Week 1 - Group Poem

[Prof. Sky Alton]

You usually think of poetry writing as something people do by themselves. But in fact, people have been coming together to work on the same poem for centuries. One particularly famous form is renga which emerged in Japan in the medieval period.

Let’s have a go ourselves. I’ll give you 2 lines to start off with and every person who comes after me will need to contribute 2 lines of their own. You can post more than once but each post must be 2 lines long.

There are just 2 rules:
• Respect what the person before you was doing. It’s okay to change direction but try to do it in a way that flows from what the previous person wrote.
• Don’t post back to back.

You’ll earn 4 beans per post for your first 5 posts (that's 20 overall) if you make them by 23:59 HOL-time on the 20th of August.

Let’s go…

A chill breeze blew
And the moon sailed high…

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Across the dark,
Deep, and open sky

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

A deer looked up
awed, and wondered why

[Kat Montana]

How doth the night sky glow so bright
Does the lives of our ancestors create this light?

[Rose Dove]

Or is their legacy
more than we can see?

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

And does their promise
More than pay the price?

[Emily Spencer]

Have we honored them or brought them shame?
Honored glory or a tarnished name?

[Janne Halla]

Wherever a true answer hides,
darkness waits with no more lights.

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

A shooting star, the falling snow
The fire fades, then faintly glows

[Janne Halla]

What treasures does the star keep close?
a laughing heart or face morose?

[Rose Dove]

The star gazes back
Into the night black

[Janne Halla]

A person looks at it in awe,
suddently out comes a claw.

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Some monstrous sound goes ‘click-click-CLACK’
Then, worst of all… a mighty caw.

[Janne Halla]

Black feathers glinting in the night,
giving us all a mighty fright.

[Rose Dove]

The group known as an unkindness
Unkindly frightening us

[Janne Halla]

Maybe they're just misunderstood,
wanting to better their standing.

[Katherine Laurier]

And we're led astray by misconceptions
And the wrong impressions

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Attempting formless peace
Through tight-lipped concessions

[Dibyarup James Potter]

With open hearts, we might transcend,
And find in darkness, a true friend.

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

For what won’t glitter may still be gold
Observed by any who may be so bold