What Is Rengay
Rengay is a poetic form invented by Garry Gay in 1992. He developed the idea somewhat in reaction to the established longer forms, renku and renga. But he was always moving towards developing this form because of the issues he had with writing renku. He found the renku form was too long and took too much time to write. He found the form's rules off-putting. They specify: the incorporation of the four seasons and where they are positioned in the sequence; which images one can use and when; verb endings in particular positions; flower and moon verses in particular positions; how linking and shifting works; and how the progression of seasonal and nonseasonal verses changes depending on the season of the starting verse. The contributors are governed by the master who decides if a particular verse is acceptable. Garry Gay was looking for a simpler form, one with less restrictions, one that was more enjoyable and quicker to write. The result: rengay!
Please see the Submission Guidelines for the exact verse form in a rengay.
Why a Rengay Journal?
We, the editors, look forward in anticipation to our inaugural issue of Tandem. Despite, and maybe as a result of, the unusual and persistent stresses of this past year, we have been able to create and offer a new print journal that will provide a venue specifically for the collaborative form of rengay.
Interest in writing rengay seems to be growing, yet only a few journals publish them. And those that do, have limited space for rengay because they accept other forms as well.
After struggling to find places to submit our own work, we decided to create a journal ourselves—one devoted to the form of collaborative rengay—Tandem. The print version of the journal will be available through Kindle Direct Publishing.
Why Tandem?
Pretty simple, really. Anything done in tandem is the result of usually two people, sometimes more, working together. Success requires cooperation, compromise, mutual consideration—the sum total of the contributions of all parties involved. By the same token, Rengay is a collaborative poetic form, growing from the collective consciousness of two or three poets.
Bios for Editorial Staff
Marcyn Del Clements
With over 700 works in print, Marcyn Del Clements didn’t discover rengay until Garry Gay’s workshop in New York’s 2015 HNA Conference, and again in the 2019 North Carolina Conference, where she was guided by the creator himself. She is honored to be co-editing with two such prestigious rengay writers. Marcy has turned her swimming pool into a swimming pond and can now swim among her lilies, koi and goldfish.
Seren Fargo
Seren Fargo began writing Japanese-form poetry in 2009. Shortly thereafter, she founded the
Bellingham Haiku Group. Her work has won awards and has been widely published in several
countries. In recent years, her writing has expanded to include longer forms, like haibun and
rengay. A former wildlife biologist, Seren particularly enjoys incorporating her past and present
experiences from the natural world into her poetry. In Issa fashion, Seren has a pet house
spider, named Charlotte, who is three years old.
Ignatius Fay
Ignatius is an invertebrate paleontologist, retired due to disability. He has been writing Japanese short-form poetry for more than twenty-five years. He writes haiku, tanka, haibun, tanka prose and rengay. He is the editor of the HSA’s online newsletter and the layout artist for frogpond. Ignatius was once approached by a neighboring octogenarian for medical advice because the neighbor had heard that Ignatius was a doctor who studied old bones.