We are excited to announce the release of this fun and thoughtful collaboration known a “Bro ken Rengay – Unruly Poetry” written by the magnificent trio of Nolcha Fox, Melissa Lemay, and Barbara Leonhard.
Prolific Pulse Press LLC is pleased to welcome to new authors to our group. Melissa and Barbara are no strangers to writing, but this is their first full length publication with us.
Please join us with the hearty welcome! Nolcha is a returning author, and she has more under the secret dome of poetry. It won’t be much longer for you to find out what it is.
Get to know these women through their author pages on ProlificPulse.com
But…Wait! We have more!
Recently, we completed an interview with these three women. It’s time to share and let you in on their thoughts and efforts to honor the beauty of poetry.
We would like to welcome the authors of Bro ken Rengay: Unruly Poems, Nolcha Fox, Melissa Lemay, and Barbara Leonhard.
Congratulations on your collaboration resulting in Bro ken Rengay: Unruly Poems
With this big release, I know you must feel much anticipation and excitement.
Tell us about Bro ken Rengay. So, what’s “rengay” anyway?”
NF: Other than alternating 3-line/2-line stanzas and a startling lack of punctuation, I’ve written them several ways. I’ve written a rengay with me and my multiple personalities. I’ve written rule-breaking rengays with Melissa and Barb. I recently wrote a rengay with David Bogomolny, in which the 3-line/2-line structure was different from what I’d done previously. It’s a form best written with coffee or wine, and a weird sense of humor.
ML: I like coffee. I think I have an explanation of rengay memorized at this point.😅It’s a form of linked verse invented by Garry Gay, whom I’ve had the pleasure of “meeting” at an international rengay gathering via Zoom. He created it as an alternative to the Japanese forms renga or renku. He named it “rengay” because of his last name. Initially, Garry created the form with two poets in mind. In a two-person rengay, the structure follows a 3-2-3-3-2-3 line count, with each 3-line stanza having a syllable count of 5-7-5, and each 2-line stanza having a syllable count 7-7. Or in Nolcha’s, Barbara’s, and my case, whatever-syllable-count-we-want (though I am the one who sticks most closely to the original form).🙃
If you’re confused, it’s okay. I still get confused with what I’m doing in rengay poetry, since I write them with different sets and numbers of people. Here is an example of a two-person rengay I wrote with Nancy Brady:
Totality
NB:
moonlight…
the violinist plays
a nocturne
ML:
shadows pirouette
across the sidewalk
NB:
the morning’s red sky–
we fear we’re in
for bad weather
ML:
sunlight
through the clouds
a robin’s song
NB:
eclipse totality
the birds go quiet
ML:
covered in
golden glow of twilight
the violinist plays
Here is an example of a three-person rengay (never-before-seen!) that I wrote with Barb and Nolcha:
Noteworthy Duel
ML:
tinkling piano keys
I blast classical music
to drown out the neighbor’s bass
NF:
bass is an earthquake
shaking my bones
BL:
I rock them with Rachmaninov
I would give them the keys to good living—
if they would listen
ML:
or perhaps hypnotize them
‘you will find a new apartment’
NF:
one of us has to
move or turn down the noise
it won’t be me
BL:
the discord is noteworthy
time to change the tunes
You can see the way the number of people alters the lines of each stanza. It is also common for writers to create solo rengay. Another variation is the six-person rengay, in which the line count follows that of the two-person rengay. I also modified the form to accommodate four writers. You may see an example of that here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2024/07/31/reflections-or-a-rengay/
BL: I believe Nolcha and Melissa have said it best. I don’t have anything to add except that it was fun learning about this form.
How did you each gain knowledge of this writing style?
NF: Melissa introduced the form to us, and suggested Barb and I write a rengay with her. Melissa is great with forms. Barb’s a real trooper, and I’m allergic to them. Melissa carefully described the form. Up until we submitted the manuscript, we still screwed up the number of lines we were each supposed to write.
ML: If I’m remembering correctly, I believe it was Nancy Brady who introduced me to the form. I enjoy collaborating on poetry with anyone and everyone, and I reached out to her and asked about writing together. I think I suggested renga, and she wasn’t very familiar. So, she suggested rengay. She also introduced me to Sherry and Zoe Grant, the creators of Raining Rengay. They hold international rengay gatherings (I believe twice a year) that are usually attended by Garry Gay and Michael Dylan Welch, one of the very first to write rengay.
BL: I had never written a rengay poem until Melissa invited Nolcha and me to collaborate. It was an interesting and enjoyable experience. Because the three of us were writing each poem, I sometimes forgot which stanzas would be mine. How all our voices came together was magical. Collaborations are becoming more popular these days because people can learn about new poetic forms and bond during the creation process.
Where have you published poetry of this style?
NF: We published in Raining Rengay (thanks, Melissa), Medusa’s Kitchen, Collaborature, MasticadoresCanada, Chewers by Masticadores, and LatinosUSA.
BL: I believe you’re right, Nolcha. Nolcha records our publications on a spreadsheet. She’s our historian.
ML: You’re welcome, Nolcha.🫶🏻I think they’ve covered most of the places we’ve published. I also have written rengay that have been published on The Skeptic’s Kaddish, as well as those that I’ve published on my personal blog.
How did you decide to create what must have been a somewhat challenging collection?
