Renga Writing

20

2011-11-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

Digital clocks snap back--I
wake up to a dawn deferred.

19

2011-09-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

rats' black tails
hands of a broken clock
trash cans overflow

18

2011-09-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

gerber daisies rise in soot
uncombustible yellow

17

2011-09-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

Don't wipe the slate clean.
Let the sediments of months
sprout what they will.

16

2011-01-30T13:45:00.001-08:00

Snow whites out
the grime on the ledge.

15

2011-01-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

Wind says it's all new
new new-- the fossils roll
their boulderized eyes.

14

2010-10-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

Helpless sky broken with clouds
cracks harder than I can hear

13

2010-10-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

Placid surface soil
roots roil the illusion
elemental, molish.

12

2010-10-16T21:54:00.001-07:00

One spin around the sun
ago, peace disappeared.

11

2010-10-11T16:16:00.000-07:00

Avalanche warning:
report at 11. Watch!
Falling boulders film.

10

2010-10-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

Clutter every morning with
increments of street traffic.

9

2010-09-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Tar, metal, canvas:
matters of reconstruction,
these bodies of ours.

8

2010-09-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Underground rumble on schedule--
and o, the slick steel rails.

7

2010-08-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

Holes in the concrete
and yellow caution tape, all
joy, changing face.

6

2010-08-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

Rock fragments, soil, worthless grime:
detritus of adulthood

5

2010-08-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Dirt under finger-
nails. Nitrogen fixed by weeds.
Was it out of joint?

4.

2010-08-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

Zinc, seleniums friend, sat

through the moons rotation spent

3

2010-08-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

Where could my crow be?
It's an inkblot, dream shadow,
blind intelligence.

2 - Again

2010-08-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

Decline, sun; shadow of rock,
cool finger stroking stone skin.

1

2010-07-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

Ripen, new skins, plums
drum this season. Weeds wither
as the planet tilts.

New Renga Rules: TIME Renga

2010-07-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Snezana for the idea of this newest Renga. As stated, we're attempting a 100-verse renga following TIME. It has been suggested (and seconded) that Sneza also write our Hokku, anchoring it in Autumn with an appropriately autumnal kigo, as the first verse to give us a headstart on time (haha!).

Theme: TIME
Length: 100-verses

Guiding principles:
1. Mineral, vegetable, animal (movement from earth to creatures)
2. Split verses in (generally) 1/3 increments for mineral, veggie, animals
3. Verses must contain some reference to time, about time, with time, against time, for time, without time, etc... But no mention of the English word TIME except in another form, root, derivative, or language. [Is that too stringent?]

Other guiding principles that we might consider incorporating for this renga? Janet recommends keeping the list short. Ideas...?

Posting preferences for each week are as follows:
Saturday or Sunday: Luba
Monday: Janet
Wednesday: HAT

Others are also invited to name their preferred day of posting. Luba recommends starting sometime in the Fall, if possible. If necessary, please review Robert Hass's book on the Essential Haiku, to refresh our memories about rengas and rules.

REMINDERS:
1. Title each post/verse with the number of the verse, please.
2. Add the label "Time Renga" to each post

Thematic elements of renga are perhaps most crucial to the poem’s success. The language is often pastoral, incorporating words and images associated with seasons, nature, and love. In order for the poem to achieve its trajectory, each poet writes a new stanza that leaps from only the stanza preceding it. This leap advances both the thematic movement as well as maintaining the linking component. - excerpted from Poets.org

Also, read general thoughts on Nature Poems, from Poets.org

Idea

2010-02-07T05:53:00.000-08:00

What if we pick TIME as our next theme and finally go for a 100-verse renga? It might take us 2 or 3 years or we might commit to each post one verse twice a week or something. What do you think?

Completed Kasen: Noise

2010-02-07T05:49:00.000-08:00

All About Us Is Noise

Clank and rumble of
garbage truck--the birds'
morning flutters by.

Reds don't think just syncopate
against greens pick you pluck me.

Ra ta tat on floors
hairy feet quickly tap dance
jaws gnawing teeth pluck

jarring midnight howl roars in
across town, trains on steel feet

Howl: minds screaming hys-
terical naked he wrote--
Listen. He is right.

rhubarb sussuration: barbs,
sly smiles, naked party angst

People hear when still.
Noise abates if angst sinks in
deep. Yes, but shout on

parrotfish clicks, pops, crunches,
biting deep... we glide, bubbling

Bubbling cioppino
Whispers so hungry hungry
Cluster at the stove

Neighborhood fauna chirps and barks,
zooing up our cold class war.

seal barks, "that's MY pup."
mincing away, wolf crunches
sedge, waits for darkness

eight hours mid night, all about
us, in the darkness: silent wait

Ache hums in fiddler's fingertips
sore--as she types--
from a night of songs.

