(See a famous Japanese example of renga.)
The Renga is an ancient Japanese form, still in use today. In a renga any number of poets collaboratively write linked verse. For brevity I will simply explain the version we will start with. This is NOT a classic Japanese renga. It is, rather, a simplified version that discards most of the many Japanese rules. Since the form originated as a playful game for poets, it seems appropriate to start with the bare bones and allow it to grow and evolve from there, letting it adapt to our Nebraska sensitivities, and perhaps even alter those sensitivities a bit in the process.
Our initial Renga Rules (really the initial guidelines). Below, I mention the syllable count to help clarify the idea of Japanese renga. Here we will be more open. No syllable counting required here! For now simply try to keep it “short” (3 lines and haiku-ish) and “shorter” (couplet.) Do not expect every poem, or even most, to be very good. Even Basho said that! If we take 3 minutes to compose each poem of a 35 poem (or “stanza”) renga (36 + one “hokku,” or “haiku”, which is the first stanza), that would take 105 minutes, or almost two hours. Brief and raw will be best! Batting them off when possible might be even better. For simplicity, I will call these by the Japanese form, even though we will alter that.
The Renga begins with a haiku. We might provide this, unless someone else wants to. In a renga the first haiku is known as a hokku—which is all Basho ever wrote!
The next verse is a couplet that completes the haiku (creating what the Japanese called a Tanka, the oldest and most basic poetic form in Japan.)
The third and fourth verses repeat the sequence.
Note that this makes three unique poems, using four stanzas, written by two or three poets:
Stanza 1: (5-7-5) (a “haiku” or other brief 3 line poem, preferably having some imagist component, in some way referring to a season, even if obliquely—nature, football, liturgical, agricultural, etc., and perhaps evoking, though not stating, a mood.)
Stanza 2: (7-7) (a couplet.)
Stanza 3: (5-7-5) (another “haiku.”)
Stanza 4: (7-7) (another couplet.)
SO:
Stanza 1 + Stanza 2 = Poem 1 (5-7-5-7-7) (This is called a tanka in Japan.)
Stanza 2 + Stanza 3 = Poem 2 (7-7-5-7-5) (I am not sure if this even has a name in Japan.)
Stanza 3 + Stanza 4 = Poem 3 (5-7-5-7-7) (Another tanka.)
Keep repeating this pattern: 5-7-5 followed by 7-7 followed by 5-7-5 followed by 7-7 followed by, well, etc.
NOTE: Each “linked poem” (i.e.'sub-poem') should be unique—they “link” via the previous stanza, they do not “continue.” All the stanzas together make a renga.
We would like to adhere to the Japanese rule that some allusion to a season via word or phrase (called a Kigo in Japanese) be included in each stanza.
These are composed in real time, with all of the poets sitting together. We will set a standard Bashoesque limit of 36 stanzas. Given that there are two forms (haiku & couplet) it will be desirable to have an odd number of poets in a group, so that when a round is done any given poet will not have to compose the same form again, over and over and over!
Sarah and Mark Fairchild will keep a copy of the renga and will not publish it, but we will provide copies to any participant that wants it. No one should publish the renga unless the entire group agrees to it. Each poet can polish their own contributions as separate, unique poems to do with as they desire.
One last note. The Japanese renga began as a poetry game. I think of it as a serious form, and it is—but only upon reflection. The poetry itself is whatever the group composing it wants it to be. That can be playful, punny, bawdy, reflective, awed, or whatever fits the mood. But it ought to be relaxing and fun to do. Everything else derives from that!