Friday, November 21, 2008

Poetry Friday: Care to renga?

Do you know what a renga is?

It sounds like something we should dance, doesn't it?

And, on second thought, it is a sort of a dance. It's the two-step of two poets, collaborating on a work -- alternating verses, making connections, moving toward and away from and around one another, weaving their steps into a story.

Birds on a Wire: A Renga 'round Town, by J. Patrick Lewis and Paul B. Janeczko is a lovely picture book that tells its story in renga, an ancient Japanese poetry form.

It's a lovely book -- peaceful and clever, and full of allusions (my favorite one involving a red wheelbarrow. Very nice.)

I'll be reading this one to all of my girls. We might even try to dance our own renga.



Poetry is being rounded up today by Holly Cupala.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will definitely have to check it out! Liked the red wheelbarrow.

tanita✿davis said...

How COOL! I definitely want to find out more about renga, and J. Patrick Lewis makes me immediately want to know more.

Anonymous said...

I loved that book. The red wheelbarrow/WCW reference appealed to me, too, when I reviewed it a while back.