Morning light screams summers heat
forced air hums, fans rage, ears ring

brown bird -- airing wings--
outside closed glass window-- fan-
ning propellers: plane

Flying rain, droplets crashing
sideways onto slated glass

Sneaking up sideways
Clap clap clap clap in the ear
It's time to wake up

Wake the echoes softly soft-
ly with little licking noises.

Wait - time will let loose
a soft crackling voice clearing
its throat for noisome

There, in the clearing, lovers
pop champagne, bubbling ecstasy

Library quiet-
lovers rustling pages
the words shout out loud.

Lipstick loud as her voice, sneers
into the mic, salted with sweat.

Sun and breezes dry
the mornings quiet rise to
birds loud chirping songs

Chirp of cell phone signals
message from the beloved.

Beloved, let us
love one another in words
in cries in mumbles

us two made of you plus one
fool heart swinging open

heeding another
to love the one with regard
a dance, hips swaying

Swing and sway and swing
The blood thrums and throbs within.

Typing within me
tap-tapping-tapping-tapping
no one's telegram

Suspended, questioning breath--
silence of the power cut.

Disembodied hands
lame feet knees askew
breath panting heart stopped

chichara chichara - tango
tuscana - panting cello

Tangled tango takes
two, too many to tickle
the silence between

Static underscores the stillness in this
cube of air and settling dust

Slurs slash the score,
smooth the restless silky rhythm,
drip dots down the scale.

turning, waking, whispering
oh slur you Canadian geese

36

2010-02-07T04:57:00.000-08:00

turning, waking, whispering
oh slur you Canadian geese

35

2010-01-26T18:10:00.000-08:00

Slurs slash the score,
smooth the restless silky rhythm,
drip dots down the scale.

34

2009-12-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

Static underscores the stillness in this
cube of air and settling dust

33

2009-12-08T07:20:00.000-08:00

Tangled tango takes
two, too many to tickle
the silence between

32

2009-11-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

chichara chichara - tango
tuscana - panting cello

31

2009-10-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

Disembodied hands
lame feet knees askew
breath panting heart stopped

30

2009-10-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

Suspended, questioning breath--
silence of the power cut.

29

2009-10-20T15:54:00.000-07:00

Typing within me
tap-tapping-tapping-tapping
no one's telegram

28

2009-10-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

Swing and sway and swing
The blood thrums and throbs within.

27

2009-09-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

heeding another
to love the one with regard
a dance, hips swaying

26

2009-09-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

us two made of you plus one
fool heart swinging open

25

2009-09-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

Beloved, let us
love one another in words
in cries in mumbles

24

2009-09-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

Chirp of cell phone signals
message from the beloved.

23

2009-09-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sun and breezes dry
the mornings quiet rise to
birds loud chirping songs

22

2009-09-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Lipstick loud as her voice, sneers
into the mic, salted with sweat.

21

2009-09-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

Library quiet-
lovers rustling pages
the words shout out loud.

20

2009-08-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

There, in the clearing, lovers
pop champagne, bubbling ecstasy

19

2009-08-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

Wait - time will let loose
a soft crackling voice clearing
its throat for noisome

18

2009-07-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

Wake the echoes softly soft-
ly with little licking noises.

17

2009-07-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

Sneaking up sideways
Clap clap clap clap in the ear
It's time to wake up

16

2009-07-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

Flying rain, droplets crashing
sideways onto slated glass

15

2009-07-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

brown bird -- airing wings--
outside closed glass window-- fan-
ning propellers: plane

14

2009-06-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

Morning light screams summers heat
forced air hums, fans rage, ears ring

13

2009-06-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ache hums in fiddler's fingertips
sore--as she types--
from a night of songs.

12

2009-06-25T01:08:00.000-07:00

eight hours mid night, all about
us, in the darkness: silent wait

11

2009-06-18T23:56:00.000-07:00

seal barks, "that's MY pup."
mincing away, wolf crunches
sedge, waits for darkness

10

2009-06-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

Neighborhood fauna chirps and barks,
zooing up our cold class war.

9

2009-06-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Bubbling cioppino
Whispers so hungry hungry
Cluster at the stove

8

2009-06-11T23:58:00.000-07:00

parrotfish clicks, pops, crunches,
biting deep... we glide, bubbling

7

2009-06-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

People hear when still.
Noise abates if angst sinks in
deep. Yes, but shout on

6

2009-06-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

rhubarb sussuration: barbs,
sly smiles, naked party angst

5

2009-06-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

Howl: minds screaming hys-
terical naked he wrote--
Listen. He is right.

4

2009-06-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

jarring midnight howl roars in
across town, trains on steel feet

3

2009-06-01T03:35:00.000-07:00

Ra ta tat on floors
hairy feet quickly tap dance
jaws gnawing teeth pluck

2

2009-05-29T14:41:00.000-07:00

Reds don't think just syncopate
against greens pick you pluck me.

