Poetry
For Sale
By
Pat Nolan and Poet Friends
A
Review
Renga
is my favorite form of poetry. Those who
have read this blog regularly know that my personal poetic output is dominated
by renga and that I have been involved in writing renga for over 30 years. There are a few others who have found renga
congenial, but the number of English language renga poets is very small.
like
some awesome god
in
my aspirations I’ll turn time
back
after midnight
reflections
in a black glass
eclipse
of the autumn sun
reflections
in a black glass
eclipse
of the autumn sun
visiting brother’s
cigarette ember at dusk
father’s ghost coughs
(Page
50)
Here
is an interesting factoid about those renga poets in the U.S. – In the early to
mid-80’s two of the tiny number of people who have spent a lot of time devoted
to renga lived in a small town in Sonoma County, California. The name of the town is Monte Rio. It has a population of 1,152 people as of the
2010 census; less than that in the 80’s.
A third poet who has devoted a lot of time to renga is Jane Reichhold
who lives just up the coast, in Southern Mendocino County. So three people who found in renga a vehicle for
their own poetic expression resided, at first unknown to each other, within
easy driving distance, and two of them lived in the same rural town.
under
a pay phone’s dim glow
static
from long distance lies
imported jonquils
whole flock of ‘em in a jug
hello, fake spring!
imported jonquils
whole flock of ‘em in a jug
hello, fake spring!
damn
tank takes forever to fill
one
more flush should do it
(page
89)
In
the early 80’s I moved to Monte Rio.
Soon after I started the first English language magazine devoted to
renga. I was completely unaware that
residing in Monte Rio was Pat Nolan who was another person devoting a lot of
time to the renga form. Eventually I
would meet Nolan; I learned about him through a mutual poetry friend.
Both
Nolan and I were catalyzed into the world of renga by the work of Earl
Miner. When Miner published his Japanese Linked Poetry it opened up the
world of renga in a way that no previous scholarly work had been able to
do.
I
took to writing renga by adopting many of the features of topic placement and
gradually learning about linking and shifting and primarily looking at renga as
a solo form, though I have engaged with others poets in composing renga as well. Nolan’s approach was more social than mine. And
Nolan found in Miner’s work specific features that he chose to replicate in his
own explorations of the renga form. A
distinctive feature of Miner’s translations of Japanese renga was to repeat
each verse (with the exception of the closing verse) to highlight the nature of
the link and shift that takes place as the renga unfolds. Nolan and his renga partners liked the effect
this had on renga poetry and adopted this repetition procedure when writing, or
leading, his own renga. This is in some
ways a new approach to renga; in Japanese renga the verses are not
repeated. Miner repeated the verses in
his translations in order to shed light on certain ambiguous features of the
Japanese language which can be used as pivots as verse X assumes different
relationships to verse X - 1 and to verse X + 1. For example, because the Japanese language
uses pronouns less frequently than English, and because the Japanese verb does
not decline by number or sex, it is possible for a verse to refer to a woman
when linked to the previous verse, and then refer to a man when linked to the
following verse. But Nolan, and his
cohorts in renga, found the effect of this repetition in itself esthetically
appealing, adopting it as a distinctive feature of their approach to renga.
And
now, after more than 30 years of writing renga, Nolan has gathered 11 renga
into his latest book Poetry For Sale:
Haikai no Renga (linked poetry). The
title is taken from one of the opening verses (hokku) in the collection which
is derived from a haikai by Basho and Kikaku that has the title ‘Poetry Is What
I Sell’. It reads:
Mortality
not debt
leads
me to hoist another
poetry
for sale
after Kikaku
Poetry
For Sale is a fantastic collection.
Anyone interested in the interaction between Japanese and English poetry
needs this book. And anyone interested
in renga should definitely get it. It is
an immensely pleasing collection: entertaining, surprising, sometimes sharp and
witty, sometimes introspective, sometimes descriptive, the renga unfold with
great skill and elegance. They are a
pleasure to read.
a butterfly’s
premonition
it’s
safer not to move
me and my paper lantern
not surprisingly a scoop
among a river of stars
me and my paper lantern
not surprisingly a scoop
among a river of stars
the
howl of dogs
hushed
by the silence of birds
(Page
77)
I
have to admit that the feature of repeating all the stanzas at first puzzled
me. It is not the route I have chosen
with my own renga. However, I have come
to appreciate this innovation. If you
read the renga aloud you’ll get the pleasing effect the repetition has. By repeating the verses they take on a chorus
like feeling. On November 6th
I heard a reading from Poetry for Sale;
two of the poets, Pat Nolan and Sandy Berrigan, read from one of the renga and
the effect of the repetition was soothing.
