Renhai Reflections 17: Three-way #1, Ice-Glazed Branches

Zhanna & Hortensia

[Note: In the last post I mentioned we'd be looking at the three-way Renhai. However, I mistakenly said that the "Miles Around" Renhai with Hortensia was the first renhai of the three-way. It was in fact the first renhai Hortensia and I had written together. The actual first renhai of the three-way was written by Zhanna and Hortensia.]

A three-way Renhai consists of three inter-related Renhai written by three different writers in which each pair of Renhai share a common line in their middle verses. In other words, each writer writes one middle line that is used in two of the renhai. It is as if the Renhai have a shared DNA and are true siblings even though they have different and distinct themes. Here is the first Renhai in this three-way series:

Ice-Glazed Branches
A Renhai by Hortensia Anderson (ha), and Zhanna P. Rader (zr);
Dec 13 - Jan 3, 2008

Scrape of blades —
by a line of evergreens
the snowplow stops. /ha

Crows perch on ice-glazed branches — /zr
skaters at the pond hold hands. /ha

Frozen river —
an early-bird fisherman
drills a hole. /zr

Theme: Ice
Season: Winter
Link 1 to 2: Blades
Link 2 to 3: Crows / Early bird; Pond / River
Link 3 to 1: Drilling / Plowing

The first verse has a pun in it — the most basic stop in ice skating is called the "snowplow stop".