Monday Poetry Stretch - Renga

Over the course of the last twelve days I've had house guests for more than half of them. Since I'm all about company these days (my next guests will arrive in time for Thanksgiving), I thought this would be the perfect time to work on some group poetry. Therefore, the form for this week's poetry stretch is renga, an ancient Japanese form of collaborative poetry.

The Renga platform in the UK provides this introduction for beginners.

A renga is a series of short verses linked into one long poem, composed collaboratively by a group. Each constituent verse must make sense independently. It should also connect in some way with the verses that follow and precede. The verses alternate between 3-liners and 2-lines throughout.

The opening verse of a renga is called the hokku. It takes the same form as haiku -three short lines. A renga opens with some reference to the season of composition and moves - not necessarily in orderly sequence - through all four seasons, generally ending with a spring verse. Seasonal themes are generally sustained for at least a couple of verses, and the passage from one season to the next is often broken by one or more non-seasonal verses.

Seasonal reference is made through the use of a season-word, which may be obvious, like ‘autumn rain’ or ‘snow’, or more subtle, for instance, ‘watermelon’ for summer. Season words include cultural as well as natural references; for instance, you might use April Fool's Day for spring. The two key principles of renga are link and shift. Link means that each verse should connect in some way with its immediate predecessor. Shift means that, with the exception of the link just noted, each verse should move on, drawing on imagery, which is new (for that particular renga). That is, repetition is to be avoided. Even when linking, although there will be some implicit connection, actual words and phrases should not be repeated.

So, are you up for some collaborative poetry? Here's what I propose. I will post the hokku to get this thing going. The next person will post a two line stanza in the comments. I'll add it to the poem, and then next poet can add a three line stanza. As each person adds a new stanza, I'll add to the growing poem on this page. Are you ready? Here we go.

leaves blush then drift
down with acorns tumbling
toward quiet slumber

blankets of clouds pile
at the orange edges of the sky

cool dark sighs
from east to west
in a slow blink

dusk reveals the bones of trees
washed in cool, cleansing mist

squirrels scatter and gather
then scramble and climb
to chatter and screech

bending bare boughs
waking Old Man Winter

snowflakes drift slowly
to the ground, covering it
with a blanket of white

when the sky sits also white,
the horizon vanishes betwixt the two

one black crow
flies low against the white
crossing the circle

leaving wide silences
to listen with great charity

a tree bakes
in a mid-day thaw
and dreams of summer

Now it's your turn. Step right up and join in. Remember to pick up the theme of the last written stanza (not the poem as a whole), follow the alternating 3-2-3-2 pattern for stanza length, and write with the economy and sensibility of haiku.