The innovation works in a musical way that I find very pleasing and
attractive. The repetition makes the
renga journey accessible. I suspect this
is particularly true for those who have no previous experience with the form.
And
speaking of the renga form, Nolan and his partners chose a respectful, but at
the same time relaxed, relationship to the numerous formal regulations. This is explained in Nolan’s introduction, “Hardly
Strictly Haikai” and in the ‘Forewad’ to the haikai ‘Random Rocks’. Generally speaking one finds seasonal and
topic placement, a rough commitment to the overall syllabic shape, and a
traditional sense of pacing. It has been
my observation that this respectful yet relaxed approach is the stance that all
renga poets have had to adopt in their relationship to traditional Japanese
renga. Nolan compares renga to the music
of a jazz combo and that feels right to me.
In good jazz there are rules and at the same time there is
improvisation. Nolan and his partners
have a good grasp of what the rules are (for example, topic placement), but
they also have an intuitive sense of when to let the renga find its own way. This is actually how the great renga masters
of Japan related to the form. A good
example is how Sogi lead a 100 verse renga that does not contain any summer
verses; Sogi allowed the energy of the renga to flow where it was going.
The
book contains, with a one exception, renga written by two or more poets, which
is the standard procedure for writing renga.
Pat Nolan’s partners in renga are Keith Kumasen Abbott, Sandy Berrigan,
Gloria Frym, Steven LaVoie, Joen Eshima Moore, Maureen Owen, Michael Sowl, and
John Veglia. It is a great cast of
characters. Each of them has a
distinctive voice.
The
collection starts out with a solo kasen renga by Pat Nolan. (All the renga in the collection are kasen,
or 36-verse, renga rooted in the style of Basho.) Nolan achieves the effect of having multiple
participants by selecting haiku, and then editing them, from Blyth’s collection
to form the verses of the haikai. It is
an effective collage.
The
other ten renga all have multiple participants, starting with two poets and
ending up with five. Several of the
renga, ‘Yellow Music’, ‘Poetry for Sale’, ‘Bamboo Greeting’, which is dedicated
to Earl Miner, and ‘Random Rocks’ have a running commentary. On the left page are the verses of the
haikai, and on the right page are comments from the author of the verse which
illuminate what the poets were thinking or trying to accomplish with their
link. This is really interesting and
helpful for people who want to compose renga themselves.
Nolan
notes in the ‘Introduction’ that, with one exception, all of them were written
via snail mail. Remember that this began
when the internet was still nascent and in many ways unreliable. Eventually Nolan used email attachments; but that
was towards the end of these efforts.
The effect of this is that each poet could take their time considering
their link. This gives the renga a
polished feel.
a
raven on the blue post
office
box silent – still silent –
all
their beauty gone
the
mud rut of a bike tire
through
pale confetti
all
their beauty gone
the
mud rut of a bike tire
through
pale confetti
ice
islands in thawed lawn –
shiny
dribble melts a spilled moon –
(Page
62)
Nolan
and his partners have done a great job adapting renga to an English language
poetic context. Renga is a unique poetic
genre; I don’t know of any other form which has the effect that renga imparts. It is a combination of the concrete details
of life combined with a dream like sense of traveling, like some kind of
strange astral journey. It is a
difficult form to do well. It is
remarkable how graceful this collection is.
My hope is that this collection will help others access this form so
that they can also walk the journey down the renga road.
that
was the reason I bought
the
bamboo shower curtain
at the merest touch
flurries of blossoms cascade
onto the bright grass
at the merest touch
flurries of blossoms cascade
onto the bright grass
where
the black rock fell off
a
sunlit cliff – steam curls up
(Pages
143-144)
Poetry
For Sale: Haikai no Renga (linked poetry)
Pat
Nolan with partners and friends
Nuallain
House, Monte Rio
$16.00
The
book is only available directly from Nuallain House, which is on the web here:
