Weekly Monochrome – April 26, 2016

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Swan Lake

lonely reflections –
contemplating a swan’s feather
an empty lake

© G.s.k. ‘16

(I also wrote a couple of variations for this same image:

spring reflections
alone the swan contemplates
[the empty lake]

© G.s.k. ‘16

lonely reflections –
contemplating a swan
in an empty lake

© G.s.k. ‘16

Carpe Diem #962 bird feathers

And Chèvrefueille gave really a lot of examples for explanation:

Okay … back to our episode of today. Today I have another nice prompt for you to create a haiga with. Today that’s bird feathers. To inspire you a bit I will give the examples by Jane Reichhold for this prompt from her modern Saijiki “A Dictionary of Haiku”.

bird feathers
in the night sound
spring rain

fading the colors
of a peacock feather
an iris blooms

joined by listening
the breath of disciples
in baby birds

© Jane Reichhold

king of the farm
spreads out his gorgeous tail –
feathers on a vase

feathers on a vase
eyes looking deep into mine –
again in love

again in love –
the first day of Spring has come
listen to the breeze

© Chèvrefeuille

harukaze ni o wo hirogetaru kujaku kana

the peacock
spreading out his tail
in the Spring breeze

© Shiki (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Monochrome Monday – (Haiga and Tanka) – April 11, 2016

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Dream Haiga

tanka

moonlight dreaming
as crickets sing for lovers
hidden gazebo
on this balmy spring morning
creating illusions

© G.s.k. ‘16

Yesterday I went for a walk with the city of Arco … one of our stop overs was at the Arch-Duke of Austria’s historical botanical garden (for which I did a Sunday walk in 2013).  This morning one of the photos reminded me of moonlight …  so  with a little magic of imagination and an app … my haiga was done.  My next post will be this week’s Monday Haiga Event … hope to see your there!

Carpe Diem #950 dreams – this month Carpe Diem Haiku Kai will be prompting for a daily haiga for those who enjoy this type of work, a great opportunity!

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NaPoWriMo: Day 11

Sabi is a Chaise Longue – Haiga/Haibun – March 28, 2016

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What is “sabi”?   Something old, past, demode … something that’s somehow a faded memory like the old plastic chaise longue in the haiga above,  that in its heyday was an object that made someone happy or proud to own it.  I can almost feel the sensation that must have accompanied that first vision of the object … the elation.  Now, so many years have passed.  The chaise longue sits in my son’s garden in Padua, slowly losing it’s lustre as it weathers.  No one remembers who bought it .. the house has changed had many many times over the years as one group of student substitutes another, no one even uses it except the cat. That to me is one meaning of “sabi”.

chaise longue
memories of summer’s days
long forgotten
© G.s.k. ‘16
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Well, that is one of the aspects in my opinion of “sabi”.  What does the Encyclopedia Britannica have to say?

Sabi

  • place in Japanese culture

    Japan: Aesthetics
    …related are the twin ideals of cultivated simplicity and poverty (wabi) and of the celebration of that which is old and faded (sabi). Underlying all three is the notion of life’s transitory and evanescent nature, which is linked to Buddhist thought (particularly Zen) but can be traced to the earliest examples of…

  • poetry of Bashō

    • Bashō
      One term frequently used to describe Bashō’s poetry is sabi, which means the love of the old, the faded, and the unobtrusive, a quality found in the verse

      Scent of chrysanthemums . . .

      And in Nara

      All the ancient Buddhas.

    • relation to tea ceremony

      Sen Rikyū
      …who founded the Japanese tea ceremony. He firmly established the concepts ofwabi (deliberate simplicity in daily living) and sabi (appreciation of the old and faded) as its aesthetic ideals. During his time the teahouse became smaller (from Shukō’s 4 1/2-mat room to a…

A Month of Haiga – February 7, 2016

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Hello!

