IF familiar with the haiku, a threeline Japanese poem, most of us would probably struggle to define a renga, another Japanese verse form. Customarily it is the work of a group, each of whom contributes a succession of short verses, alternating two and three lines. Linda France explains: “This results in a 20-verse sequence, like beads on a string, each one in a small world of its own.”
Wallsend-born Linda, who now lives near Hadrian’s Wall, set herself the task of composing her own renga for each month of the year. Her January renga begins:
New year
old dust
new broom
next door’s bonfire
black smoke spiralling
In December we have:
Christmas Eve – silverfish
in the jigsaw box
everything dead
sealed in beads
of ice and clouds of fog
Interesting – and attractively decorated with pictures of some striking artwork – ceramic casts of flowers, leaves and branches, by Northumberland artist Sue Dunne.
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