Morning Haiku and Waka – July 22, 2016

in deep waters
cold and angst of drowning
at day break

© Gsk ’16

this summer dawn
awaiting the breaking storm
ducks shelter

© Gsk ’16

Daily Haiku – July 21, 2016

morning departure
the valley sleeps awaiting
new visitors

© 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

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.”

Heeding Haiku and NaHaiWriMo – Classical Haiku – February 4, 2016

“Classical Haiku”

evening walk
even in the cold snap –
plants blossom

old sea-gull
creeling and fighting
– his old age

winter oasis
palms bend under the snowfall
– for one afternoon

© G.s.k. ‘16

 

Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille, February 3rd 2016

“I love to challenge you to write a classical haiku, which means you have to follow a few classical rules:

1. Your haiku must be the “impression” of a short moment, as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water;
2. Your haiku has a “kigo” (or seasonword) in it;
3. You also have to use a “kireji” (or cuttingword, like e.g. “;” or “!”);
4. You have to use the classical count 5-7-5 or 3-5-3;
5. Your first and last line have to be interchangeable;
6. Last, but not least, try to catch a deeper meaning in your haiku.”

NaHaiWriMo – February 4

NaHaiWriMo – February 3, 2016

 

Wild-life on a lake can be interesting … especially when you begin to recognize a certain duck, coot or gull.  Lake Garda has several colonies of all three of these birds.  There’s one gull who passes his mornings dive-bombing any other gull that tries to land on any of the pylons near where he happens to be roosting making a nuisance of himself, the odd male mallard who’s obviously from a mixed coupling who’s set up housekeeping with a certain lady mallard.  And then there’s an old coot.  He appears to be a loner swimming around honking and squawking and generally making a lot of racket.  However when a female swims nearby he looses his hermit qualities rather quickly and tries to mount her.  Eventually the females become irritated and peck him … poor guy, he has to return to zealously exalting his qualities to every living creature on the lake, but the tourists love him and are always ready with a treat when the see him.

morning sun
reflects on the lake
noisy old coot

© G.s.k. ‘16

NaHaiWriMo – 2016 Facebook Page
NaHaiWriMo Blog

NaHaiWriMo

Ten Styles of Tanka – Post 3 – January 22, 2016

 

November Afternoon

in the distance
as the sun melts in the mist
a solemn ray
disperses light on the lake
and his soul in the wind

© G.s.k. ‘16

3. Elegant beauty – urawashiki tei, characterised by harmony, balance, and beauty of cadence

Examples of this style is this one from the great poet of the late 7th century – Kakinomoto no Hitomaro from the Kokinshū, #9:409:

honobono to / akashi no ura no / asagiri ni / shimagakureyuku / fune o shi zo omou

dimly dimly
on the shores of Akashi Bay
morning mist
vanishing by distant islands
longing follows the ship

Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #66 Teika’s Ten Tanka Techniques by Jane Reichhold

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday – January 13, 2015

This gallery contains 5 photos.

Wordless Wednesday – January 6, 2016

Snowdrop – Haiku Writing Techniques – December 30, 2015

in winter’s midst
standing on the empty pier
a snowdrop

long winter day
passes in a flash of light
sunset

© G.s.k. ‘15

This post is dedicated to my friend Elena of Elena ed Orlando

Carpe Diem Haiku Writing Techniques #25 The Technique of Narrowing Focus

ake yasuki yo wo iso ni yoru kurage kana

the short night ending–
close to the water’s edge
a jellyfish

© Yosa Buson

amenohiya madakini kurete nemuno hana

A rainy day
Quickly falls the night–
Silk-tree blossoms

© Yosa Buson

the whole sky
in a wide field of flowers
one tulip

© Jane Reichhold

in the moonlight
Wisteria flowers look fragile –
a gust of wind

© Chèvrefeuille