By J. Patrick Lewis &
Paul B. Janeczko
Illustrated by Gary Lippincott
Wordsong
(an imprint of Boyds Mills Press)
December 2008
Ages: eight and up
Birds On A Wire calls itself A Renga ‘Round Town. I’d never heard of a renga before I picked this up, so the introduction was helpful. It does a good job explaining this Japanese mother of haiku.
From the intro:
A traditional renga is written by two or more poets. The first poet writes three lines, the second poet follow that with two lines, the first poet comes back with another three lines, then two, three, two, and so on.
The cool thing is, each new verse must link in some way to the verse before it, but not with the others. This creates a longish kind of poem where each stanza has something new to say, and yet holds hands with the lines immediately before. To complicate things more, we are told the renga does not need to tell a story, but it should have a beginning, a middle and an end.
For example, in Birds On A Wire, the poem covers an entire day, with widely varying happenings that are yet linked together in clever, if sometimes obtuse, ways. Children won’t get them all, but that’s okay since the language is beautiful enough on its own to entertain. I like this one:
Poet one:
Flood waters on the creek!
Bon voyage, grasshopper,
On this morning’s paper boat
Paul B. Janeczko
Illustrated by Gary Lippincott
Wordsong
(an imprint of Boyds Mills Press)
December 2008
Ages: eight and up
Birds On A Wire calls itself A Renga ‘Round Town. I’d never heard of a renga before I picked this up, so the introduction was helpful. It does a good job explaining this Japanese mother of haiku.
From the intro:
A traditional renga is written by two or more poets. The first poet writes three lines, the second poet follow that with two lines, the first poet comes back with another three lines, then two, three, two, and so on.
The cool thing is, each new verse must link in some way to the verse before it, but not with the others. This creates a longish kind of poem where each stanza has something new to say, and yet holds hands with the lines immediately before. To complicate things more, we are told the renga does not need to tell a story, but it should have a beginning, a middle and an end.
For example, in Birds On A Wire, the poem covers an entire day, with widely varying happenings that are yet linked together in clever, if sometimes obtuse, ways. Children won’t get them all, but that’s okay since the language is beautiful enough on its own to entertain. I like this one:
Poet one:
Flood waters on the creek!
Bon voyage, grasshopper,
On this morning’s paper boat
Poet two:
Carrying news
to nowhere
This book would be wonderful in a third grade classroom where they are studying the haiku format. I love the idea of students participating in a “Classroom Renga,” or partnering with each other to create poems for two voices.
The slightly subdued, watercolor panoramas give important clues to some of the stanza connections, as in the following:
Glazed with rain
A red wheelbarrow headstands
By the hardware store
The old doctor recalls
Childhood barnyard.
The image of the reflecting doctor enhances the text particularly well here. The art throughout evokes a sense of lingering--moments frozen by poetry. Birds On A Wire has much to offer a wide age range, and language that is a joy to read again and again.
A red wheelbarrow headstands
By the hardware store
The old doctor recalls
Childhood barnyard.
The image of the reflecting doctor enhances the text particularly well here. The art throughout evokes a sense of lingering--moments frozen by poetry. Birds On A Wire has much to offer a wide age range, and language that is a joy to read again and again.
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