I had a thought--let's revive the haiku game, but using some old favourite posting game tactics. (Okay, what I actually thought is that 'there needs to be a good haiku game on the Inn' then I thought 'wait, I remember there being one--wasn't there?' then I found Fletch's longest haiku ever, and now I am justifying myself with the point--this game is different (really, I swear).

So anyway, I now invite all you Innmates to a rousing game of Renga (I know it says 'Haiku' on the link! Hush! Let me finish!). A renga (linked poem, in Japanese) is a long poem composed of varying numbers of verses called tanka (ancestor to the modern haiku). A tanka is composed of five lines, following the syllable count
5-7-5-7-7
(you can see how the haiku originated from that, I imagine).

Now, the magic starts when the rules for this game were made up in medieval Japan. There are a fair number of rules (i.e. how many lines must exist between recurrences of a topic, etc.) and it is generally found to be easier with fewer rules, but for now the most important rule is how to play: Each person begins a stanza, completing a typical haiku of 5-7-5, then the next person finishes it (with opportunity for mischeif, wit, sagacity, and more between) with the 7-7 line, before beginning their own.

I don't think there are any rules for unruly punctuation in the previous line, so if you can't work around the fact that some one put a period where you want to continue on, let your good judgement and the potential smites be your guide. (Oh, and for your own mid-line punctuation, you can enjamb to your heart's content, running sentences over line ends without stopping each line with a comma or period.)

To begin us off:
I write a tanka for you;
A demonstration.

Now you understand this game,
Why haven't you started yet?
--

The graceful cat soars
Over the slick countertop:
The garbage can rings.

Fly the threaded twine away,
Cat follows without delay.

---

Walk the path so fair,
In-betwixt darkness and light,
Hidden key is there.

The gloaming hangs in the air;
No hesitation: take flight.

Alright, now that I have time to post again, I'll finish off what I started. Common rules for renga gatherings include a minimum number of participants, (well, hopefully, for us ), a minimum number of stanzas between returning to the same topic, reserving certain stanzas for the moon, and others for flowers, one rule that says the word insect may only occur once per hundred verses, and many, many more. Also, traditionally there was no concept of rhyme in Japanese poetry as a whole (indeed, a rhyme, accidental or intentional was considered a fatal flaw to the poem) but in the same vein as the sonnet "If by dull rhymes our english must be chained", we'll stick to freedom of verse.

And to clear up how connections are supposed to be made a bit: the 2-line cap must be connected to the 3-line hokku, but the way it does this is left for the following poster to decide, such as through cause-effect, comparison, contrast, or even linked in surprising or puzzling ways.

On that note, the rules for our game are as follows: Finish the previous hokku with your somehow related cap and then start a new hokku, both with roughly the right number of syllables. (That's it! No crazy insect rules or subject-restrictions! Have fun!)

The wild Grugg hungers.
The scent of crayons lingers:
There will soon be blood.

It is apparent, Rera,
You and I are alone here.

---

Moonlight sleeps on the
window sill, dreaming of night:
shapes made of shadow.

Interminable dance of
dark and not-dark in this space.

Sun rising over,
Deep, dark forest of trouble,
bring light, hope and joy,

The light by which we all live
Steadfast in our unity

-----

Seven syllables
Quite a challenge this has been
I feel like Yoda

use the force young one you must
let the energy fill you

-- -- -- -- -- --

"not dead but dreaming"
deep in the darkness he stirs
enter Cthulhu?

Fear not, I am no Old One,
Just me here, the cuttlefish ^.^

---

Pitter-y-patter
whispers the rain on my roof.
A lovely grey day.

The still clouds blanket the sky,
Heavenly tears keep falling.

---------------------------------

Silence befalls us.
Posting games lack their players.
The Inn misses all.

Yet all is well, the games will,
always retain their wonder.

------

The point Tuned-Out raises,
is a good point of interest,
Where have we all gone?

All come and go over time
Tis the ebb and flow of life

------------------------------


Oh insomnia;
Even when filled with such joy
The gears keep spinning

Never to waste time sleeping,
but also never to dream.

---------------------

Across the plain rides,
The lonely cavalier,
Seeking his great foe.

But alas, his greatest foe....
Is the void within himself

-------------------------------------

When Dark surrounds Light
With Shadows swallowing all
The Light shall fight on