This blog is about haiku. A classical haiku counts 5-7-5 syllables. Chèvrefeuille (the pseudonym of Kristjaan Panneman, a Dutch haiku poet) however writes his haiku in the Kanshicho-style. In the Kanshicho-style the classical syllable count isn't used. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), a haiku poet, wrote his haiku in Kanshicho-style for several years, but he returned to the classical way of haiku writing. !!! Anonymous comments will be seen as SPAM !!!.
Here it goes ... another day of September heights. Thanks Leo for the opportunity to write every day a haiku on a given prompt. Today ...divine.
Day 11 is on, several years ago the whole world was shocked and shaken by the terrorists attacks on the WTC since than the war on terror is continuing. This, however, isn't the prompt for today. It's divine which means godlike or heavenly.
What about this prompt else? It could be a divine person such as a high priest or a preacher man. It also can be intervention of a Higher Power so this will not be an easy one, but I have to try ... of course.
divine being brought eternal love to the world - Siddhartha Gautama
Siddhartha Gautama a prince of the people becomes divine becomes divine brought everlasting love and emptiness
and emptiness was brought to the heart of town that day in September that day in September did shock the whole world started a war
started a war after the crucifixion of a divine being
Not a strong one I think. Strong in it's images, but it feels artificial. Ah! I enjoyed writing it and that's enough to me.
Another week has gone. I am busy with the September Heights Challenge to write an every day haiku on a given prompt and I have seen several of you, my dear Haijin, posting wonderful haiku on September Heights.
As you could have read in Tackle It Tuesday´s Preview of September 7th this week the prompt is Kigo (or seasonword). One of the basic rules for haiku is the use of a kigo to place a haiku in the right time of the year. For example: Moon is a kigo for Autumn. Another example: Butterflies are a kigo for Summer.
midsummer night walking along the seashore - the sound of waves the sound of waves scattering on the beach midsummer night
Must be an easy one to do I think. So enjoy the fun, be inspired and please leave a comment after linking.
Another episode of The Path Of The Honeysuckle in which I am going to explore the deeper, spiritual, meaning of old and new haiku.
As you, dear reader, maybe will know one of the basic rules for writing haiku is a deeper, spiritual, meaning. That deeper meaning isn't always clearly there and my haiku aren't an exception on that rule.
For this episode I have written a few new haiku which I am going to explore. Let's go on The Path Of The Honeysuckle and look for a (possible) deeper meaning.
the moon is rising silvery waves resonate in tune with my heart fortuneteller touches the heart of Honeysuckle the path to wisdom Do these have a deeper, spiritual, meaning? Let us follow The Path Of The Honeysuckle and look closer, closer to these two, in my opinion, wonderfully composed haiku (how immodest ... and that for a haiku poet).
The first haiku to explore and encounter The Path Of The Honeysuckle: the moon is rising silvery waves resonate in tune with my heart
In my country we have a natural phenomenon that we call (in Dutch) 'het lichten der zee' or in English 'phosphoresce sea'. When this occurs, mostly with full moon, the sea looks like silver and the waves have a silvery glow. It's a wonderful sight. This phenomenon occurs because little algae called dinoflagelate are reflecting the light of the moon.
I have seen this often and I remember that it was a magnificent and mysterious sight almost hypnotizing. I sat down on the beach and started meditating. The waves rolling to and fro the beach gave a deep, spiritual, feeling. When my meditation became deeper I realized that the silvery waves resonated with my heartbeat in the same way. It felt great and there on that beach meditating and hypnotized by the silvery waves in the bright moonlight I became all in one with nature. I felt great and was in a deeper, spiritual, mood than I ever had been. Embraced by the Universe laying down in the arms of Mother Earth. I felt save and happy sitting there with only the moon, the silvery waves, the sound of the sea and my heartbeat.
The deeper, spiritual, meaning in this one is very clear I think. Live with nature, be one with nature.
I have found a video on You Tube about this phenomenon. Enjoy watching it.
Come on ... let us go further on The Path Of The Honeysuckle and look closer at the second haiku.
fortuneteller touches the heart of Honeysuckle the path of wisdom I live close to nature, I feel myself a Wiccan and I love to look at the Tarot cards. I divine with cards and I have used the ancient Celtic Ogham or Tree cards to look into the future. The cards gave me a glimpse of the near future and I am glad to have seen my Path of Life in the cards.
Honeysuckle is one of the Ogham cards and it means 'the path of wisdom for the Inner Self'. I walk that path since the late eighties when I discovered haiku and started writing haiku. Writing haiku has brought me happiness and pleasure. Haiku also brought me Inner Wisdom. I walk The Path Of The Honeysuckle and I hope that my haiku are giving my readers joy, happiness and wisdom. 'Till next week,
July 2018: re-published on Carpe Diem's Summer Retreat 2018
I once have used a haiku by Basho about Red Pepper in one of my posts on Basho Revisited, my other weblog. It's a wonderful haiku and I wrote a haiku in response on that one about Mustard seed, but that's not were this episode op September Heights is about.
Pepper is a datingsite, but also a seasoning vegetable ... what to do with this prompt? Which way I prefer to go? I will go for the spicy way. Pepper is often described as the "king of spices," and it shares a place on most dinner tables with salt. The word pepper originated from the Sanskrit word pippali, meaning berry. Pepper is now grown in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Kampuchea as well as the West coast of India, known as Malabar, where it originated.
look at those colors yellow, red and green peppers - beware I am hot !
