Carpe Diem's Weekend Meditation #51 Tagore's "Endless Time"

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday September 23rd at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies. September is running towards its end and we will enter the last quarter of 2018. Really time flies. Tomorrow is already yesterday as I create this new weekend meditation. I ran through Tagore's poetry and found a nice poem about time. It is titled "endless time" and that's the poem to work with this weekend.

But let us first make a quick trip back in time. Here at CDHK we have had earlier posts about time and time is changing ... I remember an episode about Khalil Gibran about time and maybe you can remember that episode in our Santiago De Compostela month. I will give you the links to those posts at the end of this weekend meditation.

Okay ... back to the poem by Tagore to work with this weekend. Try to catch the essence of this poem in a haiku or tanka, in other words try to distil your haiku or tanka from this poem or ... and that's okay too you can share a haiku or tanka inspired on this poem by Tagore.

Endless Time (© Dr. Feelgood)

Endless Time

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord. 
There is none to count thy minutes. 

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers. 
Thou knowest how to wait. 

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower. 

We have no time to lose, 
and having no time we must scramble for a chance. 
We are too poor to be late. 

And thus it is that time goes by 
while I give it to every querulous man who claims it, 
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last. 

At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut; 
but I find that yet there is time. 

© Rabindranath Tagore

What a wonderful poem this is. It has a rich meaning I think. It describes the circle of life or the path of life so to say. We all are on our path of life making choices that will influence our life. Sometimes our choices are not good. For example: I once took the path of the occult and that brought me illness and suicidal thoughts, but praise ... I found my way back and took the right path again.
Time sometimes plays with us to learn us the secrets of a righteous life and that's (in my opinion) the deeper meaning of this poem by Tagore.

Here are the links to the mentioned episodes:

Episode 914
Episode 1124

And not so long ago (last summer) I challenged you to create a Troiku on Time that episode you can find HERE.

Well ... time ... it's an everlasting theme and I hoe that you can find the inspiration this weekend to meditate and contemplate about time and share your haiku or tanka "distilled" from the poem by Tagore with us all next Sunday September 23rd.

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday September 23rd at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until September 30th at noon (CEST). Have a great weekend!

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #37 Troiku Challenge "Time"

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday June 17th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies ... I have said that very often here at CDHK, but it is so true. Time slips through our fingers like grains of sand. I remember that I started writing haiku back in the late eighties and than several years later, 2005, I published my first english haiku. And now ... look were we are now. In 2012 I started CDHK to promote the beauty of haiku and later other Japanese poetry forms like tanka and sedoka. We are "running" towards our 6th anniversary and I hope you all will celebrate that we me next October.

Time ... also a prompt we have seen here often e.g. back in January 2017, while we were on our pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I made an episode about Time (here) or what do you think of this episode written by our friend Hamish Manaqua Gunn back in February 2016 (here).

Okay ... up we go ... no sentimental journey here (smiles). This weekend meditation I love to challenge you again to create a Troiku with a "fusion"-haiku. And this weekend I love to challenge you to create a "fusion"-haiku with the following haiku themed "time":

perpetual snow
reflects the sunlight - 
I dream of a nude beach

© Chèvrefeuille

through tears
cherry blossoms scattered
by the breeze


© Chèvrefeuille

I can almost hear you all think ... what have these haiku to do with time? But I think you can relate to the "time"-theme in these haiku.

The goal? Create a "fusion"-haiku from these two haiku and than use your "fusion"-haiku to create a Troiku with (more on Troiku? above in the menu).

Well .... have a great weekend full of inspiration .... awaken your muses and enjoy creating your once in year masterpiece ...

This weekend-meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday June 17th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until Sunday June 24th at noon (CEST). Enjoy your weekend!

PS. Do you have ideas for our 6th anniversary in October? Than please let me know.

Carpe Diem #914 Time

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I say it often "lack of time", "time is not at my side" and more likely. In this episode we will look at "time" as part of the senses.

