Carpe Diem #1069 leafless trees

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last episode of our tribute to Jane month. With this last episode I conclude the last modern kigo of winter extracted from Jane's "A Dictionary of Haiku". It was a real joy to create this tribute month and I hope you all have that same feeling. Of course Jane will be part of CDHK forever and not only in spirit, but also in a new weekly special feature "Universal Jane" which I will launch next month as we celebrate our 4th anniversary. You can find our celebration prompt-list above in the menu.

Today leafless trees is our prompt and I think that needs no further explanation, because leafless trees we all know ... therefore I will share the haiku by Jane to inspire you immediately hereafter.

from the wind
the flute lesson
of a bare tree

wood smoke
shaping the radiant bodies
of trees in winter

in the clearing
hovering a circle of trees
their halos

© Jane Reichhold

Leafless trees (image found on Pinterest)

Again not a very long episode, but I am preparing myself for a new study, so I hadn't time enough to create a longer episode.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 4th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our new episode, the first of our celebration month, later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1068 camellia

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In this penultimate episode I have a nice series of haiku for you extracted from "A Dictionary of Haiku" by Jane Reichhold. Today our prompt is camellia and I think we have had that prompt earlier in our existence.

Here are the haiku by Jane for your inspiration:

a camellia
floating in our conversation
unspoken thoughts

curved petals
from the camellia-scented candle
dripping wax

knocked off by rain
camellias bloom again

in the puddles

© Jane Reichhold

Camellia

A short episode, but I had not enough time to create a big post.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 3rd at noon (CET). I will publish our last episode of September, leafless trees, later on. For now .... have fun!


PS. I have published our new promptlist for October, in which we will celebrate our 4th anniversary.



Carpe Diem #1067 poetry reading

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What an awesome day we have here today in The Netherlands, autumn has started, but temperatures are rising to almost 25 degrees Celsius. It's really a joy to walk the dog today and be in the garden reading poetry.

Everyone of us will have certainly read poetry, if not, than you have missed something I think. It's a joy to sit down with a cup of coffee, or another drink and read poetry. To me reading poetry, as is the prompt for today extracted from Jane's "A Dictionary of Haiku", reading poetry is almost a daily task. As I visit you all an read your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form than my day is good. Of course I don't have time enough to stay on track with all of your beautiful submissions, but ... well creating CDHK takes a lot of my time.

Reading Poetry

Reading poetry you can do everywhere, outside in nature, on a bench in the park, on the veranda, or in the warmth of your home.

Reading haiku is a different "piece of cake". Haiku our passion, or tanka, is so short that you have to read the same haiku (or tanka) several times. It's like what Basho once said: "Say your poem a thousand times to hear if its a good one" or something like that. You have to read haiku aloud to hear the sequence, the breaks and more. So if you read haiku (or tanka) say them aloud ... listen to its sound, hear the beauty, feel the atmosphere, see the scene, taste the scene and touch the scene. You need all your senses to read haiku. Try it .... just try it.

Here is a short video on haiku and in this video you can "hear" how the haiku is spoken aloud to feel the scene. It's a nice video ... enjoy:

Reading poetry ... or in our case .... reading haiku (tanka) is an art "an sich", take your time to read your own haiku ....

Here is an example of poetry reading extracted from the online version of Jane's "A Dictionary of Haiku":

book of poems

on each page fingerprints
of a soul

© Jane Reichhold

In her printed version you can find a wealth of haiku on reading poetry, but I don't have it at hand at the moment so I just had to use the online version.

listen
leaves are whispering
haiku
© Chèvrefeuille (Santoka Taneda's "free-style")

on the beach
I read my haiku aloud
seagulls cry

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you are inspired ... and I hope I have triggered you to read haiku aloud and become one with the haiku.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until October 2nd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Camellia, later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1066 beach

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am busy with creating our new prompt-list for next month, October. In this month we will celebrate our 4th anniversary and I think I have created a wonderful list to make this month a real celebration. I hope to publish our new list later on this week.

Today our modern kigo for inspiration is, a not so common one for the time of year we are now in (virtually) winter .... and that makes it a modern kigo I think. Agaian I have chosen a few haiku by Jane Reichhold which she created as examples for our prompt of today ... beach ...

