Carpe Diem has set yet another interesting haiku challenge: to write in the style of Morikawa Kyoroku who was one of Basho’s disciples.
The sample given is:
ah! morning glories
are at their best while I chant
my morning prayers
It’s a simple and straightforward word-picture, but the more I look at it the more ideas and depths I see in it.
My answer to this challenge is:
Early sun, but where
the pine tree casts a shadow
there’s grass white with frost.
Carpe Diem has started a series on haiku writing techniques. The first one is on ‘juxtaposition’. Reading the explanation, I realise that I’ve done this often in the past without naming it.
Having a name for something makes it easier to detect and to use properly, so I’m very grateful to Chèvrefeuille for his tutorial and the name.
The following is a haiku I wrote last year.
Soft rain, cloud-barred sun,
rainbow spanning the sky. Below,
the sandcastle crumbles.
Once again the Carpe Diem site has come up with an interesting prompt. Its inspiration is a classic haiku by Kikaku, a contemporary of Basho.
This is a translation of the poem:
in the rays of the setting sun
there flutters along the city street
a butterfly
I think it is a lovely image. Mine however leaves the butterflies and concentrates on the sky:
Red-rimmed clouds gather
in the west. Behind them,
today’s sun sets.
As I roamed around the house and garden mulling the haiku and trying different versions in my head, I felt it should be expanded into a tanka.
Red-rimmed clouds gather
in the west. Behind, today’s
sun sets. My neighbour
passes me in the street.
‘Nice day tomorrow,’ he says.
The Carpe Diem site has several different challenges. The one I’m trying today is to complete a haiku given the middle line.
The given line is:
mists over the foreign highlands
Extra restrictions are that it must follow the classical form and use one more kigo (season word) for Autumn. ‘Mist’ is a classic Autumn word.
I looked up some kigo words and found them inspirational.
Now it is twilight;
mists over the foreign highlands
hide the harvest moon.
Although we only have to produce two lines, this challenge isn’t easy, but on the Carpe Diem site are links to a number of amazing poems it has inspired.
e a m harris 