Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (15) amazing autumn

Dear friends,

Here is my new submission for the first Carpe Diem Summer Retreat themed "one with nature". This time I have chosen for a whole new haiku inspired on the "free-style" haiku-ing of Santoka Taneda (1882-1940).

Santoka Taneda

Let me first tell you a little bit about this idea of "free-styling". What is different about Santoka compared to Basho, Issa, Ryokan, Saigyo, or Dogen, is that he did not follow the traditional conventions of the poetic form in which he worked. Santoka was a disciple of Ogiwara Seisensui (1884-1976), the leader of the "free-style school of haiku". This school of haiku discarded the traditional use of the season word and the 5-7-5 structure. Instead it opted for a freer verse form. John Stevens, in his book Mountain Tasting (published in 1982), explains that after Shiki's death in 1902, [...] "there became two main streams in the haiku world, one working more or less in a traditional form using modern themes and the other which fell under the 'new development movement." [...]

I think this so called "free styling" is what I mention "Kanshicho-style" in which the rules of haiku-ing are more free interpretable. It's a kind of haiku-ing I like to use and that made me once a renown haiku poet.

still life -
colorful forests
amazing autumn

© Chèvrefeuille

Of course the scene in this one is not really summer, maybe departing summer, but it is created with the the idea of "one with nature".

See you tomorrow.

The Haiku Challenge day 18

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 18 – February 18th – Theme or Word: Famine

This isn't an easy one to do I think. First I had to find the definition of famine, because I didn't know that word. I found that famine means hunger and starvation. To find another word with the same meaning I search on synonyms for famine and I found the following synonyms: poverty, misery, scarcity and starvation. With those words I think I can write a haiku (or maybe a few haiku), but it is really a tough one. So I hope that the following haiku are OK.

the cold winter

birds in misery

heavy snow

an old cow stable

a place for refugees

what a poverty

scarcity

water birds freezing 

severe winter

Mother Earth cries

every day her inhabitants

starving of hunger

What a sad Challenge today. It wasn't easy and these series of haiku aren't masterpieces I think, but they are all very strong. (By the way: these are written in Kanshicho-style).

Credits: The face of Poverty

Until tomorrow.