Poetry Play Thursday

Welcome!

First off, I’d like to thank everyone who has submitted a poem for our National Poetry Month Contest!  I’m blown away by all of the talent!  Keep ‘em coming!  The deadline for submissions is Sunday, April 26th and the winners will be announced Thursday, April 30th.  Please indicate which category(ies) to use when submitting your poems.  Thanks!

We’re going to try something different today and I hope you’ll play along.  The poetry form we’ll work with this week is:

Renga

Here is an excellent explanation of the form from Poets.org:

“Renga, meaning “linked poem,” began over seven hundred years ago in Japan to encourage the collaborative composition of poems. Poets worked in pairs or small groups, taking turns composing the alternating three-line and two-line stanzas. Linked together, renga were often hundreds of lines long, though the favored length was a 36-line form called a kasen. Several centuries after its inception, the opening stanza of renga gave rise to the much shorter haiku.

To create a renga, one poet writes the first stanza, which is three lines long with a total of seventeen syllables. The next poet adds the second stanza, a couplet with seven syllables per line. The third stanza repeats the structure of the first and the fourth repeats the second, alternating in this pattern until the poem’s end.

Thematic elements of renga are perhaps most crucial to the poem’s success. The language is often pastoral, incorporating words and images associated with seasons, nature, and love. In order for the poem to achieve its trajectory, each poet writes a new stanza that leaps from only the stanza preceding it. This leap advances both the thematic movement as well as maintaining the linking component.

Contemporary practitioners of renga have eased the form’s traditional structural standards, allowing poets to adjust line-length, while still offering exciting and enlightening possibilities. The form has become a popular method for teaching students to write poetry while working together.”

I thought we’d try the more contemporary form and allow for any line-length and no syllable restriction as long as there is a flow in meter (poetic measure; arrangement of words in regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines or verses).  So, the first stanza should have three lines, the second stanza is a couplet (or two successive lines, usually rhyming and having the same meter).   For example:

WHERE THE TRACKS USED TO BE

Ten thousand shades
of tender green
beside the Langley road

__remember when there was dancing
__and Bellinis and tealights

they would only lay
the flat clay roof
at the full of the moon

__then darkness
__with echoes remaining

fingerprints
of coal dust
on the stripped door

__straight out of the sauna
__we roll through new snow

the timeless
and hungry arms
of emptiness

__in her dreams she always slept
__in a different bed

he knew
all his wishes
would never come true

__white lilac is pompom
__and poodle and first communion

hand-made soap
wrapped in paisley
on the wicker platter

__if my love were jam
__it would be fig and ginger

moonseeds —
pine cones tumbling
out of the sky

__everyone has the same cold
__that goes then comes back

at death
she might
let go

__I imagine your favourite jumper —
__green cashmere, tudor-sleeved

nose to tail
the lurcher pup
wriggles free

__a mother skips with her child
__where the tracks used to be

wild daffodils —
smaller, softer
more golden

__at sunset
__all we caught was rain.

a nijuin renga in summer
Garden Station, Langley,
18 June, 2006 

I’ll start our first official Texty Ladies renga, you follow up.  Just type your stanza in the comments and then whatever we’ve got at the end of the week will be typed up and posted here for your enjoyment (or amusement as the case may be! ).  The renga explanation says the language is usually pastoral and related to the seasons, nature and love.  Maybe we can throw a little of all three in here, along with some sauce!  

A wispy violet feather
tucked between her breasts
bounced gaily as she strolled the walk

Yes, I did just use an adverb!  The ball’s in your court now.  Have fun!

Please let us know if you try this at your own site as we’d love to see what you’ve created!  Here is a form or example of the rules for a traditional spring renga if you’d like to try following it or get some ideas:   http://www.ahapoetry.com/rengfmsp.htm.

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To explore Renga further, try these sites:

Renga

Renga.com

The Wordshop – Japanese Poetry Patterns

~ Pamela

Tags: Japanese poetry, poem, Poetry Play Thursday, renga