Dragonish Renga – Mayhem

This is a collaborative piece – apologies if the order is not quite right – the players in no particular order were @VelvetinaPurrs
@marousia @fumanchucat @peterwilkin1 @amoz1939 @novatwitman egged on by @simonscotland. It was great fun and completely spontaneous. There was no prearranged  sequence of turns.

We had been playing around with FF and identifying those who had a love of dragons. I sent out a hash tag –  #dragonishrenga and the mayhem began.

When reading this remember that with renga the important thing to watch is what happens BETWEEN the links. Here is our crazy dragon quilt for your pleasure.

The crescent moon smiles/ the sea catches silver light/ a dragon stretches

Dragons run riot ~ sprinkling us with magic dust ~ our brains are addled

Amethyst dragon ~ singing old George Formby songs ~ playing a banjo

the dragons roar music fire ~ bright stars race the night (Err!)

With unfurled tail and high polished spikes / the beast muse stalks my thoughtful words *7/7*

Silver dragon tap-dancing ~ he thinks he is Fred Astaire

An amber dragon ~ gliding around the ballroom ~ like Ginger Rogers

And now I see a natty dragon/ he wears spats and sports a cane

A thunder clap over head/ the dragons chase lightning now

Dragons chase lightning ~ drop it on @fumanchucat ~ her hair turns silver 😉

And that’s not the only thing dragon/ drops for he is not litter trained

Swoop left right up down searching/ preys sighted the hunt begins 7/7

Our dreams race trails ~ dragons fearless magic arc ~ we hold their tails

Frowns ~ toilet paper in her hand ~ dragons howl laughing

Baby dragon belches now/ sniggers better out than in

Sitting down for lunch ~ tying bibs round dragons’ necks ~ such messy eaters

Dragon sulks-the others not serious/wanna hunt now!!! *pouts*

Babies asleep watched by one/ the others set out to hunt

For lunch young dragons have cast-off words / of poets and writers, near and far

With stubby claws they stalk their prey/ these beasts of lore, these guardians of words

The morsels they seek ~ all bad to be consumed ~ guardians of good

Baby dragons wait ~fairy dust on their wings ~taking baby steps

Edding large tears of sadness ~ see baby dragons grow up

Poor squires of York ~polishing claws of dragons ~and their scales too

Boom boom extra boom ~hunt of dragons begin now ~weapons words only

Swoop left right up down searching/ preys sighted the hunt begins 7/7

With unfurled tail and high polished spikes / the beast muse stalks my thoughtful words

Fluxus Interruptus – DadaBrats at play

This collaborative poem also appears on Peter’s blog.  It ‘s a collaboration between @peterwilkins1 @bookwriter222 @amoz1939 and @remittancegirl. @MissyPoem wanted to join but didn’t quite make it this time.

We used the hash tag #rengachange as we were writing it on Titter.

Old ways of doing things have a funny way of re-appearing. I wonder if the designers of Twitter ever imagined that their status update software would be used in such a way. I also wonder what Basho would have thought. I think that we did preserve subtle relationships between the verses – well we tried to anyway. We also treated the form with respect.

I feel sure that our Dada forebears would have loved to play with social software in defiance of geographical and time zone constraints.

