Writing with Basho - Through The Skylark's Singing - October 14, 2014

 

As you can see, today's Sparkling Stars at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is dedicated to one of Basho's haiku, a lesser known one as Chèvrefeuille tells us! (By the way, you really should pop by and look at the great prompt Chèvrefeuille wrote ... there are really a wonderful group of haiku written by Shiki, Issa and Yozakura.)

hibari naku naka no hyoshi ya kiji no koe

through the skylark's singing
comes the beat
of pheasants' cries

© Basho

Reading the haiku, I get the impression of  the skylark calling to the pheasant somehow creating its movement and reply.  Here in the courtyard around my house, I've often watched the blackbirds, sparrows and other birds (most of which I can't name) interact between themselves. Or perhaps that is only my impression.  People also can be brought into the play of action, reaction - as in Shiki's poem:

semi naku ya gyozui-doki no tofu-uri

a cicada is crying;
while having an open-air bath,
the call of the bean-curd vendor

© Shiki

I think it is Shiki who is bathing,  the cry of the monotonous cicada call was lulling when suddenly he hears the call of the bean-curd vendor ... does it remind him of the cicada somehow?

Here are my attempts to catch the spirit of Basho and Shiki ...

the blackbird sings
in the darkened kitchen
 - my coffee pot burbles

the blackbird warbles
pigeons coo in harmony
on the chimney top ..

the owl's screeching
splits the silent night
- dog howls at midnight

cockcoos calling
echo through the valley
mid-day siesta

©  G.s.k. '14

Shuukan . Persimmons - August 2, 2014

A symbol of autumn, at least here in Italy is the persimmon tree.  This is the word chosen today at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai for this week's shuukan!  Here are two poems by Shiki dedicated to the persimmon:

sanzen no haiku wo kemishi kaki futatsu   

having examined
three thousand haiku poems –
two persimmons                 

© Shiki (1897)       

kaki bakari narabeshi Suma no komise kara          

displaying
only persimmons --
small store in Suma         

© Shiki (1895)

Persimmons were very popular once upon a time here in Italy ... bu now, well they are one of those fruits which are delicate, much more than  let's say the apple, so farmers have more or less abandoned it as a money crop.  You can only find persimmons in the autumn ... and here in Trentino we find lots of them indeed!  If you ask, sometimes you can get some off the trees from someones garden.  You can't conserve them, though recently there have been new breeds of persimmons, with harder skin and pulp.

 

old persimmon
majestically decorated
 birds feast

leafless limbs
covered with orange balls
like a Christmas tree

persimmon
abundant fruitful tree
in November

the old persimmon
giving abundant fruit
garden full of pulp

Writing With Shiki (5) - the departed soul" - July 29, 2014

We are growing ever nearer the end of July and the close of this great month dedicated to the 5 master's of Haiku.  Today's post is dedicated to Shiki from the prompt found on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai:

Because of a debilitating disease (tuberculosis) Masaoka Shiki had to be confined to his bed for almost 7 years until he passed away. Despite the pain, he continued writing poems while lying on his back. When Shiki came near to death, one of his disciples, Hekigoto was at Shiki's bedside. Hekigoto wrote about how Shiki wrote his final three haiku as follows:

[…] "It was around 10 o'clock on the morning of September 18. I dipped his old writing brush ,whose stem and brush were both thin, full of ink and had him hold it in his right hand. Then quite abruptly in the center of the paper Shiki began to write readily "sponge gourd has bloomed " , and a little below that phrase, he again moved his brush in a breath "choked by phlegm" I was a little curious what he was going to write next and was watching the paper closely, then at last he wrote "a departed soul", which bit into my heart". [...]

 sponge gourd has bloomed
choked by phlegm
a departed soul

© Masaoka Shiki

Hekigoto was probably the most famous of Shiki's students. He was of the younger generation of haiku greats. His earlier poems followed the traditional haiku format. Later in his career he began to abandon the traditional form. He wanted his poems to come as close to reality as possible without the interference of man made rules. He started the New Trend Haiku Movement. He experimented with disregarding the seventeen syllable pattern.

 from a bathing tub
I throw water into the lake -
slight muddiness appears

© Hekigoto

far fireworks
sounding, otherwise
not a thing

© Hekigoto

And this is Chèvrefeuille's effort:

morning dew
evaporates in the early sunlight -
spirit climbs to the sky

© Chèvrefeuille

in the trees at dawn
the song of the blackbird greets
a weary soul

rain at dawn
departing souls sighing
whispering winds


© G.s.k. '14

Writing with Shiki - "The cuckoo's cry" June 26, 2014

Unfortunately, I was late for the Ghost writer's prompt prepared by Jessica Slavin dedicated to Issa, one of my favorite haiku poets!  The post was lovely and if you haven't read it yet, please do so now by clicking HERE.

