Attention: A Solo Junicho

Attention

Clouds in the distance
In the field filled with stubble
Some patches of ice

Before setting off for work
He scrapes the car windows clear

Time to get in gear,
It will be a busy day
There is lots to do

The building construction crew
Balancing on the high beams

She's amazed, it seems
He always knows what to say
To show he loves her

A gift of a new sweater
Days before the first cold breeze

The bright sun deceives,
It's lacking a basic warmth,
The November air

"Please do not bother, and spare
Me all your lame excuses."

He just refuses
To notice things like blossoms
On the apple tree

Moonlight, a common beauty,
Windows rattle in the wind

It happened again,
A dream of freedom and peace
It seemed very real

They partake of a fine meal,
A gathering of old friends

Sanctuary: A Solo Junicho

Sanctuary

After forty years
Dwelling in the winter light --
The aged couple

Contemplating retirement
Watching their grandchildren play

Under the array,
The web of cherry blossoms,
Sitting quietly

As the mind wanders freely
While taking a morning break

He is never late,
His table is always ready,
At the corner cafe

Leaves scatter, falling away,
A cascade of red and gold

The moon, bright and bold,
Traverses the Leo sky
And a few thin clouds

"Turn it down, it's much too loud,"
She's looking out the window

Thoughts, like seeds, can grow
And change the course of a life,
The course of the world

The new house plans are unfurled,
He is very proud of them

"We'll preserve the glenn,"
A summer sanctuary
For birds and wildlife

The hermit, free from all strife,
Listens to the fading wind

Used Books: A Solo Junicho

Used Books


A cold, cloudless sky
The first sliver of the moon --
A few dry leaves fall

On the yard of the new house
Where the fences meet

Frost and ice remain
Even in the afternoon
The shadows are thick

Ruins from an endless war
Shelter a forbidden kiss

At the monument,
Moss upon the marble slabs
Obscures the writing

He gathers a bag of books
To take to the used bookstore

Wafting through the door
Apple blossoms in the wind
Scattered on the floor

In the local laundromat
She sorts her clothes by color

These kinds of routines,
Small chores done regularly,
Keep the world sane

"I don't mean to interrupt,
Would you mind coming outside?"

Beside the back door
A single red rose in bloom
Under the hot sun

A few clouds in the distance --
Perhaps there'll be rain tonight

Slow Snow: A Solo Junicho

Slow Snow


Before the sunrise
Walking in the autumn mist
The air cool and still

Underneath the roadside bush
The patient fox is waiting

By the garden shed
In the corner of the yard
Near the compost heap

Blssoms of the apple tree
In the clear afternoon light

She reads a novel,
The one her best friend gave her,
And a cup of tea

Scenes from long ago places
Are recalled more often now

The aged couple
Sitting in the hot night air
Beneath the full moon

A flock of angels takes flight
A brief wind raises some dust

"Wait just a second.
I would swear I heard something,"
Then he shakes his head

A blackbird, perfectly still,
Perched on the telephone wire

Over the hay field
Thick, gray clouds are gathering
As night approaches

The first flakes of the season
Falling slowly to the ground


Comment: I thought I would start putting a map, or guide, at the end of my posted renga. I'm thinking this might help some readers, particularly those who are new to renga. If readers have any feedback on this idea, let me know.

Verse 1: Fall/Autumn
Verse 4: Spring and Blossom Verse
Verse 7: Summer, Moon and Love Verse
Verse 12: Winter Verse

It is unusual to have a single verse do triple duty, like verse 7. Double duty is found with the combination of spring and blossom, and often moon and fall are also combined. But three is unusual. As I mentioned in a previous post on the Junicho form, I use a chance procedure to place topics in a Junicho. I role a 12-sided die and assign topics according to the roll of the die. I don't always follow the roll; I'll rearrange the order to provide room for shift, or for esthetic reasons. And the opening verse is always the season I am actually writing the Junicho in.

This time "7" came up three times; for Summer, Moon and Love verses. At first I thought of tinkering with the arrangement, and then I decided it made a nice challenge to see if I could combine all three. So that's how verse 7 came to do triple duty.

