Party Poetry; or, the Renga

Happy Form Friday, friends!

If you've been tuning in at home, you might have seen our post on the haiku not too long ago. Even if you missed it (which we hope you didn't! It's fun! Seriously, take a second to see what refrigerators and poetry have in common in our post), you're probably familiar with the Japanese form's mechanics: the good ol' 5-7-5 syllable structure. But just when you thought you'd be done after three lines of poetry...we're busting out the haiku's older sibling: the renga.

credit: j van der meij via unsplash

This is the kind of tranquility I imagine when I think of Japanese poetry.
Don't mind me, just getting lost in some landscape...

What you might not know about the renga is that it actually came before the ever-popular haiku, and it's been around for nearly 700 years. Because the opening stanza of the renga consisted of three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable count, it's thought to have paved the way for the haiku to take form; eventually, that first stanza began to stand on its own as a work of poetry. This 5-7-5 structure was usually followed by a 7-7 syllable stanza, consisting of only two lines, and as the decades passed, most renga tended to consist of 36 stanzas.

What you also might not know about the renga is that is was a collaborative form of poetry, usually written by at least two people. In fact, its name even means "linked poem." The renga is essentially party poetry, if you think about it. Really. People would get together and write poetry for fun. The guest of honor would kick things off with their poetic genius, and everyone else in attendance would add their own piece, writing within the theme established in stanza number one. Can we take it back to the good ol' days?

As with any form, as the renga has worked its way further into the modern day world, it's taken on a little more flexibility; in fact, when your editors wrote a renga together in college, we simply took turns writing linked haiku. We decided to disregard the alternative 7-7 stanza when we wrote. And that's OK! The two important takeaways for this form of poetry are collaboration and continued theme, so if you feel like changing the syllables (or anything else), you're free to do so.

Now that we've dropped some knowledge, tt's time to ditch your creative solitude, friends. Grab a poetry buddy (or two, or three. Hey, let's start a party.) and get writing!

1. Pick someone in your group to start the renga. They can set the theme on their own, or they can use the photo above for a little inspiration.
2. Pass that first poem to the next person in line and have them add their own work, linking the poems together. Keep on goin'.
3. ??????
4. Profit. (or, you know, a completed poem.)

Happy writing!