Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published in the Lothlorien Poetry Journal, founder editor publisher, Strider Marcus Jones 

Meguro international Haiku

November International Haiku Circle 

Haiku Meguro international Haiku

November Meguro International Haiku 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal by founder editor publisher, Strider Marcus Jones. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal by founder editor publisher Strider Marcus Jones. 

Haiku. Kyoto Day 3

Tōfuku-ji, Kyoto. Day 3

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published by The Hooghly Review 

Kyoto Nijo Castle haiku

Kyoto Nijo Castle haiku, day 2

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published in The Hooghly Review 

Haiku

 

Kyoto Nijo Castle haiku 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published in the Lothlorien Poetry Journal, founder editor publisher Strider Marcus Jones 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Holiday Joy, special issue. 

Published by Maurice J. Reynolds, Owner-Editor, Creative Inspirations

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Published by The Hooghly Review 

Haiku, October meet

Haiku featured by Meguro International Haiku 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published in Creative Inspirations, Holiday Joy, special edition. 

Maurice J. Reynolds, Owner-Editor

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Published by Creative Inspirations for Holiday Joy, special edition. 

Maurice J. Reynolds, Owner-Editor

Haiku for Meguro International Haiku

Featured by Meguro International Haiku Circle 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published by Rinnan Literary Journal 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published by Rinnan Literary Revelations. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published by Rinnan Literary Journal 

Art feature in Coalition Works

Published in Coalition Works by Jamie Alejandro 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

Published in miniMAG, editor Alex Prestia 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Published in D.O.R 

Tan-Renga with Matthew Defibaugh

Published in Spillwords,  editor Dagmara K 

A tan-renga with Mystic Poet

 A tan-renga collaboration with Mystic Poet published in the Fireflies' Light, editor John Han and Mason Arledge written with Mystic Poet. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 A tan-renga collaboration with Mystic Poet published in DarkWinter Lit, editor Suzanne Craig. 

Tan-Renga with Kimberly Olmtak

 A tan-renga collaboration with Kimberly Olmtak published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, editor Strider Marcus Jones. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 A tan-renga collaboration with Mystic Poet published in DarkWinter Lit by Suzanne Craig. 

Tan-Renga with Kimberly Olmtak

 A tan-renga featured in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, editor Strider Marcus Jones co-written with Kimberly Olmtak. 

A tan-renga with Mystic Poet

 A tan-renga collaboration published in DarkWinter Lit, editor Suzanne Craig written with Mystic Poet. 

Tan-Renga with Kimberly Olmtak

 A tan-renga collaboration with Kimberly Olmtak published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, editor Strider Marcus Jones. 

Tan-Renga with Kimberly Olmtak

 A tan-renga featured in Lothlorien Poetry Journal by Strider Marcus Jones, co-written with Kimberly Olmtak. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Tan-Renga published in D.O.R

written with Mystic Poet 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, editor Strider Marcus Jones. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Tan-Renga published by Creative Inspirations, editor J Reynolds. Written with Mystic Poet. 

Haiku published in Heterodox

 Haiku published by Heterodox,  editor Jerome Berglund. The theme, gluttony. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet published in miniMAG, editor Alex Prestia. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet featured in miniMAG. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet featured in the D.O.R.

Split sequence with Jerome Berglund

 

Split Sequence with Jerome Berglund featured in the Coalition Works 

Autumn Festivals

 A haiku featured in Kyoto Haiku Project. 

Tan-Renga with Mystic Poet

 A tan-renga with Mystic Poet published in miniMAG Space.

Kyoto Haiku Project ~ Peace

 Kyoto Haiku Project ~ Peace theme. 

A tan-renga collaboration with Mystic Poet

 A tan-renga collaboration with Mystic Poet featured by Spillwords Press.

A tan-renga with Jerome Berglund

 An IceBreakers Lit Journal tan-renga collaboration with Jerome Berglund 

A tan-renga with Jerome Berglund

 An IceBreakers tan-renga collaboration with Jerome Berglund. 

Tan-Renga collaboration featured in IceBreakers Lit

 

A tan-renga collaboration with Mystic Poet.

Many thanks to IceBreakers Lit and team, Terri, Aubri, Danny, and Lauren for showcasing three tanrenga collaborations in the latest issue.

IceBreakers Lit Collaboration theme

 A tan-renga collaboration with Mystic Poet.

