WHC
Renku Seminar
Haikuforum Seminar on "Traditional" Renku
in English
Session
9: Guest Speaker, Christopher Herold "The Alchemy of Live Renku"
Paul
MacNeil
With a ninth Installment to
conclude this group of essays, I have again invited a "guest" essayist
to speak with you about renku.
I offer continued thanks to Susumu-san and all members of the Seminar, including
the 12-20 members, each time, whose verses were not selected in the kasen renku.
Eight different renkuists were chosen for the nine open stanzas in the
just-completed: "A Kite Rises" -- A Spring Kasen Renku. Those
contributors: Debi Bender, Paul Conneally, Ferris Gilli, Betty Kaplan, Joann
Klontz, Sue Mill, Elizabeth St. Jacques, and Alison Williams (2). A copy of our
Internet, hybrid renku is appended here with season and love verses identified.
More special thanks is due my partners in the three renku shared with the
Seminar: Peggy Willis Lyles, Ferris Gilli, Cindy Zackowitz, and John Crook. In
person I have met only Ferris, but they are all friends, fine writers, and
wonderful partners. Partners such as these are also my teachers.
I have learned something of renku from all my partners, this spring and over the
years, but also from several teachers for whom I have used the term "modern
masters." Those I have mentioned in the Seminar are: Tadashi Kondo, Jane
Reichhold, Christopher Herold, and William J. Higginson. I again urge you to
study their books and Internet presences. Since the Seminar last ended, Bill
Higginson has a new website just about renku, [Renku.home]...
I conclude, as I started, with 15 declarative sentences:
Renku is linked verse.
Renku is an art form.
Renku is a game.
Renku has rules.
Renku is not anarchic linking.
Renku has a flow, a pace, an overall effect.
Renku has no narrative.
Renku is a communal enterprise.
Renku is verse by individuals.
Renku is not serial haiku.
Renku begins with a haiku.
Renku allows the making of good friends and companions.
Renku is fun.
Renku is habit forming.
Renku honors tradition.
I have spoken to each of these throughout. I hope my proselytizing has
been more successful than annoying.
- Paul MacNeil, 31 January -- 19 July, 2000
AND NOW ... the guest essay ...
The Alchemy of Live Renku
In Japan, historically, renku have almost always been composed face to face, up
close and personal. In the West, where renku practice is still relatively new,
composition is most often accomplished by way of the postal service or by
e-mail. These long distance versions can be enjoyable and rewarding, but by far
the most exhilarating and beneficial way to compose renku is to do it together,
live. I can't imagine it ever being otherwise.
Process is everything; live renku parties have the immediacy of response and
teamwork that is lacking in the postal methods of composition. The closest
approximation to live renku can be had by meeting in a chat room on the
world-wide-web for the purpose. The response time is relatively fast, but
there's no physical proximity. The up-side is that people can participate from
different countries, even different hemispheres, in the framework of the present
moment. The down-side (other than not being able to party together) is that
there is little in the way of current common experience upon which to base a
poem. Snow may be falling in one location; the thermometer may be tipping 100º
in another. One person may be connected from a cabin in the back woods of Maine,
another from a posh condo on the French Riviera. The emphasis therefore, in
these long distance renku, is on imaginative game playing and/or intellectual
calisthenics. The full benefits of the process are unattainable.
Live renku are special. Sessions can be serious events, but far more often (at
least in the West) they are festive occasions, complete with food and drink,
discussion and conversation, laughter, and yes, tears. Most importantly,
everyone is in the same geographical location, surrounded by the same
meteorological, socio-political climate. Whatever distractions arise, arise for
all in attendance. Poems unfold over the course of a few hours, perhaps an
afternoon and evening. The flow is not impeded by lapses of days, weeks, or
months during which life's daily challenges intervene, demanding our attention
-- all while we wait for a single link to arrive in a letter or by e-mail. And
even for those who may agree to meet and compose linked verse in a chat room,
one poet will type faster than another, somebody's computer will crash, and
someone else may get routinely bumped off-line at inopportune moments. Time zone
difficulties may limit the length of a meeting. And who wants to be stuck in a
chair facing a computer monitor, fingertips hovering above a keyboard? No
possibility of body language, no strolling about a friend's home (hors d'oeuvres
and wine in hand) admiring paintings, books or the view. No fascinating
conversation with the group while poet C strives to focus on composing a moon
verse. In short, no substitute for live performance.
