Renku Sessions

The Renku Sessions: New Calendar 9

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.

Polona Oblak has been our selector this week. Here is her selection, followed by her comments:

Jimmy Carter
and Rosalynn
on the kiss cam

          –Judt Shrode

“Soon after first offers started pouring in I realized we need a verse that would alleviate the implied trauma of a young woman facing defloration by someone other than her chosen mate, a verse that would focus more on the emotional than the purely physical aspect of love. Judt’s verse does just that, and besides, it introduces proper names and provides a welcome shift in subject matter.

I almost passed it on the first reading but as I copied all the submitted verses into a separate spreadsheet for comparison and further consideration it started to grow on me until I was almost certain this is what our renku needs. Past meets present and fiction becomes fact as the speculations of the historical lord’s carnal pleasures are balanced with the former US president’s public display of affection. A camera caught Jimmy Carter kissing his wife of 70+ years at a baseball game (in fact, this happened on more than one occasion), an act that moves us far away from the tales recounted under the cover of bedsheets and enters the realm of modern life with everything it brings along.

Well done, Judt, and thanks to everyone for your interesting contributions. Thank you, John, for the opportunity to play the role of sabaki for a week. It was fun.”

Thank you Polona. I’m so glad it was fun. That’s the point, as I see it. And thank you, Judt!

Judt Shrode will be offered the opportunity to select the next verse. Judt, 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 8) 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 ten will be a summer verse, in two lines. I won’t offer it as a requirement but I’m thinking this might be a good place for a “sports” verse. We have a kiss cam in verse nine, so any sporting event with a large audience would constitute a link.

Verse ten must link to the ninth verse (and only the ninth verse) but it also must clearly shift away from it in terms of scene, subject, and tone.

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

This Post Has 109 Comments

  2. and the band segues from oompah
    to la la la for their garden wedding waltz

    1. If that’s a little long :
      .

      the band segues from oompah
      to la la la for their garden wedding

        1. so let’s try one last time:

          the band segues from oopah
          to la la la at the garden party

      1. Are you referring to the hat or sundress Steve? does my unfamiliarity with English expose me to some embarrassing interpretation ?

  6. Jimmy Carter
    and Rosalynn
    on the kiss cam
    .
    elephants train for the circus
    on a Georgia peanut farm

  7. Jimmy Carter
    and Rosalynn
    on the kiss cam
    .
    the quarterback bows
    over his cape in the end zone

  8. Jimmy Carter
    and Rosalynn
    on the kiss cam
    .
    near the finish line
    smoke rolls out of the hood

  13. Hi Judt. Just wanted to say that I’m glad you decided to select the next verse. Wishing you a wonderful experience!

    1. “Carpenter ant species reside both outdoors and indoors in moist, decaying, or hollow wood, most commonly in forest environments. They cut “galleries” into the wood grain to provide passageways for movement from section to section of the nest. ” …from Wikipedia

  18. Hello All…
    .
    My apologies…I should have communicated much earlier. But at John’s kind urging, I did take the challenge of choosing.
    John gave as a guideline but not a requirement that a sports verse take this slot. I’d like to say that in addition, I would like to entertain verses that link but are not necessarily about a sport.
    Please be assured that sports verses are welcome!
    .
    Thanks for your patience,
    Judt

    2. yay, you! i’m sure John will be as helpful as possible but you’ll have the final say 🙂

      1. Thanks, Polona! As soon as I began to dig in, it became all about the verses and not at all about me. I’m having a great time!
        .
        Judt

  20. Judt, you never fail to surprise us with your fascinating and challenging verses. I would never have thought of something like this. It was a great choice. Congratulations!
    .
    Jimmy Carter
    and Rosalynn
    on the kiss cam
    .
    –Judt Shrode
    .
    .
    a young lab steals a ball
    as Venus returns the serve
    .
    or
    .
    a young lab steals the ball
    and races across the court

      1. Jennifer, no…I meant Labrador Retriever. I have a yellow lab who lives to fetch, grab or steal a tennis ball at rest or in motion. I could visualize her (or a cousin Lab) sneaking into a tennis court (for Venus or Serena, no less) and swiping the ball and running with it. 😉

    3. Hi all, Jennifer wondered if I meant lad instead of lab. No, I meant Lab as in Labrador Retriever, so perhaps I should have capitalized lab to read as Lab. Just so you no, it’s the dog stealing the ball, not the poor little ball boy who would never dare do such a think, lol.

