The Renku Sessions: New Calendar 12
Welcome to The Haiku Foundation’s Fifth Renku Session: New Calendar. I am John Stevenson, leading my second Kasen (36 verse) renku on this site. We will be trying something a little different this time. Instead of making all of the selections myself, new verses will be selected by the poet who wrote the preceding verse. This will be on a voluntary basis and I remain ready to preform this task for anyone who prefers to pass up the opportunity.
Our selection this week comes from Mary Kendall. Here is is her report:
“Thank you to all the poets who offered verses to link with my quarry verse. It was challenging and exciting to have the opportunity to try my hand at selecting a linking verse. My thanks to John Stevenson for his great help in answering my questions and offering me help this week. My selection is:
her scars stay hidden
though the neckline plunges
–Debbie
I returned to this verse over and over. The words “hidden” and “plunges” linked well with the actual jumping into the deep and cold quarry. The quarry’s bottomless depths are hidden from view which makes them dangerous. Debbie provides a strong double link, but then she shifts in a completely new direction.
The dress is sexy with its low neckline, but it is artfully arranged so the woman’s scars don’t show. So many people don’t want to see scars or evidence of the struggle women face when confronted with having a mastectomy. It’s a deeply personal image of a woman both hiding and revealing parts of herself with such exacting control. The “scars” are probably physical scars, but this can also allude to the psychological scars when faced with a life-threatening illness such as breast cancer.
In Debbie’s verse, the poet has skillfully and tenderly tucked away the “unsightly scars” in order to present the type of female beauty that is acceptable to the world. It’s no secret that women are pressured to look a certain way, a look that guarantees society’s approval. But real beauty goes deeper. It is seen in the courage and strength this woman carries with her everywhere.”
Thank you Mary. And congratulations, Debbie!
Debbie will be offered the opportunity to select the next verse. Debbie, please contact me, either in a reply below or by e-mail (ithacan@earthlink.net) to let me know whether you accept this offer. If you do, I will ask you to choose the next verse in accordance with the requirements listed below and to write a paragraph or two about your selection and send it to me on Wednesday morning (March 29) so that I can incorporate it in the next posting, which appears on the following day. If you would rather not make the selection, I will do so, but I would prefer to know that I’ll be doing that as early as possible
Verse thirteen will be an autumn moon verse, in three lines. It will be followed by two more autumn verses. Please note that, in renku, any mention of the moon is presumed to be an autumn moon unless it is specified as occurring in another season. It will, therefore, be unnecessary for you to include a second autumn image in this moon verse. This is our second moon verse (after verse 5) and we want to take special care to make it different; not another rising moon, for instance.
Verse thirteen must link to the twelfth verse (and only the twelfth verse) but it also must clearly shift away from it in terms of scene, subject, and tone. Throughout our renku, we will also be looking for shifts of time of day, urban and rural settings, human activities and non-human images, first, second, and third person phrasing, and as many others sorts of variety as we can manage. A renku is like a miniature sample book of the universe.
You will have until Tuesday night to make your offers. The Haiku Foundation site has been busy lately and the link to our renku session has not always been obvious on the home page. There is a permanent “Renku Sessions” button a little further down the home page and you can always reach the current session via this route. We will continue to check for new verse offers through each Tuesday.
With best wishes to all,
John
New Calendar to Date
new calendar
a year of
“Natural Wonders”
- –John Stevenson
a clownfish offers
the first greeting
- –Peter Newton
taking a fistful
of freshly tilled earth
to my cheek
- –Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy
café aromas
on the warm breeze
- –Maureen Virchau
sound of a flute
slowly rising
with a hazy moon
- –Dru Philippou
flickering light of a bike
from the side road
- –Marina Bellini
under the bed-sheet
tales of bold highwaymen
and horse-drawn coaches—Lorin Ford
has the lord executed
his droit du seigneur—Polona Oblak
Jimmy Carter
and Rosalynn
on the kiss cam—Judt Shrode
after the picnic
some spirited croquet—Michael Henry Lee
the old quarry
so deep and cold
and daring—Mary Kendall
her scars stay hidden
though the neckline plunges–Debbie
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her scars stay hidden
though the neckline plunges
.
–Debbie
.
outside the tea hut
an artist sketches
the full harvest moon
her scars stay hidden
though the neckline plunges
.
–Debbie
.
outside the tea hut
an artist sketches
a harvest moon
this reddened moon
in the eye
of a cloud dragon
faint chitchat
from the moonlit
porch steps
voice by voice
dingo shadows answer
the moon’s call
—
– Lorin
Lullaby-
the reflection of the moon
on her bald head
moon gazing
I dream of the dark planet
beyond Pluto
—
– Lorin
few men
have seen
Luna’s backside
lunar limb
where we agree
to disagree
~ Betty
shelter pets
as one
howl at the moon
her scars stay hidden
though the neckline plunges
–Debbie
—
moon gazing
we recall the footprints
and 1969
—
– Lorin
a wisp of cirrus
obscures the craters
of the moon
tree stump’s
roundness
matches the moon
a crescent moon
settles beyond
the cypress trees
or~
*
a pale moon
settles beyond
the cypress trees
how many slaves
looked up at this same
silvery moon?
beneath a wild rice moon
they harvest the nutty grains
to satisfy us with soup
night sky adorned
with diamond flecks
24 carat brooch
yellow eyes stray
from his laptop
towards the full moon
~ Betty
insomnia
the moon
drops by
a gibbous moon
beyond these coils
of barbed wire
a blood moon
fails to bring
an apocalypse
Congrats, Debbie! A striking and intimate verse. Mary, your commentary is a touching tribute to survivors. It lingers. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt thoughts.
Thank you, Maureen! Mary’s commentary made the verse resonate more!
My thanks, Maureen and Debbie.
Thank you so much Mary, for choosing my offering! What a surprise to open the email and see that!
John, I thank you for the opportunity to choose the next verse, but am going to break ranks and let you decide this time. :).
Debbie, yours is a verse so many can connect with. Congratulations!
Thanks for letting me know, Debbie. Would you like your full name to appear with your verse?
each time I wake
the path of the moon
lights different corners
the man
in the moon hides
his feelings inside
river otters
skinny dip along the moon’s
glittering path
same color of
the harvest moon
her new hairdo
the solace
of the full moon
in the hospice yard
wild rabbits hop
down the middle
of a moonlit road
the moon’s path
throughout the night
shifts gravestone shadows
the Milky Way
beyond my ken
as I face the moon
~ Betty