The cocktail-party-style of live renku is not the only possibility however.
There is also the type of meeting that includes everyone in the writing -- the
candidates submitting for every stanza. This type of session is much quieter,
much more intense. But the immediacy, and the communal effort to cooperate in
creating a work of art is equally manifest. And when a particular verse choice
is being made by the group (or the presiding master), the same excitement and
anticipation is present. At those times of discussion and decision, so very much
can be learned-about renku, each other, the world, and about ourselves.
Happily, live renku is on the rise, particularly during the past eight or nine
years. I myself have had the great good fortune to participate often in meetings
of the Marin Renku Group, quite possibly the first renku club outside of Japan,
and most probably the longest running renku group of any writing in English
today. The group began in 1988 and continues to write regularly today. I've also
participated in many live renku sessions of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. Renku
is only one facet of The Yuki Teikei Society, and the meetings are not regular,
as are those of the Marin Group. Yuki Teikei renku are usually organized for
special occasions as they arise.
The biggest difference between these groups is that each member of the Marin
Group composes renku takes turns, then deciding, democratically, if a stanza is
acceptable, or if the poet must try again. There's a strong feeling of
close-knit friendship, and the atmosphere is decidedly party-like. On the other
hand, the Yuki Teikei poets are free to make an attempt at every stanza, and it
is up to the haiku master to choose from those whice the candidate's offered.
The mood is most often formal and generally tends to be more serious. In the
beginning, almost all of the poets in both groups were new to renku.
When the Yuki Teikei group first held renku
sessions, Kiyoko Tokutomi was the master, but as years passed other poets
acquired enough knowledge of the craft to assume responsibility. What joy!
Several poets would meet at an appointed place for the purpose of composing a
communal poem, a renku. The possibilities are unlimited-on the palette, the
universe! Each poet mixes the colors of mood, dips an imaginary brush and adds a
stroke of inspiration to the group canvas. There are rules and restrictions,
plenty of them, but the ultimate rule is balanced
expansion. It's what makes everything possible. All things become
involved: politics, religion, music, grammar, conservatism and rebellion;
mountains, beasts, flowers, and weather . . . all within the dynamics of the
renku family on hand. The renku master (if one is designated) has a function
similar to the conductor of an orchestra. The task: to expand the renku as much
as possible within a given number of stanzas. This must be done in a balanced
and interesting way, taking as much into consideration as can be without bogging
down the process. Not just placing seasonal, or non-seasonal, or love sequences
properly, or moon and blossom stanzas; not just minimizing repetition, or
insuring that links are clear enough and shifts sufficiently dramatic; not just
seeing that grammar is suitably varied.
The biggest job is that of harmonizing people.
There is a spectrum of personalities present. John is a pissant, Martha a wee
bit insecure; Larry is imaginative, Dave pragmatic, and Lisa can't get the
tongue out of her cheek (no reference to particular poets intended). Levels of
experience must be considered. Roy's a newcomer, Sarah has been writing renku
for years and has even judged the Einbond Renku contest (again, the poets' names
are fictitious). The crux of this work is to learn to cooperate as a group,
getting everyone involved to the degree that each feels comfortable. It takes a
discerning renku master (or experienced group) to accomplish this -- and to
still create a classy poem to boot. Too much attention to the personalities
present, and the renku (as an entity) will likely suffer. The renku form itself,
as handed down over many years, is the very thing that provides us with these
special opportunities to learn how to work together. Sacrifice it, for whatever
reason, and the work ceases to be renku. It falls flat. But sacrifice the poets
for a poem, and renku becomes a tyrant. Balance is the key.
The tai chi of renku: moving ahead while
seeing to it that everyone and everything is balanced, including the pertinence
of the poem to the poets involved as juxtaposed to the accessibility of the poem
to others who aren't. Anything can come into play, but too much cleverness, too
much intellect, being too specific or too vague, too poetic . . . too much
anything, will unbalance the process of expansion and decrease the possibility
of being drawn into the wonder of the renku universe. What I hope to have
conveyed, with all of this, is that renku is a very
special gift, one that is much needed in a world so full of misunderstanding and
strife. By writing renku together we learn (through linking) to
demonstrate our acceptance and understanding of what other people have to say
and (by shifting) to express our own unique views in our own inimitable ways.
