A Fountain of Dreams: Haiku - Tanka - Senryu - Shisan Renku Haiku

This book is a compilation of American-style Japanese poetry written by George Mason students in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Program Summer, 2025.We first took on a "finish-the-haiku" challenge to break the ice. I wrote the first two lines, and invited participants to write a third line to link to the first two, and shift the scene and complete a haiku. We did another fun exercise later in the course where we took our original "finish-the-haiku" snowy mountain haiku and added two longer lines to make them into tanka, to introduce the concept of tanka, with fun results!

Subsequent sections of this book were created as participants gained familiarity with haiku and tanka writing forms. They launched their own forays, exploring nature with haiku, and wrote senryu on the subject of global warming. Then they added human connections through tanka.The final phase of the course centered on crafting collaborative Shisan Renku (12-link) renku in groups of 3-4 poets, using traditional Japanese guidelines. These include: use of all four seasons in the poem, using each season only once, including a moon verse, a blossom verse, and two love verses. The love links must represent two different types of love.

As with all renku poems, each verse must link to the previous, yet shift to another topic. The poem must not be a narrative, nor tell a coherent story, which was initially a challenge for Western poets. Ultimately, their Shisan renku creations are a wonderful set of poems that crowned our weeks together!

It turns out we had many gifted photographers to illustrate our poems, as well. Please enjoy this creative endeavor as much as we did creating it!

Dr. Kathleen P. Decker, Editor and Instructor