Renga – Swan Dive (qbit/sarasouthwest)

October 9, 2017October 12, 2017 ~ qbit ~ 55 Comments

Our swan meets Nikki Papandreou,
The Greek Olympic diver

Eye to eye and nose to beak
They keep their poise and watch each other

She waddles to the edge of grace
Submerged, he breasts for air

Wings cut through air,
Arms slice through water

How fierce the thrill
That twists as one?

How strong the force
That separates them?

Jackknifed time entangles
Their fall as flight through space

Becomes reunion of bone and skin and
Hand and feather, a merging and emerging

Yet such ecstasy, transgression,
Cannot queen the body long

This body’s reaching out for that
Still point, where rise turns into fall

The ancient moment, amphibian mind –
Zeno’s paradox suspended

A moment free of up, of down, all
Movement frozen in a blue eternity

Conspirators: qbit, sarasouthwest
qbit’s Renga Challenge – Swan Dive
For Jilly’s October Casting Bricks

Renga – Swan Dive (qbit/Jilly)

October 8, 2017October 9, 2017 ~ qbit ~ 56 Comments

Our swan meets Nikki Papandreou,
The Greek Olympic diver

Brandishing a cygnet ring
Bargaining with Poseidon’s wave

“Nikki” she laughed, “suburban demi-god.”
“Prove your flipcraft of the Argonauts.”

Oh, Siren, thought he, in the face of her derision
Fifty heroes shall stand and see

A white Medusa, her neck a downy serpent –
“For Lysistrata and the Amazons!”

“Apply the wrench, my lovely wench”
The Golden Fleece denied

Head over heels, they mirror the gods
Unbounded by the sea or heaven

A Promethean dive from dizzying heights
a mythological echo and splash

Their wild swan chase to raise Atlantis,
Oysters, smoked in their beds

Ocean crossroads deal carved in stone
Volcano ash scatters the sweetest atone

Conspirators: qbit, Jilly
qbit’s Renga Challenge – Swan Dive
For Jilly’s October Casting Bricks

Renga Challenge – Swan Dive

October 8, 2017October 8, 2017 ~ qbit ~ 23 Comments

Our swan meets Nikki Papandreou,
The Greek Olympic diver

[Your couplet…]

[Repeat 5x]

Administration, Thoughts, Plots, Plans &tc:

Proposed as a Renga of unstructured couplets for two people, but certainly fun if folks want to do one with more people, although then we’d probably want 20 couplets instead of 10.

I’m hoping that by keeping each writer to two lines, our push/pull on each other stays strong, but leaves enough room to develop a new idea, pivot, etc.

PLEASE SIGN UP IN THE COMMENTS BELOW, and we will work out logistics and kick off the working versions in another post.

Group Renga for Jilly’s October Casting Bricks Challenge

More background and thoughts on Regna: here.

Road of Ashes (Charley/qbit)

September 21, 2017September 21, 2017 ~ qbit ~ 31 Comments

The following is a voice recording of the Renga that Charley and I wrote, called “Road of Ashes” The link to the written text is here, but it really comes alive when read out loud.

Renga – “Road of Ashes” Charley/qbit

September 17, 2017September 18, 2017 ~ qbit ~ 5 Comments

Charley and I take on The End of Times and Quo Vadis of the soul in this Renga full of vigorous language and vibrant imagery! Make sure your seat belt is fastened!

Life in Portofino

qbit has taken up this crazy challenge! I will update our ongoing collaboration through 10 couplets. Stop by and see what insanity he & I cook up! If you are interested in joining in, stop by the original post for On the Road of Ashes and let me know! This is a part of the September Challenge of Casting Bricks; join us! (plagiarized from Jilly’s blog almost verbatim)

I was on the way, on the way
and suddenly, precipitously, I wasn’t

Tourmaline voices cracked like stones in a fire
Broke my path wide into rust or grey choices

To labor as herdsman over sheep seeking knowledge
or waste my life recumbent on a hammock

Such are the sheep of Yeats
The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Cry out agonies in languages better gauged
to bear pain than in lingua hominibus

Vulgate promises
That will not redeem

Poets…

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