Cleveland Collaborative Renga: Finished!

We have now finished the Cleveland  renga!  Congratulations to all who participated by contributing lines!
(to see the opening stanzas, click here for part one, click here for part two, and here for part three).
Anyone can join in!  To contribute, add your stanza to the comments!

---

                         a shred of light left to hold
                         -but inadequate; I fear for this anchor 

waves reflect gold, bronze,
or ash floating like soot
where her hopes burned, capsized, sank 

     frozen iron ore freighter
     begins to buoy free of ice

           buckled open
           listing to the right
           falling in love again 


               underneath the old-growth oak
               just breaking into spring's green


                    overcast sky
                    the potholes gather
                    cherry blossoms

                         scent of earth on gentle breezes
                         where Lakeview's carved stone reposes
  

---

---

Background info:

Let's do renku 

Do you know... renku?

Let's do renku (2)

Cleveland Collaborative Renga: Part 3!

Contribute to the Cleveland Collaborative Renga!
We are now halfway through the renga
(to see the opening stanzas, click here for part one, and click here for part two).
Anyone can join in!  To contribute, add your stanza to the comments!

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                          eleven roses -- heart pierced
                          by thorns of the absent stem

a sidewalk crevice
in the cracked city concrete:
a purple thistle

     feeble is the gardener
     who tends to our pavement fields

          whispered words fall blind
          pavement ends where waves begin
          Erie's shore purring

               the lake's syntax -- like driftwood,
               baring its truth in silence

                    steam rises
                    from the wet sidewalk
                    her broken English 

                         freejazz punk noise rock music
                         blasts out of the clubs and bars

modern dancers spin
Pirate's Cove weaves siroccos
bright Pere Ubu night

     freighter glides silently;
     radio plays blue velvet

          the night's ballet--
          adagio of river and bridges
          sailors delight

                wind scuds leaf-sail galleons
                stars drown: chilly ecstasy

                     one ship left, seeking
                     the safe harbor of the moon
                     before it, too, dies

                         a shred of light left to hold
                         -but inadequate; I fear for this anchor 

waves reflect gold, bronze,
or ash floating like soot
where her hopes burned, capsized, sank
 
     exploded like the helm
     of the Titanic on ice
 
           slashed open
           listing to the right
           falling in love again

---

• Renga are poems which alternate three line verses in haiku format (5-7-5) with two line verses (7-7).  
• Each verse links to the previous verse, but not to verses before that.

Join the fun!
To add a stanza, go on to part 4

---

Background info:

Let's do renku 

Do you know... renku?

Let's do renku (2)

 

Cleveland Collaborative Renga- part 2!

the Cleveland Collaborative Renga!
We have now finished the opening six verses (the "jo"), and now we're in the main part (the "ha").
(to see the opening stanzas, click here, to continue to part 3, click here).

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Public Square:
privatized
and empty

      cars roll past the monument,
      bronze soldiers from long ago

          statues of soldiers--
          their cast iron eyes downcast--
          retreat from my love. 

              the abandoned Siamese
              blue eyes dim in winter light

                   ghosts of the city
                   shadows beneath parked cars
                   silent, waiting, watching

                        eidolons of burnt rivers
                        histories of bone and ash

ancient children dance
rose blown wind rings water songs
insubstantial Moon

      our paths always circle back
      how well our feet know these roads

           Euclid Avenue 
           red, green, blue line, trolley stops 
           time leaves us baggage.

                tactical assault backpacks
                to carry childhood sorrows

                     blue sky morning
                     your pink hair-rollers
                     on the floor 

                          eleven roses -- heart pierced
                          by thorns of the absent stem

---

Renga are poems which alternate three line verses in haiku format (5-7-5) with two line verses (7-7).  

Each verse links to the previous verse, but not to verses before that.

Join the fun!
To add a stanza, continue to part 3!

