missing a wife
putting on bamboo grass
a bachelor’s life
drinking tea in the garden
the new day stretches ahead
path of the sun
the hollyhock leans into
early summer rain
drops pattering on petals
a welcome break to silence
a dragonfly
unable to settle
on the grass
reflects rainbows in its wings
confusing whirr of colour
above all else
a dependable chinquapin tree stands
in a summer grove
the bachelor lights his pipe
memories rise with the smoke
each with its own light
fireflies in the trees
lodge in flowers
no sparks in an empty bed
as the sun sinks in the sky
Matsuo Basho Kim M. Russell, 12th September 2018
My response to Renga With Basho Hineri #8 missing a wife
Today we have a new episode of Renga With Basho Hineri (with a twist). Chèvrefeuille tells us that Matsuo Basho wrote a lot of haiku during his lifetime (around 1000) and that there is one haiku written by him that isn’t finished, the third line is missing. We don’t know whether the haiku was really unfinished or whether the third line has been lost.
In this episode we have been give six haiku written by Basho, one of which is the unfinished haiku. The goal is to create a renga by adding our two-line stanzas (approximately 14 syllables) as well s completing the unfinished haiku. We may choose the order of the haiku.
writing in north norfolk 
Fabulous series! (@–>–) (@–>–)
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A Bachelor’s life is awesome I think. I have enjoyed the reading of your renga. I like that third line of Basho’s unfinished haiku. Well done ..
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Than kyou, Kristjaan. I’m afraid I’m still having problems with the Internet at the moment and so am unable to post. I’m reading and commenting whenever I get a connection until the telephone engineer arrives this afternoon. I hope he can fix it.
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