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.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (16) between roses

Dear friends,

Here is my new submission for the CDHK Summer Retreat:

between roses
the sound of a fountain
in the garden

© Chèvrefeuille

monastery

See you tomorrow.

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.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (14) cry of an owl

Dear friends,

Summer looks over here in The Netherlands, temperatures are low, a lot of wind and rain, it feels more like spring or autumn, but well ... our Dutch summers aren't known for the warmth, but more for the rain.

30 Days of haiku-ing isn't easy to fulfill, but it looks awesome to see how many haiku and tanka are already linked to the Carpe Diem Summer Retreat ... see for your self, visit the Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Summer Retreat at: Carpe Diem Haiku Kai feel free to participate and share your haiku or tanka with all those poets who are already participating.

Here is my haiku for today:

lost in the field
only the stars as my compass  -
cry of a snowy owl

© Chèvrefeuille

See you tomorrow.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (13) like a chain of iron

Dear friends,

Ah ... the Summer Retreat of Carpe Diem ... isn't it great? But ... it's not easy to come up with a new haiku every day. As you know I am hosting Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a daily haiku meme, and Carpe Diem has my first attention and than this weblog, my own personal weblog, follows.
A few minutes ago I created an all new post at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai ... and for  my own weblog I have to conquer a lack of inspiration therefore I have chosen to share a haiku from my archives, sorry.

Wisteria

The haiku I have chosen from my archives has to do with Wisteria (in Dutch "Blauwe Regen" or "Blue Rain") a most beautiful and very inspiring flowering plant.

like a chain of iron
the Wisteria climbs against the wall
reaching for the sky

© Chèvrefeuille

Awesome ...

Feel free to participate in Carpe Diem's Summer Retreat 2016 ... you are so welcome to visit us and become part of this "adventure".

See you tomorrow 

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (12) blooming ice-flowers

Dear friends,

Far back in time, around 2005, I wrote my first English haiku:

a lonely flower
my companion
for one night

© Chèvrefeuille

Maybe you know this haiku or maybe you have read it elsewhere, but I have great and nice memories to this first English haiku ever written by me. It was published several times and it also was translated in several other languages.

For this new submission for the Carpe Diem Summer Retreat I have written a new one. That new haiku I will share hereafter, but it brought that first English haiku in mind, so I just had to share that haiku here with you also.

Ice-flowers

in a tiny corner
of the mansion's backyard
blooming ice flowers

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope you did like the read. See you tomorrow.

If you also want to participate in Carpe Diem's Summer Retreat 2016, "One With Nature", writing every day a haiku for 30 days? Than visit Carpe Diem Summer Retreat.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (11) whispering leaves

 Dear friends,

The Summer Retreat at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai looks awesome and a great success. It's really a joy to see how "one with nature", the theme of the Summer Retreat, in so many ways is used. Awesome.

listen, just listen
summer rain falls gently
on poplar leaves

© Chèvrefeuille

The Poplar's leaves are always trembling even when there is almost no wind at all. It is seen as the messenger of the gods. As the winds plays with the leaves of the Poplar they tremble and than the gods are talking to us.

"the voice of the gods"

whispering leaves
listen closely - the voice of the gods
deep silence

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... this was my contribution for today ... see you tomorrow.

Carpe Diem Summer Retreat 2016 (10) gurgling valley stream

Dear freinds,

During circumstances I have chosen to share a haiku from my archives for the Summer Retreat of Carpe Diem. I think this haiku fits the theme "One With Nature".

gurgling valley stream
can't resist your lovely song -
shadow of a Carp

© Chèvrefeuille

See you tomorrow