35

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

34

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

33

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

32

chichara chichara - tango
tuscana - panting cello

31

Disembodied hands
lame feet knees askew
breath panting heart stopped

30

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

29

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

28

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

27

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

26

us two made of you plus one
fool heart swinging open

25

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

24

Chirp of cell phone signals
message from the beloved.

23

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

22

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

21

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

20

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

19

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

18

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

17

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

16

Flying rain, droplets crashing
sideways onto slated glass

15

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

14

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

13

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

12

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

11

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

10

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

9

Bubbling cioppino
Whispers so hungry hungry
Cluster at the stove

8

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

7

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

6

rhubarb sussuration: barbs,
sly smiles, naked party angst

5

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

4

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

3

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

2

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

New Renga Rules: All About Us is Noise

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

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

Completed Kasen: Traveling

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

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

35

at last the turning
the familiar facade
hurry hurry home

34

sleepy eyes regard wonder
with diffidence, rheum, yawning