Winter beach

And here are the haiku by Jane to inspire you:

the beach is clean
with new driftwood
winter storms

the cold wind

now part of the day

at the beach

winter beach
widened by the tide
and a lone gull

the swish of surf

falling snowflakes

have a sound 

winter beach
in thin white clouds
thoughts of snow

February sun

lying on the nude beach

fully clothed

All wonderful, the last three are extracted from the online version of Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku".

Winter beach

The beach in winter ... here in The Netherlands walking on the beach is mostly like wrestling against the wind. Winter's are wet and cold and mostly without snow ...

snow?
the beach covered with foam
last night's storm

torn apart clothes
thrown against a beach pole
a winter's love

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... it is now up to you. I hope Jane and I have inspired you.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 1st at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, poetry reading, later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1065 stars

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

September is running towards its end, so our tribute to Jane month ends almost. In the last few weeks we found our inspiration in the modern kigo for New Year, Spring, Summer and Autumn extracted from Jane's "A Dictionary of Haiku".
In this last week of September we have only one season to go, winter. So all our prompts for this week are modern kigo for winter. Our prompt for today I think is wonderful, but not exclusively for winter although ... in winter the air is thin and bright so in winter we can see the stars better than in the other seasons.

Rise like a phoenix

Stars ... what to say about stars? Maybe its a coincidence, but last year (2015) September 26th we had a nice episode about "Phoenix", a constellation and as I was preparing this episode I looked back at that episode and extracted my haiku from that episode to share here again.

like a phoenix
the sun rises every day again
conquering the night

phoenix spreads its wings
after the dark cold winter night
finally spring

© Chèvrefeuille

What an awesome month that was back in 2015, but let us go now into the future, today our prompt is stars and these are the haiku which Jane Reichhold created as examples for this modern kigo for winter.

silence
the dust of stars'
shining radiance

a few flakes
still falling
stars

soul bathing
in hot springs
desert stars

cold stars
dropping into the ocean
snowflakes

 

before one star
beams from the lighthouse
search the sky

into the sky
notes from the harp
light stars

All wonderful haiku (by Jane) extracted from both the printed version and the online version of Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku". 

I hope all these beauties have inspired you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form. I wasn't inspired enough, so I re-share a haiga which I created back in April.

And here are two tanka, not really my "cup of tea", but sometimes I love to use that form and I think this "cascading" tanka is nice to share here.

the heavenly river
seen in the middle of the night
giving birth
to billions of stars
the Milky Way

through the broken window
I think of Galileo Galilei -
the sun in the middle
Earth is dancing around him -
the heavenly river

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this episode and that Jane (and maybe me) have inspired you to write /create a new haiku or tanka.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 1st at noon (CET), I will (try to) publish our new episode, beach, later on. Have fun!

 

Carpe Diem #1064 driftwood

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I am on the nightshift, so I will not publish a big post today. In this month for Jane I have the prompts extracted from her modern saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku" and today's prompt driftwood is from the autumn livelihood section.

I wasn't easy to create an episode on driftwood, but I found another nice haiku poet, John Stevenson, who wrote the following haiku on "driftwood", a nice one I think:

winter beach
a piece of driftwood
charred at one end

© John Stevenson (1948 -)

driftwood

Driftwood ... as I was searching for more on driftwood I ran into wonderful pieces of art made from driftwood ... but I like the "natural" driftwood more.

Here is the haiku extracted from "A Dictionary of Haiku" which Jane wrote as an example for this modern kigo "driftwood":

driftwood
sweater gray in
brown tones

© Jane Reichhold

I didn't know how to translate this word "driftwood", but after some research I understand what this "driftwood" is and than I ran into a few other haiku on "driftwood" by Jane Reichhold. And of course I love to share them here also for your inspiration:

high tide
the secret script
of driftwood scraps

on the island
no one goes to
driftwood

scattered
among driftwood
drifters

driftwood

up and down
driftwood lairs of lovers
come and go

© Jane Reichhold

And I found another nice one, but that one I have used at our "Tribute To Jane" tumblr.

I like this modern kigo, but I also found it very difficult to create a haiku with it, but I have given it a try and came up with this one, not a haiku, but a tanka:

strolling over the beach
beachcombing lovers
looking for driftwood
secret place for lust
tasting her salty skin

© Chèvrefeuille

Hmm ... I don't know ... tanka isn't really my "cup of tea". I hope Jane has inspired you.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 30th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, stars, later on and our last CD-Special by Dolores. For now ... have fun! 