Kyrie: A Solo Junicho

Clouds in the night sky,
Leaves on the streets and sidewalks,
A dog barks two times

Intermittently the light
Of the full moon permeates

The graceful branches
Of the blossoming plum tree
Moving in the wind

From the window of the house
She observes her neighborhood

A cat in the shade
Sleeping in the mid-day heat
Beside the old fence

They discuss their wedding day
And who they want to invite

Walking in the cold,
Passing the ice filled fountain
In the city park

Raccoons inspect the garbage
When nobody is looking

Behind the houses
And in all the alleyways;
Life is there as well

He writes a nervous letter
To an old monastery

High in the mountains
Accessed by a two-lane road
And a long footpath

Kyrie eleison
Kyrie eleison

Bridge: A Solo Junicho

Bridge

Golden poplar leaves
Bright in the light of sunrise
In my neighbor's yard

New statues of ducks and quail
Clustered around the front door

Snails are hiding
Underneath the wooden steps
It is damp and dark

"Let's talk about this some more,
Bring it out in the open."

Slipping on the ice
The small car comes to a stop
Next to a parked truck

"I can't rely on you,"
She returns the ring he gave her

The office lobby
Sun pouring in the windows
And afternoon heat

Next to the espresso stand
Six or seven apple trees

A few petals fall
On the coats of passersby
They don't seem to mind

The full moon between some clouds
Traversing the Aries sky

His recurring dream,
One that he looks forward to,
In the land of calm

An angel and a goddess
On a bridge across a stream

Retirement: A Solo Junicho

Slowly evening falls –
The heat of the day lingers
Into the darkness

The barest lunar sliver
Doesn’t even cast shadows

Stone cold earth, rock hard,
With a dusting of thin frost
Sparkling in headlights

They exchange diamond rings,
“And with these rings I thee wed . . .”

Contrapuntal threads
Of the Baroque orchestra –
Patterns in the air

Planets spin around the sun,
The river of the cosmos

The coffeemaker
Automatically turns on
Before he wakes up

As the mornings get colder
And as the nights get longer

She tends to remain,
Even after waking up,
In her spacious bed

Holding on to a brief dream
That steadily slips away

After forty years
Retirement has arrived,
Now he has some time

To contemplate the plum trees
When they blossom in the snow

Junicho Variations

Junicho Variations

There are two 12-verse Renga forms that are in widespread use today. I have previously posted about the Shisan. Here I’d like to say a few words about the Junicho. It was offered by Shunjin Okamoto in the late 80’s, I believe, as a loose, open, form that Renga practitioners could accomplish in an hour or two. The following Guidelines are adapted from William J. Higginson’s online Renku site:

A Junicho consists of twelve stanzas,
There is no front or back, no sections,
One blossom stanza, which may be any flower in any season – it need not be cherry blossoms,
One moon stanza, which may be any sort of moon in any season,
About two love stanzas, in any position,
About half the verses will be seasonal (a pair each for spring and autumn, one each for summer and winter),
Progression and diversity are the essence of Renga. Accordingly, a wide variety of things in nature and the world of humans should appear.

I would add:

The opening verse reflects the season of composition.
The principles of link and shift are maintained.

My personal experience with the Junicho is that it is more difficult a form than the Shisan. The Shisan gives the poet a tight formal structure, a scaffolding, that is easy to grasp and that the poet can pour verses into. The Junicho gives one more freedom; but one has to make a lot more decisions, such as where to put the seasonal verses, how to structurally pace the Renga to give a pleasing overall effect, etc.

On the other hand, the Junicho treats time in a way that I have found enticing. The biggest esthetic difference for me between the Shisan and the Junicho is that in the Shisan time is the medium upon which the Renga journey takes place. Time in a Shisan is like the water in a river, or the pavement of a road. In the Junicho time is like a field spread out before the poet and reader. One can begin with summer, proceed to winter, from there to spring, and from there to fall. Or one can compose a Junicho that follows the natural order; but that would be by chance, it is not required. I like that feeling of the field of time and when it is done well the Junicho can be very satisfying.

