'Based on the Japanese collaborative poetic form, Renga: 100 Poems is a co-authored book by Australian poet John Kinsella and American poet Paul Kane. Each poem in the book, written across a decade, replies to a previous one by the other poet, creating a rich and layered texture of meaning and effect.
'Using a call and response format, the two poets explore the similarities and differences encountered in their mirror lives, as each has spent years living in the other's country and is deeply engaged in both Australian and American literature. As both poets live in rural areas and have been concerned with ecological issues, many of the poems focus on the global environmental crisis, but the various thematic threads that make up this book weave a complex pattern that deepens and transforms over the course of the book.' (Publication summary)
'While traversing the longtime friendship shared between the poets as well as the land they both inhabit, the experience I had while reading the coauthored book Renga: 100 Poems, by John Kinsella and Paul Kane is a truly unique one because of their willingness to try an innovative project with the traditional Japanese form of renga as the driving force. To continue a call-and-response between two people in the form of renga over the span of ten years is quite bold and also a challenge, considering that traditionally the poems are written in one sitting, usually during a gathering, by more than two people—essentially renga was a party game. Here, however, solitude seems to be at the center of most of these poems, in which the observation turns inward.' (Introduction)
'Renga: 100 Poems is a collection over ten years in the making. Paul Kane and John Kinsella, writing in exchange via the Japanese renga form, have compiled a long-running poetic dialogue – unlike traditional renga, each poem is individually written and a response then followed by the other poet.' (Introduction)
'Poets aren’t generally known for being great collaborators. Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads (1798) is a rare example of a co-authored canonical work of poetry. Renga: 100 poems, by John Kinsella and Paul Kane, has some similarities to Lyrical Ballads. Like those of its Romantic precedent, the poems in Renga are single-authored, the collaboration being project-based rather than an exercise in joint composition. Like Lyrical Ballads, Renga reanimates an old form for contemporary times. But unlike Lyrical Ballads, Renga is a work of explicit (and equal) dialogue. Each poet takes his turn in poetic conversation, inspired by the Japanese Renga form, a collaborative venture in which poets take turns composing linked stanzas. As Kane describes in his Foreword (Kinsella gets the Afterword), ‘Call and respond was the modality, though John and I took turns in taking the lead.’' (Introduction)
'Renga: 100 Poems is a collection over ten years in the making. Paul Kane and John Kinsella, writing in exchange via the Japanese renga form, have compiled a long-running poetic dialogue – unlike traditional renga, each poem is individually written and a response then followed by the other poet.' (Introduction)
'While traversing the longtime friendship shared between the poets as well as the land they both inhabit, the experience I had while reading the coauthored book Renga: 100 Poems, by John Kinsella and Paul Kane is a truly unique one because of their willingness to try an innovative project with the traditional Japanese form of renga as the driving force. To continue a call-and-response between two people in the form of renga over the span of ten years is quite bold and also a challenge, considering that traditionally the poems are written in one sitting, usually during a gathering, by more than two people—essentially renga was a party game. Here, however, solitude seems to be at the center of most of these poems, in which the observation turns inward.' (Introduction)
'Poets aren’t generally known for being great collaborators. Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads (1798) is a rare example of a co-authored canonical work of poetry. Renga: 100 poems, by John Kinsella and Paul Kane, has some similarities to Lyrical Ballads. Like those of its Romantic precedent, the poems in Renga are single-authored, the collaboration being project-based rather than an exercise in joint composition. Like Lyrical Ballads, Renga reanimates an old form for contemporary times. But unlike Lyrical Ballads, Renga is a work of explicit (and equal) dialogue. Each poet takes his turn in poetic conversation, inspired by the Japanese Renga form, a collaborative venture in which poets take turns composing linked stanzas. As Kane describes in his Foreword (Kinsella gets the Afterword), ‘Call and respond was the modality, though John and I took turns in taking the lead.’' (Introduction)
