The Renku Sessions: Many Shapes
Welcome to this renku session. I am Linda Papanicolaou and I’ll be your guide.
- SELECTION OF HOKKU
Many thanks to everyone who submitted to our opening verse. There were a lot of lovely poems and I enjoyed reading every one of them. Those that were not chosen are your “pocket verses,” so save them and submit elsewhere.
As I think everyone knows by now, the hokku with its three lines and a kiri (cut) is the origin of our modern haiku, though in the context of renku it was a verse with a particular purpose. It launched the poem from which it flowed, set the season, and served a ceremonial function. The honor of composing it was given to the most important writer or guest at the renku gathering, who used it to compliment the host and set the tone for the occasion.
Obviously, we who write modern English-language renku have modernized and simplified what we expect from the hokku, but we still use it as a “call to renku.” Several of the submissions addressed these conditions. Among them, the verse to which I kept coming back is this exquisite offer by Mike Barrett:
stones on rocks
the many shapes
of the waterfall
“Waterfall” is a classic summer season reference as its coolness offers relief from summer heat. How pertinent to these days of late July when we have record-breaking heat and wildfires threatening so many places in the world! The verse is multi-sensory; the visual of a cascade waterfall breaking over multiple stones and rocks, each splash making its own sound as it shapes its own way down, and the tactile coolness of the mist. Not only a beautiful image, for me, the line two’s “many shapes” signifies all of us coming together with our individual voices to write a collaborative poem. Thanks to Mike for this very auspicious beginning to our endeavor.
Side 1:
stones on rocks
the many shapes
of the waterfall
Mike Barrett
wakiku (2 lines—summer or no season)
daisan: (3 lines): no season
- CALL FOR VERSE 2 WAKIKU
Our template gives you the choice of summer or nonseasonal for this verse. In a short form renku we will want more space between verses than we might have in a kasen, but we still want the wakiku to fill its traditional roll of supporting the hokku. In other words, think deeply or laterally into the imagery of the hokku and ask yourself, “What else?”
Please use the submission box below to submit no more than two verses for the second verse, our wakiku. Submissions will close on Monday, August 3 at midnight, eastern US time. Selection for the wakiku and instructions for submissions for our daisan will appear here on Thursday, August 6.
THF strives to maintain a safe and friendly environment for our readers and site participants. Participation in our offerings assumes respectful and appropriate behavior of all parties. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, for any reason, at any time.
If you see something you feel may violate our Code of Conduct, please report it to the appropriate moderator or the President here.
