heron

Frogpond 36.2 • 2012

Museum of Haiku
Literature Award

Haiku & Senryu

Essay on Form

Haibun

Haiku Sequence

Renku

Book Reviews

From the Editors

wordmark

A Cup of Snow

by

Hortensia Anderson, New York, New York
John E. Carley, London, England (sabaki)
Alan Summers, London, England
Carole MacRury, Point Roberts, Washington
Michael Dylan Welch, Sammamish, Washington

laughing with delight
a cup of snow
a moon-eyed girl

John

half gone, the last jar
of ginger jam

Carole

roadside shop
the chain-saw artist
asks me my sign

Michael

a faint glow in the sky
before sunset

Alan

first chill night
the smell of cedar
in the quilts

Hortensia

tic by toc
the leaves begin to fall

John

***

dab, dab, dabbing
at her cards the old lady
yells “bingo!”

Carole

a mosquito bite
on the toddler’s cheek

Michael

their second date
she drinks him
under the table

Alan

we roll with the waves
of the water bed

Hortensia

and bathe eche veyne
in swich licour
of which engenderé́d . . .

John

the scent of wild rose
in the birthing suite

Carole

***

deepening depression
the telephone
stops ringing

Michael

a late-night diner
the hum of the fridge

Alan

constant as the
poverty of poets
autumn moon

John

three generations
peddling fallen walnuts

Carole

leftover candy
the pumpkin’s toothy grin
starts to sag

Michael

candle wax obscuring
the way of light

Hortensia

***

tamarisk honey
the el-tarfah of dry tears

Alan

with each breath
the desert’s fire and dust

Carole

searching for an airplane
without wings

John

                     affair the after
way wrong the home coming

Michael

each snowflake different
his wife’s kiss

Hortensia

the lack of a sharp knife
and a whetstone

Alan

***

abattoir—
the apathetic gaze
of man and beast

Carole

from rock to rock
the grizzly’s nose

Michael

the sniper scope
adjusted
on the Canon Sure Shot

Alan

fighting through the shed
to reach the mower

John

we fill our pails
with plum blossoms
and then?

Hortensia

the spring dawn
spills down the mountain

Carole
 
 

Notes

el-tarfah ~The manna of the Sinaitic peninsula is an exudation from the “manna-tamarisk” tree (Tamarix mannifera), the el-tarfah of the Arabs. At night it is fluid and resembles dew, but in the morning it begins to harden. The Arabs use it like honey or butter with their unleavened bread.

and bathe eche veyne/in swich licour/of which engenderéd . . .
~This verse is in Middle English. It is taken from the second couplet of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, generally dated between 1340 and 1370. As with all texts of this antiquity there are many variants. A recent, re-versified translation by A.S. Kline gives the full couplet as:

And bathed each vein with liquor of such power
That engendered from it is the flower

 

Afterword
John E. Carley

“A Cup of Snow,” written by e-mail in the first months of 2008, is one of the earliest examples of the rokku form in English. The rokku is a mold-breaking type of renku sequence originated in the early years of this century by the Japanese poet and critic Haku Asanuma. The form is modular rather than having a set length, permitting as many verse movements as the participants wish to complete, up to six. Season and seasonality are important, but not in a structural manner; the same is true for moon and blossom verses. A high rate of change is guaranteed as nothing may endure for more than two verses. Also, the penultimate movement of any rokku is inclined towards experimentation. I served as sabaki, but the renku effectively wrote itself, the very different personal styles of the participants being vital to the effort to break new ground. Sadly, one of us is no longer present, though her writing, as ever, stands out from the page. So we dedicate this renku to Hortensia Anderson, who passed away in May of 2012. For further information on rokku in English, please see <http://www.renkureckoner.co.uk>.

 

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