 

Carpe Diem #1063 butterfly

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you have noticed maybe I had a kind of delay yesterday and couldn't publish on time, so here is our second episode and than we are back on track.

Today we have a prompt which we have seen here very often and recently we had a nice Tokubetsudesu episode on Ese in which we could read several beauties in which butterflies played the leading role. Today our prompt is butterfly.

Butterflies are synonymous with change, metamorphosis, lightness, growth, messengers of the gods ... so there is a broad range of themes in wghich we can use this modern kigo "butterfly", however "butterfly" is also a classical kigo, the only thing that's different is that the modern kigo "butterfly" is for autumn and the classical kigo "butterfly" is for summer.

As I started preparing this episode I first thought of that beautiful haiku by Moritake:

a fallen blossom
returning to the bough, I thought --
but no, a butterfly

© Arakida Moritake (1473-1549) (Tr. Steven D. Carter)

Butterfly

Why came this haiku in mind? Well ... when I was doing my research for this prompt I ran into a beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold in which the same idea, the riddle, is used. So I just had to share that haiku here with you:

a falling leaf
up from the earth
a matching butterfly

© Jane Reichhold

Do you see the "riddle" in this one? It's the same as in the haiku by Moritake.

And here are a few other examples of this modern kigo extracted from Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku":

migrating
yet the monarch takes time
to visit me

white butterfly
afternoon Sunshine
slides away

© Jane Reichhold

Butterfly on Lycoris

Today I have chosen to share a tanka with you inspired on the beautiful haiku by Jane Reichhold:

Pygmalion's lesson
every man and woman has to be
like a caterpillar
growing to the next level
become a butterfly

© Chèvrefeuille

And a haiku from my archives:

fragile wings
pointing the way to transformation -
the summer breeze

© Chèvrefeuille

Inspiration enough I would say (smiles) ... I am looking forward to all of your wonderful haiku and tanka.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 29th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, driftwood, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1062 Candles

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at this belated episode of our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, there were a few circumstances which took my time, so my excuses for the delay.

Today our prompt is candles and it's extracted from Jane's "A Dictionary of Haiku" (the printed version). As I started preparing this episode a haiku by Yosa Buson (1716-1784) came in mind:

shokunohiwo shokuni utsusuya harunoyuu

one candle
gives its light to another -
spring evening

© Yosa Buson (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Candlelight ... brings warmth and happiness, but also fear because of the shadows it casts on walls or reflections in the window. Candlelight to me means however romance, warmth, love and more positive feelings.

candles in the moonlight

Here are the haiku examples by Jane Reichhold for this modern kigo of autumn, in these haiku you will also see the classical kigo "moon" (tsuki):

lighting a candle
the moon slips away
in a smoky cloud

replacing the candle
the full moon comes
in the window

moonset
into the dawn burns
a candle

© Jane Reichhold

All wonderful haiku with the modern kigo "candle" and the classic kigo "moon" what a beautiful symbiosis ...

Yellow Chrysanthemums

Another haiku by Yosa Buson, makes this complete I think:

teshokushite iro ushinaeru kigikukana

in the light from the candle held
their color lost--
yellow chrysanthemums

© Yosa Buson (Tr. William R. Nelson)

What to say more about this modern kigo "candle"? Do I need to create a haiku myself on this modern kigo? Or ...

reflections
the light of the candle
on her face

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope that Jane and Buson inspired you to create haiku or tanka. Have fun!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 29th at noon (CET). I will publish our new episode, butterfly, also today.

Carpe Diem #1061 waterfall

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today autumn starts and that means it is September 22nd, the autumn equinox. So our prompts this week fit the time of year. Our prompt for today is waterfall and it is extracted from the online version of Jane's "A Dictionary of Haiku" on her personal website.
As I was creating this episode I thought back to the start of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Why? Because the first prompt ever on CDHK was "waterfall". I even remembered the haiku which I used to inspire you:

waterfall of colors
leaves whirl through the street -
departing summer

© Chèvrefeuille

It was also a haiku of autumn, so this cannot be a coincidence, this must be the spirit of Jane.

