Haiku Heights, stars

published for: Haiku Heights

A new Haiku Heights, this week's theme ... Stars.

looking at the stars
I feel little and humble
I bow my head

Hm ... a nice one I think ...

See you next week

Tackle It Tuesday Preview, back to basic

Dear haijin,

As promised ... a new Tackle It Tuesday Preview for next week's prompt/theme.
The upcoming week I love to go 'back to basic'. All the way back to the time of Matsuo Basho (1644-1694} in that time haiku was strict in it's rules. The first rule was the syllable count 5-7-5; second there had to be a kigo (a word that refers to the season);  third  a deeper meaning mostly based on the philosophy of the poet.
Basho was a Buddhist and therefore in his haiku we can find the deeper meaning of life as Buddhism learns.

Buddhist Jakhong Monastery in Lhasa Tibet

When we look at the following haiku by Basho we can see the mentioned rules. Let us take a closer look at this haiku:

morningglories -
in the daytime a lock
upon the gate

Morning Glory

Let us look closer to this haiku:

rule 1: 5-7-5 syllable-count yes that's OK (a "-" can be seen as a syllable)

rule 2: a kigo (or a season-word) yes that's OK (Morning Glory is a kigo for Summer)

rule 3: a deeper meaning yes that's also OK, the meaning of this haiku is that Basho took time for a retreat to think about his life. So he locked the gate of his house. 

The classical haiku has a lot of rules, but the three I mentioned are the most important ones. 

As I learned to write haiku I had always difficulties with these rules, than I discovered the Kanshicho-style, in which Basho wrote his haiku several years. It felt OK when I started to write in this Kanshicho-style and I still continue to write in the Kanshicho-style in which the rules are a bit different according to the syllable-count. The Kanshicho-style is more similar to the Western form of writing haiku in which the syllable-count isn't the most strict rule.

But back to next week's theme 'back to basic'. The classical way of writing haiku is (at least to me) not easy, but it's a challenge ... and that makes it a great way to write haiku.

The above haiku is one of Basho's which I used on my other weblog Basho Revisited. As inspired on that haiku I wrote a new haiku in the classical way.

guarding the fence

around my cottage -

the Honeysuckle

Credits: Honeysuckle

This classical haiku isn't easy to write, but ... well ... take on the challenge and be inspired.

Well ... see you all next week again when this new Tackle It Tuesday 'back to basic' is on ... have fun and maybe it's a bit easier to write a haiku with this given information.

Warm greetings,

Chèvrefeuille 

Tackle It Tuesday, Holy Isle

Also shared with Rebecca's Haiku My Heart

Dear Haijin,

As I told already, in my last week's Tackle It Tuesday episode, the theme for this week's Tackle It Tuesday is Holy Isle. In the preview-post of Tackle It Tuesday I have told you something about Holy Isle. Holy Isle is situated on the west coast of Scotland. It is a Buddhistic island since the early 90th. Holy Isle has a wonderful history.
The earliest recorded name for Holy Isle was Inis Shroin, which is old Gaelic for 'Island of the Water Spirit'.

After the time when the Celtic Christian saint St. Molaise lived on the island at the end of the 6th century, it became known as Eilean Molaise, which is Gaelic for 'Molaise's Island'. This name gradually evolved over the course of centuries until early in the 19th century the island became generally known as Holy Isle and the village on the other side of the bay became known as Lamlash. (For more on Holy Isle's history go to: history )

Holy Isle has a wonderful environment with lots of different flowers and plants. Also the fauna of the Isle is wonderful. On their website you can find a lot of information on Holy Isle's nature.

I was touched by the so called 'painted rocks'. 'Painted Rocks' are rocks on which the monks on Holy Isle have painted pictures of deities or gods or spirits,

Dusum Kyenpa, the first Karmapa in the Kagyan tradition.
He lived from 1110-1193

So I found my inspiration for this week's theme Holy Isle on their website.

painted on rocks

the devote Buddhist monk

Holy Isle

Holy Isle

the Kagyan Tradition

painted on rocks

Share your haiku on the theme Holy Isle. Use the given information or let it inspire you. Enjoy the fun and write your classical or non-classical haiku.

This theme stays on 'till August 6th 11.59 PM. If you have a thought for a new theme please share it with me.


Next week's theme will be 'back to basic', in a new Tackle It Tuesday Preview I will tell you more about the  new theme, but for now ... have fun with this week's theme 'Holy Isle' ...

Please leave a comment after linking ... thank you ...


Namaste,