First Poetry Please Collaborative Renga

Here are the rules.  I will supply the first three lines, then the next person, or team, will supply the next two line stanza.  In Renga, the first three line stanza typically contains 17 syllables and the second stanza is made up of two lines of 7 syllables each.  Renga is usually about nature or emotions.  See http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5788  

"In order for the poem to achieve its trajectory, each poet writes a new stanza that leaps from only the stanza preceding it. This leap advances both the thematic movement as well as maintaining the linking component." Id.  (Emphasis mine)  In other words, you should only be thinking about the stanza just before yours when you write your stanza, not what any other stanza may say.  There are some very good examples of this to read on the internet, i.e.; http://www.renga-platform.co.uk/webpages/leaves2006.html .   You may want to look at a few and see how they flow.

Of course the bottom line here is that we want to have fun!  I will now give you the order for the first round.  If you have a partner, that is also fine, go in the order of the first named.  After the last on the list has gone, then anyone who wishes can continue the Renga.   In the case of two simultaneous posts, use the first in line if you can't use the first in time as the stanza to "leap" from.

•·        Linda B.

•·        Rene Allen

•·        Tom Curl

•·        Mary Z.

•·        Alison Pearce

•·        Sigriet F.

•·        Otelia S.

Our Renga Thus Far

Ethereal Exploits

Speaking quietly

Celestial bodies

Share stories of the Void

sometimes whispering softly
of ethereal exploits

Hushed invisible zephyr
Shapes rocks and worlds
Stellar wind without end

from new worlds to those so old
the Breath inspires twinkling stars

I gaze upon the stars
as if they hold a new world yet untraveled and unseen
I wish I could be up there too

Shining from so far away
Crystal drops on velvet cloak

Celestial beauty
Sparkling from above
Shows awesome wonders

frosted mansions softly glow
in the bright heavenly light

My spirit takes flight
Wings no longer clipped by darkness
soaring freely

The yawning ebon precipice
stretches forth to meet the dawn

Yet it's lost in misty mindsets
swims in my morass
turbid is the dawn

That sun so elusive
a light I must pursue

chase down a star?
I've walked the world's waist
what direction am I heading?

Which clippered ship sails so far
Into the dawn of brightness?

All things loose their shape
In this piercing light
Reflecting off of the waves

But I see the clarity
And feel the serenity

Crystal vision clears
Doubts, Fears, and all angst in us
Balance is restored.

Pitch black night and moonlit field
Dance, eternal tryst revealed

The night speaks to thee
Rolling with the melody
Lovers find the KEY

We have officially written a beginner's Nijuin - a 20 verse Renga! See Renga

Sharing with the world
The truth and all its wisdom
yet to be unfurled

awaiting enlightenment
So joyfully expectant  

Filling this dreamy head
with the sparkling breath
of internal twilight

Whispered stories flash throughout
Images of Love's wonder.