Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (23) timeless beauty

Dear friends,

Yesterday I received very sad news through the mail. Jane Reichhold, Queen of Haiku, a very dear and close friend and haiku poetess passed away. She was 79. Jane ... Rest In Peace.

As you know I am hosting a daily haiku meme, Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, and back in 2013 I created a few special episodes with haiku by Jane Reichhold. My submission for the Summer Retreat is a haiku I created in response on one of those specials. A small tribute to Jane Reichhold.

timeless beauty -
the glint of polished pebbles
in the crystal brook

© Chèvrefeuille

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (22) ghostly cobweb

Dear friends,

Today I have chosen to create a tanka for you to submit for the Carpe Diem Summer Retreat. I am not a great tanka poet, but I like to use this form on a regular base just to stay in touch with the form.

ghostly cobweb

shimmering in the early daylight

pearls of dew

fainting away when the sun rises

like a phantom

© Chèvrefeuille

Ghostly cobweb

Well ... I hope you did like this tanka. See you tomorrow.

Have an awesome weekend.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (21) sunflowers

Dear friends,

Here is my new submission for the Summer Retreat of Carpe Diem. This time I love to share a "cascading" tanka.

in my garden
sunflowers bow their heads
in honor of the sun
I plant a pair of sunflowers
in the backyard

in the backyard
no sun at all will be seen
only sunflowers
those beautiful little suns
in my garden

© Chèvrefeuille

See you tomorrow.

Carpe Diem "Use That Quote" August the month of "the power of words" tomorrow

Dear friends,

As you know I am the owner and host of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a daily haiku meme. Recently I started a new month full of excitement ... August id themed "the power of words" and the goal this month is to create haiku inspired on quotes by known and unknown people.
Today the quote is by H. Jackson Brown, Jr, an author.

[...] "The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." [...] H. Jackson Brown, Jr

This quote inspired me not at first, but just a few seconds ago I had a revelation and here is the haiku inspired on this quote:

Nightingale

a new day rises
the Nightingale praised its Creator
whole night long

© Chèvrefeuille

A nice one I think.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (20) silence (a haiga)

Dear friends,

Today's submission for the Carpe Diem Summer Retreat is one from my archives, it's a haiga which I created back in 2006. It's one of the first haiga which I made. It shows a Japanese Garden, which once was part of an exhibition of agriculture.

silence
the sound of water
happiness

© Chèvrefeuille

See you tomorrow.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (19) so fragile

Dear friends,

Here is my submissions for the Carpe Diem Summer Retreat of today. This haiku is inspired on a haiku by Basho, one of the four greatest haiku poets ever, which I love to share first here:

hatake utsu   oto ya arashi no   sakura asa

plowing a field
the sound of a violent storm
morning blossoms

© Basho (1644-1694)

With this haiku came a preface as was very common in those times:

Preface: 'On March 11, at the shrine of Shirahige in Araki village'. Usually in tanka the words 'arashi' (a violent storm) and 'sakura' (cherry blossoms) are combined in the fear that the blossoms will be blown down in a storm. So the 'wit' here is to combine these words with another (much more common) meaning. 

Plum Blossom

And this is my haiku:

so fragile
the white plum blossoms
in the evening sun

© Chèvrefeuille

See you tomorrow.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (18) sweet perfume

Dear friends,

The Summer Retreat of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is going great and I am happy (as the owner and host of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai) that I started the Summer Retreat. It was just an idea, as once was Carpe Diem to challenge haiku poets to create a haiku a day ... and it happened ...

As a haiku poet I use a "haigo" or "penname" and as you know my "haigi" is Chèvrefeuille (French for Honeysuckle). I am a Dutch haiku poet and I write almost all my haiku in English. I even find it very difficult to create haiku in my own language, Dutch. Sometimes I even think in English and that's sometimes, e.g. at work, a "pain in the a..", but I cannot help it.

Honeysuckle (the English translation of my "haigo" ... Chèvrefeuille

For today's submissions to the Summer Retreat I have chosen to write a haiku in which my "haigo" is used.

sweet perfume
lingers in the warm summer night
Honeysuckle blooms

© Chèvrefeuille

And here is an oldie from my archives:

searching my inner self
following the way of Honeysuckle
path of wisdom*

* Honeysuckle, in her spiritual meaning is the path of wisdom to find your inner self.

See you tomorrow

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 "one with nature" (17) silk tree, a tanka

Dear friends,

As you all know I am a haiku poet and the most poetry I wrote are haiku, but today I love to share a tanka with you. A tanka, is like haiku, an ancient Japanese poetry form, but instead of three (3) lines a tanka is written with five (5) lines.
Several years ago I started to create as they are called "cascading haiku", and nowadays I "re-write" those "cascading haiku" to tanka, or stand alone haiku. Today's tanka "silk tree" is a re-done cascading haiku:

silk tree blossoms

in a soothing summer rain
trembling in silence
silk tree blossoms, so fragile,
in a summer breeze

© Chèvrefeuille

Silk Tree

Well .... see you tomorrow again. Have a great week.