Poetry sisters Tanita , Sara, Laura, and Liz , Kelly, Trisha and I have been playing a game called Renku. It's an old Japanese haiku game of round robin, or, as Sara called it "Daisy Chain" haiku. Each person adds a stanza that is linked to the one before and also contains a shift of some sort. There is always a season reference, which moves through the stanzas. The end returns to the beginning in a circle. We have had some fun playing with layers of story in our Daisy Chain. The stanzas alternate between three lines of about 17 syllables to two lines of about 14 syllables. You can read more about Renku and it's development in Japan in the 17 c. here and here. I've linked the authors of the following poem to their blogs in the initials following their stanzas. Please be sure to visit the Poetry Sister's blogs and let them know how much you enjoyed it! Today's Friday Poetry round up is hosted by Elaine at Wild Rose Reader.
The Poetry Sisters' Daisy Chain
fall leaf in April
wearing last season's fashions--
shunned by the green crowd lps
nature’s first green is gold
progeny emerge in flame aj
white melts into green
gardens blush Crayola proud
blooming shades of spring tsh
strolling down the pebble path
rose-cheeked dreamer lost in thought aj
palest pink dogwood
April breezes whisper by
petals flutter down kf
ink dries on palest pages
garden rows plow down sillion aj
Brash green garter snake
Hoe laid beside June daisies
Book and tart limeade sh
serpent jewel, puckered words,
work abandoned, glory claimed aj
afternoon drifts by
wispy clouds, half-closed eyelids
distant playground sounds lps
cloud congestion, dully pewter
petrichor from distant patters td
tapped on leaden skies td
rain’s persistent percussion
arrhythmic ad lib
a morse-code chicken scratch lgs
a fresh start too hard to resist
the rain leaves its mark -- lgs
such an inscrutable plot
begs to be re-read
red again so soon and down
persimmon fingers shiver aj
18 comments:
Thanks for sharing, Andi! I enjoy the shift in senses from all that color to the sound of rain at the end. (It's thundering out my window this morning as I tap this.) Kudos to the participants. A haiku friend has just been part of one of these, and I'm going to try it one of these days, too.
Aw, we done good! Sorry I was absent during editing--chaos has been my constant companion! The wispy clouds haiku is mine--I did that before we put our initials by things and hadn't seen it since...
Thanks Laura, I edited and updated those initials. Your starting haiku was such a good lead!
So fun! I really felt time passing as I was reading. It was like reliving the spring.
I definitely want to try!
Yay! I'm excited that I correctly identified Laura's - it "felt" like her. It's weird when you've written poetry with someone for so long that you can tell even their haiku by feel.
The joy of this reminded me that we need to make time to do it more often.
It turned out pretty good for a mad rough and tumble scrum of players, didn't it? I'm pleased to be a tiny part of this. Mwah! to you, Andi, for leading us to the game!
Beautiful. I love that rose-cheeked dreamer. Have you tried the linked haiku with students? I wonder if that would make a good class poetry project.
This WAS fun! I really like the immediacy of just spilling it out on the page. It's a game--doesn't have to be perfect. Love seeing all our voices together!
Tanita, that is too funny. Our next project should be another collaboration where we don't identify who did which stanzas and we see if we can stump our readers who know us:>)
I just commented on Laura's blog. Wonderful to see this, & I will share the idea with teachers I work with. It's so lovely to see the movement & to pinpoint the change as you explained Andi. Thanks everyone!
Yes I think this would be a lot of fun to do with students. Drop it as a game and see if they run with it. Maybe make a graffiti wall and leave markers around? Or do it in social media like Twitter, FB, blogs?
Another great idea for a poem project this Poetry Friday! I would have to create small groups, I think, and spend some time explaining and showing examples of the form. But...what fun it could be!
Love seeing it all together!
That so looks like fun! Beautiful!
Fantastic! I love when you all do these joint poetry projects.
Looks like your fun collaboration yielded great results! It must have been interesting to see what your sisters followed with.
Book and tart limeade indeed. I CANNOT wait for sunshine and warm weather. We've been socked in with rain all week here in New Hampshire.
Jet
Hi Sisters, I really enjoyed your poem and the comments on each of the participants' blogs. It's pretty clear you had lots of fun with this!
If you (or anyone reading this) want to take your renku-writing a step further, my partner and I host an online spot called The Renku Group with about two dozen active members of various level of expertise who are all very friendly and welcoming. It's at renkugroup.proboards.com.
We also publish the annual Journal of Renga & Renku which you can read all about at www.darlingtonrichards.com
Oh, my!
I'm gasping!
That shift from re-read to red again at the end is a moment of pure perfection. I love the rest, but that is my favorite part. The shift.
Ladies, you rock. Thanks for sharing your poetry and your fun and your giddy happiness at the beauty you made together.
This is fabulous, and I bet it was SO much fun.
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