the new haiku written by myself:

morning dew
makes the spiderweb crystaline
nature's treasure

vanished in a second as the sun rises
the fragile hoarfrost on the branches -
ice skating

life is short
I see the thin grey hair of my parents
I become grey too

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... this is it for this time and I hope you will be inspired to write and share your all new haiku, and maybe a Troiku ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until January 17th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our new episode, Little New Year (Koshoogatsu), later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Special #126, Sogi's "Butterfly home"

!! I publish this post a bit earlier, because I am in the nightshift !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month's featured haiku-poet is Iio Sogi (1424-1502), a pre-Basho haiku-poet and he was, as Basho, a wellknown Renga-Master. The most preserved haiku by Sogi are "hokku" which were part of Renga (chained poem). Today I have our second haiku by Sogi for you. I have translated it myself to make it a bit more compact. Here it is:

abandoned house
the garden taken over -
butterfly home

© Iio Sogi (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Isn't it a beautiful haiku? I can see this in front of my eyes and the scene makes me smile ... such fragile beauty, but that fragile beauty is that strong to over take an abandoned house. Awesome. It's a nice kind of juxtaposition which we can read in this one butterfly/house  fragility/strongness and that brings me to the task of this CD Special:

Write a haiku in the same sense, tone and spirit as the one by Sogi and try to bring a juxtaposition into it. Or ... and that's an easier task I think ... you can use the haiku by Sogi as the "hokku" (starting verse) of a Soliloquy No Renga (a renga poem written by one poet) of a maximum of eight (8) stanza. If you choose for the Soliloquy than please try to "close" the chain with using an "ageku" (closing verse which associates on the "hokku").

I have tried to write a haiku in which the first task is used ... here it is:

broken windows
after the bombing - spiders spinning
their cobwebs

© Chèvrefeuille

Do you see/read the juxtaposition in this haiku? I think I succeeded in this task, but that's not up to me to say ... that's up to you my dear Haijin.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 11th at noon (CET). Have fun! I will post our next episode, First Market (Hatsuchi), later on.

Carpe Diem Special #125, Sogi's first "this autumn sky"

Credits: photo

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to introduce to you our featured haiku-poet of this month. I just recently discovered him. Iio Sogi, a pre-Basho haiku poet, of whom there aren't a lot of haiku preserved, but the ones I could find are gorgeous little gems.

Credits: Iio Sogi (Woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi)

Let me tell you first a little bit more about Sogi (1421-1502). He came from a humble family from the province of Kii or Ōmi, and died in Hakone on September 1, 1502. Sōgi was a Zen monk from the Shokokuji temple in Kyoto and he studied poetry, both waka and renga. In his 30's he became a professional renga poet.

During his travels to almost every corner of Japan, he was welcomed by the most powerful political, military and literary figures of his day. He attracted more disciples than any other poet of his generation. After traveling throughout Japan, he returned to Kyoto where he commanded great respect.
He is best-remembered for his renga, wherein two or more poets collaborate to create a poem, by writing alternate stanzas. In Sōgi's day, such renga were typically 100 verses in length. Arising from the court tradition of waka, renga was cultivated by the warrior class as well as by courtiers, and some of the best renga poets, such as Sōgi, were commoners.
Sōgi is considered the greatest master of renga, his two most famous works being "Three Poets at Minase" (Minase sangin hyakuin, 1488) and "Three Poets at Yuyama" (Yuyama sangin hyakuin, 1491). This outstanding poet left more than 90 works (anthologies, diaries, poetic criticisms and manuals, among others).

Before his death, he wrote "Sōgi Alone", which mostly includes his memoirs. (Source: Gabi Greve's blogspot on Haiku Topics)

The most haiku used here this month were hokku for Renga sessions as we also know of Basho who also wrote a lot of hokku for Renga Sessions.

Credits: Autumn Sky

This first haiku by Sogi is a beauty and I think it will inspire you all. Here is our first Sogi haiku:

ah, for coolness,
it rivals the water's depth -
this autumn sky

© Iio Sogi (1421-1502)

In my opinion this haiku is an awesome one ... I can imagine that a cloudless autumn sky can bring the feeling of coolness even more than the water's depth.
How ... how to create a haiku in the same tone, sense and spirit? At first I couldn't find the correct words, but ... after a few less good versions I composed the following tanka, (not really my "cup of tea", but I had to try it):

taking a last zip
the coolness of the last drop of water
burns my throat
desertsand between my toes
ah, that coolness

© Chèvrefeuille

Is it in the same tone, sense and spirit as the one by Sogi? I don't know for sure ...

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 5th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, first sun (Hatsuhi), later on. For now ... just have fun, be inspired and share your haiku (or tanka) with us all.

Gaby Greve Haiku Topics blogspot