New Renga Rules: All About Us is Noise

2009-05-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

Theme: "All about us is noise."

Rules:

1. Each poster must use one word from the previous poster's stanza.
2. Every third verse must contain a volume shift.
3. If the moon shows up more than once in the renga, it had better be in a different phase.
4. Verse 18 should include a poetic seismic shift.

Suggestions:

1. Pick a day to post. (Jane: Tuesday; Sneza: Friday; HAT: Saturday)
2. When you post, use the number of your stanza as the title of your post. That keeps the person after you from having to count on his or her fingers to figure out where we are.
3. When you post, add the label "All About Us is Noise" to the entry so we can find the verse later.

1

2009-05-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

Clank and rumble of
garbage truck--the birds'
morning flutters by.

Completed Kasen: Traveling

2008-12-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

Traveling

Maps seeded with hope;
small, stray ink marks press paper
like feet on soft soil

Mud clings drags sucks backward but
the path-- there is one-- forward.

Draw up equations that fraction
the possibility of moving along
curved dimensions among

Distances carved in minutes,
counted in latitudes, degrees

So far, so far, and
yet still here, still in the midst
of the sky.

night breeze wafting, citrine moon,
campfire tales... we leave too soon

to pack climaxes in bags full
of openings and these
departures, fumes and noise

zippers pulled tight, campfire coal
gathered, eradiating

lost: wildlife camping,
tallgrass prairies viewed up close,
highway refuges

Unfamiliar tastes roll out
spicy language on the tongue.

gyros and lemon
cacophony of taxis
leaves fall, unnoticed

no, there is one who sees, her
eye enlarged, watching land pass

Telescope focus,
Microscopic visionary--
Earth promise, ants, trees...

uprooted, train tracks speed through
narrow tunnels: go go go

caves below the crust
salted with light, pepper pitched
coal scattered, shovels

Lift the lantern: in glinting
shards the light shows diamonds.

dun rock, sparkly white
quartz spiderwebs, no diamonds.
true gold flakes entwined

with phrases on displays
we crane our necks to read

down stairs to platform
electric oil smell
noses pressed to glass

breath steams window art, daisies
jut yellow, white, exhausted

looking in plain view
passenger aisles row
after row, no exit

Motion, stillness, illusion--
Which is it? Are we here? There?

why did we leave, wanderers
trailing dust, sand, rocks
clinging haphazardly to

steel gateways arching above,
memory fibers sculpting

rhythmic thump of feet
on wood slats, death's head puppets
wobble crazily

Shuffle the papers, declare
to the uniform your reason.

recall them to life
on Día de los Muertos
with tears, songs, sweet bread

pray whispers to saints, angels
holy feet blistered, torpid

after the first light,
visages of the divine
engraved in ruins

after fifth light, dawn tears in
pink, cobalt, orangery

pock-marked sandstone face
the ancient lion goddess
sees nothing, knows all

brushes the swaggered tail
of a tiger who passes

sojourner on
the prowl, unchecked, searching
vacated hemispheres

sleepy eyes regard wonder
with diffidence, rheum, yawning

at last the turning
the familiar facade
hurry hurry home

its rhine moistened with dark mulch
a gradient, festooned den.

36

2008-11-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

its rhine moistened with dark mulch
a gradient, festooned den.

35

2008-11-18T04:09:00.000-08:00

at last the turning
the familiar facade
hurry hurry home

34

2008-11-17T23:56:00.000-08:00

sleepy eyes regard wonder
with diffidence, rheum, yawning

33

2008-11-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

sojourner on
the prowl, unchecked, searching
vacated hemispheres

32

2008-11-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

brushes the swaggered tail
of a tiger who passes

31

2008-11-10T10:35:00.000-08:00

pock-marked sandstone face
the ancient lion goddess
sees nothing, knows all

30

2008-11-08T15:22:00.001-08:00

after fifth light, dawn tears in
pink, cobalt, orangery

29

2008-11-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

after the first light,
visages of the divine
engraved in ruins

28

2008-11-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

pray whispers to saints, angels
holy feet blistered, torpid

27

2008-10-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

recall them to life
on Día de los Muertos
with tears, songs, sweet bread

26

2008-10-28T05:46:00.000-07:00

Shuffle the papers, declare
to the uniform your reason.

25

2008-10-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

rhythmic thump of feet
on wood slats, death's head puppets
wobble crazily

24

2008-10-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

steel gateways arching above,
memory fibers sculpting

23

2008-10-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

why did we leave, wanderers
trailing dust, sand, rocks
clinging haphazardly to

22

2008-10-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

Motion, stillness, illusion--
Which is it? Are we here? There?