---

Background info:

• Let's do renku 
• Do you know... renku?
• Let's do renku (2)
• Collaborative Renga: start

Cleveland Collaborative Renga-- Start

autumn cemetery
what would the dead give to hear
leaves crumbling under feet?

       from the hilltop, through bare trees
     towers gleam in evening sun

          scarecrow 
          the chirrup of the squirrel's 
          silhouette 

              the rag-man's shadow
              echo of an old lover

                  jasmine incense
                  in a frost of moonlight
                  her discarded thong

                     cold, the smell of winter:
                     first snowflakes sparkle in the air

                          Public Square:
                          privatized
                          and empty

---

• Next verse: continued on part 2

---

Background info:

• Let's do renku 
• Do you know... renku?
• Let's do renku (2)

Let's do Renku (2): Ready to Start

Time to start our collaborative poem!  This one will be a Kasen renga, with the starting season autumn.

Here is how it works:
The poem will alternate three-line 5/7/5 stanzas ("haiku") and two-line 7-7 stanzas, until we reach a total of 36 stanzas (18 three line stanzas, and 18 two-line).

Anybody is invited to contribute a stanza!  Just post it in the comments.  No anonymous contributions, though--this will be a signed poem.  You can contribute as many times as you want, but you can't write two stanzas in a row *.

We won't be strict about syllable count, though I will insist on  three lines alternating with two. 

Josh just wrote a post with some of the lore and the rules of renga, but you don't have to memorize the order of seasons: I will post a note which season is appropriate (I will be using the template of seasons according to Higginson, Ideal Order of the Seasons in a Kasen Renku).   Note that a reference to the season can be implied, it does not have to be explicit, and not every stanza has to have an reference to the season (many are no-season stanzas).

Since Ray McNiece is the winner of the most recent Cleveland Haiku shoot-out, he is officially the Haiku master of Cleveland, and so I have invited him to contribute the hokku (the first stanza).  As "host," I will contribute the second stanza (the "wakiku").  Josh Gage, the haiku guru, will contribute the third stanza (the "daisan").

Ready yet?  I'll post the first lines tomorrow.

After that, it's up to you!

---

*actually, in a couple of specific places one poet can write two stanzas in a row.  I will tell you when we reach those stanzas.

Let's Do Renku!

Every poet knows about haiku, those three-line nature poems popular with minimalist poets and masters of zen.  Those of you familiar with the history of haiku also know that haiku were originally not poems intended to stand alone, but were the kickstarter first verse of a collaborative poem, called renga.

Tanuki
Photo by GL

What is renga?

Renga is collaborative linked verse.  It starts with the haiku master providing a verse of seventeen syllables (a "haiku")* to start with, which will suggest the theme and tone.  The next poet follows this with a couplet of fourteen syllables (making a tanka of 5-7-5 followed by 7-7)**.

Another poet then contributes a haiku based on the couplet, which is then followed by another couplet.  And so the renga continues, with three-line stanzas alternating with two-line ones. 

Each stanza will follow on from the previous, but does not continue from earlier stanzas-- the whole poem doesn't tell a story, but is allowed to wander.  Each stanza thus is part of two miniature poems-- one when read with the stanza before it, and another one when read with the stanza following it.

Renga do not tell stories in the usual sense. They connect thoughts and images suggesting an overall picture, theme, idea or emotion. A great part of the fun of renga is the surprise, the imaginative leaps and tangents explored along the way.

--Larry Gross

Or, as one poet phrased it, "The result is a constantly changing mosaic which discourages development of a logical, sequential narrative."

• Some renga

Of course, since it's Japanese, there are all sorts of further rules dealing with elegance and flow.  For example, each tanka evokes a season, and the seasons must progress in a particular order-- you can't jump from a spring stanza directly to winter.  And there are guidelines for not over-using images: for example, a reference to the moon can't follow directly after another reference to the moon.  And you can only mention plum blossoms so many times.

In Japan, writing renga was a social activity-- poets got together in person to have renga parties, passing around sheets of paper with the verses.  (Say, that might be a fun thing to do at a local poetry reading-- how about at Deep Cleveland?)

And, hey, the Haiku Society of America has a contest for renga.

So, here's my proposal: let's use the blog to write a clevelandpoetics renga-- a collaborative renga with a Cleveland theme.

Who's in?

