Sundays Whirligig # 181

THIS WEEK"S WORDS come from "Nature Knows Its Math " by Joan Graham:

divide subtract multiply add snow green breeze beneath sky orange poppies then

 

 

divide ten oranges each into four pieces

then

subtract all the pips

add ten bunches of poppies

multiplied by infinite smiles 

laid out on the snow

with a light breeze

beneath a cerulean blue sky 

paint me happy

yes i thought you would be green

 

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge

 An Empty Shoe


rest on the field -
a lonely cricket chirping
in an empty shoe

Virgina Popescu 

serenading the little mouse
in her broken teapot house

Carpe Diem’s Weekend Meditation #51 Tagore’s “Endless Time”

she was seventeen
full of promise and excitement
tripping over with joy
starting out - she wants it back
even the old brown beret

Basho

A hat to cover
The body of our master
Withered pampas leaves

Shinshi ( Haigo of Takarai Kikaku)




fresh flowers at the grave
someone still remembers

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge

Billie Holiday - You go to my head

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge


Sparkling wine
Flames dance in her hand
He is granted a smile

Yozakura

billie holiday purrrrrrrs
on an old gramophone player

Carpe Diem Tan Renga September Challenge

clouds and waves
carry my dreams away
tugging my anchor

© Dolores

after a restless night I awake
in the arms of my muse

© Chèvrefeuille




clouds and waves
carry my dreams away
tugging my anchor

Dolores

i fly away with the birds
break the chain never look back

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge

1892 - 1927


..] "He felt so lost, he said later, that the familiar studio felt like a haunted valley deep in the mountains, with the smell of rotting leaves, the spray of a waterfall, the sour fumes of fruit stashed away by a monkey; even the dim glow of the master's oil lamp on its tripod looked to him like misty moonlight in the hills."[...]

© Akutagawa Ryūnosuke


no way out for him
he threw on the last log
then called it a night

haunted valley deep in the mountains
the dim glow of the campfire

Chevrefeuille

Bonus Wordle - MLMM

abracadabra arduous always artifice amplify agonise
 angles avoid ankles almond  arduous atypical




abracadabra
zippidee doo
as if
i would agonise
over you
almond eyes
well turned ankles
a pretty blonde
with all the right angles





i have always avoided
physicality and  artifice
to concentrate on atypical amplified
arduous intellectual pursuits

Sundays Whirligig

This week's Words come from Fatimah Asghar
 "If They Should Come For Us"


glass whiskey compass bakery subway street
dandelion sari dangling smashing made lantern 


 

if they should come for us
let's be prepared
i'll be wearing my dandelion design sari
with smashing dangling earrings made in china

wait for me by the bakery  across the street
near the subway with  a sharp pointed compass
and a lantern
remember to have a few stiff glasses of whiskey
beforehand to settle the nerves

Adoro Te Devote -

twas a long journey
a circuitous route back
to the beginning

the traveller has to knock at every alien door
to come to his own, and one has to wander
through all the outer worlds to reach
the innermost shrine at the end

Rabindranath Tagore

Tan Renga - Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

locusts fly low
over rice paddies
in the dim sunlight

Masaoka Shiki

a plague darkening the sky
destroying the new harvest

Missing

path of the sun
the hollyhock leans into
early summer rain
Basho

the two lovers draw closer
sheltering under a tree fern

a dragon fly
unable to settle
on the grass
Basho



alights on her soft damp hair
like a shimmering blue brooch

each with its own light
fireflies in trees
lodge in flowers 
Basho

crickets chirp welcoming the
rising gibbous moon

above all else
a dependable chinquapin tree stands
in a summer grove
Basho

watching this treachery
unfold before a cuckold's eyes

an early winter shower
a rice paddy with new stubble
darkens a bit
Basho


lightning storms move through his mind
her fate sealed in white  hot anger

missing a wife 
putting on bamboo grass 
hiding a shallow grave



Renga #8 CDHK

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai

roses mint and tea
paradise laid out on
my nan's  kitchen table



 

Tan Renga Challenge - CDHK

between dusty cars
an orange butterfly flits
the traffic  rumbles

Kim Russell

beauty's first adventure
a long way from the garden

Carpe Diem Tan Renga

grasses wilt
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt

Yamaguchi Seishi

face pressed to the window
her first train journey alone



smoke whirls
after the passage of a train
young foliage

Shiki

collateral war damage
evacuees with labels

Hokku

a night spent in tears
flowers sent in the morning
apology note

 pear tree in full bloom on a battlefield
collapsed house becomes beautiful again

© Shiki (re-worked by Chèvrefeuille)

Carpe Diem Tan Renga

one apple, alone
in an abandoned orchard 
reddens for winter 

Patrick Blanche 

insignificant maybe
but it changed scientific thought

Carpe Diem - Tan Renga

a soothing breeze 
cicadas sing their song
sound of water

bamboo wind chimes tinkle 
the old man snores gently

Carpe Diem - Renga With Basho # 7

 Six Haiku by Matsuo Basho

Create a renga from six of Basho's haiku, with two-lined stanzas between them. The renga must have a minimum of six stanzas and may have a maximum of twelve.


all day long -
yet not long enough for the skylark
singing, singing

accompanied by a choir
of bees and cicadas




the dragonfly
can't quite land
on that blade of grass

drops on to the lily pad
playing in the petals

by the old temple
peach blossoms
a man treading rice





captured in water colour
by an inspired artist


the shallows -
a crane's thighs splashed
in  cool waves



a dragon lizard looks on
bright green with envy

autumn moonlight
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut




basho's frog plops into the pond
the man in the moon beams smiles


i'm a wanderer
so let that be my name
the first winter rain

heavy downpour pelts the earth
i shelter with the barn owl

Carpe Diem Hokku

Boxing Day 2005.... .230,000 people killed by the tsunami in SE Asia.





deathly silence
time stands still for a moment
the distant wave approaches

The temple bell stops but I still hear
the sound coming out of the flowers

Matsuo Basho

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge

midwinternight
a  dark sky’s lights dance
in the wolf’s eyes  

Hamish Managua Gunn

seducing  its next victim
with a fixed pale blue gaze

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge

 

over the wintry forest
winds howl in a rage
with no leaves to blow

Natsumo Soseki 

the old  cottage rattles
like a cocktail  shaker

BREXIT

 Shadorma

typical
difficult pussy
obstinate
contrary
too late for a change of heart
the die has been cast

Carpe Diem Tan Renga

Jane Reichhold  
 
morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew

sparrows splash about
in a makeshift bird bath

Carpe Diem # 48 Weekend Meditation -Rabindranath Tagore Gitanjali

 the key in her hand
 utter simplicity
 opens the locked door