21

Three cats stare out of a plexiglas cage.
The world stuck, they try to snap it
back into motion.

20

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

19

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

18

gerber daisies rise in soot
uncombustible yellow

17

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

16

Snow whites out
the grime on the ledge.

15

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

14

Helpless sky broken with clouds
cracks harder than I can hear

13

Placid surface soil
roots roil the illusion
elemental, molish.

12

One spin around the sun
ago, peace disappeared.

11

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

10

Clutter every morning with
increments of street traffic.

9

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

8

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

7

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

6

Rock fragments, soil, worthless grime:
detritus of adulthood

5

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

4.

Zinc, seleniums friend, sat

through the moons rotation spent

3

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

2 - Again

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

1

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

New Renga Rules: TIME Renga

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

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

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

turning, waking, whispering
oh slur you Canadian geese

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.