The Renku Sessions: A Retrospective
Do you renku?
If you do, you probably have done it here. The Haiku Foundation is celebrating a dozen years of poetic collaboration, honoring the millennium-old form that is the historical origin of haiku.
This whole idea started, that dozen years ago, when John Stevenson agreed to serve as Feature Administrator for The Renku Sessions, a position he has held — and held together — since that time. So this celebration is also in part to recognize John’s continued and continuing contributions to The Haiku Foundation, the haiku world, and to you poets most of all. We add for your pleasure this link to that very first renku, Pilgrims’ Stride. Please take a moment to add a comment below in appreciation of John’s work, and any other thoughts you have on renku, renga, and the continuing maturation of haiku around the world. Renku on THF — it’s a tween!
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Comments (11)
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Thank you John and the THF for The Renku Sessions!
I first started participating in this section in 2022. I had many failed attempts until I was finally able to link! It is an interesting and challenging study for me and I very much look forward to it each week. This is the section where I visit the most on THF. I wasn’t able to participate recently due to my cat falling ill and I had to make the difficult decision to let her go… but coming here each week to read poetry from around the world gave me comfort and healing. It has helped me process my feelings of love and grief.
Thank you so much,
Diana Ming Jeong
Thanks so much John for your effort and expertise. I look forward to participating every week. Renku is fun and challenging but doesn’t just link verses, it links us all as part of a writing community. I find it also keeps my other writing fresh and alive. I’m so grateful for what you do.
Marion introduced me to this site. Firstly, it was the forum, then I dared to enter verses into the Renku sessions.
It’s been a wonderful experience from the start. I’ve learnt so much from fellow poets, and from John’s guidance. I’m still learning and enjoying the experience of learning after all these creative years in THF.
Thankyou
Carol
Like Marion, I feel fortunate to have been around for John Stevenson’s first THF renku, ‘Pilgrim’s Stride’, in 2014 and have enjoyed participating in many of THF renku since then. I admit that I had, before there was renku at THF, been lucky enough to participate in renku under the guidance of the late John Carley, helpful and enthusiastic always, despite suffering from asbestosis.
Many thanks, John, for keeping renku going at THF. I hope to write renku verses under your directions again in the future..
I’ve learned an enormous amount from John’s renku and tan-renga sessions (and those conducted by other sabaki here, too). They are also fun, and stretch the mind, as well as instructive. I think of collaborative verse as a bit like tennis: you never know what’s going to be the next shot you have to play. The company’s good, too.
I regret I’ve been too preoccupied with other things to contribute to the last two, but continue to recommend this feature to prospective participants I come across in other fora.
Thank you, John.
John, thank you so much—your leadership and commitment to renku is very much appreciated.
I was very fortunate to have come across The Renku Sessions from the beginning, when you led the wonderful ‘Pilgrims’ Stride’, and have enjoyed participating right up to the recent junicho renku led by guest sabaki, Kala Ramesh.
It really has been a case of being in the right place at the right time!
John, thank you for sharing your love and knowledge of the art of Renku. It’s a lot of fun and inspiring participating in the Renku sessions!
John, I found renku at THF when I began to study haiku. Your warm invitations, patient guidance, and the obvious joy of the participants drew me in. I was instantly hooked on the fun and challenge of the format and the collaborative poetry process. Thank you for your instruction and encouragement!
Thanks, John, for leading THF’s Renku Sessions all these years. You and your guest sabaki have made it a safe and fun place for novices like me to learn and practice the subtle art of writing renku, especially linking and shifting, all of which can be applied, of course, to writing haiku, too.
John, I have had such fun painting myself into corners with fellow poets under your guidance and then finding we all (again and again) had created a whole new world around our own. Together. Thank you for your years of leadership and giving.
Thank you so much for your expertise and your willingness to share it!
Bravo