---

*actually, the first stanza of a renga is the hokku, not a haiku.  But that doesn't matter here-- it's identical to a haiku in form.
**yes, I know that English syllables aren't the same as Japanese, and Japanese don't write haiku in three lines.  For the purpose of this renga, though, let's go with the idea of a three line stanza followed by two lines.  We can be loose about seventeen syllables for the haiku and 14 for the couplet, but keep the idea that the haiku has a pattern of long-short-long, and the couplet has two longer lines.

 

Summertime collaboration

Now that it’s hot outside, let’s heat up the ClevelandPoetics Blog with another collaboration.

I’ve decided to try a ghazal for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I don’t need to know how to pronounce the word to write one on this blog. Seems no matter how I say ghazal, someone corrects me.

Thanks to Josh Gage for suggesting the ghazal form for a collaboration. Because each couplet is autonomous, it’s an ideal form for multiple poets.

But everywhere I look, I see different rules for ghazals. Like so many poetic forms that originated in languages other than English, I think the variations probably have to do with adaptation of the form to another language. So, if the rules I’m about to set for our collaboration don’t match the rules as you know them, tough.

For our purposes, we’ll be writing couplets. Each contributor will write an entire couplet. You may contribute more than one couplet to the poem, but not two consecutively. As I said, each couplet is autonomous. Not only should it not work off the previous couplet, but the order of couplets should be interchangeable and irrelevant – other than the first and last.

The first couplet, which I will provide to get us started, will set both a rhyme (qafia) and a refrain (radif). Both lines in the first couplet will contain the rhyme and the refrain. In subsequent couplets, only the second line must contain the rhyme and refrain. Personally, I like it when the first line also contains the rhyme, but I won’t insist.

In English, some poets insist that all lines have the same meter. Some just syllable count. To make this collaboration more accessible to more poets, let’s syllable count. 10 syllables per line.

Traditional ghazals deal with love, and in particular unrequited, illicit, unobtainable love and longing, either for another person or for a higher being. But let’s not limit ourselves. I’m more interested in hearing the full range of voices and subject that the form might inspire. As far as I’m concerned, any subject or theme is welcome.

We’ll need at least 5 couplets to be a ghazal. There’s no upper limit, so we can keep going until we’re sick of it.

The final couplet, known as the signature couplet or makhta, should contain the name of or somehow identify the poets who wrote the ghazal. We can figure that out together if and when we get there.

As an example, here are the first two couplets from the poem “Ghazal,” by Agha Shahid Ali:

I'll do what I must if I'm bold in real time.
A refugee, I'll be paroled in real time.

Cool evidence clawed off like shirts of hell-fire?
A former existence untold in real time ...

I’ll start the poem in the comments with the first couplet. The rhyme words are weigh and ray, and the rhyme comes at syllable 8. The refrain is the word light. Remember, after the first stanza, the rhyme and refrain only need to be in the second line of the couplet.

Please copy the previous stanzas into your comment whenever you add a new couplet.

Ready, set, go!

***********

Oddly, the comments I post aren't showing up, not even the one posted about 7 hours ago, so I'll copy the first couplet here while I wait for the comment problem to resolve:

I step upon a scale to weight the light
that shines upon my skin. Each ray is light.

Let's Dance

I'm sorry that I've neglected (our collaborative nested meditation). I believe it still has potential to dance a bit more, and I'd like to revive it. Please check out the original post for rules and instructions for contributions.

If you recall, we finished a first stanza and began a second. Here's where we left off:

Let’s dance.

Let’s dance
without thinking.

Let’s dance
without thinking
about the past.

Let’s dance
without thinking
about the past,
the bitter taste of ashes.

Let’s dance
without thinking
about the past.
The bitter taste of ashes
would smother our burning tango.

Let's fly.

Let's Dance

Are you ready to collaborate again?

After serious consideration of number of collaborative forms, I’ve decided that it would be fun to try a collaborative nested meditation. Easy to explain (Geoff already has), and I think that the shift of voice in each stanza will add breadth to the poem at the same time that each additional line adds depth.

To review:

• The poem starts with a single line stanza that is a complete sentence. (I’ll provide the first stanza.)
  
• Each successive stanza repeats the previous stanza and adds one more line that changes the meaning. Every stanza must be a complete sentence or multiple sentences.
  
