spring flowers (haiku)

I give permission
For this slow spring rain to soak
The violet beds.
© Richard Wright

Our host tried a hand at Troiku than you have to use the three separated lines as the starting line of a new haiku. Watch this example:

first haiku: starting with “I give permission”

I give permission
to visit the ancient temples –
go on bare feet © Chèvrefeuille

second haiku: starting with “for this slow spring rain to soak”

for this slow spring rain to soak
I warn you and your laundry
it will become wet © Chèvrefeuille

third haiku: starting with “the violet beds”

the violet beds
look like a rainbow in the sky
garden festival © Chèvrefeuille

This is my humble attempt:

Spring showers
muddy tulip garden
colours explode

Carpe Diem Special – Richard Wright

Winter fairyland (Chained Renga)

Eyes to the sky
snowflake blinds me
can’t help but smile

first snowstorm begins softly
showering for two days

cars skidding
drivers honk
impatience reigns

placid
watching through the bay window
sighing with relief

no place to go but sit tight
admiring the snow falling

wobbling
on snow filled sidewalks
climbing over snowbanks

cars stuck in knee high snow
cycles lost in powdered frost

ornate trees
winter fairyland parks, decked
in white coverlets

eyes fixed on blinding snow
recalling childhood winters.

Carpe Diem Timeglass

forgiving flora (haiga)

flora breathes life
giving me permission
to lean on you

pure air (haiku)

Mountain top
breathing unpeopled air
pure
~
pure
cabin provides warmth
echoes inner peace

Carpe Diem – Mountain Cabin

BJ Shadorma & Beyond – The Choka – December 13, 2014

A little Japanese history and talk about The Choka…

Mindlovemisery's Menagerie

Hello Everyone!

First of all thanks to all of you who participated writing a Naani … you did a fantastic job!

This week I’m taking you back to Japanese history. The form I’ve chosen to introduce is called the choka. Choka were long, elegiac poems (in fact choka means the long poem) and the longest ran sometimes over 100 lines! They were usually sung.

The classical choka is formed by writing 5-7 syllables couplets for as many lines as you like ending however with an extra 7 syllable line. There have been variations over the years as to how to write a choka including modern attempts to revive the genre.

Now days when the form is used and interestingly it is often used by English haiku poets, it is used to tell a story, not necessarily an epic or commemorative tale – just a story.

Here’s one of my choka as…

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first snow (haiku)

baby blues

stares up above

licking his lips

Carpe Diem

spirit is infinite (haibun)

The only death I truly accepted and understood the infinite journey was my grandfather’s death. Although I was only six, I was blessed to be in a family that was open about life and death; my grandmother being a midwife, talked often of the births she assisted and it did not take away my youth as so many of my Anglo-Saxon raised peers felt…French Canadians kept many European mores I think. And so I remember going to hospital to await the news the doctors would pronounce of the impending fate of my GrandPapa. We often sat by his bedside holding his hand daily for a year, as I lived with my grandparents that year. My sister and I saw the priest perform his last rites, Extreme Unction and his last smile at me surrounded by his children the day he passed.

So for me, finite meant my favourite person had an expiry date to his suffering; he would be in a place where there is no pain, where he could run freely …and yes, I believed this and to some extent still do.

At my age, I have lost many relatives and friends to death and more recently a friend and colleague for whom I have shared a series of haiku; unfortunately there are many I have not quite accepted…sudden deaths, people too far for me to go to their service are mostly the people I still struggle to accept and sometimes I feel it was all a dream and they are still here.

How often I wanted to dial the number of my friend, Janet, who died suddenly when I was far away. The only person who read my mind, felt my emotions; our signal to chat after midnight…one ring…we both knew was the other who wished to talk until dawn. I still don’t accept the infinite passing of this friend.

(American Sentence)

Grandpapa, tu es toujours près de moi, dans mon cœur, ombrant mon âme.

(haiku)

humble corps affaibli
enfin libéré
douleur fini

âme pétillant
pure et infini
les cieux attendent

yeux brillants
plonge dans l’éclat céleste
lumière blanche

lumière blanche
le séduit à l’éther
infinité

infinité
âme sans âge baigna
grâce devin

weary body
humble and finite
pain-free at last

soul lives on
infinite and pure
heavens await

iridescence
eyes dip in hallowed glow
white light

white light
seduced to the ether
infinite

infinite
ageless soul bathes
celestial grace

Carpe Diem “accepting the finite”

a lotus blossoms (haibun)

(c) Jigsawgirl "Lotus" at Deviantart http://jigsawgirl.deviantart.com/ — (c) Jigsawgirl “Lotus” at Deviantart

I love the story of how a lotus starts off. Such a beautiful flower, appearing so delicate and yet it is so resilient. This flower grows in ponds and lakes where water does not move much, hence it sprouts first under water in mud and murky water. Just as humans go through life facing loss, sadness, death, and dark moments, hopefully we become stronger and our mind is awakened, acquiring wisdom. The lotus stems becomes stronger forming a bud that pushes its way to the light, above water and only then, free of dirt and mud, opens one petal at a time …just as humans open up to spiritual growth. How fascinating!

In Buddhism the bud of the lotus represents potential. We have the potential to spiritual growth and awakening, and enlightenment. As the lotus flower emerges from the water clean, this represents purity of body, speech, and mind…an awakened mind. *

Category: Tournesol dans un jardin

spring flowers (haiku)

Winter fairyland (Chained Renga)

forgiving flora (haiga)

pure air (haiku)

BJ Shadorma & Beyond – The Choka – December 13, 2014