The Unopened Door – September 29, 2016

like spider silk
dancing in the wind
wine filled air
impregnates this cold morning
heralding autumn

© Gsk ‘16

Autumn Thoughts – Waka – September 29, 2016

 

 

near the roadside
a weed covered fence
and old dead leaves
no warbling blackbird sings
smell the burning bond fires

the train passes
screeching iron on iron
the earth shakes
then silence fills the air
crashing waves of silence

old man and woman
passing in an autumn day
each lost in thought
memories of the days gone by
no thoughts for tomorrow

sidewalk cafe
drinking bitter espresso
here – a crying babe
there – shadows dance in the street
McCartney sings “Let it be”

© Gsk ‘16

 

Dreams of spring – Tanka – September 12, 2016

Carpe Diem Special #218 Dolores’ 2nd “dreaming of spring”

This is the second special dedicated to Dolores of   “Ada’s Poetry Alcove”, a tanka about life’s cycle:

autumn
flowers drop their petals
summer gone
they sleep in cold earth
dreaming of spring

© Dolores

And here is our host’s lovely tanka:

a last leaf
fights with the fall storm
its color fades
struggling against the wind
it surrenders

© Chèvrefeuille

And now for my attempt:

autumn
as two lovers kiss
on a park bench
even without blackbird song
spring dreams return

© Gsk ‘16

Daily Haiku and Waka – Mini Anthology – July 28, 2016

June 18, 2016

anonymous –
awaiting departure calls
travel daze

© Gsk ’16

June 19, 2016

the sound of water
serenity in chaos
St Louis hotel

© Gsk ’16

June 20, 2016

 – Porto Marghera
home is always beautiful
in all its aspects

© Gsk ’16

July 23, 2016

every year –
summer Italian style
sand, sun and sea

© Gsk ’16

July 25, 2016

Rimini
amarcord and Fellini
on harbour canal

© Gsk ’16

Rimini
amarcord and Fellini
on harbour canal

© Gsk ’16

July 27, 2016

thunder-storm
in a flash of light
the sky opens

© Gsk ’16

Daily Haiku and Waka – July 19, 2016

Torbole – Lido

To Goethe

windy morning
the agitated bay calls
whispering wisdom
he walked and heard
“Boldness has genius”

© Gsk ’16

History of Torbole sul Garda

Silent Sunday – July 3, 2016

Morning Haiku and Waka – Sunday – May 1, 2016

morning chill
raindrops fall on these flowers
awaiting May warmth

laying in bed
listening to the raindrops
warm under the sheets
drifting in and out of sleep
so hard to leave my dreams

those chiming bells
echoing in this loneliness
their hollow call

© G.s.k. ‘16

The Cuckoo – Troiku – April 27, 2016

above the roof-tops
looking for a mate and host
the cuckoo calls

above the roof-tops
the cuckoo flies like a hawk
small birds hide

looking for a mate and host
thief and Romeo
cuckoo – cuckoo

the cuckoo calls
lazily from dawn to dusk
through spring and summer

© G.s.k. ‘16

Carpe Diem Theme Week 3: Magnolia Blossoms, haiku by Soseki Natsume: episode 7

classical kigo hototogisu (cuckoo)

kaero to naka zu ni warae hototogisu

home…
laugh, not cry
cuckoo

© Soseki Natsume

naku nara ba mangetsu ni nake hototogisu

if you want to sing
sing under the full moon
cuckoo

© Soseki Natsume

Common cuckoo

Morning Haiku and Waka – Using Karumi (Haiga) – April 27, 2016

morning promenade
waddling off their breakfast
locals and tourists

© G.s.k. ‘16

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #77 pickles (in the way of Basho) lost episode of March

Today Chèvrefeuille re-introduced the “karumi” writing technique.  Here’s what he has to say about it:

“Bashô developed this concept during his final travels in 1693. Karumi is perhaps one of the most important and least understood principles of haiku poetry. Karumi can best be described as “lightness,” or a sensation of spontaneity. In many ways, karumi is a principle rooted in the “spirit” of haiku, rather than a specific technique. Bashô taught his students to think of karumi as “looking at the bottom of a shallow stream”. When karumi is incorporated into haiku, there is often a sense of light humour or child-like wonderment at the cycles of the natural world. Many haiku using karumi are not fixed on external rules, but rather an unhindered expression of the poet’s thoughts or emotions. This does not mean that the poet forgets good structure; just that the rules of structure are used in a natural manner. In my opinion, karumi is “beyond” technique and comes when a poet has learned to internalize and use the principles of the art interchangeably.

In a way it brought me another idea. Traditionally, and especially in Edo Japan, women did not have the male privilege of expanding their horizons, so their truth or spirituality was often found in the mundane. Women tend to validate daily life and recognize that miracles exist within the mundane, which is the core of haiku.There were females who did compose haiku, which were called “kitchen-haiku” by literati, but these “kitchen-haiku” had all the simplicity and lightness of karumi … In a way Basho taught males to write like females, with more elegance and beauty, based on the mundane (simple) life of that time.

Shiba Sonome, a female haiku poet, learned about karumi from Basho: “Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.”

The poet should detach the mind from his own self. Nevertheless, some people interpret the word ‘learn’ in their own ways and never really ‘learn’. ‘Learn’ means to enter into the object, perceive its delicate life, and feel its feeling, whereupon a poem forms itself. Even a poem that lucidly describes an object could not attain a true poetic sentiment unless it contains the feelings that spontaneously emerged out of the object. In such a poem the object and the poet’s self would remain forever separate, for it was composed by the poet’s personal self.

Basho also said, “In my view a good poem is one in which the form of the verse, and the joining of its two parts, seem light as a shallow river flowing over its sandy bed”.

That, then, is karumi: becoming as one with the object of your poem … experiencing what it means to be that object … feeling the life of the object … allowing the poem to flow from that feeling and that experience.”

Monday Haiga – April 25, 2016

Springtime, morning, the way the light plays with the camera lens … and a little imagination:

as morning dawns
enchanted light and colour
a finch calls his mate

© G.s.k. ‘16