OtaRenga "On Learning Japanese Poetry" Round 1

We got several responses to our call for submissions. We took a few and strung them together to make this first round of this Renga:

​ 
 
One thousand years of
Japanese poetry and
no time to learn it...
                                ~(Hokku)
 
Foreign in my mouth
the forms are awkward to me
and resist my touch
yet I love them so, these songs
growing in my heart-soil.
 
                                (~ hennepinhaiku )

Removed by culture
Time and language yet we strive
To join together
With our poets of the past
No matter how far removed
                                (~ Sharon Dockweiler)
 
By the ocean ideas flow
poetry begats more poetry
Seagulls soar above
the poet includes their beauty
new lines of a poem soar skyward.
 
                        (~ Gene McParland)
 
 
 
 
Let's keep this renga going! Write your tanka verse responses (5-7-5-7-7) to this first round of verse!
Please submit your responses to

[email protected] 

please include your name and a 1-2 line bio in the 3rd person.
We'll keep adding corresponding verse and create a great poem together! If it gets big enough we might even make a book out of it! 

​This round's deadline: 11/11/16