I wish to just dedicate a haiku to Issa before moving on:

rain falls on rooftops
cleaning away summer's dust
the wasps buzz playfully

I saw this happen yesterday and thought of Issa when under a brilliant sunny sky, rain started falling ... the wasps on my neighbor's roof seemed to be having a shower :-)

Now for today's post.  

 

 

 This fourth post dedicated to Shiki fell on the day of national mourning in the Netherlands for the victims of the Malaysian Airlines attack which occurred a week ago killing over 250 passengers, the majority, Dutch.  Our minds go to the victims and to their family and friends who must now cope with such a terrible loss.

 

Heres Shiki's poem:

 

minazuki no  kokū ni suzushi  hototogisu

in the coolness
of the empty sixth-month sky...
the cuckoo's cry

© Masaoka Shiki

And here is Chévrefeuille's haiku:

the summer heat
trembles at the horizon -
a cooling breeze

the summer heat
trembles at the horizon -
a cooling breeze

© Chèvrefeuille

 

 

 

under a crystal sky
raindrops fall copiously
the cuckoo cries

© G.s.k. '14

 

Writing With Shiki (3) - "reeds tremble" - July 18, 2014

Today's post is dedicated for the third time to Shiki.  Chèvrefeuille put this little known haiku up for our inspiration:

meigetsu no deru ya yurameku hanasusuki

at the full moon's
rising, the silver-plumed
reeds tremble

© Masaoka Shiki

Thinking of the full moon, and here in the Carpe Diem post, we find that the moon is an autumn kigo, I'm going to attempt to write a haiku in Shiki's style:

shimmering moon light
along the lake front
the willows weep

© G.s.k. '14

silver moon rise
over the eastern mountains
enlightened valley

©G.s.k. '14

I loved how Chèvrefeuille took us on a tour of the moon throughout the seasons.  It was a perfectly delightful post and I would recommend you click the link on his name in the beginning of my post and visit the Carpe Diem site directly ... it's a wonderful read.

Writing with Shiki - A Flash of Lightening

Today for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, we visit with Shiki once again.

One of the important aspects to Shiki was to remove the religious aspects from haiku writing in favor of every nature and the everyday aspects of life.  Here is the poem today that we'll use as inspiration:

inazuma ya mori no sukima ni mizu mo mitari

a flash of lightning;
between the trees of the forest,
water appears

© Masaoka Shiki

And here is my haiku:

sudden piercing flash
illuminating grey skies
mountains tremble

© G.s.k. '14

Shiki and Tanka - July 8, 2014

Today, the Ghost Writer at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is Jen from Blog it or Lose it!  She introduces us to one of the second important aspects of this great Haiku Master, his tanka.  We all know that Shiki was a great mover in  what has been called the haiku reform which took the haiku which is attributed to him (before it was known as hokku) from ever growing obscurity, to being recognized as a poetry genre in it's own right.  He hoped to do the same for the other short form waka (which means poetry) which he called tanka.  The most important aspect of both to him was that they should be compositions based on Shasei, or "sketches from life".

But let's see what Jen tells us:

As you may already know, Masaoka Shiki was struck by a severe form of tuberculosis when he was 22 years old. Tuberculosis is a disease that attacks the lungs and causes the sufferer to cough up blood and lung tissue.  He changed his name from “Noboru” to “Shiki” – after a bird that (in Japanese legend) coughs blood when it sings.  In later years, the tuberculosis attacked his spine as well. 

The man
I used to meet in the mirror
is no more.
Now I see a wasted face.
It dribbles tears.

© Masaoka Shiki

in memory of

the spring now passing
I drew
the long clusters of wisteria
that move like waves

© Masaoka Shiki

lady in waiting
young blossoming flower
with summer's passing
harvest time comes near
 and new life begins

© G.s.k. '14