In those years -- 9th - 12th centuries -- when tanka was so fashionable, poets competing in contests revived an old Chinese form by linking tanka poems together in a novel way. The poem was "broken" in half so one author wrote the 5-7-5 part and another responded and finished the poem by adding his (mostly men did this though it was first done by a woman!) 7-7 part. Instead of stopping there, someone else wrote a new 5-7-5 poem to "answer" to the previous 7-7 link and they named the genre renga -- meaning linked elegance. This proved to be so much fun poets were soon writing poems of 1,000 and even 10,000 links.

~ as quoted elsewhere...


edit: yeahbut, ifn I understand this, the form is:

1. a 5/7/5 syllable construct
b. a 7/7 syllable link
iii. a 5/7/5 response

... then b & iii alternating until we change the steenkin rulze a few centuries down the track?

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

*EDIT: The following fractal [below] is not a tanka, but it may be a good example of what is not a tanka.

Words are to thoughts
Frothing surf atop waves
Tide comes, tide goes

* Please excuse the distraction. I missed the beat in Maverick's hokku.

Wonderful continuance/writing plutarch, but what's with the 3 line link and a 4/6/4 syllable construction?... or am I pronouncing things differently these days..?

****

If the "stinking rules" are to be at least *explored, plutarch should have written a 7/7 "link" (extension of mav's first three) and I should have completed the cycle by adding a 5/7/5 construct, and thereby setting up the next cycle (which someone could have then added a 7/7 link to)... and so on... alternating... and so on.

Is this correct, Mav?

Sorry, Musick. I didn't study the rules. Maverick posted them after I made my flawed entry. Looks like I leapt to contusions [again]. Pls disregard my entry. [Tankas are a lot tougher than they appear at first scan.]

Yeah I'm with you Musick, if Plutarch wants to write the part that is traditionally supplied by the ladies he should at least give lip service to the rules and connect Maverick's 5/7/5 with a pair of 7 syllable lines that have some continuity of meaning but which also sets up a directional change.

Go ahead and finish this round if you want to, Musick and then we'll get an authentic woman to do the 7/7 trick.

"Tanka a lot?", themilum.

I don't even know where to begin to finish.

Howza-bouta:

********

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes

Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas

WOW! Whatever it is, I love it, musick.

Ok, Musick and Plutarch, times up! On short notice I was unable to find a proper lady available on this forum so I guess that just this once I'll dress the part and fill the bill with this little nicety until we can scare up a Awad broad who can write sevens.


Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Hot lava words stilled by streams.
Do floods wash pebbles downstream?

I sensei bin tanka'd into this.

Blast! This Howz-bouta is getting out of hand.

Ok, I'll drop my rock so everyone can continue with our
ill-started Tanka with Musick's 5/7/5 needing sevens...

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes

Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes

Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas

Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes

Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas

Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly

Sea eels verb each noun                seven
So what if fish tell lies, Yang?       swiftly
Seals live on white lies, Yen.         slowly

Come on then Milo, help us benighted mortals out, here ~ what does this mean?!

What does it mean? What does it mean? You tell me what Plutarch's joining sevens meant, then I'll gladly tell you exactly to the ninth nuance, what my tanka meant.
I told you more than once that we needed a woman to supply the connecting sevens; when men write it their egos get in the way and it doesn't make any sense.

Listen, I made those three loosely related anagrams using three of Plutrachs words just to move the game along. So shoot me.

Why don't you go out and find an extension of "Attentuate too swiftly.

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes

Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas

Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly

Sea eels verb each noun seven
So what if fish tell lies, Yang? swiftly
Seals live on white lies, Yen. slowly

Slippery tongues obfuscate
The truth and lie in all hues

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes

Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas

Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly

Sea eels verb each noun seven
So what if fish tell lies, Yang? swiftly
Seals live on white lies, Yen. slowly

Slippery tongues obfuscate
The truth and lie in all hues

Pure truth absent hue
Lie enfolds germ - tainted truth
Waves pound shore, cleanse truth.

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes

Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas

Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly

Sea eels verb each noun seven
So what if fish tell lies, Yang? swiftly
Seals live on white lies, Yen. slowly

Slippery tongues obfuscate
The truth and lie in all hues

Pure truth absent hue
Lie enfolds germ - tainted truth
Waves pound shore, cleanse truth.

Truth's diamond never corrodes
But refracts to each their hue.

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly

Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes

Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas

Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly

Sea eels verb each noun seven
So what if fish tell lies, Yang? swiftly
Seals live on white lies, Yen. slowly

Slippery tongues obfuscate
The truth and lie in all hues

Pure truth absent hue
Lie enfolds germ - tainted truth
Waves pound shore, cleanse truth.

Truth's diamond never corrodes
But refracts to each their hue.

Flood cedes, growth anew
Diamond of truth commands view
Wisdom pores, like dew.

1 Pebble in the stream
   Lava flowing on the hill
   Our words change slowly

   Frothing surf atop the waves
   The tide comes and the tide goes

2 Words are given thoughts
   which may melt old rocks and clog
   streams which feed the seas

   Seven seas brim too slowly
   Attentuate too swiftly

3 Sea eels verb each noun
   So what if fish tell lies, Yang?
   Seals live on white lies, Yen.


   Slippery tongues obfuscate
   The truth and lie in all hues

4  Pure truth absent hue
   Lie enfolds germ - tainted truth
   Waves pound shore, cleanse truth.

   Truth's diamond never corrodes
   But refracts to each their hue.

