Arco (TN)

Arco (TN)

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Morning Haiku and Waka - NaPoWriMo - April 5, 2016



bold minstrel sings
his bawdy melodies bright
for his lady love


morning serenade
sweet perfume of mimosa
and thoughts of you
what more can be said of spring
then a warming I love you?
© G.s.k. '16





Monday, April 4, 2016

Haiku Horizons - One - April 4, 2015




one drop of water
inside a roaring river
unification

some would say
the loneliest number -
one

the sound of one hand
swooshing through the summer air
then silence

lone cicada call
soloist in late evening
his last call

© G.s.k. '16





Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Heeding Haiku - For a Friend's Father - March 30, 2016



the mighty tree
caught in the breeze of time
whispers spring tidings
the rain echoes its refrain
into the silence of night

through the garden
of your life that continues
he will walk with you
his presence in a sound
or the slant of spring sunlight

© G.s.k. ‘16



Monday, March 28, 2016

Haiku Horizons: Cat - March 28, 2016


peekaboo ...
awaiting her human
the cat watches

spring warmth
the cat rolls on the warm grass
pure ecstasy
observing a cat's pleasure
a lesson in living

grace and flight
attacking a goose feather
the cat pounces 


© G.s.k. ‘16

Sabi is a Chaise Longue - Haibun/Haiga - March 28, 2016






What is "sabi"?   Something old, past, demode ... something that's somehow a faded memory like the old plastic chaise longue in the haiga above,  that in its heyday was an object that made someone happy or proud to own it.  I can almost feel the sensation that must have accompanied that first vision of the object ... the elation.  Now, so many years have passed.  The chaise longue sits in my son's garden in Padua, slowly losing it's lustre as it weathers.  No one remembers who bought it .. the house has changed had many many times over the years as one group of student substitutes another, no one even uses it except the cat. That to me is one meaning of "sabi". 

chaise longue
memories of summer's days
long forgotten

© G.s.k. ‘16

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

"As fascinated as Westerners have become with the word, the Japanese have maintained for centuries that no one can really, truly comprehend what sabi really is and thus, they change its definition according to their moods. Bill Higginson, in The Haiku Handbook, calls sabi – "(patina/loneliness) Beauty with a sense of loneliness in time, akin to, but deeper than, nostalgia." Suzuki maintains that sabi is "loneliness" or "solitude" but that it can also be "miserable", "insignificant", and "pitiable", "asymmetry" and "poverty". Donald Keene sees sabi as "an understatement hinting at great depths".

So you see, we are rather on our own with this! I have translated this as: sabi (SAH-BEE)- aged/loneliness - A quality of images used in poetry that expresses something aged or weathered with a hint of sadness because of being abandoned. A split-rail fence sagging with overgrown vines has sabi; a freshly painted picket fence does not." As a technique, one puts together images and verbs which create this desired atmosphere. Often in English this hallowed state is sought by using the word "old" and by writing of cemeteries and grandmas."
 Carpe Diem #947 grass pillow


Saturday, March 26, 2016

Morning Haiku and Waka - March 26, 2016



Dodoitsu - Honey-suckers

under the warm spring sunshine
inside blossoms and bright blooms
bees hopped hither and thither
(poor honey-suckers)

© G.s.k. ‘16

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Fuyuko Tomita's "black-iron wind bell" - February 8, 2015

Bamboo wind chimes

with glass and bamboo
this February wind chimes
a bright morning song

Garda’s wind-song
daily chiming through the valley
endless rhapsody

© G.s.k. ‘15


Today at Carpe Diem Haiku Special, we're trying to learn to write in the style of a Dutch Haiku Poet named: Fuyuko Tomita.


Kurogane no fuurin byakuya o nariyamazu

Black-iron wind bell
in the white summer night
tinkles on and on

© Fuyuko Tomita

Here are some of our host's haiku on the subject of wind chimes:

evening walk
the sound of a wind chime
deep silence

© Chèvrefeuille

And a cascading haiku from his  archives at his base weblog:

in the spring breeze
the wind chime sounds
with every step

with every step
the melody of spring rain
follows me
follows me
the melody of a Buddhist chant
Om Mani Padme Hum

Om Mani Padme Hum
resonates in my heart and soul
in the spring breeze
© Chèvrefeuille