Renga

Renga is a unique and powerful way for people to gather and write together. It is a traditional japanese form dating from 1000 years ago. I have inherited my approach to Renga from fellow writer and collaborator Subhadassi. Usually a renga involves a group of people writing together, but there are also ‘slow rengas’ where two or more people create a renga across distance. Here is a renga Subhadassi and I created together.

If you would like to talk to me about this form of shared writing and explore its possibilities for yourself or a group - please get in touch via the contact page.

From deep in the burrow

Darkness at tea-time

and the begonias still

bright and blousy

condensation on the kitchen window

my mother’s perfect boiled potatoes

riding the escalator

tucked into one another

like penguins

I sit perfectly still,

on the ash bench

watching from the pavilion

the rip in the air

as he let the ball go

dream of a houseboat sucked

seawards by primal currents

a soft darkness

low voices

waiting for one more

countless unnameable little birds

silvered in the stripped-back birch

a child’s hand on the lens

fragments of coloured glass

falling into focus

her felt-tip flowers

striping the shoe box

from deep in the burrow

she senses the band of gold

cresting the ridge

your patience repaid

in primula, in broccoli spears.

a Slow Renga January - New Year to Summer 2015, Subhadassi and Fiona Bennett.