Bastet’s Monday Haiga Challenge – And a Little Italian History – April 26, 2016

Hello!

 

I’m a day late with this challenge … here the weather is beautiful; the skies intensely clear, therefore the colours of the hills, mountains, fields and woods are particularly vibrant, in some cases they seem like they’ve been “apped” before I’ve even had a chance to do something with the photo editor!   So today’s challenge (based on the haiga I published yesterday on my main blog) is

vibrant spring colours

and here’s my haiga:

 

 

 

as morning dawns
enchanted light and colour
a finch calls his mate

© G.s.k. ‘16

 

Yes, today isn’t Monday, although to me it feels that way, so what happened?

Piazzale Loreto

 

Yesterday here in Italy we had a national holiday … it was Liberation Day or Resistance Day – but here it’s usually called just 25th of April.   It is the day when  Italians celebrate the end of Italian Civil War,  born upon the landing of the Allied Troops in Sicily in 1943 after the surrender of the then Prime Minister  Pietro Badoglio which officially ended  Mussolini’s Fascist regime (who’d been arrested but who escaped, joining the Nazi German forces heading for  Salò on Lake Garda signalling the occupation of Northern Italy by the Nazi-Fascists).

The date was chosen arbitrarily in 1946 … on that day (April 25 1945),  Mussolini was captured by resistance forces in the North – and shot three days later, then hung in Piazzale Loreto in Milan, where earlier 15 Partisans had been shot.  The rest of  Northern Italy capitulated after that in a domino effect.  It should be noted that the Italian Civil War was a very bloody event in Italian history which left many scars and divisions in the Italians as a Nation.  Even after 70 years there’s still an off-key eco.

April 25th officially became a permanent national holiday in 1949 – though for years  it was ignored and fell into obscurity and except for the placing of a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldiers by officials (or on the sight of a Nazi-Fascist retaliation etc) went by unmarked and uncelebrated.  President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi during his administration (1999-2006) did much to revived and redirect it (and June 2  or Constitution Day or The Day of the Republic)  stating that the holiday was important,  since it reminds all Italians of the constant need for renovation through the understanding of the origin of the  Italian Nation  as a Republic.

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If any of you would like to add their haiga to my challenge … please feel free to do so .. you can link directly in the comments below of add your name to the Mr. Linky app below.  In order to help other’s find you easily in the reader and Google, you might want to tag this post as well …. Bastet’s Monday Haiga Challenge.

Bastet’s Monday Haiga Challenge – Dawn – April 18, 2016

Hello Everyone!

Yesterday it rained and when the shower passed,  I went for a splendid walk – with my camera of course.  I decided to try to take some macros which I’ll use today for my haiga.   I was inspired by:

after a spring shower

 

 

Ok not so kosher as far as haiku goes … I’ve obviously personified that lovely flower … imagining its a sort of floral geisha to a passing samurai bee ( a real no-no in haiku writing) – so, alas, this is a senryu – in a picture! 😉

And what is a senryu.  Well in the past no honourable haiku poet would be caught dead writing a senryu – so if they wrote them they wrote them under a pseudonym – they were bar-room entertainment if we were to try to relate the usage of this type of poem to our modern days.

Over the years – beginning in the English-speaking world it seems, senryu  came up a bit in the world.  They are now sometimes called “human haiku”,  because they aren’t necessarily about the seasons, spirituality, nature or wabi sabi  in fact,  they often have to do with the more human, let’s say mundane aspects of life.  They still have the “short –  long – short” no more than 17 syllable word format (or for the more classical writers 5-7-5 syllables). It’s the subject that makes the difference between a haiku and a senryu.   Sometimes they are humorous, sometimes really tragic, sometimes erotic and very often down-right vulgar.  Sometimes they use metaphors or word play – and other poetic “devices” common in English poetry.  All very unacceptable in formal haiku circles.  Suffice it to say that through the last few decades in Japan and the English-speaking world,  senryu suffers less stigma than in the past – though many “serious” haiku writers still look down upon senryu and those who write it.  I’ve also been informed by more authoritative persons than myself that in Japan, scholars and universities still don’t recognize senryu as “real” poetry and it is not taught, though there are senryu magazines, contests and anthologies.

If you decide to link up with me … please tag Bastet’s Monday Haiga Challenge so that I can find you easily and link up with the Mister Linky app so that others can find you more easily!

Have a great week.

 

Bastet’s Haiga Monday Challenge – A Spring Morning – April 11, 2016

 

Good morning!

As I mentioned on my former post, yesterday I went walking with the city of Arco.  This is a yearly event.  For a chosen charity each year people gather together to either walk (a five and a half kilometre itinerary) or run (a twelve kilometre itinerary) together.  Here are a couple of photos of the event.

The Walk Begins

Mid Walk Refreshment

At two and a half kilometres

And now for today’s prompt:

A Spring Morning

 

And here’s my example:

 

For those who would like to participate you may do so simply by tagging: Bastet’s Haiga Monday and linking up to Bastet’s Haiga Monday Mr. Linky App below!  Have a great week!

Bastet’s Monday Haiga Challenge – April 4, 2016

It’s NaPoWriMo again and so I thought that today I’d write a haiga … and launch a new weekly challenge for those who’d like to participate.  Every Monday I will offer a prompt for my weekly haiga event.  Today the prompt is:

Birdsong

Anyone who’d like to participate may do so by tagging Bastet’s Monday Haiga Challenge and liking up to the “Bastet Monday Haiga Challenge” Mr. Linky App below.  Have a great week!  Bastet