I have developed a procedure that is kind of eccentric, but here it is for those who might be interested in the Junicho. When writing a solo Junicho I start with the opening verse, reflecting the season I am writing in. I then list the required topics I’m going to have to incorporate into the Junicho. It’s summer now, so my opening verse would be a summer verse. Then the list would be as follows:

Fall, Winter, Spring, Moon, Blossom, Love.

I then take a 12-sided die and throw the die to determine which verse will contain which topic. I place the verse number beside the topic. I then make adjustments. For example, seasonal verses have to have at least one intervening verse so if the die says 4 for Fall, and 5 for Winter, I would shift Winter to 6, or perhaps later. Also, if the number 1 comes up, I toss the die again so as to keep the focus of the opening verse clear.

Usually when I follow this procedure there are interesting intersections that happen. Like the Winter and Love verse will be the same verse and I try to follow through on this, taking it as a challenge.

I allow myself to tinker with the results to achieve an overall balance. Then I proceed following the outline. The advantage for me of this procedure is that it takes me out of my own mind and allows for possibilities of ordering that I would not have thought of on my own. This kind of procedure would not be suitable in the more formal and structured Shisan, but it seems to work well for the Junicho. Give it a try if you like. If you don’t have a 12-sided die, you can use any method to randomly assign the topics. Come up with something that works for you.

Cool Morning: A Solo Junicho

A cool June morning
Even though it is summer
It still feels like spring

A crisp, clear, empty blue sky
Not even a bird flies by

It's a weekday, but
There's hardly any traffic;
Silence as absence

A Sagittarius wind
Briefly shakes the wooden gate

A cascade of leaves
Tumbles past the closed window
And the vase of roses

She pulls her knitted cap down
Over her ears and forehead

An indifferent dog
Sniffs its way through spilled garbage;
But it's just old clothes

He hopes his shoes will last through
The whole of a harsh winter

The rising full moon
Somehow seems malevolent
When one wants shadows

The last to leave the office
Locking the door behind them

A workplace romance
Since they are both unmarried
There is much laughter

They still like to tell storeis
Of those days when they first met

Thoreau Upon the Rivers: A Solo Junicho

Cool summer morning
The blue sky promises heat
Later in the day

Gemini insects call forth
A contrapuntal texture

The not quite full moon
A space station by its side
Glides through the heavens

Seen through the sick-room window
After drawing the curtains

She brings some flowers
And a package of incense
To her mother's bed

The hours move so slowly
And the silence feels so thick

Dinner with a friend,
"I didn't see it coming."
Some tears in his eyes

Digging through a Pomo mound,
Shards and remnants and some bones

Once again telling
The immigration story
Of their grandparents

A cascade of autumn leaves
And the high tide shifts the sand

Geese traverse the sky,
A journey of many miles,
And the setting sun

Thoreau upon the rivers
With a brother who's never named

Open Door: A Solo Junicho

Good Friends:

Both the Shisan and the Junicho are 12-verse Renga forms. The Shisan is more strucutred; there are four sections, each section following the natural seasonal flow. So if a Shisan begins in spring, the second section should have a summer verse, the third a fall verse, and the fourth section a winter verse. The Junicho is more free form; there are no sections and the order of the seasons does not need to follow the natural flow (this is actually the norm for Renga; the Shisan is the only Renga form I know of where the seasonal flow follows the natural order). Here is a Solo Junicho I recently wrote.


Open Door

Sunday is restful
Among the new leaves birds are
Greeting the sunrise

Clouds gathering in the sky,
And a gentle, steady wind

As the snowflakes fall
The mailman drops some letters
While crossing the street

The cell phone's incessant ring
Interrupts concentration

"Let's do lunch today,"
She says to a new client,
"That new restaurant?"

The magnolia blossoms,
Luxurious and long days

He checks his email --
Why isn't there a response?
Why is she silent?

She likes him, she really does;
But she needs some time alone

Hiking in the woods
On a two-week vacation
The first in five years

Night is quickly gathering
The shadows into darkness

There's no moon tonight
Only the string of street lights
When leaves start to fall

He slowly opens the door,
An abandoned cat walks in


Best wishes,

Jim