Carpe Diem #116 - FADO

Fateful sailor's song

Of his saudade and woe

Sting of salt water

~ : ~

Sad song of longing

All things flow to the ocean

Rest there in the depths

~ : ~

When I lost my love

I took my boat out to sea

Drowned there in my tears

~ : ~

Fado guitar strings

Plucked like the strings of my heart

Then I lost them all

~ : ~ : ~ : ~

Song of lost antlers

When the sea drowns the forest

The goose will not fly

~ : ~

When moose sings fado

Then the elk stares in wonder

Goose plucks the guitar

 ~ : ~ : ~ : ~

Carpe Diem # 116

Sensational Haiku Wednesday - Follow

In the field fallow  
Scarecrow -  that feckless fellow
Looks but can't follow

~ : ~ : ~

Far from the furrow
The old sow is farrowing
Litter runt follows

~ : ~ : ~

   Were I to tango
Down the cobbled streets at night
Would you follow me

Carpe Diem #115 - Tango

River of silver
Your passionate ebb and flow
Inspires the tango

~ : ~ : ~

Estuary dance
Mingling of wave and current
Sea in river's bed

~ : ~ : ~

Slaves and peons dance
With passion and street wisdom
Later - high culture

~ : ~ : ~

She twirls and pivots
Skirts sailing high like rain clouds
Long legs entice me

~ : ~ : ~

Seductive swaying
Senorita holds me close
Who could resist her

~ : ~ : ~

Lost in the tango
Dance or mating ritual
Feathers stand on end

~ : ~ : ~

Enticing tango
Intoxicated moose dance
Tangle of antlers

~ : ~ : ~

Carpe Diem #115

Theme INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER.  From a world of opportunities, Jeff Stillman has plucked four common, in-the-language two-word phrases, in which the first word is transformed from a pre-position modifier to a near-homophonic country name, which is also used as a pre-position modifier, yielding a new humorous phrase.   Not sure where Jeff is from. It's it's north of the border, this could be an example of Canada Dry humor.

17 A. European auto club device? : HUNGARY [HUNGRY] JACK.  From pancake mix to a tire-changing tool from my ancestral homeland.    Useful if you're hungry and tired.

27 A. Balkan primate? : GREECE [GREASE] MONKEY.  Not a car mechanic, but an inhabitant of the Athens Zoo.  Remember, monkeys, but not apes, have tales.

43 A. Mideast orchestral group? : QATAR [GUITAR] STRINGS.  Russia broke it's strings to tiny Qatar after an incident in 2011, but [presumably] the band played on.

 57 A. South Pacific 18-wheelers? : TONGA [TONKA] TRUCKS.  Not sure why, but this one is my favorite.   The kingdom of Tonga is a sovereign state comprising an archipelago of 176 scattered island, of which 52 are inhabited.   If you have a spare 14 minutes you can take this tour.  Toy trucks are optional.

Image Source

Hi gang, it's Jazzbumpa, your tour guide for today.  Can't say I'm a big fan of globalization, but let's grab a GPS and see where Jeff takes us.

Carpe Diem #114 - Mariachi

Music conceived in a vocal and/or stringed instrument tradition tends toward sharp rather than flat keys.  Flat keys do not lie as comfortably on stringed instruments.  So, a great deal of classical music is written in keys like G, D, and A (1,2, and 3 sharps.)  Mariachi music [like blue grass] can be in even more remote keys like E and B (4 and 5 sharps - or "sharks" as we jazz guys call them.)

Brass instruments are comfortable in keys containing a few flats.   Jazz and concert band music is generally written in flat Keys like F and Bb.  The sharp keys can be daunting.  Besides jazz, I've been playing in a symphony orchestra for the last decade and have gotten pretty comfortable swimming with the sharps.

Mariachi brass

They play in such awkward keys

Easier for strings

~  :  ~

Powerful singers

Violins and guitars flow

Rippling trumpets

~  :  ~

Mariachi sounds

Bright joyful music rises

South of the border

~  :  ~

Mariachi play

Joyful music fills the air

Even the moose dance

 ~  :  ~

Carpe Diem # 114

Carpe Diem #113 - Joyful

Joy in Bumpaland
My latest Angry Bear post
Linked by Paul Krugman

 ~ : ~ : ~

Old man blows his horn
Music flows out from the bell
Makes a joyful noise

~ : ~ : ~

Once I was depressed
Then played at a festival
Music was my cure

~ : ~ : ~

Planted long ago
The seed became a stout tree
Today it brings joy

~ : ~ : ~

Old man's greatest joy
To see all his grandchildren
Growing strong and free

~ : ~ : ~

In early Springtime

Elks cavort in verdant joy

Moose stare in wonder

~ : ~ : ~

Moments of joy

Little hints of heaven

Here on earth

 ~ : ~ : ~

Carpe Diem #113

Carpe Diem Special #20 - Flowering Branch of the Plum

Inspirational Haiku

The flowering branch of the plum
Gives its scent
To him who broke it off

~  :  ~  :  ~
 

My humble attempts


When I kiss the cook

No matter the wine I drink
I smell of garlic

~  ~

Adulterer bathes
Water cannot wash away
The musk of passion

~  ~

One night long ago
Old vows broken new ones made
I still remember

 ~  ~

 Long years of pursuit
One life of fear one of hate
Javert's suicide

 ~  ~

Ask not for whom
The cherry blossoms weep
They weep for you

~  ~ 

 After a day of 
Delights what aroma lingers
What memories endure

 ~  ~

Carpe Diem Special #20

Carpe Diem # 112 - Buddha

Wikipedia Commons

Under the blue sky
Above the soil of the earth
Find the middle way

~ : ~

You
Tried
As an
Ascetic
Found that path wanting
Buddha show us the middle way

 ~ : ~

Buddha help me find
The way to escape from Yer
Pirate's spam filter
 
~ : ~

Carpe Diem # 112

Six Word Saturday

Got
A new
Car this week

~ : ~

No
Choice old
Lease was up

Carpe Diem # 111 - Staff, Walking Stick

Wordpress Bloggers: If you comment here and don't see a comment back from me on your blog, I am caught in your spam filter.  Please release me.

Image Source

What we found looks almost identical to this image.

Found a Shillelagh
[Walking staff or stout weapon?] in
My mother-in-law's house

~  :  ~

This stout walking stick
Hand-me-down from her father
An Irish relic

~  : ~

As a fib

This
Old
Walking
Stick handed
Down generations
Is it full of fight or magic?

~  ~  :  ~  ~

When writing The Hobbit in the early 1930s Tolkien gave the name Gandalf to the leader of the Dwarves, the character later called Thorin Oakenshield. The name is taken from the same source as all the other Dwarf names (save Balin) in The Hobbit: the "Catalogue of Dwarves" in the Völuspá The Old Norse name Gandalfr incorporates the words gandr meaning "wand", "staff" or (especially in compounds) "magic" and álfr "elf".

Source

Gandalf Mithrandir
Great staff-wielding wizard
Source of Wise Council

~  :  ~

"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."

  -  Gildor Inglorion

As a haiku

Do not meddle in
Gandalf's affairs for he is
Subtle and Testy

 ~  ~  :  ~  ~

Carpe Diem # 111