Carpe Diem's Vision Quest 1 day 3 . "deep silence"

Thank you

Carpe Diem Special, Jim Kacian's "city morning"

A tanka in the same tone, sense and spirit as Jim Kacian's haiku found on the Carpe Diem website here

leaves fall one by one

until even shadows disappear

and memories too

and one day the whole of summer

is swept down the drains in rain

Carpe Diem, Issa, "New Year's Writing"

on the canvas, brush strokes
tall grasses grow quick, and tall
onto a dark cloud
when raindrops land on the picture 
I know I am in sync with nature





dversepoets

dVerse - My Pub

every time the bar fills up
smoke-filled memories drift away
like vacant lots emptied of tots
as the years, they roll on by

but the bastards, the knee-cappers
and whores
return for their dose, lipstick on rims
determined to drink themselves dry

an ex nazi, once talk of the town
real drunken anti Fred Astaire declares
"that through drink we learn who we despise!"

and someone's bloodshot eyes turn blue
a beer glass sails by, a tray, too, with no waitor
like parts of a yacht suspended in motion
till everything hits land and bruises are scattered
and the tray swipes a table with a clatter
while the glass connects the two braincells left
in the man holding onto the floor

just another night of many in my youth
in the bar where I served the ale
where I kissed the Swedish au pair
who came there to be admired
and I surely did
laying her bare on barrels of beer

where I found out a knife in the stomach does not hurt
when stuck into someone else's than mine
and opening a door repeatedly into a head to stop a fight dead
works only if he is not sodden with wine

and I'd wake up at dawn face on the floor
bar door still open, barmaid Tina by my side
shoulder shaken by the old Spanish deckhand
who came to clean up the morning's beer

and clean out the guests we'd invited for the night
the drunkards, fighters, survivors and fools
jesters, drug dealers, torturers, and those whores
of which I was one, the biggest whore of them all

in the pub of my past that never quite lets go
a bar like a boomerang thrown, spinning round and round
where the anti Fred Astair could not dance but only rant
like they used to do in those Munich beer halls



Not dedicated to the Pickwick Pub in Geneva, where much more than described happened most nights.

Carpe Diem, Chiyo-Ni, ''that is all there is ...''

Today's haiku, or tanga, is to be a tribute to the brave and innocent souls who died on the Malaysian Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine. I recently posted a tanka about the crime, (Malaysian Airlines tanka) and I think it is most fitting to write a tribute in a sensitive haiku or tanka.

There is much about this tragedy that upsets and bothers me, and I like many dearly hope that the murderers are caught, but I sense and see little chance of this happening. I am distraught and I would say disgusted by the official Russian position, and by attempts from various persons to politicise the tragedy where they can, including, unfortunately by OSCE members who arrived on the site.

The Russian government has lost my trust and respect. I was appalled by John Kerry and his team - Nuland et al, in the Ukraine, specifically in his attempt to portray the Crimean Tartars as a 'wandering lost tribe' in a sickening parody all too soon forgotten, but here we witness the Russian government absolutely and cynically not at all interested in who was guilty but more interested in covering up where they can.

All sides are guilty of excessive nationalism, and president Obama using the opportunity to admonish the European governments for maintaining links with the Russian regime was crass and unnecessary. However, European governments should have leaders who get off their backsides, and send their best men and women to rattle the teeth of the absurd idiots who think they have the right to shoot down airliners, in order to get the accident investigation going, and the Ukrainian government needs to apologise for their gross misjudgment in allowing the eastern Ukrainian airspace to remain open. 

Meanwhile, lest we forget, Israel used the opportunity to launch a ground invasion of Palestine. 300 Palestinian dead and rising. Israeli apologists will be given short thrift here. I have personally seen what goes on, and know the real objective. As many reporters have, and at last, increasingly U.S. reporters have too.

in loving memory

innocent lives taken 

a sun sets slowly here

elsewhere charred remains

lie under a smouldering sky

Carpe Diem Haiku, Shiki, "reeds tremble"

under a sad moon

dark plume of smoke rises

evil lurks in grasslands

are birds chirping among ashes

this morning in eastern Ukraine?