I like the taste of this spice. To me it can't be hot and vivacious enough. I love spicy food. So another one on pepper.
seasoned salad dressed in vivacious peppers taste of the East
And another one ... more creative verse on peppers.
my allotment private Eastern source all kinds of pepper
I hope you all liked this one ... finally no cascading this time (smiles), see you all tomorrow.
Day 9, almost one third of this September Heights lies behind us. Today's prompt is Gloss ... I think I can write a few nice haiku with this prompt. Maybe I will write for today a none cascading haiku set, if I can do that of course, because I have become an addictive to that form (smiles).
One of the meanings of Gloss is masquerade. The most famous carnival of the world is the Venice Carnival ... it's a very old tradition in Venice and it's known for it's wonderful masques. With this meaning I can certainly write a new haiku.
dark green eyes hidden behind a mask - she's mysterious
she's mysterious breathtaking glamorous mask attractive force
attractive force mystical and magical who is she?
who is she? thrills of unmasking at midnight exposed to the world
exposed to the world she turns into a man with dark green eyes
Day Eight is on ... another day to write haiku on a given prompt ... today the prompt is RENDER. I havenever heard of this word so I have to search the Internet for meaning and synonyms. On Thesaurus.com I found the next meaning of render, contribute and the following synonyms which I (hopefully) can use for today's haiku, give, deliver, give voice to, show, prove (or evidence), give back, reciprocate, interpret, impersonate, witness, surrender, devote, reproduce and abandon. A lot of synonyms ... can I write with these the haiku for today? Well ... I think so. Let's give it try.
A new Sensational Haiku Wednesday has already started, but I had to write a haiku in the Traditional Way of Haiku for this week that's the prompt of SHW. So here it comes.
It's a re-done version of an old one written in the Kanshicho style and now this one is in the classical traditional way of haiku with the classical syllable count, a kigo, a deeper meaning and even a kireji (an cutting word or sign).
closing the garden gate no one who's disturbing my thoughts - Virginia Creeper
I am not so familiar with the grammar of the English language so I have used a syllable counter to get this one right.
For this week's Tackle It Tuesday, dear Haijin, I have chosen for the theme Kigo (or seasonword). In this Tackle It Tuesday Preview I will try to explain the use of Kigo in haiku. As I wrote earlier in one of my Previews in the classical (very structured and deadly ruled) haiku a Kigo or seasonword was a must.
What are these Kigo? Kigo are words that are references to the season in which the haiku was written, styled, composed and shared. Jane Reichold, a well respected poetess of haiku and someone who knows a huge amount of haiku and all the rules, has a seasonword dictionary on her website. In that dictionary you can find a lot of seasonal words for use in haiku.
Let me give you some examples:
the full moon hides her face behind clouds
The moon is a classical seasonword for Autumn. The Japanese adore the moon of autumn, 'cause they think the moon is the most beautiful in autumn.
the roses eaten by the yellowish caterpillar of the Sawfly
Caterpillar is a classical seasonword for Spring, so is butterfly a classical one for Summer and snow of course for Winter.
Last February we had the Haiku Challenge of SiS's Few Miles weblog. We had to write haiku on themes and one of the themes was Kigo so I will take a few of my haiku from that Challenging day to re-publish here.
crystal vase all colors of the rainbow chrysanthemums bloom
what a sad day drizzling rain and dark clouds colorful leaves
These two haiku are of Autumn. Chrysanthemums are classical for Autumn, so are the colorful leaves and drizzling rain.
So ... for next week's Tackle It Tuesday the theme is Kigo. Try to write a haiku in the classical or non-classical way, but use a kigo or seasonword in it. I will post the new episode of Tackle It Tuesday on September 10th around 10 P.M.
In the middle of the night. I couldn't sleep ... to much thoughts tolling around in my head. Even the ones I love to have about haiku. I see every hour go by. At last I go downstairs. Have something to eat and drink and maybe ... that's making me sleepy.
As I look through the window I see that a new day is dawning. The sky colors in the most wonderful reddish and yellowish. With a smile on my face I see the first blossom of the cherry tree in my backyard. I walk outside. I am so in love with my cherry tree and when the first blossoms begin blooming I become very happy. My thousand thoughts have gone. I only have eyes for the young cherry blossoms.
And than ... birds begin to sing in a most wonderful symphony ... it's the ultimate experience and leaves me in awe. I forget everything around me and start dancing. I love this feeling of freedom and happiness. It's really a great and wonderful morning.
I wonder ... why has the Almighty given me this great present. I bow my head and than I see my naked body. A smile on my face ... "this is freedom!"
Day seven (7) of our September Heights challenge. 'Till know I could write haiku on the prompts without searching for the meaning of the word. As you know English isn't my Mother tongue, 'cause I am from The Netherlands, and this day's prompt Agile I didn't know. So I had to search for the meaning and search for synonyms for it. Well I found the meaning of agile and so I found a few synonyms which I maybe can use for today's day prompt.
The synonyms I have chosen are: athletic, energetic, lively, quick, spirited and vivacious. I don't know if I gonna use all these, but I have to try ...
along the seashore an athletic wanderer looks at the waves
looks at the waves the vivacious goose missing its mate
missing its mate but spirited as never before the swan in the parc
the swan in the parc finally found a new mate along the seashore
Not a strong one, but ... well I enjoyed writing it.
