Suikazura No Retsu #4, Oncology

Oncology

Good day dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you (maybe) know I am an oncology-nurse not the most easy job that for sure I can say. It's an everyday struggle for the patients I am caring for and that makes me sometimes sad and angry. As an oncology-nurse I am working in a local hospital at lung-unit and lately we see more patients which are diagnosed with lung cancer. Sometimes they have already COPD or asthma and some of them have cystic fibrosis or lung eczema. Mostly they have already a whole life behind them, but not so long ago we had a very young man on the unit. Not even in his forties. At such moments it's very hard to accept that, because, as you maybe know, my elder brother died almost 20 years ago of lung cancer. Not because he was a smoker, no he always lived healthy ... he had a juvenile kind of lung cancer which he didn't know of. As my brother died ... I was angry with the whole world and at God. "Why did He take my brother away?"
Until today I haven't found the answer, but I have learned to live with this loss and my parents also learned that. As I look back at the years we (my brother and I) were always together I remember only the nice things. We were not only brothers, but also best friends forever.
My brother became, and he didn't know that than, the one who made me decide to become a nurse and after a few years as a registered nurse I became also a registered oncology-nurse.
Oncology, all what has to do with cancer, isn't an easy thing. It's difficult to cope with it, but it's really a joy to take care of oncology patients. It has become my life and it made me who I am know.

Because of my job I needed a way out for my feelings and thoughts and so I started writing. Next to two novels which I wrote I became an internationally known haiku-poet and maybe, a haiku-master, but that's not up to me to say.
Haiku became a real way of life for me and it gave me the strength to be an oncology-nurse.

lady with the lamp
the source of my unconditional love
taking care

taking care
bringing joy and light to my patients
man with the lamp

© Chèvrefeuille

See you next time.

Namaste.

Suikazura No Retsu #3, Departing Spring

Departing Spring

June, the month of summer, has started and we are saying goodbye to spring. Spring ... the season of new life. The season of returning light after the dark autumn and winter time. I love all seasons, but spring is my favourite season. Nature's coming to life again and soon Mother Nature is again newly clothed in all her beauty.
Nowadays we dot live anymore with the changing of seasons. Sometimes I am longing for that old fashioned way of living with the changing of the seasons. Maybe that's the mind and heart of a haiku-poet. It certainly is always in my mind and heart. I am a man of nature. We, humans, are part of nature and so it has to be in my opinion. Do you feel that in the same way? Are you all also a part of nature living with the changing of the seasons?

As I was a young kid I was a big fan of the history lessons at school and especially the history of humans. I can dream away to the pre-historic time when we, humans, started to discover and ''conquer'' Earth. Going to hunt for food. That ''raw'' life ... fighting to survive, walking and running through nature. Feeling free, living completely naked, making clothes of animal-skin as winter starts. Crawling together around the fire to become warm with your wife and kids, your friends. How wonderful that life must have been ... I am longing for that kind of life, but do I really want to go back to that kind of life? Deep down inside I know that I wouldn't survive that kind of life, but dreaming of it is fun.

I try to live with the seasons and in this time of year when we are closing in to summer I would love to go back to the pre-historic time, because than I could live naked enjoying the heat of the day and the coolness of the night. What a joy that would be.

Nowadays you cannot go naked on the streets, because of all laws and regulations we have, but in my backyard, hidden behind trees, bushes and the fence I can live naked, enjoying the heat of the day and the coolness of the night. That's almost like living in the pre-historic time.

departing of spring
reliving pre-historic times
naked in the backyard

© Chèvrefeuille

See you next time ... as I will publish a new Suikazura No Retsu.

Namaste

Suizakura No Retsu #2, Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem

It's unbelievable, but CDHK is still here on the world wide web. As I started this daily haiku meme, I couldn't have dreamed that CDHK would be here, almost 2 years after the 'kick-off'. I love to write our daily posts, and (ofcourse) I use the www on a regular base. Since we have the www the world is completly open to everyone ... we can read books in libraries all over the world and on Wikipedia we can find almost everything. Using the www for our haiku-community is fun, because as I am researching I ran into several different sides with a lot of various information and knowledge.
Every post needs time to prepare and research, but I love doing it. Sometimes time is not on my side, but .... well that's life.

Everytime I am looking forward to your posts and its always a joy to read your submitted haiku, tanka, haibun and all other micro-poetry forms there are. I even thought, several days ago, to make CDHK a weblog for all micro-poetry, but I decided not to do so, because haiku is the base, the heart of CDHK. And as you all know .... haiku is my passion.
However there is more next to haiku and I think I have found a nice mix of poetry on CDHK and I think you all like that mix.
Carpe Diem Haiku Kai has become a great community, a wonderful and caring haiku-family, and I am glad that we have a steady group of submittants and that makes me happy.
Carpe Diem, a daily joy ... I can't live without it and I hope you all think in the same way.

Namaste,

Chèvrefeuille

Suikazura No Retsu #1 haiku-family

Haiku-Family

Here it is ... our first CDHK column Suikazura No Retsu (which means "Chèvrefeuille's Column"). I have thought this over and over again, but finally decided to do this. I hope this column will be fun to read (and of course) under-standable, because English isn't my mother tongue.
As you all know CDHK started in October 2012 and it's still alive and kicking. It's really my pleasure to be your host, notwithstanding my busy life as a father, grandfather, oncology-nurse and haiku-poet (and author of two novels).
Sometimes time is not at my side and that gives sometimes delay of posts, but ... well ... I can do a lot, but magic I don't possess.
I am always happy as I read all of your comments and compliments. Mostly positive, but sometimes criticizing, but that's no problem as you all know (I hope). I do understand your critics and I respect that.
Over all you are all positive and great family-members. Family? Are we a family? I think we are a family, not by bloodlines, but by our shared love for haiku (and other Japanese poetry-forms) and that makes me a happy host (and maybe ... your "haiku-family-patriarch").
As I wrote in one of my last posts at CDHK, we have a new month coming up with modern kigo (seasonwords) for summer based on Jane Reichhold's "A Dictionary of Haiku" (a modern Saijiki). Jane is one of the most wellknown haiku-poetesses of modern times and maybe ... one of our haiku-family-members will become that famous once. I hope for someone that will become reality.

Well ... see you next time.

Namaste,