Anybody want to Renga?
 

Renga is a form of Japanese poetry written by two or more people. It is a cousin to the haiku. The basic component of the renga is the tanka - a five line poem of with the first person writes 3 lines of 17 syllables. The next person completes the tanka with 2 lines. The form goes 5-7-5 followed by 7-7. But you can make your own variations within a form. A third person may add 3 more lines, etc and the poem becomes a rangu.

It sounds complicated but is actually pretty easy and kind of fun. Here's an example:

(first poet)
Rain chases bright leaves down
Leaving naked branches -
Like arms of a supplicant.

(next poet)
A girl reaches for her lover
Like the geese, he flies away.

I'll start with the first three lines and the next poster can add two, etc.


Having reddened the plum blossums
The sunset attacks
Oaks and pines - chases through their rows.

I'm going to quote myself here "poetry is a wank".

Actually, I'm going to have to take some of that back-Mario Benedetti's prose type poetry is alright, but why we had to be subjected to bloody Pablo Neruda's Twenty Love Poems and a Desperate Song at uni, I still do not know. (Now, after that little outburst, I'm going to go and hide).

That was, like, way more than two lines Casi. I'm not even sure it related thematically to what Sam put up there.

I think Sam was expecting something more like:


Having reddened the plum blossoms
The sunset attacks
Oaks and pines - chases through their rows.

Saw teeth gleaming in the fading light
woodchips, lunchpail, heading back to the truck

:applause:

I really couldn't come up with anything. Keep trying, my clever gene might kick in any time!

it's still a wank and my effort will be crap, but flushed with the success of having had an epiphany about how to do truth tables correctly yesterday, I'm going to grudgingly give this new discipline a go.

and finding flat tyres
let down by delinquents
bored in the evening.

and binding with briars
my joys and desires

no, wait. That's Blake.

and finding flat tyres
let down by delinquents
bored in the evening.

A wanker's crap effort is still better
than sitting at home thinking off

.

Blake is da man! :)

That's only 4 syllables Shawnee.

That was very nice, foot. Of course I knew that this gang wouldn't stay on tack for long, but I must admit that Blake is one of my personal faves. Thanks for posting one of his poems.

OK, I'll try to rift off the master:

And I saw it was filled with graves
And tombstones where flowers should be
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds
And binding with briar my joy and desire.

Tyger, tyger burning
My eyes filled with smoke -
The loss of a bright soul.
.

Am formulating my next 7-7 stanza. Don;'t hold your breath.

Sad no doubt but life goes on
Til the next bright soul is lost

Sorry, I only have 3 fingers and I lost count.

Thank you! Oh...