Introduction

Maybe you can remember that we had a month with quotes from Khalil Gibran's "Sand and Foam". In one of the episodes I spoke about "time". As I was preparing this episode another nice piece of poetry came in mind, also by Khalil Gibran. I love to share that poem here with you all.

And an astronomer said, "Master, what of Time?"
And he answered:
You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.
You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.
Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.
Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.
And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.
Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?
And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not form love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds? And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?
But if in you thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,
And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

© Khalil Gibran

Time

changing tides
my restlessness has gone
time is at my side

© Chèvrefeuille

Hamish on time

Sense of time is said to be the most cultural of all senses. A Brazilian's sense of time is completely different from say, a Swiss's sense of time, and in fact closer to the culture of the Qatari, for example. Some of us always arrive early, and have an innate sense of what time it is. Others do not have a good sense of time, and anyway come from a culture where the notion of time is not given the same values.

Maybe say it is never too late, for example, while the saying in Switzerland is it is never too early. If you invite a Finnish person to your house at say 6:00 pm, he or she is likely to turn up at 5:30 pm, a dire insult for the French, who make a point of being half an hour late, which is altogether too optimistic for a Brazilian or Gulf Arab.

While the Swiss or Finnish may have a well-developed notion or sense of time, other nations place emphasis on developing other senses in society, like the tactile sense among people of the Mediterranean. In fact most Europeans like to arrive on time, even if not all their trains do. The Japanese are also innate time-keepers, though Thai people are much more approximate, and do not have the same sense  of time as their Asian counterparts.

The goal is to bring "time" as a sense into your haiku or try to create a haiku (tanka or other Japanese poetry form) in which you try to catch "time".

Credits: Strings of Time

My response

Time ... to me isn't that important. I live with the day and (of course) I am on time at work, but that's all to say about me according to time. Time isn't always at my side, but that's my problem and not that of others.
I often feel ashamed as I am not on time with publishing the episodes here at CDHK, but ... well that's me.

I am a wanderer, a vagabond, a nomad ... time is not important to me ... when the first sunbeams caress the earth I rise from my bed ... the day goes by ... and as the sky becomes dark and the stars are visible in their deep blue background of the universe ... it's time to go to sleep. That's my day.

I have tried to catch that in a haiku, not a new one, but I think it fits the idea of time very well.

wandering along the sea
in the footprints left an oyster
shimmering of a pearl

© Chèvrefeuille

And ... I just had to write an all new one:

first sunlight
the whole day birds praise
'til the night falls

© Chèvrefeuille

strings of time
pulling every day again
becoming grey

© Chèvrefeuille

(inspired on the above image)

Take your time ... meditate on time ... feel time, see time, hear time, taste time and ... touch time in your haiku.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until February 10th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, a new CD Special by Hamish, our featured haiku poet, later on.

Carpe Diem Kukai #6 Time

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to announce the start of our 6th kukai. This kukai has the theme "TIME" ... and I invite you all to send haiku (new and not early published, a maximum of three) inspired on the theme "time" to our emailaddress: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com Please write "kukai time" in the subject line. To help you to become inspired I have a nice quote by Khalil Gibran for you.

Khalil Gibran, a modern times (end 19th and begin 20th century, must be modern heh) philosopher, has written really awesome books. His thoughts were very different as those of the government in his country Lebanon and so he had to fled to the United States were he became a great man and author in the same league as Shakespeare. It's awesome to read his thoughts and ideas ... I can empathize with him, because he has in a way the same thoughts and ideas as I have, but ... I cannot really give the right words to it ...

[...] "We measure time according to the movement of countless suns; and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets. Now tell me, how could we ever meet at the same place at the same time?" [...]

A lack of time is an "illness" of modern times ... I am a guy who lives in the modern time, but does that mean that I have to confirm to the fastness and lack of time? I don't think so.

I think I have an idea to become rid of my problem ... I just throw my watch away and let those countless suns make my day. I have to adapt to nature's time, I don't need to stay awake until 2 o'clock in the night. I just have to go to my bed as the evening falls and get out of bed as the morning rises. Wouldn't that be awesome? Just going with nature and the way of the sun ... That's the time of a haiku-poet. As I stated in another episode at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai haiku-poets are the poets of nature, they are the keepers of nature ... so I have just to listen again to my own words and the words of our classical haiku-poets. We just have to listen to our ancestors ... Did they have a shortness of time? I don't think so.

