PHOTO RENGA. THIS IS A CALL AND RESPONSE POEM. IN EACH ITERATION NAOMI AND I SEND EACH OTHER A NEW HAIKU AND A PHOTOGRAPH. IN TRADITIONAL RENGA THE LINKING TEXT IS TWO SEVEN SYLLABLE LINES - HERE WE USE OUR PHOTOS INSTEAD. AS I INVITED NAOMI TO COLLABORATE WITH ME ON THIS, IT'S ALSO TRADITIONAL FOR ME TO START THE RENGA. THIS RENGA READS BACKWARDS ...SO IF YOU WANT THE FULL NARRATIVE START AT THE FOOT AND READ UP. OTHERWISE SCROLL DOWN...

Painted walls tell us

these sharp colours will beckon

daffodil, crocus.

Numbered paragraphs

illustrate simplicty;

joy of making dough.

Two circles, some squares.

Jasmine floats over roses

in the back garden.

Geometry rules

the stairway. An open door

is bold as sunshine.

A shaft of sunlight

brightens the darkest corner.

What looks soft is hard.

Heat and light reveal

hard edges of weather-worn

aging paving stones.

Clouds breed like rabbits

as the ground drys and hardens

cracks start to appear.

Everything has

its season. Dying roses

mimic cumuli.

Look up to catch luck

as it showers down unseen

but all embracing.

A heavy sky lives

in pond water. Thumb sized frogs

wait for a downpour.

Even a dead tree

has a purpose: as a host

for new leaves, regrowth.

Clouds scud without thought

landing on those that will last

just a short season.

Although delicate

the poppy petals hang on

as wind sweeps through corn.

A piercing of red

shoots through the green, pepper-hot

petals make their mark.

Above the beet field

clouds muscle in on blue sky.

Underfoot: cracked earth.

In a courtyard an

enamel bath sits and waits

for the Summer rain.

Uninterrupted

the scenery says its piece

to the croquet lawn.

The heat’s everywhere -

flames licking the air, the sun

returning their touch.

The gerberas look

up to the sun, are shocked

to find only one.

Over cups of tea

we look at the stars, but can’t

predict the winner.

An open goal leads

to quieter streets and pubs.

On one side blue sky.

An open door leads

on to heat and light, green leaves -

a rose petal falls.

A helicopter

flies overhead as dogs bark

and a Hoover dies.

Red and yellow ducks,

sitting pretty, pose for snaps

and ignore the heat.

A new day bristles

as the green parakeets screech.

With the heat comes dust.

Nightfall – lovers find

their comfort in marble wings,

the sky darkening.

A crush of petals

balanced on a single stem.

Night takes hours to fall.

This bright yellow smile

rules my kitchen. Cut flowers

know their time is short.

Roots swim up for air,

shoot leaves lighter than water.

A flower opens.

Crab claw, nettle sting -

spiked and sea-tossed, gaze skywards

to the scattered stars.

The sun continues

while white clouds float out to sea.

The beach is empty.

As the white boat glides
along the wide brown river
bare branches shiver.

A trumpet, a train, a gull.
In the distance a footbridge.

Pinpricks of snow fall
on the abandoned roadworks.
The pavement is cold.

Tomorrow oysters, people
and the clink of champagne flutes.

The recollection
of Christmas is distant, caught
between seasons, waiting.

Today a sharp Winter sun,
a hint of what’s to come – warmth.

As the white boat glides
along the wide brown river
bare branches shiver.

A trumpet, a train, a gull.
In the distance a footbridge.

Pinpricks of snow fall
on the abandoned roadworks.
The pavement is cold.

Tomorrow oysters, people
and the clink of champagne flutes.

Yemisi Blake and I met at the South Bank to talk about the next phase of his guest blogging.

Yem shows me his notebook. We discover that we both like hands and feet.

We talked about how some of the ideas behind ON are informing the way he notebooks. The H00die Project is looking great and we’ll showcase more of it here in the coming months.

We also decided to write a collaborative piece together on Open Notebooks. I suggested a renga and Yem liked the idea. This is a collaborative Japanese form, that utilises the 5-7-5 syllabic 3-line format of the Haiku, followed by a 7, 7 syllable 2-line verse that shifts the poem on. Check this site for more on renga.

Now here’s the EXCITING bit. Yem is off on a train trip round India with 350 creative young entrepreneurs.

Yem's Route Round India

So the Renga will document his travels with a post from each of the 13 stops. We’ll be moving from the season to season, hemisphere to hemisphere as I respond from the snow-driven streets of Blighty, incorporating the moon, a flower, love – as the renga form dictates – and subverting it by posting ‘haiku photos’ to complement each iteration.

I was inspired to write a Hai Bun recently: this is a short piece of prose/prose poetry followed by a haiku. The haiku’s relation to the text is non-linear, so it addresses the underlying heart/energy of the poem rather than the narrative. I’ll be writing some Hai Bun here – but replacing the closing haiku with a photograph that performs the same function. This is how we’ll aim to use the photographs in the renga.

Yem will text/email me his verses and images from India and I’ll upload them here. I get to start, as I invited Yem to take part in the renga. I’ll do that in a separate post so the piece builds.

I can’t wait. I’m off to start the first installment.