Bath Spa Train Station Renga Party

Images©Alan Summers from the very successful Bath Spa Train Station renga party on Platform 2 in Dashi Sushi Bar on Easter Monday April 5th 2010.

Scribing Lines

The Bath Spa Railway Station Renku
Hosted by With Words (Alan Summers & Karen Hoy), with Marshall Hryciuk & Karen Sohne, Canada, and friends.

scribing lines across the fields Easter journey		Sue Shand
hopping on one foot grandchild counts ducklings		Karen Sohne
the empty home a kettle whistles as a train rumbles past		Zoe Blackmore
while bonfire smoke drifts through a bare tree		Andrew Shimield
clouds I have even lost the moon		Mimi Thebo
as I admire Monet's Haystacks		Alan Summers
lemonade glasses framed by the half-done jigsaw		Karen Hoy
where the leaves meet blue leaves of sky		Liz Brownlee
ice cream how long out of the freezer		Karen Hoy
longing for love's lick dirty dishes pile high		Tracey Kelly
the damp spot on my expensive shirt a night's tears		Alan Summers
the world is suddenly interested in Portuguese Water Spaniels		Mimi Thebo
off Somalia the Captain's alive and three pirates dead		Yu Yan Chen
crows pierce the crystaline horizon		Tracey Kelly
inside the cat curls snug on the warmest chair		Zoe Blackmore
half moon my wife's unvarnished toenails		Alan Summers
the tree rattles bones the wind shakes		Liz Brownlee
today I smelled the earth		Mimi Thebo
abundant the elderflowers bow low		Sue Shand
light on the froth below the weir clouds float		Liz Brownlee
as I drink through the harp in my Guinness		Sue Shand
piggyback he sees his dad's view		Alan Summers
two lines summer Alan and Karen		Tracey Kelly
sunbathing on the roof the radio DJ tells us to roll over		Karen Sohne
rockets explode in showers of golden rain		Sue Shand
Orion's Belt I sneak another notch in mine		Alan Summers
this diamond day we set the date		Sue Shand
my new babe’s gaze joins my heat to her's		Liz Brownlee
the length of the valley the bullstag's trumpeting		Andrew Shimield
Jupiter's moons through someone else’s telescope		Karen Hoy
roasted chestnuts start to appear on London street corners		Alan Summers
snakes in the beard of the sun god		Karen Sohne
light on the river shimmering on the green tour boat		Marshall Hryciuk
tiny butterfly over the new lawn		Karen Sohne
in a swirl of blossom the dustmen fill their cart		Andrew Shimield
letting go of the balloon with a gentle wave		Yu Yan Chen

 http://www.viewbath.co.uk/restaurants/dashi-sushi-info-47423.html

 Alan Summers was roving renga poet-in-residence during Japan-UK 150.

Marshall Hryciuk ((President of the Haiku Society of Canada 1990 – 1997)) was sabaki for this event.

Karen Sohne (Toronto, Canada) acted as the scribe.

The event stayed at Dashi Sushi Bar for a number of hours, before moving onto a nearby park in Bath.  Early evening we moved to the famous Raven pub in Bath for refreshments and to perform the completed renga.

Karen Hoy assisted me as co-host at the event, so we could look after the needs of all the participants while guest sabaki and scribe Marshall Hryciuk and Karen Sohne from Toronto, Canada, could concentrate totally on the renga aka renku.

With Words (myself and Karen) insist that participants in a renga enjoy themselves in a relaxed atmosphere.  As a kasen renga can take six hours, there was plenty of opportunity for people to visit museums and galleries, do a little shopping, and generally come back in their own time.

all photographs©Alan Summers
Please contact me at admin@callofthepage.org for permission to use any of these photographs. 

Scribing Lines Renku

journal publishing credit: 

Notes from the Gean vol 2 issue 3 (December 2010)

https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/c0d09891429cb8cb1defd0dd94316b4f.pdf

  

Petals in the Dark, 

15 renku led and edited by Marshall Hryciuk 

(catkin press, 2015)  

https://claudiaradmore.com/2015/07/15/publishers-hat-renku/


*Also please still feel free to drop a few short poems about trains into the comments box.

www.callofthepage.org

Alan & Karen offer online courses in haiku and its related genres.  If you would like to know more drop us a line at: 
admin@callofthepage.org


More about Karen & Alan:
https://www.callofthepage.org/about-1/

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