Renku has the effect of guiding us humans toward accepting each other's
differences and moving forward, together, in a positive and harmonious manner.
This is true for all methods of renku writing, whether by mail, on the web, or
in person. The postal varieties can put us in touch with people around the
globe, something that live renku can do only with the presence of visiting
poets. The in person variety has the unparalleled power of the present moment
and place, of lifefulness, and interplay on all levels.
Renku is a most venerable and beneficial form of expression. While entertaining
us, it provides a means to grow both individually and communally, as well as
nurturing a healthy evolution of the human spirit. If you are interested in
renku, or are writing by mail only, I highly recommend (if at all possible)
finding or establishing a local group of poets who can get together regularly to
practice. In my opinion it is by far the best way to realize and to appreciate
what renku has to offer.
This essay was originally posted on Wednesday July 19, 2000, in
the 9th installment of the first WHC Renku Seminar, led by Paul McNeil.
Biography of Christopher
Herold
Christopher Herold has had his haiku, tanka and senryu routinely burned by a
long list of editors throughout the world. His works have received numerous
rejections, and he himself has been the the butt of many jokes circulated by
judges for many international haiku competitions. In past years, Mr. Herold has
been a favorite scapegoat for several well known haiku societies, and is held in
extremely low esteem by the editors of most of the journals to which he subjects
his poems. Herold has been banned from a multitude of Bay Area schools for his
highly unorthodox teaching practices. Adults almost always leave his workshops
in bewilderment. Herold has given exceedingly dull presentations at several
international haiku conferences, the organizers of which have learned to divert
him from the mainstream by calling upon him to guide meditations for their
events. In this way, participants can go to sleep without distraction or any
feelings of guilt. Herold's first three books, In Other Words, Coincidence, and
Voices of Stone were ridiculed by reviewers, and are now black-listed by
virtually all haiku societies. There's a movement afoot to prevent his fourth
and fifth books, A Path in the Garden and In the Margins of the Sea from
reaching bookshelves. You should familiarize yourselves with Mr. Herold's works
as soon as possible so as to minimize the possibility of inadvertent subjection
to it in the future.
Christopher Herold wrote his first haiku in 1968 during a training session at a
Soto Zen Buddhist Monastery. He didn't know his poem was a haiku until the head
monk read it and said "Nice haiku!" Since then his works, which
include tanka, haibun, renku, and senryu, have been published in numerous
journals, magazines and anthologies, often winning awards. Mr. Herold has judged
many poetry contests, including service in 1993 as co-judge (with J. W. Hackett)
for Japan Airline's World Haiku Contest for children. In 1997 and '98 he was
co-judge for the Haiku Society of America's Lionel Einbond Renku Contest. In
1999, two renku written by Mr. Herold, along with is wife, Carol O'Dell, were
awarded a tandem Grand Prize in the Einbond contest. Also that year he was
appointed Renku Guide for the East-West '99 Renku, the second-ever live,
on-line renku party.
Mr. Herold is a long time member of the Marin
Renku Group, most probably the first group of renku poets outside of Japan to
meet on a regular basis. He is a past president of the Haiku Poets of Northern
California, and co-edited their quarterly journal, Woodnotes. He has been
a guest editor for Two Autumns Press and the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society's
magazine, The Geppo. Mr. Herold has taught haiku in schools and is
regularly invited to present workshops for adults. His books include In Other
Words, Coincidence (both out of print), and Voices of Stone (going into its
fifth printing). A Path in the Garden, Mr. Herold's first collection of
haiku since 1987, released by Katsura Press, is now available through the
author. Another new collection, In the Margins of the Sea, is scheduled for
release by Snapshot Press in Great Britain sometime in August of this year. Mr.
Herold lives in Port Townsend, Washington with his family. Currently he edits an
internationally acclaimed monthly journal of haiku called The Heron's Nest,
published both in hard copy and via the Internet at: http://www.theheronsnest.com
[now co-edited by Associate Editors Paul McNeil and Ferris Gilli].
* For more information about Christopher Herold's new book, A Path in the
Garden, please click on the following link:
http://www.theheronsnest.com/books/pathingarden.html