Many thanks to IceBreakers Lit and team, Terri, Aubri, Danny, and Lauren for showcasing three tanrenga collaborations in the latest issue.

IceBreakers collaborative issue

 Many thanks to IceBreakers Lit and team of Terri, Aubri, Danny, Lauren, for showcasing three tanrenga collaborations with Jerome in the latest issue. Artwork by Jerome Berglund. 

https://www.icebreakerslit.com/cowbells-rabbits-dandelions

Haiku with headnotes

I'm sharing a haiku from the 4th Issue of Heterodox Haiku Journal.

Featured artwork by the editor, Jerome Berglund on 𝕏. 

This edition is broken into 6 sections, he'll showcase 1/day . 

Theme ~ Haiku, senryu with headnotes.

The stare of the sun

 A collaborative tanka with Mystic Poet published in Creative Inspirations. 

Shooting star

A haiku featured in Meguro International #Haiku #autumn #kigo #wallpaper

Snapping scallops

Featured in Haiku Girl Summer,  founder editor Allyson Whipple. 

Sand crabs

A haiku featured in Haiku Girl Summer,  founder editor Allyson Whipple. 

Sanctum sanctorum

Collaborative Tanka with Mystic Poet featured in Creative Inspirations. 

Tanka collaboration

Written with Mystic Poet.  

Featured in Creative Inspirations. 

Figs

 。

rich purple figs

...a circle of ants

in the fruit bowl

~ Christina Chin

無花果の器に蟻が輪を描いて　　千秋

Mashed Bananas

 。

Summer Cooking Haiku. 

Featured by Allyson Whipple 

https://haikugirlsummer.substack.com/p/summer-cooking?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Summer Cooking Haiku

 

。

Summer Cooking Haiku. 

Featured by Allyson Whipple 

https://haikugirlsummer.substack.com/p/summer-cooking?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

MIRROR ЯOЯЯIM

https://youtube.com/shorts/jnUioKJXJOE?si=vZbw5-XBR8WyIrtf

My gogyoshiren for neurodiversity theme is

MIRROR ЯOЯЯIM.

You can read this and all the amazing takes on Take 5ive. 

https://take5ive.weebly.com/neurodiversity.html

The Declaration

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/g1Th1s-mc0g?feature=share7

A collaborative haiku sequence written with Mystic Poet during the dark days, published by DarkWinter lit magazine.

Collaborative tan-renga

 https://www.roifaineantpress.com/post/5-tan-renga-by-christina-chin-uchechukwu-onyedikam

The MusArt Award

It is a great honour to have a mention in the tribute to amazing award winning women musicians. Congratulations, Randall Vemer, and thanks for dedicating this to all women in the MusArt and to yours truly, the humble solo poet.

 

A tan renga

 。

A tan renga with Mystic Poet.

Thanks, Steve Cawte Editor of www.impspired.com 

Gendai tanka. Impspired Magazine

 

Gap in the teeth? Feel lucky every day. The French call gap teeth, dents du bonheur, or lucky teeth. Brigitte Bardot made lucky teeth a thing of beauty. 

In Nigeria, gapped teeth signify beauty and luck. In West Africa, a set of gapped teeth is a symbol of wealth.

Gendai tanka from IceBreakers Lit

 Collaborative Gendai Tanka.

Uchechukwu Onyedikam & Christina Chin 

Collaborative tanka

 

Collaborative Gendai Tanka. 

Haiku for Peace

 

。

Kyoto Haiku Project 

"Haiku for Peace"

Haiku for Peace

 

Kyoto Haiku Project, Haiku for Peace also includes a Gogyoshi for Peace published in the Peace Anthology 2023 by Taro Aizu.

The Sape music is composed and played by author, poet, and musician, Medan Abdullah aka Maya Green. It is music from the rainforests. The name of the instrument is “the Sape’, the jungle lute of Borneo.”

A tango renga

I love music and dance renga!

I'm thrilled Wishbone Words featured this.

Mystic Poet and I have a jazzy sequence with a jazz publication coming up soon and we are excited! 

Meguro August Haiku

 

Another haiku from the August Meguro International Haiku Circle.

Thanks to Yasuomi Koganei san, Michiko Murai and Masumi Orihara. Moderator Crystal Brunelli. 

Pounding

 

A haiku from the August Meguro International Haiku Circle.

Thanks to Yasuomi Koganei san, Michiko Murai and Masumi Orihara. Moderator Crystal Brunelli. 

