Poetry is best when shared.

Part of the Lords of the Samurai special exhibition is a programming space called the Daimyo for a Day Art and Activity Room. One element of this space is a poetry corner, where we’ve invited visitors to try their hand at Japanese collaborative poetry called renga.

Renga is a form of traditional Japanese poetry where multiple poets take turns composing alternating sections of the poem. Popular with samurai, participants also came from all walks of life: farmers and priests, rivals and friends. Renga is made up of repeating verses of two stanzas.The first stanza is made of three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable structure, a pattern that was the basis for modern haiku poetry.The second stanza is made of two lines in a 7-7 syllable structure.

In renga poets takes turns writing one or more stanzas.The next poet takes inspiration from the previous stanza to compose their verse. The enjoyment in renga poetry comes from the differences between multiple poets. We can enjoy a new, different, and often playful or humorous change between the different personalities and feelings of each of the poets. Traditional renga topics include: seasonal words, natural phenomena, time, change, love, journeying, living things, shining things, water, memories, views, or residences.Each stanza is brief and impressionistic. It captures just one or two images, inviting the reader to imagine more. The poems are evocative and might suggest deeper ideas like impermanence or rebirth like these wonderful poems contributed by visitors. The first is:

Wind kisses water
the sea lifts to sky
energy transfers
moving toward the shore
only one, never again.

The second poem is:

The wave mile high
Washes the world new.

Here is another poem by a visitor that caught my attention. It captures a poignant beauty often overlooked in the busy summer months:

Lonely, lonely leaf
dancing in the breezy winds
as the day goes by.

I’ve been collecting the best visitor-contributed poetry from the activity and compiling them into a small booklet (pic). Next time you’re visiting the museum this summer please contribute your verse to the scroll in the Daimyo for a Day room or go to the comments section of this blog post to join my renga jam session!