5 Flood cedes, growth anew
   Diamond of truth commands view
   Wisdom pores, like dew.

   Dewdrops catch morn’s light - reflects
   And grows a new sun’s image

Dewdrops catch morn’s light - reflects
And grows a new sun’s image
Thank you Mav for a lovely image.
It's been too lo9ng a day for me to write pietry so I woh't reply. (I would edit that but reading the original you can see what kind of day I had)

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly
Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes
Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas
Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly
Sea eels verb each noun
So what if fish tell lies, Yang?
Seals live on white lies, Yen.
Slippery tongues obfuscate
The truth and lie in all hues
Pure truth absent hue
Lie enfolds germ - tainted truth
Waves pound shore, cleanse truth.
Truth's diamond never corrodes
But refracts to each their hue.
Flood cedes, growth anew
Diamond of truth commands view
Wisdom pores, like dew.
Dewdrops catch morn’s light - reflects
And grows a new sun’s image
Deep within earth's bosom life
Begins. Joy! Sunrise!
What urge, beauty? Seed divine.

> sow divine?

ah, Empress of Blandings, no doubt? :)

[/We will now return to to your scheduled programme]

re "sow divine"?

Hey, Maverick. I thought I would sow a little deeper. "So divine", so shallow. :)

I was trying to figure out why you were talking about pigs...

Now I get the Empress of Blandings allusion, Maverick. Very clever. [Thanks to Etaoin, as well.] :)

So it turns out Fred Patzel was "the hog-caller champion of the Western states" who hollered his way into a story in Vanity Fair in 1926 which Wodehouse must have read 'cause "Pig - hoo-o-o-ey" ended up along with the Empress of Blandings in a story Wodehouse wrote in 1929 with the unlikely title of "Fish Preferred".

Wodehouse and The Real
Empress Of Blandings

The second part of my talk begins with the question - if the Empress of Blandings was, well, conceived if you like in Pig - hoo-o-o-ey by way of Fred Patzel and Vanity Fair, when and how did she become the staple element of life at Blandings, the centre of every Blandings Castle story? The 'when' is easy - that's Summer Lightning or as you call it Fish Preferred, which first came out in Spring 1929. The ‘how' is much more complicated.

Now, Pig- hoo-o-o-ey was first published in July l927 but there is a letter to Townend from Wodehouse, written I recall, in late l926, in which Wodehouse says he is trying to work out a new, full-length Blandings novel, the one we now know as Fish Preferred. It is the third Blandings novel but it is a very significant book in Wodehouse's career.

http://www.eclipse.co.uk/wodehouse/pighooey.htm

well, once again, mav has said it better than I... his allusion sailed right over my head... I was wallowing...

I yield, Maverick. I can't have a sow hogging my "sunrise".

Ergo: "seed divine"

Just changed it. :) [Thanks for collaboration.]

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly
Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes
Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas
Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly
Sea eels verb each noun
So what if fish tell lies, Yang?
Seals live on white lies, Yen.
Slippery tongues obfuscate
The truth and lie in all hues
Pure truth absent hue
Lie enfolds germ - tainted truth
Waves pound shore, cleanse truth.
Truth's diamond never corrodes
But refracts to each their hue.
Flood cedes, growth anew
Diamond of truth commands view
Wisdom pores, like dew.
Dewdrops catch morn’s light - reflects
And grows a new sun’s image
Deep within earth's bosom life
Begins. Joy! Sunrise!
What urge, beauty? Seed divine.
Green shoots break through the black earth:
Fibrous flags of green, still furled.

Pebble in the stream
Lava flowing on the hill
Our words change slowly
Frothing surf atop the waves
The tide comes and the tide goes
Words are given thoughts
which may melt old rocks and clog
streams which feed the seas
Seven seas brim too slowly
Attentuate too swiftly
Sea eels verb each noun
So what if fish tell lies, Yang?
Seals live on white lies, Yen.
Slippery tongues obfuscate
The truth and lie in all hues
Pure truth absent hue
Lie enfolds germ - tainted truth
Waves pound shore, cleanse truth.
Truth's diamond never corrodes
But refracts to each their hue.
Flood cedes, growth anew
Diamond of truth commands view
Wisdom pores, like dew.
Dewdrops catch morn’s light - reflects
And grows a new sun’s image
Deep within earth's bosom life
Begins. Joy! Sunrise!
What urge, beauty? Seed divine.
Green shoots break through the black earth:
Fibrous flags of green, still furled.
Beauty is truth. Truth
Beauty. That is all ye know.
All ye need to know.

John Keats (1795-1821)
Ode on a Grecian Urn

http://snipurl.com/cy5v

About $300.

Many years ago I worked with a guy who spent a lot of money at auctions, and he used his MasterCard to pay for a Greek funerary urn, and I got his mother to find the receipt, which I had framed with the title "Owed on a Grecian Urn." Sometimes it's thankless being a punster but someone has to do it. Even if you have to eat pottery de foie gras!

Really. I'm china quit. That was a fiesta resistance.