Carpe Diem's Renga With Basho #7 I'm a wanderer

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is time for a new episode of Carpe Diem's Renga With Basho the special feature in which I challenge you to create a renga together with the master, with Basho. I will give you six (6) haiku written by Basho. You can choose your own line-up of the haiku. Your task is to create the two-lined stanza between the haiku. Try to create a closed chain through bringing the "hokku" (starting verse) and the "ageku" (closing verse) connected.

Your renga must have a minimum of six (6) verses and may have a maximum of twelve (12) verses. This renga form (12 verses) is called Juunichoo.

Here are the six haiku by Basho, translated by Robert Hass:

all the day long-

yet not long enough for the skylark,

singing, singing.

by the old temple,

peach blossoms;

a man treading rice

the shallows –

a crane’s thighs splashed

in cool waves   

I'm a wanderer

so let that be my name –

the first winter rain                         

dragonfly

the dragonfly

can't quite land
on that blade of grass.

autumn moonlight--
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.

© Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

A nice selection of Basho's haiku. Enjoy the fun, making a renga together with the master is really awesome.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 11th at noon (CEST). Have fun!



Share your renga created with the haiku given by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) with us all here at our Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry.

1.	Kim M. Russell	4.	Cressida	7.	Sara McNulty
2.	Madasahatter572	5.	Janice
3.	Ken Gierke / rivrvlogr	6.	Dolores

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