Bindii Japanese Genre Poetry Group Meeting 6 August 2016
Our meeting started at 12.30 pm, in our usual venue of the Box Factory. Lee Bentley led the group for a session on renku, starting with an outline of the history of renku and then talking about some of the principles of renku writing, chiefly link and shift. We looked at the translation of an older Japanese traditional renga and then attempted one of our own, with Lee acting as sabaki. This was a collaborative effort, starting with a haiku offered by Dawn Colsey. Members then offered successive verses and there was much interaction as to the most appropriate choice for each verse as it came up, and debate on whether it linked with the previous verse and also shifted sufficiently in meaning from the second previous verse. At the end of the meeting we had achieved the first six verses of an experimental renku and members felt they had gained some knowledge of the techniques involved. Several of those attending had not attempted haiku writing before this meeting, so there was als