I wrote this piece a few weeks after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, an immediate emotional response. I modelled both the form - the lengths of the three sections are in a 5:7:5 ratio - but also the unpremeditated method of writing on mediaeval Japanese poetry. The renga of the title are long serial poems with multiple authors; the originating author would write an opening stanza of 5:7:5 syllables and pass it to a fellow poet, who would respond with a stanza of 7:7 syllables. a third poet would continue with another 5:7:5 stanza before passing it on to a fourth and so on. This piece is the opening stanza of a renga to which nobody has responded.
