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Poetry for Progressive Singles: Your Responses Requested! February 2, 2012

I  continue to wish for a pithy slogan that progressive singles can chant during all the protest marches that we also don’t have.  We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it is great but, unfortunately, taken. We’re here, we’re single, we don’t have a jingle. But that’s ok, because we have Renga!

My intrepid co-blogger Lisa introduced me to this traditional Japanese poetry form, which the 17th century poet Basho believed embodied the notion of “refraining from stepping back” (this is according to Wikipedia, not Lisa, whose knowledge does have some limits). Because the spirit of Renga is moving forward in constant change, what better artistic venue is there for paradigm-shattering singles advocates like us?

Copious Readers, let’s use the Comments feature to create an ongoing collaborative Renga about singlehood–its culture, challenges, quirks, aspirations.

Renga works like this: The first poet composes a haiku, which consists of three lines, with five, seven, and five syllables respectively. For example:

Coming home alone

Velvet silence suits me fine

My own blessed space

Then someone else does the next verse, which contains two lines, each with seven syllables.

Just one problem: If I trip

On the stairs, cats will eat me.

The next participant adds a third verse, again with the 5-7-5 pattern.

Such stereotypes—

Dead alone, pity, selfish–

Scare us to marriage

Copious Readers, who will determine the narrative flow by adding the next verse (7-7)?

–Christina

Photo credit: Mark Brannan