courting swans

Dear friends,

It has been a while that I posted here at Carpe Diem Haiku Family, but I hope to change that this year. Of course most of my attention goes to our daily haiku meme Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, but its a shame that I post so little here.

Today was a wonderful “spring-like” day here in The Netherlands. During my lunch break I took a little walk outside of the hospital. Across from the hospital we have a nice park with a beautiful pond full of ducks, coots and moorhens, but also swans. As I walked through the park I noticed that two of the swans were courting. Its amazing to see how these beautiful creatures are courting each other. The beautiful symmetry of their movements … very gracefully …

I felt very sad that I didn’t had my camera with me, and I don’t have a mobile phone with camera … so I have sought the Internet and found a nice video on You Tube.

And this is the haiku which I wrote very close after this encounter.

spring is in the air
swans courting each other
nature’s beauty

© Chèvrefeuille

 

 

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Looking Back #2, the last day of the rainbow-week of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai 2012 (November) Reprise Haiku #2 “Violet”

It’s my pleasure to publish another “old” episode of our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This episode I published on November 9th, 2012 and it was the last episode of the “Rainbow-week” in which all the prompts were the colours of the rainbow. I even recall that I have given everyone who had participated in that “Rainbow”-week an award. I love to share that old episode here with you all and for the “Reprise Haiku” feature I invite you all to write haiku, senryu, tanka or kyoka on “Violet”. By the way in that month our CD-Special featured haiku-poet was Issa.

Here is the episode as published on November 9th 2012:

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today we end our journey along the colours of the rainbow. Our last colour is violet (or purple). This is the colour of the seventh chakra, It’s the crown-chakra. Purple is the colour of good judgment. It is the colour of people seeking spiritual fulfilment. It is said if you surround yourself with purple you will have peace of mind. Purple is a good colour to use in meditation.

Purple has been used to symbolize magic and mystery, as well as royalty. Being the combination of red and blue, the warmest and coolest colours, purple is believed to be the ideal colour. Most children love the colour purple. Purple is the colour most favoured by artists. Thursday’s colour is purple. Violet is a combination of blue and red. Red is a focusing, dynamic and active energy while blue is cooling, calming and expansive. Violet brings a new dynamic to the expansion of blue and the activity of red. Red brings practicality to the undirected expansiveness of the blue, and allows more creative energy to emerge. For this reason, violet is associated with imagination and inspiration. Violet is an important energy for those who use blue and indigo skills in the psychic field. The red in violet offers a grounding effect.

in deep silence
I see the violet colour
of spirituality

a purple mask
hides her red eyed face
lost spirituality

cold and warm colours
fused to deep violet
balanced again

little small faces staring
deep into my eyes
Delta Violets

A last one on rainbow again, for closure so to say of this wonderful Rainbow-week of Carpe Diem. Not one by myself but one of Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827) our Classical Haiku-master for the Carpe Diem Specials this month.

yûmomiji tani zankô no kie kakaru

evening’s fall colours –
the rainbow in the valley
fades away

© Kobayashi Issa

Thank you all so much for participating in this Carpe Diem Rainbow-week, I have read wonderful haiku, all very wonderfully composed and colourful. It has been a pleasure to host this Rainbow-week for you.

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Well …. I hope you did like this “Reprise” episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and for this feature “Reprise-Haiku” the prompt is “Violet”. It’s NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 24th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Looking back #1 the first episode ever of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai (Haiku Reprise)

It’s my pleasure to share here our first episode ever of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I started with this daily haiku-meme on Friday September 21st 2012. And I remember that the first episode was called “waterfall”. There were 6 contributors than and a few of them are still contributing to Carpe Diem Haiku Kai nowadays. (This feature is NOW called Haiku-reprise)

Here is that first episode ever:

CARPE DIEM #1, WATERFALL (First Carpe Diem Haiku Family Reprise-haiku)

For starters … I will give the first prompt for this new daily haiku meme today. So you can think about it and be inspired.

Carpe Diem is a new daily haiku meme in which you can share your haiku. The haiku (or senryu) can be a classical or a non-classical one. It’s all up to you. The first prompt for CARPE DIEM is waterfall. I think this is a great prompt to start with. Let flow your inspiration like a waterfall and share your haiku with us.

waterfall of colors
leaves whirl through the street –
departing summer

© Chèvrefeuille

Please be so kind to share a thought in the comment form. Do you have an idea for a new prompt? Well … share it with us. I look forward to your contributions for this new haiku meme. And I hope it will be a success. I will try this to the end of the year … so I hope that I can continue this haiku meme in January 2013.

Have fun, be inspired and enjoy writing …

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille

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It’s really a joy to re-read this first episode ever again … our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai has evolved in the past time and has become a wonderful haiku family. I am so glad that I started this daily haiku meme … and I am so proud and humble that I may be your host. Thank you all for your neverending effort to write and participate in our Haiku Kai. I have understand by all of your responses that you love to link up on this prompt “waterfall”, so I have decided to put a linking widget into this post. You can submit your haiku, senryu, tanka of kyoka until August 15th at noon (CET).

 

Troiku, a new haiku creative form an example “A Double Peony”

Troiku: a double peony.

Some time ago I wrote a Carpe Diem Preview on a new creative form of writing haiku, the troiku. This post is another try on this new creative way of writing haiku. I love the way how this new form asks me to think about writing haiku. It’s, in my opinion, a great way of writing haiku and I enjoyed writing this post very much.

The ‘sleigh’ is inspired on a haiku by Issa (a classic haiku master) and it was a Carpe Diem Special a few days ago.

pink flowers bloom
between green dewy leaves
a double peony

(sleigh):

pink flowers bloom
between green dewy leaves
a double peony

(horse 1)

pink flowers
as far as man can see –
purple sea

(horse 2)

between green dewy leaves
hides a little green frog
for the blue heron

(horse 3)

a double peony
in full bloom in my garden –
a dawning sun

Maybe you will try it yourself? Than please link your Troiku to the linking widget of an earlier post, which you can reach HERE