Rengay Through the Seasons

A Year in Rengay

 

This project was started on September 2, 2007 by Masago (Vaughn Seward) and when finished will consist of a set 52 weekly Rengay poems. A Rengay consists of six linked haiku that support a common theme. For more information about Rengay, see the following notes by Joan Zimmerman:

http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/rengay.htm

 

Most Rengay are written collaboratively with two or three participants. They can also be written by one or six individuals. The rengay in this project will primarily be written solo (by Masago). However, twelve of them, one for each month of the year, will be done as a joint effort with different guest rengay/haiku friends. Each day of the week a different verse from that week's Rengay will be posted to Masago's Haiku blog:

http://masago-no-haiku.blogspot.com/

 

On the last day of the week the following will be posted: a title, the theme(s), linking details, and technical notes. The following is an archive of the project worksheets posted to date:

 

Week
 Date Posted Haijin Partner
 Season Title / Archive Link

Technical

Notes

 Theme 1 Theme 2 Theme 3
1 Sep 2, 2007 [Solo] Early Autumn Popsicle Stick Notes for #1 Needing Clean-up    
2 Sep 9, 2007 [Solo] Early Autumn Faint Thump Notes for #2 Barely Perceptable Senses  
3 Sep 16, 2007 [Solo] Early Autumn Pile of Spruce Notes for #3 Conifers Accumulations  
4 Sep 23, 2007 Karina Klesko Early Autumn The Storm, Now Over Notes for #4 Clinging

Red / Black

  
5 Sep 30, 2007 [Solo]

Mid-Autumn

 Remnants Notes for #5 Remnants Smaller Lodged
6 Oct 7, 2007 [Solo]

Mid-Autumn

 Over the Rail Notes for #6

Detached

    
7 Oct 14, 2007 [Solo] Mid-Autumn Tinkle of an Earring Notes for #7 Unintended Outcomes    
8 Oct 21, 2007 Daniela Bullas Mid-Autumn At the Mirror Notes for #8 Human-related Fakeness Old / New  
9 Oct 28, 2007 [Solo] Mid-Autumn Under a Sleeve Notes for #9

Revealed

 Food-Related  
10 Nov 4, 2007 [Solo] Late-Autumn Heading South Notes for #10 V-A-C-A-T-E Homes  
11 Nov 11, 2007 [Solo] Late-Autumn Crust of White Notes for #11 Transformation Flatness Colours
12 Nov 18, 2007 Max VerHart Late-Autumn The Graying Hare Notes for #12 Preparation    
13 Nov 25, 2007 [Solo] Late-Autumn Pink Cascades Notes for #13 Small Dangers Openings Indulgences
14 Dec 2, 2007 [Solo] Early Winter
 Polly's Cracker Notes for #14 Misperception Human / Animal Short / Long
15 Dec 9, 2007 [Solo] Early Winter Rising Snowball Notes for #15 Gliding Motion    
16 Dec 16, 2007 Yvonne Myers Early Winter Shadow of a Crow Notes for #16 Snow Where?  
17 Dec 23, 2007 [Solo] Early Winter Another Gin Notes for #17 Cards Not  
18 Dec 30, 2007 [Solo] Mid-Winter Below a Drift Notes for #18 Winter Weather Winter Animals  
19 Jan 6, 2008 [Solo] Mid-Winter The Old Furnace Notes for #19 Intermittency Sounds  
20 Jan 13 2008 [Solo] Mid-Winter Dipping a Bit More Notes for #20

Weight

    
21 Jan 20, 2008 Toshiaki Koike
 Mid-Winter Breifly Touching Notes for #21 Vestiges Man-made objects  
22 Jan 27, 2008 [Solo] Mid-Winter Smiling Repairman Notes for #22 Good News, Bad News Authority Figure  
23 Feb 3, 2008 [Solo] Late-Winter Behind the Curtain Notes for #23 Out of Sight    
24 Feb 10, 2008 [Solo] Late-Winter Gathered Around Notes for #24 Attractions    
25 Feb 17, 2008 [Solo] Late-Winter Under the Covers Notes for #25 School    
26 Feb 24, 2008 Jon Davey
 Late-Winter Breaking the Ice Notes for #26 Togetherness    

27

 Mar 2, 2008 [Solo] Early-Spring Instant Replay Notes for #27 Then & Now    
28 Mar 9, 2008 [Solo] Early-Spring Low Tide Notes for #28 Receding    
29 Mar 16, 2008 [Solo] Early-Spring Summer's Hose Notes for #29 Left There    
30 Mar 23, 2008 [Solo] Early-Spring Vacant Seat Notes for #30 Unoccupied Seat-related  
31 Mar 30, 2008 Betty Kaplan Middle-Spring Snowdrops Notes for #31 White    
32 Apr 6, 2008 [Solo] Middle-Spring Breakfast in Bed Notes for #32 Welcomed Events    
33 Apr 13, 2008 [Solo] Middle-Spring Breaking Silence Notes for #33 Squeezed    
34 Apr 20, 2008 [Solo] Middle-Spring Between the Lips Notes for #34 Break apart/away    
35 Apr 27, 2008 John McDonald Middle-Spring The Rookie Notes for #35 New Learners    

 

 

Haijin Karina Klesko (Rengay #4):

Karina lives in Louisiana and is formerly from upstate New York. She has been writing most of her life. In addition to writing children's books and Christian bible study plans, she writes rengay, tanka, renga, renku, and other poetry forms. She also works with young children developing haiku learning exercises. In 2004 Karina founded the The Outlaw Poets Yahoo poetry news group which was established for the sake of creativity in writing rather than for keeping to strict forms of western writing, leaning more towards eastern style forms:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheOutlawPoets/

 

Karina is also the owner of Poetrywriting.org and sponsors The Sketchbook, Karina Klesko editor, John Daleiden editor. The Link to the latest Sketchbook on-line is:

http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook2-3Mar07/0_AEnter_Sketchbook_2-3.htm

 

Masago joined The Outlaw Poets in the Fall of 2006 and after that wrote numerous renku and rengay together with Karina. In fact, it was with Karina that Masago first participated in writing a rengay. It is therefore appropriate that Karina was the first guest writer in this project.

