The Renga Journey

Good Friends:

I am calling this blog "Renga Roads" because I think of Renga as a journey. Think of taking a canoe trip down a river. Each time one goes down the river one sees the same things, the same turns in the river, the same contours of the scenery, the same sights and roughly the same sounds; but each time those things have changed. The seasons, the weather, human and natural activity such as storms and sunshine, shift the scenery. Rain may make the river swifter than the last time one went down this river. And each person who takes this river run will go through the same course; yet because they are individuals and their perception is shaped by their history, memory, expectations, and biology each person will have a different interpretation of the trip.

A Renga resembles this kind of journey. Like a river run marked by certain landmarks, all Renga are marked by certain scenes. These Renga Scenes, or Renga Landmarks, are the verses for the Moon, Blossoming Fruit Trees, and Love. Renga forms have specific locations for these verses, just as on a River run there are going to be certain points where specific scenery appears. But each Moon verse is slightly different, and each verse on Love, and all the verses on flowering Trees, are somewhat different. The variety is inexhaustible. And so each time in our Renga journey when we come to the point in the journey where there is a Moon verse, we experience both the satisfaction of recognition and the surprise of a new perspective.

The other category of verses that all Renga contain are the seasonal verses. These often interact with at least two of the above mentioned verse scenes: the Moon and Blossoming Fruit Trees. For obvious reasons, the flowering tree is inherently a Spring seasonal verse. In traditional Japanese esthetics, a full moon is inherently an autumnal moon, unless specifically named other wise (such as "the summer full moon"). The seasonal verses in a Renga set the journey in motion; they are the current of the Renga River. The seasons are the medium upon which the reader of Renga journeys.

Renga is my favorite of poetic forms. At first it seems complicated, and in some ways it is. But taking a canoe trip also seems complicated when one is unfamiliar with it. Even a hike in a forest seems complicated if one has not done it before. Once one becomes familiar with canoeing, then one knows what to bring and what to expect. The same applies to Renga. Once one has some familiarity with the landscape of Renga, the Moon, the Flowering Trees, the Love verses, and the flow of the seasons, one begins to have a sense of what to expect and one embarks on the journey with a sense of eager expectation.

Best wishes,

Jim