Haiku for Peace Video

 

Kyoto Haiku Project 

"Haiku for Peace" theme. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8ehipVrRq_0&feature=share7

"Haiku for Peace" Video

 。

Kyoto Haiku Project

"Haiku for Peace" theme. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pQ02e2hcapo&feature=share7

Childhood guilt Video

AFRICA HAIKU NETWORK

Publishers of The Mamba Journal

Founder editor,  Adjei Agyei-Baah.

 https://youtube.com/watch?v=rjzNovdUnto&feature=share7

Haiku for Peace Video

Kyoto Haiku Project 

"Haiku for Peace" theme. 

The full YouTube version:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-lwStBfCBl8&feature=share7

the place where they come across the moon Bk 7

Repost from Matthew Defibaugh, Instagram. 

I'm proud to announce the release of book 7, the first to feature other collaborative writers from around the world, now available for download in my Ko-fi shop! Thanks to your outstanding contributions, this has become my favorite book of the series. It was my honor to curate your work. Keep your submissions coming for the next edition due out in October!  

ko-fi.com/s/7da567acb2

Featuring: Alan Peat (UK), Amoolya Kamalnath (India), Christina Chin (Malaysia), Christine L. Villa (USA), Hifsa Ashraf (Pakistan), Jerome Berglund (USA), John Hawkhead (UK), Karen O'Leary (USA), Kathleen Trocmet (USA), Kimberly Kuchar (USA), Lakshmi Iyer (India), Linda Ludwig (USA), Michael Hough (USA), Milan Rajkumar (India), Pamela Coughlan (Singapore), Paul Callus (Malta), petro c. k. (USA), R. C. Thomas (UK), Robert Kingston (UK), Shoko Kanenari (Japan), Uchechukwu Onyedikam (Nigeria), and Vandana Parashar (India).

Submissions: Send up to five collaborative 5-line tan-renga or tanka to mrdefibaugh@gmail.com. Include poems in the body of the email, as attachments will not be read. Please include poet names and locations. Three lines should be attributed to one poet and two to the other. Each poem should have no more than 31 syllables, though exceptions to this rule are welcome if the poem is exceptional. Submissions are rolling, but only send more poems once you have received an acceptance or rejection. Books will be released in January, April, July, and October on the 15th of each month.

Link to M.R.Defibaugh, Instagram

://www.instagram.com/p/CuvHmeApbuR/?igshid=NjIwNzIyMDk2Mg==

Tan-renga article by Alan Peat: https://haikuzyg.blogspot.com/2023/07/alan-peat-wrote-about-tan-renga-it-was.html 

Tan-Renga with Uchechukwu Onyedikam @MysticPoet_

https://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/chin_onyedikam1.html

Alan Peat wrote about tan-renga. It was originally published in ‘Blithe Spirit’ - the journal of the British Haiku Society.

By Alan Peat:

If you missed it earlier this year, here’s the text of an article I wrote about tan-renga. It was originally published in ‘Blithe Spirit’ - the journal of the British Haiku Society.

Tan-Renga : A Personal Exploration. Alan Peat

An English language tan-renga (short renga) is a collaborative two verse linked form. One poet opens with a three line haiku and the other poet concludes with a two line capping verse. A blank line exists between the verses, thereby distinguishing it visually, from a solo tanka.

The earliest tan-renga can be found in the 8th century (Nara period) twenty volume Japanese poetry anthology, the Man’yoshu. *1 Poems included in the collection were written over a period of roughly a century up to AD 759.

There has been a growing interest in English language tan-renga since the 1990s when twelve tan-renga, written by Michael Dylan Welch with various collaborators, were published in Frogpond in 1998.*2 In 2012 a collection of tanka responses and tan- renga, written by Beverly George and friends, was released by Pearl Beach Press and in 2015 Red Moon Press published the first (to my knowledge) dedicated English language tan-renga collection, ‘A Path to Desire’ written by Peter Newton & Kathe L. Palka.

English language tan-renga can be divided into two distinct (though not mutually exclusive) groups:

Tan-renga with a capping verse which connects (emotionally, thematically etc) with the opening verse BUT, importantly, also shifts/leaps.

Tan-renga with a capping verse which closely links to the opening verse, resulting in a more unified narrative / thematic whole.