• The words from previous lines cannot be changed. The word order of previous lines cannot be changed. No exceptions.
  
• Capitalization and punctuation of previous lines can be changed.

Each collaborator will add a complete additional stanza. You may add as many stanzas to the poem as you like, but please do not add two successive stanzas.

There’s no limit to the final length of the poem. I’ll declare the poem complete if there’s been no activity for one month.

As we did with the sestina, please cut and past the entire poem into your comment whenever you add a stanza.

I personally don’t care about subject matter. Meditate or not as you see fit.

OK. I’ll steal a line from David Bowie (no, not from Miley Cyrus) to get us started:

Let’s dance.

Back at the Bamboo Room

Congratulations to everyone who worked on the Bamboo Room sestina. We completed 6 stanzas. Personally, I’ve enjoyed the process and the result:

They met at the Bamboo Room;
there's no bamboo there, but plenty
of privacy, in the booth there
where smoky jazz tinged the air a translucent blue.
A guy could get lost in the dark
while fumbling for a last-chance breath,

her grass skirt rustling like when the wind breathes
as the guy gasps for air, give me room, room
to move, space to roam. She looks back, her eyes dark,
wide, an open field with plenty,
like a vast sea of ionic cobalt blue.
"These colors kill me," he says. She says, "There, there"--

and takes a drag from her cigarette. Their
lips meet. He savors the rum and the smoke on her breath,
recalling last-night's dream, somehow crystalized and blue.
"The color's different," she says, "in my room.
There's wine and sad music and plenty
to do." Her pink orchid lei smells like dark

blossoms opening, like night flames for Jeanne d'Arc
and he's burning, they're spinning, they're
adrift in blue oceans; mad, mad. But plenty
of heat. Fevered moans erupt in gasps of rhythmic breath;
for every bride, a groom, and every room

inside their bodies sings with music Coltrane blew.

He shakes his head, steals her cigarette, and says, "We blew
hard, baby, like a storm, like thunder crashing through the dark
like soul pirates," in his eyes betrayal of rheum.
Still blazing, she licks away his tear, melding their
...their what? Silence, then. Then only their breaths,
and the subtle whisper from the bass. That's plenty

of cool to heat two hearts, plenty
of fire, enough to singe the cold, white moon. Blue
are the scales he knows, blue the width and breadth
of his sadness, his knowing that this is the last time, that dark
notes will blue this melody, and their
song become an endless ache once they leave this room.

***********************

Do we want to leave it as is or write a final 3-line stanza? Does it feel finished? Thoughts on a title?

Back in the Bamboo Room.....

Just a reminder that everyone's invited to contribute to the

ClevelandPoetics collaborative sestina. It's grown into a torrid tale of boozy love and lust. Where will this romance end? Are "he" and "she" headed to the bedroom? To a little house in Garfield Heights with a white picket fence? It's up to you all. The more voices the merrier.

Anyone Wanna Play?

This is a test.
This is only a test..............Unless you guys come through with a great poem, in which case I will take full credit for knowing that this would work.

So here’s the deal. We’re going to see if there are enough of us here to write a collaborative sestina. For those who don’t know sestinas, they consist of 6 6-line stanzas, plus a final 3-line stanza. The last words of the first 6 lines are repeated in a particular pattern in the following stanzas. This is the pattern of last words (with each number representing a word):

Stanza 1: 123456
Stanza 2: 615243
Stanza 3: 364125
Stanza 4: 532614
Stanza 5: 451362
Stanza 6: 246531

Final stanza: first line contains 1 and 2, second line contains 3 and 4, third line contains 5 and 6


Yes, there are variations, but let’s try this one. No worries about line length or meter.

Please contribute only one line per stanza. If there aren’t enough of us to finish the poem, then I guess the world will end.

If you add a line in the first stanza, please remember that the last word must be repeated in each of the following stanzas. Yes, I know you’ll be tempted to end a line with the word "sclerotomy," but don’t.

That said, it’s just fine to play with forms of words, homophones, hyphenated words, etc. at the ends of lines.

Please cut and paste the previous lines into the comment when you add a new line. That way, we can easily read the entire poem as it comes together.

I’ll get the sestina started with a first line:

They met at the Bamboo Room