One of the most suggestive moments in my life is the birth of the day.  I’m not referring to the sunrise exactly, but that odd moment between first light and its presence in the world …

the dawning

I’m not sure if everyone sees this moment the way I do, as a particularly mysterious moment.  I’ve heard it referred to as the breaking of dawn or breaking day.  This is the moment that seems to me where the day is at its potential glory … and spiritually one can imagine this as the feeling one might have before the full light of illumination is manifest!

In any case, the other morning I was up and about rather early a I had an appointment in Rovereto.  My friend had decided to come with me, so I passed by her house to pick her up.   I was a little early so I took out my trusty Olympus and took a few shots.  This is the one I chose for today:

February 7 Haiga

If you’d like to participate, but are inspired by something different – that’s fine by me – once you’ve completed your haiga just tag  your post Bastet’s One Month of Haiga and link directly to this post, then  link your haiga post in the Mr. Linky app hidden in my flowers below so others can easily find you:

 

 

Have a great day!  Bastet!

I’m linking this post to: Carpe Diem #913 spirituality

The following is an article which I found interesting … it speaks about getting up at 5:30 in the morning to meditate 😉 : The Meaning of Zen Practice – Kannon Do – Zen Meditation Center 

(Btw,  just in case you’re wondering – I am not affiliated nor do I promote any religious structure,  Zen or otherwise.)

 

A Month of Haiga – February 6, 2016

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Hello, sorry I’m late!

I was playing with some different photo editors in free mode that I found on-line today.  I tried a few but wasn’t really impressed, to tell the truth Pixar and PicMonkey cover most of my needs nicely.  I tried three – the last one did actually have a few  instruments that I haven’t seen on my two on-line favourites and allows you to spruce up in different zones of your photo instead of just flooding colour anywhere.  The name of the site is befunky .. one of the two sites, not only weren’t very original they allowed me to work for a while and then watermarked my photograph.  Today’s theme will be:

dreaming

 

Yesterday I had to go to Rovereto for one of my annual checkups (Trentino is big on preventative medicine and at least for the moment hasn’t let the economic crisis stop these health programs).  As I’d arrived early, I passed the time away taking photographs … you can get some interesting shots even in a hospital … it’s just a matter of looking. The photo below was just a shot down a corridor (corridors can make interesting illustrations for short stories or poems) after tweaking and poking,  the rather modest photo took on some interesting tones.  This is my haiga for today:

 

February 6 Haiga_small

 

If you’d like to participate, but are inspired by something different – that’s fine by me – once you’ve completed your haiga just tag  your post Bastet’s One Month of Haiga and link directly to this post, then  link your haiga post in the Mr. Linky app hidden in my flowers below so others can easily find you:

Have a great day!  Bastet!

 

I’m linking this post to: Carpe Diem #912 Movement/Propriocept​ion

Extra Reading:

Where do dreams come from?

 

30 Days of Haiga – September 25, 2014

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The other day I was in a still-life mood and did several haiga from a series of photographs I’d taken .. one I used for my Waka Library as an illustration haiga for “nothing” … today I’ll show you another with its variation:

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autumn morning
lights and shadows play
in an empty room

G.s.k. ’14

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contemplating …
shadows of the morning
an empty room

G.s.k. ’14

These were inspired by this fantastic haiku by Sodo, offered to us by Carpe Diem Haiku Kai:

 yado no haru nanimo koso nanimo are

 in my hut this spring,
there is nothing, –
there is everything!

© Sodo (1642-1716)

Which do you prefer?  I couldn’t choose.

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30 days of Haiga – September 18, 2014

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This morning I was writing a post for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai‘s river prompt and was inspired to write a couple of haiga too … it’s a very inspirational post by the way and I’d highly recommend it!  So for today’s 30DOH … River Sarca … the river near my house, oh … here’s the link to my Blogger Post about the river.

 

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from past to future
abandoned ancient lock
now – the river flows

(c) G.s.k. ’14

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