Tanka Splendor 2020-1: Vernal Equinox

Vernal Equinox

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It has been a while that I published here at Tanka Splendor, the place for all your wonderful Tanka adventures. Here at Tanka Splendor I hope to inspire you to create an all new Tanka inspired on a given Tanka.

This week I have chosen a Tanka themed “New Beginnings” and titled “Vernal Equinox”. The “Vernal Equinox” is the time on which Spring starts … and Spring is the season for “New Beginnings”.

Here is the Tanka to inspire you:

departing Winter
visiting my ancestors graves
paying my respects
to Mother Nature … flowers in my hair
Vernal Equinox

© Chèvrefeuille

This Tanka Splendor episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until Saturday January 18th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Tanka Splendor #25 summer heat

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a a new Tanka Splendor episode. It has been a while but I will try to publish here on a regular base a challenge for you to create Tanka, that beautiful short poem of five lines that once started as a love poem in which secret lovers could reach eachother.

Today I love to challenge you to create a Tanka full of love inspired on the theme “summer heat”. Summer, in my opinion, is the season of love outside e.g. love on the beach or skinny dipping after a long hot summer day. So … go for it … create a summer tanka full of love.

Lilies of the valley
their sweet perfume makes me drowsy
hot summer night
between silken sheets her warmth
honeysuckle coolness

© Chèvrefeuille

This Tanka Splendor episode is NOW OPEN for your responses and will remain open until July 22nd at noon (CEST). Have fun … create your love poem in the form of a Tanka and share it with us all.

Tanka Splendor (02-2019) Sea shells

Sea Shells (painting by DSisson)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Tanka poems are short poems that originated in Japan in the 13th century. They are five lines long and often convey deep feelings about nature, love, or desire. To write a tanka poem, start by brainstorming ideas. Then, create a draft using sensory detail and descriptive language. Polish your draft once it is done so the tanka is full of striking imagery and deep emotion.

This week I have a nice tanka to inspire you. I ran into it when surfing the Internet, but couldn’t retrieve the author / poet of this beauty. So if you are the poet or you know the poet? Please let me know.

Here is the tanka to inspire you to create a new tanka:

Sea shells on the ground
White sand is so beautiful
I look at the sea
It is so very endless
And blue, sparkly, and gorgeous

© unknown

I have given it a try myself to create a new tanka inspired on this given tanka. I associated on “sea shells”.

in the forest
with a sea shell at my ear
I hear the sea
in a seashell – wisecrack of granddad
it’s my bloodstream

© Chèvrefeuille

This Tanka Splendor is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 20th at noon (CEST). Have fun!

Reviving Tanka Splendor (01-2019) Daffodils

Dear friends,

It’s a pleasure to try to give this weblog a new boost. So I hope to do this every Wednesday from now on. A new episode of Tanka Splendor. This week I have a wonderful tanka by Jane Reichhold (1937-2016) to inspire you to create your own Tanka.

Here is the Tanka by Jane Reichhold:

your sleeping breath
night rain revives the earth
waves of sea air
in bright yellow daffodils
nod to the dark wind

© Jane Reichhold

Isn’t it a beauty? I am not a great Tanka poet, because haiku is still my first love, but I have given it a try to create a tanka inspired on this beauty by Jane Reichhold.

dancing naked
in the light of the blue moon
she cleanses me
her warmth cherishes my body
the sweet scent of Honeysuckle

© Chèvrefeuille

And now … it is up to you to create a Tanka inspired on this beauty. Have fun!

The Leaves Are Falling

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

On the Northern Hemisphere it’s autumn, in my opinion the most beautiful season of the year, leaves are coloring, rain and wind very often. I love how the fallen leaves are dancing through the street.

This week’s challenge create a tanka about autumn and leaves dancing. Try to bring love into it also, because Tanka was once a love-poem. Enjoy this challenge!

sunflowers (cascading haiku)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Tanka Splendor (part of the CDHK Family), sorry for being late with this new episode, but there were a few circumstances that took my time.
Autumn is almost running halfway so maybe you thought that I would create a challenge with an autumn theme, but no … it’s a summer theme.

This week’s task is to create a so called cascading haiku. What is a cascading haiku? Let me give you an example:

hopeful new day
available in yellowish
a great sunflower

a great sunflower
desirable to bright sunlight
bows its head to earth

bows its head to earth
a possible new flower opens
promising dreams

© Chèvrefeuille

A cascading haiku is built from at least two haiku, because you have to use the last sentence as the first sentence of the second verse. Look at the above cascade. The last sentence of the first haiku “a great sunflower” is the first sentence of the second haiku. The third line of that 2nd haiku, “bows its head to earth”, is the first line of the third haiku. This is like a wave, like a cascading river.

Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh

This week’s task … create a cascading haiku themed “sunflower”. Create your cascading haiku and share it with us all through linking to the linking widget. Have fun!

Basho’s Blossoms

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new Tanka Splendor here at our WP blog Tanka Splendor (also part of the CDHK Family). This month we are celebrating the 6th anniversary of our homepage “Carpe Diem Haiku Kai”. Back in 2012 I started Carpe Diem Haiku Kai to challenge you to create haiku and tanka on a daily base. During the last 6 years our CDHK Family has grown and today I love to challenge you here at Tanka Splendor to create tanka inspired on “blossom” haiku by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), one of the greatest haiku poets ever.

Here are a few “blossom” haiku by him:

how many, many things
they call to mind
these cherry-blossoms!

Haiku weaves vivid images, and cherry blossom themed poems have an element of contemplation and bittersweetness that is compelling. The sight of blossoms, so exquisite and so evanescent, is a reminder of the transience of things, and while it can be melancholy, it’s also reassuring. Everything passes–and then returns.

temple bells die out.
the fragrant blossoms remain.
a perfect evening!

In a sense, poetry is closest to perfume, because the interpretation of the message concealed in words as in aromas are left to the beholder.

very brief –
gleam of blossoms in the treetops
on a moonlit night.

© Matsuo Basho

Well … do you think you can create tanka inspired on these beautiful haiku by the master? I am looking forward to your responses.