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.