My Forest for Carpe Diem

when I walk my path

trees whisper me forest secrets

in the breeze between leaves

"be tall," they say, "be free

and most of all, just listen"

Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Shadow, Shooting Stars

The haiku must be in the classical 5-7-5 format and have interchangeable first/last lines. Having seen Chevrefeuille's, and three other wonderful shooting star haiku, my confidence is dented!

shower of shooting stars

too quick for your reflection

in the deep blue sea

Magpie Tales - Tales from the Throne

My carpets are threadbare!
Screamed the queen in despair
Especially the stairs
Where my heir goes to gloat
In the turret above the moat
In reality a cordon of policemen
Protecting the corrosion
That besets the nation

My carpets are bare
And there's none to fix my hair!
She cried, ever since
Immigrants were sent
Back where they belong
In some cell or another
Or tower block overlooking nothing
In some destitute land, devoid of dignity

Tax them more! thundered the politicians
Her carpet's threadbare!
And we cannot blame immigration
Because we sent them all 'home'
So tax our population
To pay for the people's carpet
That leads to the toilet
From where we benefit
From the attention
Dropped
From
Above

for Magpie Tales

Carpe Diem Haiku, Chiyo-Ni ''in an unknown sky''

autumn's bright moon

however far I walked, still afar off

in an unknown sky

Intriguing haiku with beautiful concept - and last line, presented as inspiration. Following is my attempt.

summer thunderstorm
sound of the sky on the rooftop
as for the moon, long gone

Carpe Diem Haiku - Basho Revisited

departing autumn

a clam

torn from its shell

departing autumn

Basho

The task now, with this haiku, is to attempt to render its beauty  in a new version, influenced and inspired by Basho's original.

uluru rising

noble peoples' land torn

never to return

Carpe Diem Haiku - Buttercup

young buttercup

your beauty poisonous

yet so innocent

Carpe Diem Haiku - Creation by Gillena Cox

A topic so vast can only be dealt with by focusing on the tiniest details...

it disturbs me-

if I step on an acorn

I break an entire future forest

Magpie Tales: The Scent of the Rose

I sing to thee
from a century
hence
from the purest
innocence
of desire

my senses
stirred
by the
scent of the buds
of the roses
and bud of your rose
under your robes
and feminine beauty
shaped full
and free
from your clothes

fresh
quiet fountains
bubble and trickle
like youth
bringing out in me
the lust and longing
of my adolescence
how did you feel
when you yielded
in your pose?

did you imagine
as you lay there
that others
would succumb
and dream
of you
of your ankles
and your arches
to caress
and to warm
your slender toes
and send
a tender kiss
through the century
on your summer lips?

my quest is finished
now
all I could give you
were words
to show
a century hence
that a man
can still be stirred
by the way you lay
undisturbed
your beauty ethereal
exquisite
timelessly touched
by a paintbrush
while I
can only wish
you knew

Sweet Summer, 1912, John William Waterhouse

Knowing that the winds of these times would cause some to cast a disapproving glance askance I decided on the mildly controversial here. Those who think she should cover up are just plain wrong. There are nude statues of men from the Renaissance back, and I feel that the angle of supposed 'exploitation' is just cheap and nihilistic here, as well as alarmingly fundamentalist. Of course the tone of the poem is not as innocent as it claims, but that is to unsettle. The appreciation remains genuine.

Haiku Shuukan - Jacob's Ladder

alone in the meadow

do raindrops make a tiny sound

when they tap your bells?

https://fizzynotions.wordpress.com/

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge, "One Yellow Leaf" by Jen of Blog It or Lose It

clinging to the bank

where water wrestles with rock

one yellow leaf

remembered for its struggle

as much as for its beauty

Carpe Diem Tanka Shrine

under one streetlight

one shining couple embrace

rain for confetti

old diner as a chapel

a lone saxophone plays blues

Carpe Diem Haiku - Hot Springs

her beauty 

cleanses 

the water

Visual from an old 1904 Japanese postcard.

Carpe Diem Haiku - Creek

she cups hands in creek

fleck of gold glints in her palms

my water tastes of love

Carpe Diem Haiku Ghost Writer, Kuheli of Kajori

A wonderful post by Kuheli on Chiyo-ni and nature. I think I will stay on her saree theme for this one. I bought a light blue silk saree for someone recently, and though she hasn't worn it yet I can already imagine how wonderful she will look in it. When I worked in Bahrain, many of my colleagues wore a saree, always colourful, they add so much to the day.

at the waterfall

refreshing splashes of water

nature patterns her saree 

each memory

of Madhavi and Dr Raj

sunshine on pine trees

notes of the sitar

float into green hills

add taste to tea leaves

Namaskar, Kuheli