The Renku Sessions: Purple Haze – Week 1
Hi, everyone,
I’m Kala Ramesh from India, and I will be your sabaki for this renku.
We are writing a Junicho – 12-verse renku (linked verses).
If you want to read my introduction to this renku, I’ve given you the link below:
https://thehaikufoundation.org/the-renku-sessions-invitation-2/
The schema:
Junicho: a twelve-verse renku (collaborative poetry)
hokku – spring blossom
wakiku – spring
daisan – cut away verse – no season (ns)
4 short – ns
5 long – summer
6 short – love ns
7 long – love winter
8 short – ns
9 long – end summer (monsoon in India!)
10 short – ns
11 long – autumn moon
12 short – ageku – autumn
*Please remember: you need to offer blossom, moon, love, season verses, and so on, only during the specific slots given in the schema.
I received a good response for the hokku slot, which means there are more poems to choose from! 35 poets from around the world submitted their candidates, and from this staggering 100-plus offers, I had to choose just one!
Our hokku is a spring verse.
Here is my short list for the hokku:
apple blossoms —
scenting the breeze
after the funeral
Andrew Pineo
*
tulips at last
we sign in unison
with every bud
Joanna Ashwell
*
spreading through fields
softening the earth
mustard flowers
Madeleine Kavanagh
*
grey mountain morning
splashed bright with yellow —
wild rose
rob barkan
*
new wisteria blossoms —
no need
to paint the house
rob barkan
*
batter-fried
pumpkin blossoms
the mellowness of sun
Sanjuktaa Asopa
*
whiff of jasmine
from under the door
a lizard’s tail
Arvinder Kaur
*
deep basin
of blossoming willows
the nearby world wanders in
Laurinda Lind
*
Ultimately, the two main contenders for this slot were:
open casket
the eulogy doesn’t stir
a flower
Richard Straw
and
purple haze
sunlight filters through
jacaranda branches
Pauline O’Carolan
Eiko Yachimoto, a renowned renku poet from Japan, once told us at a renku meet that we could choose any theme for a hokku. I really liked Richard’s ‘open casket’ and felt we could start with loss, which touches all of us at some point in our lives.
But ‘purple haze’ stole my heart. Purple to show the jacaranda blossom and ‘haze’ to represent a spring morning. This is a clean hokku: the image is clear and simple, yet it leaves so much unsaid. The more I look into this verse, the more ‘ma’ I see – the space, the intervals and silences, as we dwell on the image. It’s a full-bodied, strong verse to begin our renku.
So here we go
Purple Haze
12-tone Junicho
purple haze
sunlight filters through
jacaranda branches
Pauline O’Carolan
Call for Wakiku, 2nd verse.
Wakiku – also referred to as waki – is an important verse.
1. It needs to closely buttress the hokku. Please note: Waki needs to closely buttress the hokku.
Hint: go for what you would see around the hokku. Toriawase, the gathering of the scene around to create a harmonious, seasonal and meaningful, yet often asymmetrical arrangement.
2. Since the hokku is an outside verse, I would like the waki to be positioned outside as well.
3. It’s a two-line spring verse with a syllable count of not less than 11 or 12 (if possible!).
4. It’s important to remember: A renku verse (other than the first verse – hokku) is not a haiku and must not have the two-part structure of a haiku. The first challenge in collaborative verse is to let go of the habit of writing a complete, stand-alone poem. A renku verse treats the space between verses as a cut, like that in a haiku, and provides a single phrase. That phrase, in turn, is altered poetically by the next verse, which is also a single phrase and not a complete poem.
5. Please check the schema. Don’t mention the moon, other seasons, or love. They all have a slot coming up later.
6. And most importantly, don’t repeat words and images that have already been used in the hokku. Remember, in renku, we always look ahead and never backwards! Post all three candidates for waki together (if possible) so it’s easier for me to gather them.
Go for it.
And, most of all, have fun!
I’ll wait for your offers. The window closes every Monday, and my selection, along with the requirements for the next verse, will be posted here every Thursday.
Your sabaki,
_kala
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