36 Verses and an introduction to linked poetry (renku 連句)

Introduction to Linked Poetry

Traditional linked poetry (連歌renga) is a Japanese verse form usually written by a group of poets. Though not as well known as haiku (俳句), haiku itself originated in renga writing practices, being written as possible opening verses for renga writing sessions. It is helpful to know that out of serious linked poetry, with high literary aspirations, there emerged a more popular form called satirical or non-standard linked poetry (俳諧の連歌). Modern linked verse (連句renku) takes even more liberties with the form, including short sequences of 12 or 20 verses, and becoming more stylistically open in terms of tone and poetic lexicon.

Writing linked verses has always been a social occasion as well as an opportunity to engage a literary tradition centered around waka (和歌). Depending on the host who selects the format and rules, judges and even edits the verses during and after the writing session, the poetry can vary from dry and formal to buoyant and risqué. Participants may range in number from one—solo renga (where the social element exists in a Bakhtinian sense of implied dialogic others)—to as many as are allowed in a given session. Even a basic understanding of the principles of writing renku and rules can be tedious to learn. Knowledge of season words is necessary, though the specifics are flexible (especially in non-Japanese verse). In our writing sessions we discovered some Japanese seasonal associations did not correspond with Chinese or English ones.

Verses written in English have lacked both a mature matrix of poetic associations developed in Japanese traditional verse and also the opportunity to write against this tradition as such. English imitations of Japanese verse forms often tend toward the naïve, sentimental and mundane. It is not because these verse forms are inherently confined to smiling happy reflections on the everyday; it is due to stereotypes about the nature of Japanese verse—depicted since the 1950s in haiku handbooks as simple verses reflecting a Zen (Buddhist) moment, which gave license to confused, ahistorical absorption in details as profoundly other and beyond explanation in words. That said, the haiku tradition developing in the English-speaking world today, even with its Orientalist misreadings of Japanese poetry, at times shows signs of beginning to mature into a form capable of manipulating words so as to evoke matrices of associations similar to those found in Japanese, as well as tapping Anglophone modes of literary production. This bodes well for anyone trying to write Japanese forms in English, for the audience will be increasingly prepared for the variant modes of expression found in this intertextually rich poetry of allusion.

In leading this session with two students in an experimental creative writing class, I encouraged distant links between verses (to avoid being too literal) and tried to mix in an undercurrent of implied love topics, if only to assert a variant reading of the form, which like other Japanese forms in English, has been pegged “nature poetry.” For me, the forte in Japanese poetry is its nuanced love poetry, which derives from the sense of love cycles depicted in Heian (平安) court poetry and narratives (物語). Emphasis on the seasons and love in renga derives from the predominance of these themes in the seminal first imperial waka collection, the Kokinwakashū (古今和歌集905). Reading this collection and later ones can give potential renku writers a sense of the poetic tradition from which it hails, and something to parody and write against.

The primary structural element distinguishing linked poetry is simple: every given pair of verses should offer some possible illusion of continuity, but every third one following this pair should break away clearly from the first verse of the three. The renku tumbles forward in this globally disjointed, but locally connected manner. It is important to note that its very structuring inhibits narration. Narrative elements are to be encouraged only in isolated details found in a single verse or a pairing, and not over the course of the 36 (or 100) verses of a typical sequence.

Readers interested in how to order a sequence may readily find examples and templates online, along with bilingual Japanese-English season word lexicons. The main idea in ordering the sequence is to vary the appearance of a handful of verses on a given season (in no particular order of the seasons) and to have some non-season-specific verses appear between the season-specific ones. The appearance of strings of verses on love is also important, and certain places for the moon, flowers and so forth may also be included. An important rule to keep in mind, especially in shorter sequences, is that one should avoid repeating words and images.

I hope readers may enjoy our experiment in linked poetry and be inspired to gather some friends and write your own verses in any language you like. As it is a first attempt for us as a group, we beg your kindness.

Bao De-le (Dean Brink), July 2, 2008, Hualien

[Appeared in Frogpond 33.1]

36 Verses

bd – Bao De-le
cc – Charles Chang
ck – Claire Ku

1
winter
Bao De-le

The withering wind
brings down the leaves—your fingers
touch my brow and eyes

2
winter
Charles Chang

Plum blossoms—the only tracks
floating away on the ice

3
winter
Claire Ku

The last snow
did not cover the lost shoe
of the fisherman’s son

4
winter
cc

A north wind blows nets up high
stars fade away in the winter night

5
non-seasonal
bd

Approaching the gate
your Pekinese barking,
father’s light goes on

6
non-seasonal
ck

Streamlight Stinger searching darkness,
The daffodil shadows grew still

7
moon/autumn
cc

Retiring diva
Luna removes her makeup
little by little

8
autumn
bd

Out of the fog for how long
overhead—migrating birds

9
autumn
ck

Stepping off the train
heads down, a chilly wind blows
their coats open

10
autumn
cc

Quails sneaking behind the bush
are still swallowed by sunshine

11
autumn
bd

Chilled to the bone
I peddled twice as far
as we’d gone long ago

12
love
ck

Fresh footprints in the mud
I follow your path alone

13
love
cc

Halfway through the woods,
beside the singing creek
nothing but your shoes

14
love
bd

Forgetting our breakfast date
my phone stops ringing at lunchtime

15
non-seasonal
ck

Chirping birds drown out
the call to board the last train—
a lost traveler

16
non-seasonal
cc

Under the only light
the homeless start to gather

17
New Year
bd

On a hill deep in
the forest preserve, we look
out on the first sunrise

18
New Year
ck

Lighting firecrackers in blowfish
washed ashore, the rich boys run

19
non-seasonal
cc

Chromatic
toxic clouds follow instep
with homo sapiens

20
non-seasonal
bd

At the edge of the forest
mother still rings the bell

21
Spring
ck

Deep-fried baby trout,
pickled radish, cheap sake
for father and friends

22
Spring
cc

Under cherry trees, the East wind
comes along, blows off blossoms

23
Spring
bd

While we ate fiddleheads
at the dive facing the waves—
an old couple sang

24
Spring
ck

The drunken sailor whirling
his red scarf—the tranquil night

25
Spring
Cc

Maiko walk away
from the okuya, kimono
sweep the stink away

26
non-seasonal
bd

Bamboo block the view from the bridge
where we once took Polaroids

27
non-seasonal
ck

Crossing the dried riverbed
the tea-picking lady
goes into the hills

28
love
cc

Doves fly off in the downpour—
the wood shivers in the wind

29
love
bd

Our umbrella torn,
North Shore so far—and you say
you love rainy days

30
love
ck

Soggy socks under my chair,
you go smoke in the bathroom

31
non-seasonal
cc

The old clock stopped—
I count the minutes alone
the day you went away

32
non-seasonal
bd

In short-sleeved shirts again
our arms brushed as we walked

33
Summer
ck

Last time at your house
new tea steaming between us
we drank in silence

34
Summer
cc

Greeting the flying fish,
coconut palms wave from shore

35
Summer
bd

Boys in uniform
corner an eel in the canal—
hold it overhead

36
non-seasonal
ck

Bended wing hanging loose,
a waterfowl soars upward