Fluxus Interruptus

Under a cool moon/ the earth slumbers, breathes softly/ stillness and shadows

A gentle western breeze lifts / petals from a cherry tree

Blue cat very still/ watches butterflies/ admid the petals

Dragonflies smiling ~ butterlies preen in colors ~having my sake

Silver ripples on green pond/ shades of orange, Koi resting

All is quiet here / pondering the coming day / nothing stirs, I sit

Ginko trees stand silent guard/ maples bowing to the moon

Bamboo house clean and ready / sake bowls fill to the brim

Distant thunderstorm/ heron glides down mountainside/ soft patter of rain

A stranger arrives from town / the thunderstorm is nearing

horizonal rain / steals the stranger’s hat and laughs / gifts it to the wind

The hat staggers drunkenly/ spins wildly on the pond’s brink

Frog jumps out of pond ~ and landing on floating hat ~a nice lily pad

Stranger kneels beside the pond/ Koi feeding upon his smile

As dawn breaks cover / wrathful angry storm abates / I wait patiently

Air fresh and dense with thunder / dew-trapped sparks of lightning passed

Fire gives out warmth ~ all guests seated by crickets ~ thunder storm ceases

Feast of eels and sake/ appears for the dinner guests

Crickets one sake ~ waiting for a guest to come ~ eels are delicious

Violet mist drifting down/ spreading blanket over guests

As frogs leap and sing / spoken tales of woven dreams / synchronicity

No leaping frogs, no grilled eels / stops the slow drip – spilt sake

Old man sings a song/ of brave warriors, their swords/ and lovely geishas

Sun climbs high, the morning burns/ sweat trickles down guests’ faces

The mist clears away / a breeze that whispers secrets / cools the troubled mind

Breath upon a dusty glass / the ghostly geisha’s kiss print

Ghostly foot falls tap/ across the sun light terrace/ mosquitoes buzzing

Sated guests lie on futons/ soothed by ghostly lullabies

An exchange, a glance / a frisson of excitement / quivers up the spine

In the corner the koto / sounds one dark abandoned note

Kimonos rustle/ the sound of slapping rhythms/ paper screen snaps shut

Far away, behind mountains/ black ships in turquoise ocean

Surging through the waves / a promise of a future / ships that speak of change

A floating island sitting / atop a giant turtle

A demon appears/ head flaming, eyes fiery/ the gods are smiling

With lightening speed, he strikes / the gods of change start dancing

Unus Mundus

This was my first experience of practicing the ancient Japanese art of Renga. Peter (@peterwilkins1) found the link to Wikipedia and we became very exited. Before that we had been chatting about the dragon Renku and what fun it had been. We were wondering how many could play this poetry game. The Wikipedia article gave us the information we desired – 3 to 15. We were thinking about who would be interested in participating in a Twitter renga and when we should start. Unbeknown to us, there was someone already there in the stream watching our conversation ready to write.

Louise (@bookwriter222) suggested we do a renga on unicorns. We all read the “How to write” section and decided we would do an 18 verse version – Han-kasen. The formal format is 5-7-5 followed by 7-7. We followed this form pretty much throughout but bent the rules for aesthetic purposes when we needed to.

We wrote under the constraints of time zones. We couldn’t do the writing at one sitting. Louise provided a superb summary when she and Peter picked up the threads on day two: a hazy dawn ~ brings black witch ~ back into the fray ~ our unicorn is in grave danger ~ we race towards the moon. I added one verse on my own to their two. On the third night we completed the renga.

We had no predetermined narrative scenario.  After the event we reflected back on the experience. I think Peter’s observation distills the experience:

peterwilkin1 peterwilkin @bookwriter222 @marousia I think we have [finished] 🙂 Think we wandered through pathless woods at times but the journey was wonderful #unicornrenga

Unus Mundus ~ A Renga where each line represents a verse

A forgotten time/ two moons collide together/unicorn breathes am struggling with moon/flowers thing

Sparks from the moons collision/ kiss unicorn’s velvet horn

Drops of rain glisten / like pearls on flower petals / round unicorn’s hooves

Flowing silver mane whips back/unicorn races the moon

Violets spring up/ wherever unicorn’s hooves touch/ trees whisper secrets

Unicorn hears plaintive cry / bluebird with a broken wing

A bird from heaven/as blue as the sky is old/secrets bind them both

Unicorn lowers his horn/ a single touch heals the wing

Bluebird sings his song / unicorn rears high, his eyes / like pools of moonshine

Black witch readies her poison/a unicorn of beauty

Ground unicorn horn/ prized aphrodisiac/ temptation was great

Unicorn sees moon shadows / of black witch in bluebird’s eyes

Black witch casts a spell/withered petals turn to dust/unicorn shudders

Bluebird’s sweet song fills the air/ Black witch’s spell returns to her

Black witch clutches throat / dissolves in putrid green steam / hail the unicorn

An eternal flame shines bright / in unicorns moonkissed eyes

Unicorn breathes/ on the putrid slime/ turning it to gold

Sunlight and shadows merging / death becomes life. Alchemy