A line pattern of short/long/short//long/long is often employed, though this is not a fixed requirement. Additionally, many published tan-renga are built around a sensory / multi-sensory ‘captured moment’. 

When Red Moon Press released ‘A Path of Desire’, Newton & Palka described the collection, in their introduction, as,

…an experiment…with a few questions…If one person starts a poem how does another person finish it?

The ensuing poems provide us with an answer; some demonstrate a pronounced shift in the capping verse whilst in others the link is dominant. Both are valid ways of approaching this short collaborative form and, interestingly, both were encouraged by John Stevenson in his recent series of Renku sessions, published on The Haiku Foundation website in late 2022.

The opening tan-renga of Newton & Palka’s collection is a fine example of a close-linked tan-renga -

windless day

we walk together

in our worlds

      the pleasure 

      of our shared silence  

But, there are also poems where the shift is stronger -

dawn on the river

the leafless beauty

of sycamores

    in splotches of sunlight

    spring returns

Both use alliteration effectively as a key lyrical device, giving the whole a distinct rhythmic musicality.

Some tan-renga have a restrained emotional undercurrent that suits the form well. A personal favourite, published in 2011,*3 was written by Pamela A. Babusci (USA) & Paul Smith (U.K.)

maple leaf —

the sound it doesn’t make

while falling

days getting shorter

i too shed my layers

More recent tan-renga collaborations between English poets and poets of various nationalities are clearly proving fruitful. The poet Richard Thomas (UK) has recently collaborated with the Indian poet Hifsa Ashraf (Pakistan). The following example*4 of their work demonstrates that wry humour also has its place -

filled with coins

squinting

at the money jar

a closer look

the cost of new glasses 

My own collaborations with the Malaysian poet Christina Chin have afforded outcomes that could only have occurred in poems written by two authors with differing geographical and cultural backgrounds - monsoons and snowfall regularly intermingle! 

We also employ dual viewpoints. In the following tan-renga…*5

in my apartment window

in my mind’s eye 

a red dragonfly 

in the flower meadow’s

breeze

…one ‘narrator’ is directly viewing the red dragonfly, whilst the other is sat at an apartment window imagining it. There is also an implied geographical shift from an urban to a rural setting.

Interestingly, Michael Dylan Welch postulated*6 that it might be possible to write solo tan-renga if one retains the blank line between the two verses and also employs a ‘different voice’ for the second verse. A methodology for achieving this is worthy of exploration. One possibility would be the adoption of a heteronym for either the opening or capping verse. The technique was used by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). A Pessoan heteronym is, essentially, an invented literary character. These characters (heteronyms) have their own philosophies, viewpoints and biographies - they are assumed personas and should not be confused with a pen name. The technique allowed Pessoa to assume varied frames of reference. Although the device was not employed in the context of tan-renga it may be an engaging way of actioning Michael’s idea. 

Perhaps the growing interest in co-authored poetry can be attributed to the access and communication the internet affords. It has certainly helped to promote more regular cross-cultural interchange between poets and tan-renga seems ideally suited to such collaborations.  

David G. Lanoue, writing during his coronavirus self-isolation, noted that,

‘…linked verse by means of Internet connection tools and social media remains an experience of human connection, togetherness and loving compassion.’ *7

Certainly this has been my own experience; the form is a companionable one. Its concision presents the two poets with a challenge; but it is the succinctness itself that that stimulates the imagination. Constraints and creativity are often bedfellows. For those who haven’t yet explored the form, I hope that this short article might, in some small way, encourage such experiments.

NOTES

*1 Further information regarding the early history of Tan-Renga can be found in David G. Lanoue’s article ‘What Love Has To Do With It - The Relationship Requirement in Renku’, Modern Haiku 52.1

*2 Frogpond 21.2, October 1998

*3 Frogpond 34.1, winter 2011

*4 Scarlet Dragonfly September 2022

*5 Fireflies’ Light #26 September 2022. This tan-renga is experimental. We inverted the capping verse and the hokku so that we open with two lines and cap with three. We are aware that some may not accept the term tan-renga for this poem.  

Note that we also don’t employ italics - we view our collaborations as the sum of two parts and frequently alter each others’ lines. The use of italics would not, therefore, accurately reflect our writing method. 

*6 graceguts.com ‘An Introduction To Tan-Renga’, Michael Dylan Welch

*7 Modern Haiku 52.1 ‘What Love Has To Do With It - The Relationship Requirement in Renku’, David G. Lanoue