The Renku Sessions: Cotton Clouds – Week 16
Welcome to the current renku session. I am John Stevenson and I’ll be your guide for a twenty verse, nijûin renku.
We will be using an on-line list of season words and phrases (kigo) for those verses that require a seasonal reference: https://yths.org/season-word-list/
Here is my short list of verse 16 offerings:
gleaning leftovers
at the farmers’ market
Pamela Garry
at five my shadow
in lines of stubble
John Hawkhead
a chilly, long night
beside the interstate
Richard Straw
Apple cores and peels
Top the compost pile
J. A. Robinson
her triplets delivered
the day before Labor Day
Lorin Ford
hunting for red leaves
to bury crap in
Tracy Davidson
the woods alive
with falling leaves
John Daleiden
losing some rake teeth
to red leaves
Sharon Ferrante
deciding not to
give the pumpkin a face
Sharon Ferrante
the rake left leaning
like a half-finished thought
Rashmi Mohapatra
harvest hangs
in sunset hues
VJ Green
wearing a tricorne hat
for trick-or-treating
Clysta Seney
a bright red apple
in my school bag
Melissa Dennison
pledges cow tipping
In a stubbled hay field
Margaret Anderson
walnuts gathered,
dried, and cracked
Debbie Scheving
morning glories twine
around the utility pole
Nancy Brady
leaves stir
under the river of stars
madeleine kavanagh
You have provided a wealth of possibilities this time. I could almost pin the list to a wall and toss a dart to make my selection.
Here is my choice for the sixteenth verse:
deciding not to
give the pumpkin a face
Sharon Ferrante
When ending the ha (middle section), it is always tempting to give it a good bang. What I am imaging with this verse is that we have seen the ever more elaborate carvings of competitive jack-o-lanterns and have decided to go the other way.
So, here is what we have, so far:
Cotton Clouds (working title)
a pinto colt
canters the meadow
cotton clouds
John Stevenson
muddied boots
on the welcome mat
Jennifer Sutherland
a bounty
of tulips spilling
over the vase
Eavonka Ettinger
the comfort of song
sung together
Anne Fox
the hermit crab’s
new shell glistens
in the moonlight
Sally Biggar
he fell for the sundress
on bare shoulders
Debbie Scheving
sweet nothings
with a hint
of Bengay
Diana Ming Jeong
we tip the busker
for attempting ‘teen spirit’
Margaret Anderson
everyone dies
at the end but
we keep reading
Devin Wilson
paper cuts
not withstanding
Michael Henry Lee
the stoic grin
on the cooling face
of the gingerbread man
Laurie Greer
downhill like a rocket
on a baking pan
rob barkan
is she in a sack
or is it a rug that rolls
out before Caesar
madeleine kavanagh
crickets
as he waits for a kiss
Orense Nicod
a flock of geese
cuts the moon
in thirds
Belinda Behne
deciding not to
give the pumpkin a face
Sharon Ferrante
This week, we will be working on the seventeenth verse. This will be three lines. It will be a non-seasonal verse. It must not contain a season word or phrase from our list of kigo.
Note, also, that this is the first verse of the “kyu” (fast finish) of this renku. The final four verses represent a return to pleasant thoughts, subtlety, and quiet reflection.
Please enter a maximum of five verse-seventeen offers. The deadline for submission will be midnight, eastern US time on Monday, August 11.
Looking forward to your verses!
John
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