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

Day Five - 

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

Blistering Wind - Tanka - December 17, 2014

blistering wind
 heavy grey listless skies
portents of snow
walking huddled to the store
my coat keeps me warm

© G.s.k. ‘14

This was written for Haiku with Ha ... he wrote a lovely haibun as an introduction to the prompt, telling us about a recent trip he took to the north of his country ... have a look by following the link!

Writing with Robert Frost - Dust of Snow - December 10, 2014

sparrow at dawn
as it skips on the blacktop -
morning brightens

dull grey morn
a wayward snow-flake falls
upon her old tongue
the taste of Christmas -
her childhood joys

(c) G.s.k. '14

I hosted the Ghost Writers post today for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai after reading some of Robert Frost's beautiful short poems.  The idea was to write an all new haiku or tanka either distilling his poem (Dust of Snow) or to write about a similar personal experience.

Dust of Snow

Robert Frost, 1874 – 1963

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

Credits: Winter Crow © Melissa Parks

Spearflowers - Tanka - October 4, 2014

Spearflowers (manryoo):

 The Ardisia Crispa is a shrub that will grow between 2 feet high and 2 feet in thickness. It is semi hardy plant quite suited to temperate climates. It is an evergreen plant and keeps its leaves during Winter. It will grow well in any location including shaded areas of the garden. Situated against a north wall would be a good place for it to . The plant can produce a beautiful scent in the evenings that evokes a certain exotic ambiance. The scent of the plant is seems most present on humid evenings after a warm day.

 Here is a lovely haiku by Yozakura

tandokude wasurete watashino nagusameni dake ippan tekina yamano hana

alone, forgotten, 
only a common mountain flower 
to comfort me

© Yozakura

 

laying on her bed
the room smells of spearflowers
 delicate his kiss
the snow white silken sheets
are soon stained in joyous red

(c) G.s.k. '14

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I've never heard of these flowers before, so I let the description given by Chèvrefeuille December 18, 2012 post inspire me ... specifically: "The plant can produce a beautiful scent in the evenings that evokes a certain exotic ambiance."  The photograph I used is also a piece of history, from the same period!  A blog entitled : Rheumatologe who wrote a triplet of haiku for Spearflowers.

Writing with Gibran - Paradise - August 15, 2014

 

Today for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai  I'm going to look at paradise through the eyes of Khalil Gibran's "Sea and Foam":

 [...] "Paradise is there, behind that door, in the next room; but I have lost the key. Perhaps I have only mislaid it". [...]

[...] "He who would share your pleasure but not your pain shall lose the key to one of the seven gates of Paradise". [...]

Thinking about Paradise whilst reading these two lines brings to mind Dante's great Divine Comedy.  From the bowels of Hell through Purgatory reaching finally the circles of Paradise until he contemplates at a distance The Empyrean where the essence of God dwelled, Dante takes a journey into the after-life.  This epic poem was written in between 1308 until Dante's death in 1321 in Terza Rima his opera omnia consists of 100 "cantos":

 "But then my mind was struck by light that flashed and, with this light, received what it had asked.  Here force failed my high fantasy; but my desire and will were moved already-like a wheel revolving uniformly-by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars." [Dante's conclusion of The Divine Comedy .  Canto XXXIII, Paradiso]

The influence of Muslim culture that Chèvrefeuille mentions in his piece on Khalil Gibran is not missing in the Divine Comedy either... though his contempt for Islam was also evident as well as inevitable  - and neither could this be any other way  in that time of early rivalry between the two faiths ... the greatest translations of classical Greek philosophers were being percolated into Christendom through the Venetian merchants all translations by Islamic philosophers and thinkers.  In point of fact, we are much more influenced by Islamic culture then is commonly known.

Rings of Glowing Souls
Creator: Doré, Gustave - 1868

Another literary memory that comes to my mind is a movie entitled "What Dreams may Come" based on the book with the same title written in 1978 by Richard Matheson:

“Not only did I rediscover every experience of my life, I had to live each unfulfilled desire as well—as though they’d been fulfilled. I saw that what transpires in the mind is just as real as any flesh and blood occurrence. What had only been imagination in life, now became tangible, each fantasy a full reality. I lived them all—while, at the same time, standing to the side, a witness to their, often, intimate squalor. A witness cursed with total objectivity.”

 “Each memory was brought to life before me and within me. I could not avoid them. Neither could I rationalize, explain away. I could only re-experience with total cognizance, unprotected by pretense. Self delusion was impossible, truth exposed in this blinding light. Nothing as I thought it had been. Nothing as I hoped it had been. Only as it had been.”

 ― Richard Matheson, What Dreams May Come

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there inside our soul
the doors to heaven and hell
vie for attention
consequences of actions
projections of our thoughts

one short step
and as in life also in death
there is paradise

what is paradise
this stream, lake and dawning sky
harmony and peace

inside our soul
the doors to heaven and hell
as close as your breath
as distant as a quasar
each one a moment's choice

©  G.s.k. '14

Writing with Gibran - Pebbles . August 10, 2014

Today's Gibran quote on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is:

[...] “When God threw me, a pebble, into this wondrous lake, I disturbed its surface with countless circles. But when I reached the depths, I became very still." [...]

Tanka

pebbles on the trail

witnessed generations pass
lives we'll never know

young lovers and soldiers walked
this gravelled country foot-path

(c) G.s.k. '14

Haiku

that single pebble
left blooming concentric waves
in Walden's pond

(c) G.s.k. '14

Inspired by Buddah - July 14, 2014

 Another episode of our Special feature "Use That Quote" is here ... The goal of this feature is to write a haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka or haibun inspired on a given quote of a famous human.
For this episode I have chosen a quote by Buddha.

Today's quote is from the Buddha (Siddhartha Gauthama) from Carpe Diem Haiku Kai  and is:

 […] "Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared" […]

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the blackbird's song
joyous warbles of spring
lifts men's heart
inviting  happy smiles
 warming sunshine

the cawing crows
in the cold autumn mists
announce summer's death

your smiling face
laughing sparkling eyes
a blackbird's song

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