21

2008-10-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

looking in plain view
passenger aisles row
after row, no exit

20

2008-10-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

breath steams window art, daisies
jut yellow, white, exhausted

19

2008-10-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

down stairs to platform
electric oil smell
noses pressed to glass

18

2008-10-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

with phrases on displays
we crane our necks to read

17

2008-10-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

dun rock, sparkly white
quartz spiderwebs, no diamonds.
true gold flakes entwined

16

2008-10-14T04:06:00.000-07:00

Lift the lantern: in glinting
shards the light shows diamonds.

15

2008-10-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

caves below the crust
salted with light, pepper pitched
coal scattered, shovels

14

2008-10-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

uprooted, train tracks speed through
narrow tunnels: go go go

13

2008-10-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

Telescope focus,
Microscopic visionary--
Earth promise, ants, trees...

12

2008-10-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

no, there is one who sees, her
eye enlarged, watching land pass

11

2008-10-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

gyros and lemon
cacophony of taxis
leaves fall, unnoticed

10

2008-09-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

Unfamiliar tastes roll out
spicy language on the tongue.

9

2008-09-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

lost: wildlife camping,
tallgrass prairies viewed up close,
highway refuges

8

2008-09-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

zippers pulled tight, campfire coal
gathered, eradiating

7

2008-09-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

to pack climaxes in bags full
of openings and these
departures, fumes and noise

6

2008-09-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

night breeze wafting, citrine moon,
campfire tales... we leave too soon

5

2008-09-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

So far, so far, and
yet still here, still in the midst
of the sky.

Travel Kasen: When to Post

2008-09-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Luba for starting our new Travel kasen. Weekly post days:

Janet: Tuesday
Sneza: Thursday
Mark: Friday
Luba: Saturday
HAT: Sunday

Just a few reminders: Can you add the label "Travel" to your posts for our Travel kasen? That way, we'll be able to easily find each of the verses for the whole thread. Also, we've sort of unofficially been titling each verse by number so that we'll know where we are going... toward 36!

4

2008-09-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

Distances carved in minutes,
counted in latitudes, degrees

3

2008-09-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Draw up equations that fraction
the possibility of moving along
curved dimensions among

2

2008-09-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Mud clings drags sucks backward but
the path-- there is one-- forward.

Traveling

2008-09-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

Maps seeded with hope;
small, stray ink marks press paper
like feet on soft soil

Rules for Travel Kasen

2008-08-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

We've already established that our new Kasen will focus on Travel. Here are other possible ideas:

1) No mention of actual modes of transportation (no cars, buses, planes, rollerblades, etc.)
2) Every 3rd verse should reference/allude to/name some point of origin or destination (whether physical, geographical, psychological, imaginary, emotional, or other)

Any other rules that we should consider?

Completed Kasen: Idolatrous Art

2008-08-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

A sketch from your window
six syllables, page to screen--
let's be each other's guest

Strands of that elegiac grace
we never possessed

A whole rain of signs
falls and by morning--sunshine
avoid such places

The man had been hanging
friends thought he was doing an art piece
and other poems

Reimagined, the world expands
language is not something static

Just waiting for
my power to be recognized--
lighten our darkness

One word, whose word, could be said
perhaps blend of "fray" and "fazzle"

One comes to language
from afar, the ear ponders,
swishes into town

Try it, or better, try a ladder--
rise in the present

Those rungs are unsafe
that tongue that was used
altered at an end

You will have no companion
but the heap of your words

Warm hands at never
extinguished fires of scholar-
ship, blazing

Feast on the leaves
of trampled sentences

Finally I have succeeded
in telling the truth. Whatever...
better than the past

What good does it do to bombard
chaos? The loss of certainty!

The orphan limb, a felt
recovery--its tenuous kinship
making the music social as well

As she gave birth, she screamed out
that all who heard that scream would suffer...

These were all the crimes --
even citing the poetry
it sounds absurd

A tedious argument,
an overwhelming question

Like a green girl
in a nutshell
count myself a king

:painted upon the walls: a man,
a dog was a dog, and a circle was sun

The rust freckled barbed
wire, keeping out no one,
thick as thirst

To grow famous, and his family rich...
all the world turns when he spins

Try to account to know
express to know
to account to try

The self as given is in-
adequate and will not do

Look: he has not turned,
has tears in his eyes; no more
let them be well used

Asia on the one side
Africa on the other

This specular structure
this is my letter
a form of contact

A large bird who was trying
to regain some sense of beauty

He begins with the chase of--
the deer or the wild goat?
Out of whose horns was the bow made?

Realize every minute--
no, saints and poets maybe

Havana in hurricane
iron, bongoseros
green dream in rhythm

The names of flowers
pot-holed streets, sluggish gutters--
they cleared a space and

Give it new names: breasts of God
left out to catch the dew

Then the self is lost
in Nebraska
flashflood storms

She walks in beauty, like night,
at peace with all below

(Completed Aug. 2008 by JS, HT, SZ)