The Renku Sessions: Cotton Clouds – Week 18
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 18 offerings:
Mother sews new gowns
for the doll’s festival
Lorin Ford
bubble wands the
size of hula-hoops
Michael Henry Lee
the fridge
full of Easter eggs
Tracy Davidson
spring river
floods the bottom land
John Daleiden
a tie in the contest
for an Easter egg design
Laurie Greer
ripples from tadpoles
in the pond
Melissa Dennison
tug and flutter
of a new kite
VJ Green
day breaks in the sound
of the first robin
Biswajit Mishra
we tail the kite with
hand-me-down strips
Clysta Seney
a bike ride to watch
spring training
Clysta Seney
time for bed and a song
from the bush warbler
Marion Clarke
a rainbow sighting
from the bridge rail
Debbie Scheving
a whole open drawer
after spring cleaning
Margaret Anderson
Great to see that there are still multiple avenues forward in your offerings.
Here is my choice for the eighteenth verse:
a bike ride to watch
spring training
Clysta Seney
The topic of sports has not previously appeared in this renku (although sliding down a snowy hill on a baking pan is certainly an example of “play”). The concept of family, in the previous verse, is expanded into the tribalism of sports fandom.
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
children asked
to draw pictures
of their families
Nancy Brady
a bike ride to watch
spring training
Clysta Seney
This week, we will be working on the nineteenth verse. This will be three lines. It will be the spring blossom verse. It must contain a season word or phrase from our list of spring kigo. Cherry blossoms are the most popular, almost traditional, topic for this verse. So much so that the mere mention of the word “blossoms” will be understood to mean cherry blossoms unless otherwise indicated.
Our eighteenth verse names the season for the first time in this renku. Be careful not to name it again in either of the final verses.
As part of the “kyu” (fast finish) of this renku, this verse should feature pleasant thoughts, subtlety, and quiet reflection.
Please enter a maximum of five verse-nineteen offers. The deadline for submission will be midnight, eastern US time on Monday, August 25.
Looking forward to your blossom verses!
John
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