Finally, it’s back to regular programming here 🙂
Last week I wrote a poem titled 1989. The structure of the poem was made up of two poetry types a tanka and a rondeau. At the end of that poem, I said I wanted to write a renga. I reached out to a couple of bloggers and Nortina Simmons who runs her own blog here agreed to write one with me.
A renga (meaning linked poem) is a collaborative form of Japanese poetry. It has to be written by two or more poets, consisting of alternating three and two line stanzas. Read more about renga here.
Four days and twenty six emails later, Nortina and I came up with what you’re about to read. We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we loved expressing ourselves through this poem.
Walking down the beach
Foot impressions in the sand
Music in my ears
Waves rush ashore ferrying
Seashells across vast oceans
Pondering on my life
How? When ..did it all go wrong
Why did it all change
I touch a dead hermit’s home
To my ear, listen for you
You…I loved you so
But you left when the tide changed
Now here I am – sad!
Standing on edge of earth as
Sun sets where water meets sky
Feeling overwhelmed
As the colours seem to fade
Memories distant
Three thousand breaststrokes away
Reunion makes me seasick
I try to jolt back
To a time I was stronger
I, my own person
When love neither made me nor
Broke me; bearer of my own
A time where my strength
Brought some hope to the hopeless
Where I could stand tall
With my unwavering voice
Part seas; sand feels like concrete
I need to reclaim
All the bits of me I’ve lost
Patching piece by piece
Like sediments of rock build
New structures out of the old
The new and old merge
Creating a stronger bond
Redefining me
No longer bound to life with
You beyond the horizon
Finally I can
Look forward to a new start
Where I love myself
I wrap my arms around my
Body, tight like rip currents
At last, I can breathe
And have freedom like the birds
This is my new start
——
Thank you again Nortina for doing this with me. I hope we can do this again sometime.
If you’re looking to write a poem with me, feel free to drop a comment 🙂
——
** Photo credit featured image –Â Colorfully
ameena's musings 
This is beautiful
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Thank you 🙂
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Gotta pat myself on the back here! We did a beautiful job 🙂
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We definitely did 🙂
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A lovely poem! So nice to see collaborations. Have a wonderful day. 🙂
Lauren
http://www.laurelella.blogspot.com
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Thanks as always Lauren x
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Beautiful work, the depth throughout is really powerful – love it.
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Thank you for reading Margaret 🙂
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Great collaboration
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Thank you Dekyi
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I enjoyed this. A collaborative form of poetry seems like a fun concept. Thanks for sharing
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Thank you so much for reading Daniel
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It’s simply beautiful 🙂
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Thank you Kritika 🙂
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Enjoyable breeze above the ocean and RENGA! Hearty congratulations to both of you!
“you enjoy reading this as much as we loved expressing ourselves through this poem” – Yes; thoroughly. Thanks
Incidentally I am a haikuist and author of two books exclusively of HAIKU poems. I have to my credit more than THOUSAND Haiku- strictly HAIKU in 5-7-5 meter and TANKA-5-7-5-7-5 syllables.
Congrats Amina!
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Thank you… Perhaps we could do a renga together sometime. I’d love to read your book of Haikus
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On the left in ENVIUS THOUGHTS in https://nvsr.wordpress.com you will find the particulars of an e book published in Amazon just for 2 dollars. Kindly click, and get the e book titled MYSTIC MOON MARVELS containing more han 250 of my HAIKU Poems.on different topics.I do not have a print copy to send. It is only e-publication. Thanks for your interest in my work.
N V Subbaraman
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Lovely poem, will follow. Thought you might like to read/contribute to my post https://davekingsbury.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/haikumania/
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