From this moment on ... no time problems anymore. I just go with the flow, just go with the movement of countless suns and with the tides.

changing tides
my restlessness has gone
time is at my side

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope this will help your inspiration. This new CDHK Kukai "time" is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will run until February 14th 10.00 PM (CET). I am looking forward to your submissions. Please feel free to invite others to participate in this kukai.

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille, your host.

Carpe Diem #532, Movement

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Khalil Gibran, a modern times (end 19th and begin 20th century, must be modern heh) philosopher has written really awesome books. His thoughts were very much different as the ideas of the government in his country Lebanon and so he had to fled to the United States were he became a great man and author in the same league as Shakespeare. It's awesome to read his thoughts and ideas ... I can emphatize with him, because he has in a way the same thoughts and ideas as I, but ... I cannot really give the right words to it ...

Today I have another wonderful saying of him to share here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai ...

[...] "We measure time according to the movement of countless suns; and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets. Now tell me, how could we ever meet at the same place at the same time?" [...]

Credits: Time is Chaos

"Time is on our side", we say, but that isn't true, because, as I look at myself, I don't have enough time. Several times I had to post a short message on our Haiku Kai, because of a delayed post by lack of time. And then we say "Time is on our side". Bull....
What is time? It's the movement of our wonderful planet Earth around the sun. A day has 24 hours, must be enough I thought, but why do I have a shortness of time than? I think I know it ... I just do like to much activities. All my activities are sucking my time. I don't have enough time! I need more time! Why has a day just 24 hours? Because that's the time Earth needs to complete his journey around the sun. Why not 48 hours?
Hm ... that's an issue! As a day would last for 48 hours our lives would be slower, we would be younger. Picture this (sorry I can't help it I love that sentence "picture this", it's from The Golden Girls TV-series, Sophia uses it to tell her stories. I like that TV-show) a day lasts 48 hours. (Do you have that picture?) I am now 51 yrs, as a day would lasts 48 hours, I would be 25 yrs! Awesome! I would be still a young guy and would have time enough.
Would that be true? Of course not as the days lasts 48 hours (a day) than I would still have a shortness of time, because I still like what I do. I would have more time for my patients. I would have more time to compose haiku and share them at our Haiku Kai. I would have a lot of time, but more time brings me more energy, more ideas .... and for sure I would have to little time. What, in Gods name, is my problem!?

Credits: Time

I think I have an idea to become rid of my problem ... I just throw my watch away and let those countless suns make my day. I have to adapt to nature's time, I don't need to stay awake until 2 o'clock in the night. I just have to go to my bed as the evening falls and get out of bed as the morning rises. Wouldn't that be awesome? Just going with nature and the way of the sun ... That's the time of a haiku-poet. As I stated in another episode of CDHK haiku-poets are the poets of nature, they are the keepers of nature ... so I have just to listen again to my own words and the words of our classical haiku-poets. We just have have to listen to our ancestors ... Did they have a shortness of time? I don't think so.
A lack of time is an "illness" of modern times ... I am a guy who lives in the modern time, but does that mean that I have to confirm to the fastness and lack of time? I don't think so.
From this moment on ... no time problems anymore. I just go with the flow, just go with the movement of countless suns and with the tides.

changing tides
my restlessness has gone
time is at my side

© Chèvrefeuille

Khalil Gibran has said it in the right way ... we don't need those little machines in our little pockets or around our wrist.

This episode, however, is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain, however, open until August 6th at noon. Sorry guys ... time is at our side, but I have to beacon the time (smiles). I will (try to) post our next episode, our first Carpe Diem Special of this month, a haiku by Jim Kacian, later on. !! Visit our new part of our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai family at Carpe Diem's Tackle It Tuesday, a new weekly haiku-meme !!

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