Tag: Carpe Diem

September Tan Renga #9

between dusty cars

an orange butterfly flits

the traffic rumbles

©️2018 Kim M. Russell

losing time in a standstill

dreaming of wings shifting fate

(my response)

~

In this Carpe Diem Tan Renga episode the featured haiku is a contemporary one written by Kim Russell of Writing in North Norfolk (see link above). I was thrilled just a couple of days ago—when sitting on a four-lane highway in a traffic jam a Monarch butterfly brushed against my window. I immediately thought of Kim’s haiku.

Renga with Basho Hineri #8

This 8th episode of Carpe Diem’s Renga with Basho features six of Basho’s haiku, as translated by Jane Reichhold, including one that was unfinished—I have completed the first haiku by adding a third line. Basho’s writings are shown in boldface type and my additions are in regular type (hopefully the Reader does not alter this).

~

missing a wife

putting on bamboo grass

I step out the door

:

into the blazing sunlight

a dusty road before me

:

above all else

a dependable chinquapin tree stands

in a summer grove

:

shade welcomes wanderers

a place of rest for weary feet

:

path of the sun

the hollyhock leans into

early summer rain

:

another cool blessing

I lower my grateful head

:

each with its own light

fireflies in the trees

lodge in flowers

:

no darkness this summer night

my way well-lit from above

:

a dragonfly

unable to settle

on the grass

:

wherever I am is home

until the wind calls my name

:

an early winter shower

a rice paddy with new stubble

darkens just a bit

:

this bamboo hat keeps me dry

as winter wind nips my cheeks

~

©️Matsuo Basho haiku shown in boldface type (taken from Basho, The Complete Haiku by Jane Reichhold)

©️2018 Ontheland

September Tan Renga (8)

sunlight unfurls

on this scarred landscape

cradling new life

©️Ontheland

pear tree in full bloom on a battlefield

collapsed house becomes beautiful again

© Masaoka Shiki (re-worked by Chèvrefeuille)

~

This is a second Carpe Diem Tan Renga challenge with a twist, in which we write a haiku to precede the lines of a featured poet, who in this case is Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902).

September Tan Renga (5)

Red clover (image from Pixabay)

:

on a clover path

in the gentle hum of bees

village sounds are near (my hokku)

the temple bell stops but I still hear

the sound coming out of the flowers

(final two lines from Basho—see below)

:

For this Carpe Diem Tan Renga challenge Chevrefeuille offers a twist. Instead of asking for a response to a featured haiku, he has provided the final two lines for which we are to write a haiku (hokku) to precede it. Basho’s words are taken from his haibun ‘Narrow Road into the Deep North’.