Try Your Hand at Renku

Renku is a beautiful type of poetry where a single poem is linked throughout by form. The tradition originated in Japan almost a thousand years ago, but is alive and well and practiced today throughout the world.

Why don't you try your hand at renku? Let's look at a few lines from poet Debra Kang Dean's "Patchwork of Selvage," a renku poem she wrote to document her experiences over the course of an entire year. (Check out her web site at http://www.debrakangdean.com/ )

Snow. A few red pines
Edging the lawn outside this
Window's forty panes--

In a white world, they harbor
Islands still green where they stand

Between earth's blank slate
And the slate-gray sky. Aging
Is like this: whittled

Down by gusts, fallen away
All dead wood, what's left bends then

Rights itself even
Under the burden of snow,
Winter's argument

This poem in its entirety is significantly longer, and you might enjoy giving it a read sometime. But notice the format of the renku, which Dean demonstrates so beautifully:

•  First verse is a haiku: 1st line - 5 syllables, 2 nd line - 7 syllables, 3 rd line - 5 syllables
•  Second verse is: 1 st line 7 syllables, 2 nd line 7 syllables

So give it a try for yourself!! Write a renku, maximum ten verses, and send it on in.

Submit as many entries as you'd like, but each entry must be by separate email and accompanied by separate payment. Winning entry will be judged on creativity and "poetic quality."

First Place wins:

• $25 cash

• Publication in Writer Online

• Free Paperback - Race for Terre Bluff (Political Fiction)

Second and third place will win writing software, a free eBook of Race for Terre Bluff in PDF format and publication in Writer Online.

Deadline Thursday, November 11, 2004 12pm EST, USA

No submissions accepted after deadline.
NOTE: We'll send a single confirmation of receipt of your payment.
WOL can't be responsible for communication problems or missing emails. Entrants should use the "confirm receipt" option in their email program. WOL cannot refund entry fees for entries that are not accompanied by a submission.

Pay the contest fee, then email your submission to: contests@writeronline.us

After paying your entry fee, please make sure you send in your submission. Write the title at the top. Please put your full name, postal address and email address at the bottom. This provides WOL with identifying information.

NOTE: If you do not receive notification that your submission was received, please send it in to the email address listed below again. (We often receive entry fees without entries.)

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Contest fee : $5.00 if paying by credit card; $7.00 if paying by U.S. check; $12.00 if paying by non-U.S. check.

If paying by check, please make out in the correct amount (!) and send to:

Mary Anne Donovan
468 Hinchey Rd.
Rochester, NY 14624

With receipt of payment, all Writer Online contest entrants receive a coupon for a $10.00 discount on purchase of the Writer's Software Companion .

Contest Rules

Submit entries by email to contests@writeronline.us . (No attached documents, please). Winners will be announced in our next issue.

Please include your name and mailing address in your email. Prizes and publication offered only to entrants who have are WriterOnline subscribers and who have paid their entry fee.

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By submitting, the entrant certifies that the work is original. Please do not write follow-up memos regarding the status of your submission.

Writer Online reserves the right to publish and archive any winning contest entry without further notice to the writer. Cash awards will be made by check and mailed within 30 days of the publication of the winning entry.