Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Celebrates Its 9th Anniversary: #1853 Sparkling Dew (Tan Renga)

 

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a "new" episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to create Haiku or other Japanese poetry forms. This month we are celebrating our 9th anniversary with a "trip along memory lane". 

Today I have chosen an episode of September 2018, in that month we had the 3rd Tan Renga Challenge, that special feature in which we create Tan Renga together.

What is Tan Renga?

Maybe you know the Tanka that poem with 5 lines following the syllables count 5-7-5-7-7. A beautiful Japanese poetry form which I not often create, because I am not such a great Tanka poet. The Tanka is a poem written by one poet and that's the difference with the Tan Renga.

The Tan Renga has also 5 lines following (approximately) the same syllables count as the Tanka, but the Tan Renga is written by two poets. One poet writes the first stanza of three (3) lines in the following example that will be Jane Reichhold:

Here is the first stanza of this example Tan Renga:

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew                      (Jane Reichhold)

The goal for the second poet is to create the second stanza of two (2) lines through association on the first stanza (as we do in a renga). For this example I have written the second stanza:

her bright shining eyes
she unpacks her new doll     (your host)

This is what you call a Tan Renga. It's possible to leave a blanc line between the two stanzas, but you can also make it unite with each other. Than this is the result:

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew                      (Jane Reichhold)
her bright shining eyes
she unpacks her new doll     (your host)

It's a great way of being creative with the work of another poet, like we do with our special feature "Renga With Basho".

For this "new" episode in our festive month I love to challenge you to create a Tan Renga with the haiku by Jane Reichhold:

morning sun
the twinkle of stars
still in the dew 

© Jane Reichhold (1937-2016)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 27th at 10:00 PM (CEST). You can add your submission to the hidden linking widget in our logo below. Have fun!