We have had "waterfall" as prompt several times here at CDHK, so (again) a reprise episode? Well ... to me that's okay and I hope you all don't mind too.

Let me give you the haiku by Jane to inspire you:

red rock waterfall
into emerald pools
cedar incense

water blackened rocks
falling with the waterfall
some of them

chipped rock
the shape of water
falling

white rim
on black rock light falling
with the water

© Jane Reichhold

 

And here is my response on these beauties by Jane. I first thought to use one of my archives, but finally I decided to re-create an oldie into a new one. In this haiku I have sought to use the "free-style" way of Santoka Taneda.

the waterfall
ah! that sound ...
mesmerizing

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope Jane has inspired you all to create haiku, tanka or an other Japanese poetry form.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 27th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, candles, later on. Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1060 twilight

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another day in "haiku paradise" were we are honoring Jane Reichhold with an exclusive tribute to Jane month in which I use only modern kigo extracted from Jane's saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", mostly the printed version, but sometimes the online version on AHA-poetry, Jane's own website.

Today I love to start this episode with a song from the soundtrack of the movie-series "The Twilight Saga" based on the novels by Stephanie Meyer. I don't have read her novels or have seen the movies, but I ran into a wonderful piece of music from the soundtrack. (Video made by: Fueled by Ramen; the musicians are: Paramore performing "decode" from the soundtrack of Twilight Saga the movies)

Of course I don't know the taste of music of you all or Jane's music taste, but I think this music is awesome and fits the "twilight" prompt for today. Of course the haiku by Jane to inspire you have nothing to do with vampires and werewolves, because that's the theme of the Twilight Saga.

Twilight ... that small time between the ending of the day and the beginning of the night with its deepblue, almost black, color. The last sunbeams disappear behind the horizon and the reflected light of the sun that let shine the moon starts to glow ... awesome time, mysterious, but also very spiritual in my opinion. In the twilight I feel the magic and energy of nature of the spirits around us ... the twilight gives new energy and gives us the opportunity to rest and recover to welcome a new dawn.

Here are the haiku by Jane which she uses as an example for this modern kigo "twilight":

darkness slipping in
water that cannot be still
twilight

nautical twilight
the sea gives its last light
to the sky

twilight
among early stars
sea bird's cry

© Jane Reichhold

Twilight

How to accomplish this beautiful series by Jane Reichhold, the Queen of Haiku and Tanka ... I really don't know. So I dived into my archives to search for a few haiku I wrote on "twilight" ...

in the twilight
only the song of cicadas -
my love's breathing

in the twilight
mist creeps over the fields -
stars twinkle *

in the twilight
as stars twinkle bright and clear
Honeysuckle perfume

© Chèvrefeuille

* this one was the "hokku" of our first Renga Party back in August 2015 you can re-read this renga HERE.

I hope Jane (and maybe myself) inspires you to create an all new haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 25th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, waterfall, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share!

Carpe Diem #1059 Harvest Moon

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our daily haiku meme Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This month we have a tribute to Jane month to honor the Queen of Haiku and Tanka, Jane Reichhold who passed away back at the end of July.
Yesterday I honored her wisdom and knowledge and today I will step back, because it's not about me, but it's about Jane, my close friend, mentor and co-host who I miss dearly.

Today's prompt is Harvest Moon. And it just happens to have been Harvest Moon, because Harvest Moon is the name for the full moon of September. It's the full moon closest to the autumn equinox which will take place on September 22nd. The Harvest Moon of this year was an awesome one, it was a bright one and the moon looked bigger than ever, because she was closer to us than in other months.

Harvest Moon

With this prompt we enter the autumn section of Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku" from which I have extracted all the prompts, all modern kigo (seasonwords), for this tribute month. Through the haiku she, Jane Reichhold, uses as examples for the modern kigo I hope to inspire you to create haiku or tanka to honor Jane ...

harvest
the golden grain color
in the moon

the harvest moon
bringing in the pumpkins
yet on the porch

© Jane Reichhold

And than this beauty, also by Jane Reichhold, but taken from the online version of "A Dictionary of Haiku" ... a real masterpiece:

turning out the light
renting the room to the moon
for a night

© Jane Reichhold

Ah ... that last scene ... so mysterious, so full of spirituality, so full of romance and even full of sensuality ... awesome haiku ...

