BARE BONES School of Renga


		*BARE BONES* *School of Renga* Jane Reichhold



		Lesson Four First Steps for Learning to Renga The idea of starting to work on a renga with a stranger may be somewhat intimidating, but help is readily available. Before there was renga with many links there was the renga form of only two parts. It is basically a tanka written by two persons. It looks like a tanka, acts like a tanka but if it takes two persons to write it the form is called a tan renga – short linked elegance. Tan renga can either begin with the three-part stanza or the two-part stanza. A nice way of complimenting someone who sends you a haiku is to respond with your link to make a tan renga. old master weighing air spills some - Bambi Walker Steiner Zen students laugh swallow it whole - Jane Reichhold Take some time practicing your renga skills by picking haiku that you admire or have enjoyed by other authors. To them add your link of either two or three lines. Remember this is just practice and you need the permission of the other author if you decide to publish any of the work. The Barest Bone of Renga If you are feeling there that is no way you could remember all these rules about renga, there is even more help. By writing a renga on a sheet where the links are numbered, with indication of whose turn it is, along with hints as to what comes next, the writer can concentrate on writing instead of worrying about missed rules. Here is a sample form indicating the most basic rules for a renga you can copy and enlarge. If you wish to have copies of the forms designed for each of the seasons based on Bashô’s examples, they are available online at: http://www.ahapoetry.com/rengfmsp.htm After your renga is written, you can delete all the information in the brackets to make it seem that you understood everything perfectly. It is perfectly acceptable for you to write a renga by yourself. The work is then called a 'solo renga' and has been done for centuries. Again the use of the template can help you get the moons and flowers in the right places. Traditional Kasen Renga [title - often taken from the first link] By a – [author’s name] Started: Finished: 1. [ 3 lines] hokku 2. [ 2 lines] wakiku 3. [ 3] daisen [should end with a verb] 4. [ 2] 5. [3 MOON ] 6.[ 2 ] 7. [ 3] 8. [ 2] 9. [ 3] 10. [ 2] 11. [ 3] 12. [a - 2] 13. [ 3] 14. [ 2 MOON] 15. [ 3] 16. [ 2] 17. [ 3] 18. [ 2 ] 19. [ 3] 20. [ 2] 21. [3] 22. [ 2] 23. [ 3] 24. [2] 25 [ 3] 26 [2] 27. [ 3] 28. [ 2] 29. [ 3 MOON] 30. [2 ] 31. [ 3] 32. [ 2] 33. [ 3] 34. [2] 35. [3] 36. [ 2 ageku/ closure] Form Copyright © Jane Reichhold 1989. [Permission to copy. ] BOOK RENGA If you are still feeling too shy to find an actual person with whom to do a renga, there is one more opportunity for you to practice a renga with someone else. You can take a published renga and remove the links of one of the persons and you rewrite the renga with your own words. This you cannot publish unless you get permission from both persons, but it is a fine exercise. You can always use your links in another renga. Another way to practice working with the strangeness of someone else's ideas is to do a book renga. You find a book of an author's work that you have noticed has haiku-like phrases in it. Using the form above, you write in the links of one of the particpants by using phrases from a book. Werner Reichhold has done these with Basho, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein. This is an excellent way to study the works of authors you admire while at the same time having a chance to hold a conversation with your favorite author Previous lesson Next lesson
Sample of a book renga - a renga written with links taken from a book written by someone else. LEAVING GOLD Virginia Woolf Werner Reichhold clouds on the neck of swans leaving gold coins in a farmer's palm during the depression cold water over the mackerel in the bowl white and yellow winding the cat weaves its mantra hand cherry colored fingernails by the moonlit waters she moves her eyelid how much depends on water steam pipes mother earth my whirlpool skin in touch rock the brown basin my ship may ride the waves a lady pirate fingertips go up in smoke Virginia's cigarette white stones one picks up by the seashore pollen blown how long away from mating time I am relieved of hard contacts and collisions slash dress car key case deep purple off they fly fling of seeds sure a boy one more part on the ultrasound my roots go down I am all fiber dancing beach sand swallows prints of naked feed all tremors shake me pressed to my ribs sisters their hair bamboozeled the apple tree stark in the moonlight two gardeners one with spray one with manure given a greener glow to green things up the blade bursting a tulip we come back from a walk night gowns blown tight the bread rises in a soft dome under a towel uncountable fingers magician's hand on rabbits I who long where the swallow dips her wings for marble columns lighted stardust present and parted rattle of wheels on the pavement horses plod home hanging the shirt out on a line to sweat the sun sharpened a white blind by the bedroom window slicing to figures' single movement a shadow falls on the path elbow bent up hill the breath interrupted she said the moor is dark beneath the moon the wolf's howl passing it on Virginia Woolf's links are unchanged text taken from her book The Waves, Copyright 1931 by Harcourt Brace Jovanowich, Inc. Links in italic are by Werner Reichhold ###################



		Page and Materials Copyright © Jane Reichhold 2011. Please give credit when borrowing.
	The above picture of Basho at a renga party was painted by Buson and added to the text of Basho's book Oku no Hosomichi - Narrow Road to the Far North. It was scanned from a facsimile scroll of the original work purchased at the Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan.