Rengay on Haikupedia

Rengay is a form of linked verse created as an alternative to Japanese renga or renku. The form was devised by Garry Gay in California in 1992. A rengay consists of six thematic haiku verses and is normally composed by two or three poets, although solo and six-person rengay are not uncommon. Since its invention many hundreds of rengay have been published, primarily in English, and two competitions and two journals for rengay have been established in the United States.

Rengay is a six-verse linked thematic form of collaborative poetry. Garry Gay invented it in August of 1992, and the first example, “Deep Winter,” was written by Gay and Michael Dylan Welch on August 9, 1992, in Foster City, California. Gay named rengay by combining “renga” with his last name and proposed that it have a specific pattern of three-line and two-line verses for two poets. Welch proposed a pattern for three poets. The first three-person rengay, by Donna [Claire] Gallagher, Pat Gallagher, and Michael Dylan Welch, was “A Rain of Leaves,” written in November 1993. Cherie Hunter Day produced the first solo rengay, “Night Rain,” in 1995. Six-person rengay have also been written, the first one most likely being “Journey in Blue” by Gay, [Donna] Claire Gallagher, Fay Aoyagi, David Noble, Bruce Kennedy, and Welch, written in April 2002. The first rengay to be published was “Between Storms” by John Thompson and Gay, in the Romanian journal Albatros/Albatross in 1993. Welch also wrote essays about rengay, appearing in 1994 in Frogpond and Woodnotes, that began to promote this new collaborative poetry, with additional essays appearing later. Others who have written essays about rengay include Cherie Hunter Day, Garry Gay, Carolyn Hall, Ce Rosenow, and Joan Zimmerman. In 1995, the Haiku Poets of Northern California (HPNC) held the first of its annual rengay contests, which was won by Valorie Woerdehoff and Connie Meester for “Moving Inside,” tied for first place with Ebba Story and Cherie Hunter Day for “Tidewater Marsh.” The judges were Welch, Gay, and Thompson, who also published the first rengay book, Hammerhorn Lake. Other collections of rengay are listed in the bibliographic section below [omitted here, but listed on the Haikupedia page].

In 2020, the Haiku Society of America (HSA) added rengay to its annual contests, joining the HPNC contest as the only contests for this form of collaborative writing. Two issues of Winter Withering: A Rengay Newsletter were published in about 1997 by Tennessee-based poet Lewis Sanders. A new print publication titled Tandem—The Rengay Journal was announced in early 2021, staffed by Marcyn Del Clements, Seren Fargo, and Ignatius Fay; the first issue appeared in April 2021.

The main goal of rengay is to have a theme that unifies all six verses. This goal distinguishes rengay from renku or renga, which seeks to avoid thematic development as it “tastes all of life.” Instead, rengay seeks to have a sharper focus, which Gay thought would make the rengay more accessible to Western readers. Gay also limited rengay to just six verses to make the form more easily publishable on a single page of a haiku journal. The form for two poets is as follows: A-3, B-2, A-3, B-3, A-2, B-3, with the letters representing the poets, and the numbers indicating the number of lines in each given verse. The middle two verses are both three-liners, which is an arrangement that renga and renku never have, but Gay asserted this tradition for two-person rengay so that each poet would have the same number of lines, thereby creating a balance between the two voices. The first poet dominates the first half of the rengay with two three-liners, balanced by the second poet dominating the second half with two three-liners. For three people the pattern is A-3, B-2, C-3, A-2, B-3, C-2, a form that also achieves balance among the three contributors. Variations of these two forms have been explored, but these two forms are the primary and traditional patterns, and the only two versions accepted by the HPNC and HSA rengay contests. Gay has suggested that all the three-lines verses should be haiku, and that even the two-liners should be haiku, or at least haiku-like. The two-liners should avoid being three-line haiku forced into two lines.

The theme of rengay can take many forms, limited only by the imagination of the poets, and serves to benefit readers as a clothesline upon which each of the verses are pinned. Thus, the theme should endeavor to be clear to readers (as a product of the rengay) and not serve just as a prompt for writers (merely as a process). Concrete themes such as writing about a baseball game are immediately clear to readers, as is the seasonal theme in “Deep Winter” and the tree theme in “Rain of Leaves.” More abstract themes, such as “love” or “envy,” may be less immediately identifiable to readers but can still infuse all the verses with a similar tone. Some rengay also have a secondary theme, which was noted in one of the aforementioned winners of the 1995 HPNC rengay contest, shared here, first published in Woodnotes 26 (Autumn 1995):

Moving Inside

freezing rain

dousing the fire

in the sumac Valorie

ice melts          wet

where your hand was Connie

                        stained glass door

                        catching the moon

                        sliced in half Valorie

                        your shadow

                                 across the warm patio

                        just misses mine Connie

moving inside . . .

frost on the window pane Valorie

inside . . .

kindling in the stove catches

sparks Connie

As the judges wrote in their commentary, “‘Moving Inside’ works on two levels, something hitherto unprecedented. One may read this rengay for the crispness of its images as the people move indoors (on the narrative level). But on an erotic level, ‘moving inside’ takes on an entirely sexual and richly erotic meaning.” This rengay also offers an innovative visual arrangement of the verses.

Poets who write rengay can approach the theme in different ways. Some poets, such as John Thompson, prefer to share or receive a starting verse and then respond spontaneously without discussing the theme beforehand. In this way the poet writing the second verse chooses the theme from various options that might be possible in the first verse. Other poets discuss the theme before they start writing, sometimes brainstorming possible subjects that fit the theme, and perhaps arranging them in a preferred order. In addition to a primary theme, some rengay have demonstrated secondary “themes” such as also having a seasonal progression or other structural unfolding. On occasion the last verse refers to the first verse, giving the rengay a circular feeling, or the last verse might deliberately depart from the theme in a creative but still connected way.

Rengay can be written easily via email or postal mail, which enables poets to respond in whatever time they need to come up with new verses. Writing in person adds a stronger social aspect to the collaborative process (a trait shared with renga and renku, which were typically social rather than literary events) but may require participants to respond more rapidly or spontaneously. It is common for poets to help shape the verses by other contributors to better develop the theme or to improve individual verses, making the collaboration more than just an assemblage of themed verses.

Rengay typically have titles, and the title may sometimes be a misdirection to hide the rengay’s theme (especially if otherwise obvious), leaving the theme to be discovered by readers rather than be given away by the title. In other cases, the title may be a pointer to the theme (if otherwise not immediately clear in the verses). As a result, the titling of rengay is an art itself. A rengay risks failure if the title is too obvious or too obscure, and the rengay as a whole also risks failure if individual verses are weak, or depart from the theme, if the theme is ambiguous, or if the two-line verses are really three-liners forced into two lines. In contrast, a rengay is successful if each verse (especially each three-liner) works well as an independent haiku, and if the thematic development provides surprises and richness, being careful to avoid too obvious a development, which has led to the employment of sometimes obscure themes. If the theme is not apparent to readers, however, then the collaboration would seem not to qualify as a rengay. It is thus essential that the theme be not just a motive for the writers, but clear to readers. Otherwise, the collaboration may come across as just a six-verse renga or renku, where participants are merely linking verses without the clarity of identifiable thematic development.

The following rengay, by Tom Clausen and Michael Dylan Welch, won first prize in the 2007 HPNC rengay contest, and was published in Mariposa 18 (Spring–Summer 2008):

Sixth Sense

the baby’s eyes

change color

with the sky Tom

loud train horn—

ice crystals hang in the air Michael

three-cheese lasagna—

a bit of garlic stuck

to the pulled-out hair Tom

at the seaside museum

the sample otter skin

worn bare Michael

parking lot’s fresh blacktop

simmers in the sun Tom

Peter and the Wolf—

my toddler’s eyes

opening wider Michael

In this rengay the theme is an exploration of each of the five senses, with a “sixth sense” included as well. The eyes and color mentioned in the first verse emphasize the sense of sight, yielding to the sound of the horn in the second verse. Taste appears in the third verse through lasagna and touch in the fourth verse through the feel of an otter skin. Smell in the fifth verse is slightly less overt but is present in how fresh blacktop must smell in a hot sun. And in the sixth verse, the toddler’s wide eyes suggest a sense of wonder. In this rengay, the title clarifies the rengay’s theme and helps to suggest that the sixth verse departs from the exploration of the customary five senses in the first five verses. The title also raises an implied question—what is the sixth sense?—that the rengay resolves in the final verse.

One technique common in renga and renku is for each successive verse to link to the previous verse yet also shift away. This strategy needs no emphasis in rengay, because the theme itself automatically links all of the verses. Likewise, shifting also occurs naturally as each verse presents a distinct iteration of the theme. It is therefore possible for a rengay to be constructed by assembling sets of verses written independently on the theme by the collaborators beforehand, or for verses to be reordered for better poetic effect after the initial composition. Part of the attraction of rengay, as with renga and renku, may lie in the art of responsiveness to each previous verse, which is a social act, not just a literary one, whereas rengay can provide more flexibility in ways that emphasize the product as well as the process. Rengay writers are always free to write in whichever ways they prefer, provided that they follow the established formats for two or three writers, or for one or six writers, and that they produce a finished result with thematic clarity. Anything else may be considered to be an experiment.

This summation of rengay focuses on rengay written in English. Rengay in other languages deserves additional reporting. In addition, it appears that almost no rengay (if any) have been written in Japanese, and it may well be a worthwhile opportunity for Japanese haiku poets to explore rengay as a deliberately thematic alternative to the renga and renku traditions.