 

Haijin Daniela Bullas (Rengay #8):

Daniela Draghia-Bullas was born in 1969 in Deva, Romania. She holds a degree in archaeology and museology and has lived with her husband in the U.K. since 2001. Daniela started writing poetry and prose in her teens. Her short stories won her the "Scanteia tineretului" Award in 1988. Her editorial debut was the "Umbra Libelulei" (Dragonfly's Shadow), a haiku anthology. Between 2003 and 2007 she has been a member of the editorial staff of two Romanian magazines. She has also published two books:

 

 

Several of her other works have also appeared in various on-line journals.

 

Masago met Daniela via the The Outlaw Poets Yahoo group and since the Spring of 2007 they have written numerous renku and rengay together. Daniela likes to write haiku in the 5-7-5 / 7-7 syllable format so each verse in the eighth rengay of the series is in this format.

 

Haijin Max Verhart (Rengay #12):

Max Verhart was born in 1944 in the Netherlands. He has written and published haiku since approximately 1980 and has held the following haiku association positions:

 

    * President of the Haiku Circle Netherlands (1999-2003).

    * European director of the World Haiku Association (2001-2002).

    * Member of the editorial staff of the Red Moon Anthology (USA) since 2002.

    * Co-editor of the Dutch/Flemish quarterly Vuursteen (Flint), the oldest haiku journal in Europe (2003-present).

    * Associate editor for Modern Haiku, USA (2007-present).

 

Translations of Max's haiku have been published in journals, e-zines, and anthologies in at least twelve languages. Individual volumes include:

 

    * Zijn met wat is (To be with what is), 1993.

    * Een beetje adem, 1998 (English version: some breath, 1999).

    * Geen woord teveel/not a word too much, 2000.

    * Om kort te gaan (to be short) 2005.

    * With Betty Kaplan: smoke signals - nine rengay, 2003.

    * With Horst Ludwig: twelve moons/zwolf Monde/twelve moons - a bilingual rengay series (with English translation), 2004.

 

Max started his own small private publishing house called 't schrijverke' (whirlywig) in 2005.

 

Masago first encountered Max's work in issues of the Outlaw Poet's Sketchbook. In each issue he and Betty Kaplan wrote Rengay that Masago found captivating and original. Masago was delighted when Max agreed to participate in this Rengay series.

 

Haijin Yvonne Myers (Rengay #16):

Yvonne Myers is the moderator of the Off-the-wall "haiku" group:

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/offthewallhaiku/

 

Yvonne and Masago wrote a rengay together in June 2007. Since then numerous rengay have been written by members of Off-the-Wall.

 

Haijin Toshiaki Koike (Rengay #21):

 

Toshiaki Koike was born in Iwakura, a town near Nagoya, Japan. Toshiaki attended Shizuoka University where he studied Japanese Literature and was the leader of the University's haiku circle. It was there that he met his future wife Carol who had come to Japan from Canada as an exchange student. Through a later exchange of tanka and haiku poems a romance developed and they were eventually married. Ten years later they moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where Carol's mother was living. Their story is more fully described here:

 

http://www.ualberta.ca/~publicas/folio/34/20/06.html

 

Masago met Toshiaki at the 2006 Edmonton Summer Arts Festival where Toshiaki was displaying some of his artwork. They became fast friends and have been meeting regularly every two weeks since then to discuss English language, Japanese language & culture, and haiku poetry.

 

Haijin Jon Davey (Rengay #26):

 

Jon Davey who was born in Redruth, England. He gained a degree in English and European Thought & Literature from the Cambridge College of Art and Technology and later became a primary school teacher in Camborne, Cornwall. Jon is now living in a converted barn in the small village of Brea with partner Philippa and family. Jon began writing haiku in the early 1980's.

 

Masago and Jon were partners in a couple of Off-the-Wall Rengay exercises in July, 2007:

 

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pcytHc47X3uDqqFJHbSF9aA

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pcytHc47X3uDWTQXn2hE0EA

 

[Off-the-Wall: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/offthewallhaiku/]

 

 

Haijin Betty Kaplan (Rengay #31):

 

Betty Kaplan is now retired from the Fashion Industry. She used to arrange clothes, now she arranges words. Betty started writing haiku in the early 1990's. Haiku changed her life. She has been published in Frogpond, Lynx, Woodpecker, South by Southeast, World Haiku Review, Sketchbook, American Tanka , Simply Haiku and CHO.

 

I first read Betty's work in Sketchbook where she has written many rengay with Max Verhart:

 

http://poetrywriting.org/

 

I was drawn to the freshness and creativity of these rengay and in June, 2007 I had the pleasure of writing a rengay with Betty (it ended up supporting 4 themes):

 

http://tinyurl.com/yoyo85

 

 

Haijin John McDonald (Rengay #35):

 

John McDonald is a retired stone-mason living in Edinburgh Scotland. After some years of writing poetry in Scots (one of the languages native to scotland, the other being the celtic rooted Gaelic)) he became interested in haiku in the mid-1990's, and has been devoted to writing only that since. He has a web-page of scots haiku which he updates daily:

 

http://zenspeug.blogspot.com/

 

Around the time that I started the Masago haiku blog, John and I began leaving comments on each other's haiku blogs and have enjoyed each other's work since. Writing a rengay together for this series was an obvious extension of these poetic experiences.

 


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