Singing Moon

Here is my response on this prompt inspired on the haiku by Jane to honor her:

through the broken window
I can see the Harvest Moon -
a song for my friend
white Chrysanthemums and red Roses
Singing Moon *

Singing Moon
the old Celtic druids already knew
autumn equinox
I look at the Corn Moon *
through the broken window

© Chèvrefeuille

* Singing Moon and Corn Moon are also names for the full moon of September.

I hope you did like this new episode and I hope that Jane has inspired you to create / write haiku or tanka.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 24th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, twilight, later on. For now ... have fun ... be inspired and share your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form with us all.

Carpe Diem #1058 wisdom

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First ... I am becoming better the flu has gone, but it will take a few days to recover fully. Thank you all for your kind words.
Second ... As I published the results of our "prayer" kukai I also invited you to submit for our new kukai in tribute for Jane Reichhold. The submitting time is over (it ended September 15th), but I have to less submissions to start the judging. So I love to prolong this kukai in tribute for Jane with two weeks ... so if you want to submit haiku for this tribute for Jane kukai you can email your submissions to our email address carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com until September 30th 10.00 PM (CET). You can find the tribute to Jane kukai information HERE.
Third ... today I planned to create a post on wisdom (our prompt for today), and I will do that, but I will not use haiku by Jane Reichhold, but I love to honor her wisdom in this episode. So here we go ...

As you all know Jane was one of the pillars on which CDHK is built and I was honored that I got the opportunity to get exclusive rights to publish three of her "bare bones school of ..." series here at CDHK.

wisdom
caught in a few words
fireworks

© Chèvrefeuille

fireworks

And "fireworks" it was and is. Jane published three wonderful books on our beautiful Japanese poetry forms we honor here. First there was "the bare bones school of haiku". Than "wind-five folded school of tanka" and last but certainly not least there was "bare bones school of renga". All three books are a pleasure to read and a joy to use. Jane had not only the talent for writing haiku, tanka and renga, but she also had the talent to teach ... She always found the right words to explain things, as we all have seen in her CD-special feature "Ask Jane ...".
As I look at myself than I only can say that not only Matsuo Basho was my master, but Jane Reichhold also. She learned me to place the classic haiku in modern times and that all those rules haiku has are not that strict ... what I learned from her was this "In haiku you can share all your feelings your emotions your ideas without using the rules". "Look at Basho he said "now you know the rules, forget them immediately ... enjoy writing haiku". I think that is the most important rule, the most important thing I have learned from Jane's passion for haiku and tanka ... enjoy it.

enjoy the little things
see the shepherd's purse
beneath the hedge

© Chèvrefeuille

Jane was not only a close friend and co-host, but also my sensei ... I bow for you Jane ... thank you for your knowledge and wisdom ... my sensei

You can find the above mentioned e-books in Jane's Library here at CDHK.

For this episode I love to ask you to write about what you have learned from Jane Reichhold. Was she your sensei too? And try to catch that in a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 24rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, Harvest moon, later on.

PS.: I had planned to publish the 3rd CD-Special by Dolores also today, but I have decided to publish that 3rd CD-Special tomorrow, I hope you don't mind. It gives me more time to dive into Dolores' work.

Carpe Diem #1057 creek

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Thank you all for your kind words, little by little I am feeling better, I have a kind of flu and that makes it impossible to take enough time to create the posts for CDHK.

Today however I have tried to create a nice episode for you inspired on Jane Reichhold's saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", today our prompt (modern kigo) is creek and it's a modern kigo from the Summer Terrestrial section.

Here are the haiku by Jane to inspire you:

summer creek
the fish in me getting
fish kisses

summer-hot hills
folding together
dry creek beds

without a boat
crossing the creek
pine shadow wind

© Jane Reichhold

Three wonderful, but extraordinary haiku, but ... well that was Jane, a great poetess with an extraordinary idea about haiku in our modern times.

Summer Creek

And here is the haiku which I wrote inspired on the above beauties by Jane:

the creek ripples
water circles grow
a pebble

© Chèvrefeuille

Not as strong as I had hoped, but I like the scene.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 23rd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, wisdom, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1056 dew

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today the prompt is dew and as I wrote in the other post of today I am a bit late, because I was sick and couldn't publish on time.