      Let me amend my verses:

      a young Lab steals a ball
      as Venus returns the serve
      .
      or
      .
      a young Lab steals the ball
      and races across the court
      .
      Mary 😉

      2. I knew you meant the dog., Mary. 🙂

        beach cricket –
        a border collie
        at silly mid on

        – Windfall #2, 2014

        I doubt that a dog could get onto the competition tennis courts, though.

        – Lorin

        1. Love your verse, Lorin. Yeah, security is strong, but a dog can but dream. 🐶😊

  26. the Tour startles
    a brace of pheasants

    Uh oh… we have a bicycle already!

  27. strawberries and cream are served
    just as the umpire cries “Deuce”!

    1. Polona, great minds! I thought of a tennis one in bed last night! See above!

      1. cool! 🙂
        (of course that could be Australian Open final as well as it takes place in the southern summer but Wimbledon is more of an institution)

  34. This may have become buried in the comments:

    .

    .
    two synchronised swimmers
    frantically come up for air

  36. replacement players
    as labor talks run out

    Gave this a whirl last year for a bit for “Day of ” Snow”. Lot of fun.

  38. the hot line drive
    snap of the glove
    .
    Hello John, and everyone. Just joining in: like the selections, and the poet’s choice arrangement.

  42. Jimmy Carter
    and Rosalynn
    on the kiss cam

    -Judt Strode
    .
    golden grassland waves
    over his and her golfballs

    1. um, golf might suggest the idea of a hole in one? . . . which might return the more bawdy among us to Polona’s verse? 🙂
      —
      Lorin

        1. Hi Lorin. Yes, you’re probably right. I was thinking about that billing and cooing pair Rosalynn and Jimmy, but again that may take us too far back to ideas of coupling. Maybe a ball-less sport is in order!

    3. My sincere apologies for mis-spelling your surname, Judt! Face-palm!

      Jimmy Carter
      and Rosalynn
      on the kiss cam

      – judt Shrode

      .
      a pair of synchronised swimmers
      frantically come up for air

      1. And now sorry, Lorin! – please scratch ‘a pair’ Internal rhyme wasn’t great, either!

        .

        two synchronised swimmers
        frantically come up for air

      2. No problem, Marietta! Actually, it’s sort of refreshing to have my last name misspelled. You can imagine what happens to my first name 😆

    1. . . . possibly not summer enough! (though to me, ‘bleachers’, an American term, suggests seats in strong summer sunlight) Couldn’t resist, though. 🙂
      – Lorin

  45. Interesting choice, Polona.

    From an old culture where privacy was respected to a 21st century culture in which people perform acts of affection on cue for a public screen, from generalized Europe in the past to North America in the present and from the carefully weighed speech of the enquirer in the ‘lord’ verse to contemporary American popular Jargon. (I googled … fascinating to know what ‘kiss cam’ is. 🙂
    —
    “The kiss cam is a social game that takes place during arena, stadium and court sporting events in the United States and Canada.” … and more:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_cam
    —

    – Lorin

    1. thanks, Lorin. i guess it was the contrasts that appealed to me. did a fair amount of googling, too (but i’m kinda used to that) 🙂

      1. . . . in my view, perfect for the spot, Polona . . . and Judt, of course! 🙂
        . . . yeah, I’m used to googling, too. No excuse for an insular frame of mind in relation to ‘world renku’. 🙂
        – Lorin

  49. Congrats, Judt! An excellent link and shift. The ‘love’ verses are both fun and challenging. A great selection, Polona. I enjoy your thoughtful and detailed commentary. Thanks for sharing a behind-the-scenes look as your role as sabaki. I think you did a wonderful job. Thanks for your advice along the way.
    *
    a tennis racket cools off
    in the tall grass

  50. Thank you, Polona! It’s so true, “you never know.” I appreciate the helpful way you conducted your role as sabaki! I’m surprised but very honored to be in the ballpark with such accomplished poets. 🙂
    .
    Judt
    .
    .
    John…It would be an honor and fascinating and fun to choose the next verse. But I feel that I am far too inexperienced to be fair or carry on the quality of the renku. So it will be much appreciated if you will choose.
    .
    Thanks,
    Judt

    2. I will be glad to do it if you really don’t wish to, Judt. But my feeling is that learning is a high priority here. We are not writing for a contest. If you wish to reconsider, please know that I will be happy to consult with you throughout the process. And I think you can count on this group of people to be kind and supportive.

  51. Jimmy Carter
    and Rosalynn
    on the kiss cam

    —Judt Shrode
    .
    “Buy me some peanuts
    and Cracker Jack”
    .

    – Karen Cesar

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