Carpe Diem Tokubetsudesu #53, Soliloquy no Renga "Ah! Those Cherry Blossoms"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another week has gone and it's time (again) for a new Tokubetsudesu episode in which I will bring the so called "Soliloquy no Renga" again for your inspiration. (You can find more about the Soliloquy no Renga HERE).

As you all know haiku came from 'hokku' the opening verse of a Renga or chained verse ... Renga was a collaborative kind of poetry in which several poets were participating. Basho, one of the four greatest haiku-poets (next to Buson, Issa and Shiki) transformed the 'hokku' into a poetry-form on itselves, the haiku ...I love to bring you back to the roots of our beloved haiku and created what I will call 'Soliloquy no Renga', a Renga written by one poet. Soliloquy means monologue and is a synonym for it.

Logo of Soliloquy no Renga

The goal of this feature is to write a Soliloquy no Renga, a Renga composed by one person. With this feature it is possible to help you to be more associative, because you have to compose an all new renga with at least six (6) links.As you all know a renga has stanzas of three and two lines. The first verse "hokku" gives the title to the renga and sets the entire image of your renga. By association on the verse before the verse you have to write you can make the renga a complete story. The Soliloquy no Renga is just for fun and I hope it will bring you the fun and inspiration as I had in mind. You can choose on your own how much links you use, but at least (as I said above) six (6) links. The last link has to make the "circle complete" and in that way has a link with the first verse. That last verse is called "ageku".

For this Soliloquy no Renga I have chosen a haiku written by myself in January 2015, so it's a very recent haiku to work with. This haiku is the "hokku" (starting verse) of this Soliloquy no Renga.

Credits: Woodblock print "Sakura" by Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950)

Hokku:

Ah! those cherry blossoms
their beauty amazes me again -
finally spring is here

© Chèvrefeuille

The following stanza have two lines, three lines, two lines and so on. You can make the Soliloquy no Renga as long as you would like, but it has to have at least six (6) stanza.

I am looking forward to all of your responses ... have fun!

This Tokubetsudesu episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 24th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, Kuchinashi (Jasmine), later on. For now ... have fun!