Poetic Form: Renga   Renga, meaning "linked poem," began over seven hundred years ago in Japan to encourage the collaborative composition of poems. Poets worked in pairs or small groups, taking turns composing the alternating three-line and two-line stanzas. Linked together, renga were often hundreds of lines long, though the favored length was a 36-line form called a kasen. Several centuries after its inception, the opening stanza of renga gave rise to the much shorter haiku. To create a renga, one poet writes the first stanza, which is three lines long with a total of seventeen syllables. The next poet adds the second stanza, a couplet with seven syllables per line. The third stanza repeats the structure of the first and the fourth repeats the second, alternating in this pattern until the poem’s end. Thematic elements of renga are perhaps most crucial to the poem’s success. The language is often pastoral, incorporating words and images associated with seasons, nature, and love. In order for the poem to achieve its trajectory, each poet writes a new stanza that leaps from only the stanza preceding it. This leap advances both the thematic movement as well as maintaining the linking component. Contemporary practitioners of renga have eased the form’s traditional structural standards, allowing poets to adjust line-length, while still offering exciting and enlightening possibilities. The form has become a popular method for teaching students to write poetry while working together.   36 Views A Solo Renga by Jane Reichhold Failing a drum heart and fingers beat rib-laced hollow filled and overflowing the flute empties its notes mountain breathing noon heat shimmers cool from crevices pattern of dry river weaving brown gray snake skin wearing feathers the messenger braves the cold moonlight owl first the fear and then the power seeing shadows stretch the night whip-tailed the scorpion untouched by its own poison babies in her wolfish belly which one will kill her? when old and lame  the wise woman knows best the grace of dancing prayers stir the dusty earth bells set the air to jingling no one speaks  the body begins to tremble the burn and salve electric fingers light the way to collect the boji stones the travelers  without wings plain gauzy gowns long gone angels now wear T-shirts neon advertising  someone else's name on your chest lost on the threshold first step in the labyrinth the map  in your hand lines the curve of latitude and longitude meeting the star  in the apple's center seed distance capsules of sunshine darken taking the shape of tears mad with love  only sea skin fabrics cloth the depths full of fishes worms and worries we walk the aisles of grocery stores woman  chanting to the goddess tiny banners of blood tying us together we cry breached beseeched at childbirth human sacrifice  helmet and gun in empty shoes of a soldier son shell home at last the hermit crab slips in moonset  the sea recedes  into a bright hole white ash circles the embers of the all-night vigil eyes red-rimmed  staring at nothing to see the dream leaving three hairs braided in the cedar a thank-you note from the flute  breath, blessing and perfume of warmed wood manifesting in the fog  pyramids of slanted sun the lens disk  focused as close as  we come to stars sisters hand in hand  with rainbow brothers the music fades  the lights come up and credits roll inside the darkness of night all the things we are. Copyright © by AHA Books and Jane Reichhold 1995. Copyright © by Designated Authors 1995.