Christmas Mummer – December 18, 2017 (tanka)

eventide
waltzing through the street
winter mummers*
twirling golden fairy lights
one for every season

gsk ’17

 

Mummer definition, a person who wears a mask or fantastic costume while merrymaking or taking part in a pantomime, especially at Christmas and other festive seasons.

The Swan – December 15, 2017

Alone

 

Cee’s Black and White Challenge

 

 

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

Carpe Diem Special – Mandarin Duck by Buson – July 14

For today’s Carpe Diem Special a haiku by Yosa Buson:

mandarin duck –
rain falls silently
from an oak

© Yosa Buson (1716-1783)

Mallards on Lake Mattis – Champagne, Illinois

mallard ducks –
splashing water drops
in the grass

Gsk ’16

Wordless Wednesday – June 29, 2016

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Haiku – June 22, 2016

before the storm
the old rocker creaks
a cricket replies

one mouldy glove
forgotten in the autumn
a drop of rain – falls

© Gsk ‘16

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

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

NaPoWriMo – Choka – April 13, 2016

a silent minstrel
sat at dawn his fingers limp
(the blue sky streaked red)
reminding him of lost friends
a song dangled there
(just out of reach but so near)
he touched the taut strings
and struck a sweet cord
then, heard a sistrum jangle
the music began
flowing like a spring river

he sang of karma
he sang of resurrection
of life – birth and death
and of red dawns and sunsets
o’er the mountains and the sea.

© G.s.k. ‘16

“The choka (長歌 long poem) was the epic, story telling form of Japanese poetry from the 1st to the 13th century, known as the  Waka period. Most often the Japanese poet would write epics in classical Chinese. Still, the occasional poet with a story to tell would tackle the choka, the earliest of which can be traced back to the 1st century. It describes a battle and is 149 lines long.

Originally choka were sung, but not in the Western sense of being sung. The oral tradition of the choka was to recite the words in a high pitch.

The choka is:

• a narrative.
• syllabic. Composed of any number of couplets made up of alternating 5-7 onji (sound syllables) per line. In English we can only treat the onji as a syllable.
• unrhymed.
• concluded by a hanka, an envoy in the form of the waka, 31 onji or sound syllables in 5 lines with 5-7-5-7-7. “han” meaning repetition, the hanka is to summarize the choka. The word tanka is often substituted for hanka or waka (they are all rooted in the same 31 syllable, 5 line form, their root seems to make them interchangeable with only subtle differences to separate them.)
• Another way to write a choka  is to write several katauta (5-7-7 syllable stanzas).
• The poem can be as long as you like and in classical times there have been choka with hundreds of lines.

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Written for NaPoWriMo inspired by the mandala and words found on 1sojounal NaPoWriMo: Day 13:

minstrel, dawn, strings, blue, flow, fingers, jangle, dangle

Carpe Diem Haiga – Spring in Arco – April 10 2016

I was rather busy yesterday and never got around to publishing a post.  What was I doing?  Participating in our bi-annual community “giornata de ri-uso”:

Basically at the changing of the seasons – from summer to winter and winter to spring, our city council organizes a campaign to gather those objects and clothing that would often end up tossed out.  In the United States one might have a garage sale a practice that’s never caught on here.

Everything is brought to a pick-up point then the volunteers go through the stuff, dividing the good stuff from the trash.  We then distribute the stuff free of charge.  There are also activities for children in a close by separate area.

Here are a few more scenes:

Spring is on the way in Arco!  Ciao, Bastet.