The Renku Sessions: Pilgrims' Stride 31

Welcome to The Renku Sessions. Renku is a participatory literary game, following a set of rules that are implemented by the leader of the session. If you would like to learn more about renku go here. And if you would like to see a sample of a complete renku go here.

I’m John Stevenson, and I will serve as your guide for this session, a thirty-six verse (kasen) renku. I have supplied the opening verse (hokku) and each week I will select an additional verse from among those submitted prior to the Tuesday deadline.

Seventy-eight verse thirty-one offers came from fourteen poets. I feared, momentarily, that this might be the verse where it would no longer be possible to select work from a poet not yet included in the renku. But some contenders were offered, after all, and I am able to make my choice among them.

One contender came from jerry julius (falling leaves / blanket a sleeping lawn / in hues of gold) but, as I mentioned in last week’s post, we already have a number of verses specifying or strongly suggesting specific colors. Carmen Sterba, who seems always to have something good to offer, suggested before her discharge / looking pensively at the leaves / caught in the door and a leaf-bearing wind / blows away a corner / of schoolhouse dust. I take the discharge in the first of these to refer to release from a hospital; though it could be from employment, some sort of institution, or something else. None of those seems to carry quite the right tone for the closing (kyu) section of our renku. The second verse is well tuned, though I have difficulty with clearly envisioning a “corner of…dust” blown away. There were two especially interesting verses from Peg Duthie (au revoir / to the pewter quail / nestled in her palm and in my messenger bag / pickled grapes and walnuts / swaddled in silk). In the first of these the season word is “quail” but this is not actually a quail; it is pewter shaped into the image of a quail. This approach tends to weaken the seasonal resonance. In general, I prefer to see a seasonal reference used more directly – the moon is the moon rather than a crescent of melon, snow is cold weather precipitation rather than an element of a “snow job.”

Our thirty-first verse comes from Peg Duthie. I have changed the order of the lines to avoid a cut within the verse. Each line contains resonant imagery and the tone seems just what was requested for the beginning of our closing section.

Here is the verse you must link to:

pickled grapes and walnuts
swaddled in silk
in my messenger bag

–Peg Duthie

The next link, the thirty-second, is non-seasonal. Like all verses of the closing section (kyu), it should feature a brisk, optimistic, and somewhat formal tone. Here are the requirements for verse thirty-two:

• Non-seasonal image (containing nothing from our list of season words)
• Written in two lines, without a cut
• Linking with the thirty-first verse, and only the thirty-first verse
• Shifting widely to a new topic and setting

Add your suggested two-line link below, in the Comments box. You have until midnight EST, Tuesday, October 14, 2014. You may submit as many verses as you like, but please use a new comment box for each one. I will announce my selection for the next link on Thursday, October 16 here on the blog, and provide information and instructions for submitting the next link.

What We’ll Be Looking For — Throughout the Session

There are many schematic outlines for a kasen renku. We will be using one set out by Professor Fukuda in his book Introduction to World-linking Renku. It will not be necessary for you to have a copy of this book since instructions will be offered before each verse is solicited.

It is a good idea for those participating in the composition of a renku to make use of the same list of season words. There are a number of these lists available and I intend no judgment of their relative value. For purposes of this session I am suggesting the use of The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words.

Pilgrims’ Stride to Date

comparing maps
to the mountain pass–
pilgrims’ stride

–John Stevenson

a sun-warmed stone bridge
over snowmelt

–Billie Wilson

dampened soil
of seed trays
in the glasshouse

–Margaret Beverland

grandmother’s silverware
polished every monday

–Polona Oblak

a sonata
on the concert Steinway
played to the moon

–Lorin Ford

dragonflies hover
by the swaying reeds

–Karen Cesar

slight hum
of a drone
in fog

–Alice Frampton

the atmosphere
thick with teenage pheromones

–Norman Darlington

I stumble
trying to reply
“I plight thee my troth.”

–Paul MacNeil

thinking of a red wig
during chemo

–Asni Amin

the woodland
of silent stories
and shadow

–Alan Summers

he makes a wish
to become real

–Marion Clarke

each mirror reflects
only the cool moon
rising

–kris moon

freshly-caught fish
sizzles in the pan

–Aalix Roake

a wealthy prince
exiled in Nigeria
soliciting my help

–Christopher Patchel

sugar plum fairy came
and hit the streets…

–Jennifer Sutherland

a milky nimbus
at dusk
beneath the cherry tree

–Scott Mason

pulling in spring clouds
with a telephoto lens

–Dru Philippou

plain truth
of a skylark’s
song

–Stella Pierides

our yoga instructor
tells us to breathe

–Priscilla Van Valkenburgh

smoldering dung cakes
burning in the blackened pit
flavors the curry

–Betty Shropshire

the family’s grudge
celebrates a century

–batsword

first snowfall
covering little by little
all the dirt

–Vasile Moldovan

scraping the ice rink
of blood, sweat and tears

–Carole MacRury

the sting
of a paper cut
on her tongue

–Terri French

used books signed
for someone special

–Ellen Grace Olinger

a large voddy tonny
for the woman who may be
his next wife

–Sandra Simpson

stirring the crowd
with the slur of a slur

–Maureen Virchau

continents join
under this moon
the bones of my head

–Patrick Sweeney

the scarecrow reads
renku to the rabbits

–joel irusta

pickled grapes and walnuts
swaddled in silk
in my messenger bag

–Peg Duthie