Renku Sessions

The Renku Sessions: New Calendar 7

renkuchainWelcome 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.

It’s always fun to get the roller-coaster effect of moving from the jo to the ha of a renku. Contributing poets certainly gave us a good run of options for this verse. Reluctantly passing over other contenders, I have selected the following:

under the bed-sheet
tales of bold highwaymen
and horse-drawn coaches

        –Lorin Ford

The linking of vehicles (bike/horse-drawn coaches) and the suggested comparison of peripheral vision to imagination are very attractive. We want an indoor verse at this point, after a series of verses either clearly or possibly set out-of-doors. Under a bed sheet is sort of the indoors of indoors.

I do have some concerns. There is a suggestion of a flashlight. If thought of in this way, it would make three “light” verses in a row. And I would ordinarily want to hold off on naming an animal for a while, having a clown-fish in the jo and miles yet to go. Finally, there might seem to be a slight break in this verse, after the first line. But I choose to read that phrase as a description of the tales. It might be read as “under the bed-sheet tales.”

The clincher, for me, is something of which perhaps only I have been aware; the next two verses will be love verses. Between “under the bed-sheet” and the romance novel quality of “bold highwaymen” and “horse-drawn coaches,” this verse seems like a perfect prelude.

Thank you Lorin, and everyone!

Lorin Ford will be offered the opportunity to select the next verse. Lorin, 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 (February 22) 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 eight will be a two line, non-seasonal love verse. Love verses in a renku are about love between adult human beings. They can be romantic, erotic, or many other things. But they are not about love of pets, country, ice cream, etc.

Verse eight must link to the seventh verse (and only the seventh verse) but it also must clearly shift away from it in terms of scene and subject matter.

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

This Post Has 97 Comments

  6. Lorin, a great verse! Thank you for making this so much fun. 🙂
    .
    under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    –Lorin Ford
    .
    .
    she reads a new chapter
    punctuated by his kisses

  7. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    but this story teller
    will not kiss and tell

  9. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    during a game of Trivial Pursuit
    she ‘accidently’ touches his hand

  10. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    the new lovers don’t mind
    which room they have

  11. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    after the late film in bed
    they feed each other ice cream

  12. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    in the hotel room she orders
    her first breakfast for two

  13. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    footsteps on cobblestones
    stop below her bedroom

  14. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    through her open window
    she listens for his signal

  15. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    a quick check of her reflection
    in the serving platter lid

  16. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    he removes the locket
    from her slender neck

  17. Great verse that sent me off to gothic locations, Lorin. 🙂

    under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    .
    despite a villager’s warning
    she enters the castle

    1. very lumpy wording this isn’t much better but you can’t delete it
      *****************
      some prankster switches
      ” maid service ” for ” do not disturb “

  38. a great verse to open the ha…
    .
    under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches
    –Lorin Ford
    .
    ***
    has the lord executed
    his droit du seigneur?

      1. funny, I just realized the mistake just this bright am sans sake
        yes it should read m’lady

        carn sarn that spell check anyway!

  46. Love it, Lorin. A rich and striking verse. Fertile soil for the imagination. Definitely a most perfect prelude! Great selection, John.
    *
    he wrestles with a clasp
    on her corset

    1. silk threads woven
      into her bridal gown
      ~ Betty
      …
      Guessing that veil or peekaboo blouse or anything obscured/partially obscured would probably link back to flickering light.

      1. No, in my view, veil or peekaboo blouse wouldn’t return to last-but-one, Betty. I can hear John Carley spluttering from the grave at the very idea. 🙂 We’re not forensic scientists scrutinizing the page for ‘backlink’ 🙂 (a term JEC hated with a passion)
        —
        – Lorin

        1. Never quite sure, Lorin…it’s hard to gauge the nuances but yeah, I’ll try to not overthink! 😆

  50. well done and yay Lorin 😊

    –

    dressed in latex and mask
    she’s a darker shade of grey

  54. under the bed-sheet
    tales of bold highwaymen
    and horse-drawn coaches

    –Lorin Ford

    the Maestro’s brushstrokes
    strengthen as he nears her apex

    -Marietta

    1. Lori, and All . . .
      I’d like to avoid a participle in this verse. Not only does the last-but-one verse (the ‘uchikoshi’) have a participle (‘flickering’), there is a veritable parade of participles in the previous section of the poem: ‘taking’, ‘rising’, ‘flickering’. Variety of expression over the verses is desirable as it helps keep the poem on its forward progress.
      —
      – Lorin

    1. Hi Michael & All,

      Most of all, we need to avoid anything that might link to the last-but-one verse, because that halts the ever-onward flow of the renku. In this case, the last-but-one verse is:

      —
      flickering light of a bike
      from the side road

      –Marina Bellini

      —
      So we’d want to avoid any suggestion of vehicles or roads, as well as light. Keep that in mind.

      —
      – Lorin

      1. two hearts drawn in steam
        on the bathroom mirror
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        is this better or worse ???

  67. Thanks, John, and I’m happy to rise to the challenge of selecting the next verse.
    —
    Could you tell me/us one thing, please? How many consecutive love verses in a row will there be here? Will there be just the one or will this next verse be followed by another, or perhaps two others?
    That’d help me with selection.
    —
    Here’s a thought re the ‘tales’ ku: certainly if the tales are being read, a flashlight would be involved but if they’re telling the tales to each other, making it up as they go along, no light would be involved. More exciting that way. . . as I distinctly recall from long ago. 🙂
    It was deliberately ambiguous.
    —
    – Lorin

    1. Great, Lorin. I look forward to your selection!

      I mentioned in my post that the next two verses will be love verses. I will add that both will be non-seasonal love verses. And there will be another pair of non-seasonal love verses at numbers 26 and 27.

      That’s what I thought about the “tales” verse; it does not have to involve a flashlight, though that image might come to some readers.

      1. Thanks, John. Handy to know how many love verses for this section. (For those unaware of why, here’s a tip: since the movement of renku is forever forward, we can’t have, eg. a verse which suggests the end of a love affair before a verse that suggests its beginnings)
        —
        Try as I may, I can’t for the life of me see anything in your post that indicates the number of consecutive love verses! I have a painful ear infection but that shouldn’t be affecting my sight.
        —
        “Verse eight will be a two line, non-seasonal love verse. Love verses in a renku are about love between adult human beings. They can be romantic, erotic, or many other things. But they are not about love of pets, country, ice cream, etc.

        * * *
        Verse eight must link to the seventh verse (and only the seventh verse) but it also must clearly shift away from it in terms of scene and subject matter. ” – John
        —
        Am I missing something? Or, if I’m not, would it be a good idea to put how many consecutive verses of a particular sort (love, season, non-season) there will be up the top in your introductory post?
        —

        – Lorin

  68. Hi Richard…yeah, I was clueless as to what type of verses would come next. Had I known, my subject matter would have shifted dramatically as I am sure others’ would have too. Additionally, finding out your preference for an indoor verse was revealed in a nested comment. Unless one knew to keep scrolling back for commentary, that bit of info was buried. So, I am asking that your future preferences be stated upfront or at least in a separate comment rather than buried as a response that is nested.
    Thanks…still learning! 😊
    Betty

    2. Fair enough. Those comments that are not part of the original posting are afterthoughts, based upon the kind of verses I see coming in. But I can certainly make them as separate comments.

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