Therefore I only share the haiku by Jane Reichhold to inspire you, I think this "dew" haiku is an excellent haiku:

seaside gardens
summer dew comes filled
with ocean power

© Jane Reichhold

My apologies for these two short episodes, but ... I hope you all will understand it.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 22nd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, creek, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1055 coolness

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to apologize, because I am late with publishing. I was sick and couldn't publish our episodes coolness and dew on time, so today I will publish these episodes.

Here are the haiku by Jane on coolness for your inspiration:

a day shortens
as the beach cools
its shadows

dry creek bed
a coolness flows down
evening

wind chimes
the silence absorbs
any cool breeze

© Jane Reichhold

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 22nd at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #1054 Summer Solstice

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have a prompt we have seen here more than once at our Haiku Kai, but to me that's not a problem and I hope you all don't mind too.

Today our prompt is Summer Solstice and these are the haiku Jane Reichhold used as an example in her saijiki "A Dictionary of Haiku", in which she introduced modern kigo (or seasonwords):

midsummer madness
tempered by the knowledge
each day is shorter

solstice splits
between the peach halves
a red stone sun

summer solstice
the gypsy wagon bright
with music

© Jane Reichhold

Gypsy wagon in the sun

Three wonderful haiku ... on summer solstice ...

This time I have chosen to share a tanka inspired on Summer Solstice. As you maybe know I am not that great a tanka poet, but sometimes I love to use that form.

the longest day
spirits are rejoicing nature
Summer Solstice
spiritual energy stronger than ever
the longest day

© Chèvrefeuille

And here is a haiku from my archives:

at the seashore
wind of summer through my hair
the shortest night

© Chèvrefeuille 

Well I hope Jane has inspired you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form. 

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 19th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, coolness, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1053 worship

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This month we honor Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) a tribute to Jane month. Through modern kigo extracted from her "A Dictionary of Haiku" I hope to inspire you all to create a haiku or tanka to honor Jane Reichhold. Today our modern kigo is worship and Jane wrote a few wonderful examples of this modern kigo:

in the beginning
all spirit - all holy
a world boat

to a beach of stones
we carry a boat of blossom
afloat of prayers

the ship
of ancestor offerings
ready to sail

© Jane Reichhold

As you can read in the above haiku, Jane was a very spiritual being and her haiku are surely rooted in the ancient Japanese culture.

at sunrise
a choir of birds
sings praise

© Chèvrefeuille

This haiku was published earlier at: my tribute to Jane Reichhold tumblr. 

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 18th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, summer solstice, and the only Tokubetsudesu episode this month, later on.

Carpe Diem #1052 Happiness

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today our prompt sounds maybe controversial in this tribute to Jane month, but I think she is also honored through happiness, because she was a woman who was always (notwithstanding her illness) positive and full of happiness. So I couldn't think of a tribute month without her happiness.

We all know Jane as the haiku and tanka connoisseur, but she was more than that. She was an amazing artist with pottery, beads and she created wonderful dolls.

Jane's pottery

a great gift
a day on the beach
given to me

© Jane Reichhold

Or what do you think of her wonderful beads-art:

Beads-art by Jane reichhold, this piece is titled : Saturday Night

curve of a heel
rising with my happiness
waving grass

© Jane Reichhold

Jane loved to make dolls and she even has created a special weblog for them at blogspot. You can find "Jane's Dolly Daze" by clicking the link. She really was a multi-talented artist, but here at CDHK we will remember her as the Queen of Haiku and Tanka. But ... don't forget that she was more than that.

Gracie, one of the dolls made by Jane Reichhold

same style
the blue dress worn more
than the black

summer fresh
my hair washed 
in sunshine

© Jane Reichhold

All the above haiku are taken from "A Dictionary of Haiku" a saijiki created by Jane Reichhold with modern kigo (seasonwords). These haiku are from the part of Summer Moods kigo "happiness". I hope I have inspired you ... or ... no I have to say "I hope that Jane has inspired you".

on the wings of birds
the faint reflection of the sunset -
the sound of the wind

shadows on the wall
one single candle shines its light
towards the world

after the rainstorm
I sit down on the porch
smelling the fresh air

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like this episode in which I told you a little bit about Jane, she was not only a haiku and tanka poet, but also a great creative artist as we have seen above.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 17th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, worship, later on.

Have fun!