NF: It was in the back of our minds when we started writing the second rengay. The more we wrote together, the better we understood each other’s styles, the closer we became to each other, and the easier it was to collaborate. The rengays kept rolling out, and suddenly we had enough for a book.
BL: Yes, the process was organic. We didn’t set out to write a book. We just wanted to have fun. We even collaborated on record-keeping (Nolcha), the submission process (me), and editing (Melissa).
ML: Girls just wanna have fu-un.🎶 I don’t remember who suggested the idea of a collection. Maybe Nolcha? I’m glad it was suggested. As she mentioned, we wrote many of them, and so had the collection to begin with. We discussed putting together a manuscript and submitting it to you, Lisa. I curated the collection in the order that it appears in the book. I like it a lot. It has been a great experience from start to finish.
What challenges come with writing rengay?
NF: The biggest challenge was that we all had lives that sometimes interfered with collaborating. Very occasionally, we forgot to finish a rengay, and we had to remember who wrote the previous-to-last stanza.
BL: To add to what Nolcha said, like I said earlier, I sometimes lost track of which stanzas I wrote, especially if some time passed since the last share. Sometimes, based on what others wrote, I revised my lines for the sake of unity. I suppose the lack of unity would be good for a collection of broken poems.
ML: Part of the challenge for me has been letting go of expectation. It’s challenging in a good way. Let’s say I write the first stanza, or even any subsequent stanza, and pass it along to whoever is next. After that, it’s out of my hands. Wherever it goes is up to whoever comes next. Yet we still work together to bring into form something cohesive that unifies as a whole. Rengay are meant to be thematic or have a linking thread. They aren’t separated stanzas that have no context without each other.
I’ve learned through writing with people with different levels of experience writing rengay. I was taught to follow “link and shift.” In other words, I write the first stanza, then the next person writes their stanza so that it links back to mine and shifts away at the same time. That’s another one of the “rules” we broke. The rengay in this collection are more connected than some, in which each stanza can technically stand alone, yet links together with the others through a common thread.
The bottom line is that this is still a fairly new form. As Nolcha has said, I do like forms. Or she said I’m good with them. Something like that. I take a lot from learning how to write different poetry forms and write them well. However, I don’t like to be a stickler for rules, and I love to bend them and mold them so that I’m happy with what I create.
I would like to recognize Lesley Scoble, the amazing cover artist. Wow! Did she ever create a beautifully perfect cover!
Writing a unique poetry form has clearly been a challenge that you each have surpassed. Now, you have an amazing collection. Where do you go from here? What other forms would you like to try?
NF: We tried writing alternating haiku, and I thought we were successful. Or we just might continue with rengay. We haven’t had any serious conversations about what’s next.
BL: I vaguely recall the haiku, Nolcha. It would be fun to revisit that form and explore others, such as garland tanka or garland haibun. There are many possible forms to collaborate on.
ML: I second the vaguery.🤭I think I remember that. I’m always open to writing just about anything. In addition to rengay, I’ve written collaborative acrostic, tapestry, sestina, haiku sequences, and there might be more I’m not mentioning. As for the three of us together, I think we will write some more rengay poems, and whatever else we get up to. Garland tanka and haibun sound great!
Please share about each of your publications. It’s my understanding that poets and writers can share their work through your blogs and journals.
NF: I’m the editor of Chewers by Masticadores (https://chewersmasticadores.wordpress.com/). I publish a wide variety of writing, artwork, and photography from contributors all over the world. One of my contributors mentioned he could send me recipes from some fancy restaurants, but I’m not convinced it’s a great idea.
Barb and I are co-editors of a new section on LatinosUSA (https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/) called Bookshelf. We use the section to promote books, reviews, and interviews.
BL: I’ve been editor for MasticadoresUSA since November 2022. https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/. In November 2024, I created a journal FEED THE HOLY on Blogger. I’m the sole editor and staff. https://feedthehol.blogspot.com/. Because I founded this journal, it holds a special place in my heart. And Nolcha and I enjoy co-editing Bookshelf on LatinosUSA. On my own WordPress blog, Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver, I record my publications and repost blurbs and reviews I’ve written under Barb’s Wordy Blurbs. https://extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog/. Now that I co-edit Bookshelf, I may post my reviews there instead. Although editing three journals takes time, I really enjoy it. Editing is a form of collaboration. I’ve found that in all my editing ventures, I am helping to build community. Supporting authors is fulfilling.
ML: Around the same time Barbara started FEED THE HOLY, I began Collaborature. It is a labor of love, as are most literary journals, I think. Collaborature is a forum dedicated to poetry and short fiction written collaboratively by two or more authors. To not pigeonhole anyone, I’ve allowed for a pretty wide interpretation of what this means. Submissions may include (but are not limited to) poems written by multiple authors, ekphrastic pieces, cento poetry, rengay written collectively… the sky really is the limit. There are as many ways to collaborate in writing as there are people to write with. Get out there and collaborate! Then send in your submissions. Find out more at https://collaborature.blogspot.com
I also host challenges (monthly) at both Tanka Tuesday and dVerse Poets Pub. Check out either or both of those for more collaborative writing opportunities!
Thank you for your time. Others are certain to value what you achieved, as well as your future direction.
ML: Thanks for having us, Lisa!
BL: I’m excited that Prolific Pulse Press believes in our collaborative Rengay collection. Thank you for your support, Lisa!
NF: Thanks, Lisa, for herding us cats!
